InTheBite

Old Salts: Captain Bouncer Smith

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Captain Bouncer Smith at his slip in Miami Beach Marina.

By Capt. Jeff Waxman

Some guys really are larger than life and Captain Bouncer Smith is one of those guys. It takes a full page of small print on his website to list the honors and awards that Bouncer has achieved. He has pioneered several fisheries, caught innumerable trophies for his clients and been one of the most outspoken captains in protecting our fisheries for all of our futures.

The essence of the man, however, is deeper than awards and honors. Bouncer is a man who, after more than 50 years of charter fishing, still gets butterflies watching a sailfish light up on the strike or watching a bottom rig get yanked down to the gunwale. Bouncer gets excited in just the same way he did when he first started. It is that thrill, that excitement that makes him so good day in and out, for swords or sails or jacks or anything else that patrols the waters around Miami.

Based out of Miami Beach, Florida, Captain Bouncer Smith and his 33-foot Bouncer’s Dusky are a bucket list fishing trip for folks from around the world. An interesting man in many contexts – Bouncer catches quality fish of many species (from swordfish to tarpon to sailfish and snapper). Smith is generous with his time, perspective and skill.

Smith with longtime mate and friend, Abie Raymond.

How He Began

As a young kid growing up in Michigan, Bouncer’s Dad was the perfect example. They fished together, and they hunted together. The young Bouncer saw and enjoyed it all. They fished for sunnies, for bass, for trout. They hunted rabbits, squirrels and deer. In 1956, they relocated not just to Florida, but to a new world. They trolled old style feathers, catching barracuda and bonito.

Then, at the age of 8, lightning struck. Young Bouncer hooked and caught his first sailfish – on a lure he had made himself. He was hooked. It was at this point that life began to have a center – on fishing. After stints running private boats, working as a mate out of various fishing ports, he began his charter career hawking passersby at the Castaways dock at Bahia Mar. While this start is not uncommon for many a Florida captain, most rarely rise so far above it. From Bahia Mar his road led to the dream – “Flats Guide in Islamorada.”

For a while this was Bouncer’s program. He docked at Bud n’ Mary’s for the winter while spending summers in Ocean City, Maryland. It was a good life, but still not his own life.

Influences

While learning the ropes early on, one captain at the Castaways Dock, Connie Mira, seemed to have more charters than most. Not only did she enjoy more clients, she was also getting more write ups than other captains. After a while, Bouncer asked her about her secret. Her answer? “Easy,” she says. “When the local outdoor writer calls to book a chair ($15 per chair then!), the other guys tell him the price. But I tell him, ‘He will be my guest for the afternoon.’”

Bouncer learned a major lesson here – take care of the folks who affect you, your visibility and your future business. In the years since, this has become charter boat marketing 101. During the final week of 1979, an out of state client hired Bouncer to captain his small private rig for two weeks. On the first trip aboard the client’s 25-foot Dusky, they fished six-foot seas. The client asked, “How do you like the boat?” Bouncer told him, “I’d like first right of refusal when you decide to sell!” Well, two years later, they made a winwin deal and Bouncer had his charter boat!

He had found his calling. Not only did Bouncer have the setting for his own operation, he had learned lessons that would help him in route to becoming one of the most successful and well-respected captains in the business. Treat your clients as friends. Go out of your way to work with influencers. Enjoy and appreciate what you do.

A few years later Bouncer met with the owner of Dusky. Smith helped design a larger boat and made a lifelong friendship and commitment to the Dusky platform. The result of this partnership is very much in evidence today.

A young Captain Bouncer (top right) pictured with a big sail and a brute of a tiger shark.

Smiles Along the Way

Given the nature of the business and the daily personal interaction, every captain has great stories. Bouncer is no exception. A fairly typical convention group of six arrived for an afternoon charter. One of the group members had clearly had a multiple martini lunch and loudly made it known that he was only interested in big fish. Not only this, he announced his need to catch Moby Dick. As others caught a few bailer dolphin, he complained and continued his slurred need to catch Moby.

Well, as luck would have it, a very large whale, likely a humpback, surfaced and blew just ahead of the boat. Then, the whale surfaced again just yards behind the boat. Upon seeing this, the drunk got down on his knees apologizing to Moby saying, “I didn’t mean to offend you! Please do not sink the boat!” Karma can be tough.

This whale of a fishing story might only be topped by the autistic teenager and his father who requested to catch a swordfish, a grouper, a tuna and a tarpon – all in one trip! And Bouncer did. After ticking off this diverse list of quarry, they asked if they might catch a snook. Bouncer put them on one of those, too. In Bouncer’s mind, that trip will always be one of the best ever. To this day, the clients have no idea of what their captain accomplished.

“They figured it was just like ordering from the menu!” Bouncer recalls with a chuckle.

Proudest Moments

Every captain has a few wonderful moments that truly stand out, that pass the test of time. For Bouncer there are two – his proudest catch and that of a client. Bouncer’s catch occurred after a solid week of fishing Alaska, when he caught the then-world record halibut on a fly.

Bouncer hooked the 115-pounder in the last fifteen minutes of the trip! And for a client catch? Well, how about the first ever fly-caught swordfish – caught on his client’s hand-tied fly! Bouncer put his client on the 46-inch sword within one hour of casting! Afterward others spent as many as 30 nights in a row hoping to hook a sword on a fly. Credit surely goes to the client for the catch, but much more goes to the captain who put him in the position to do so.

Hopes for the Future

As is the case with every good captain (and hopefully every serious angler), Bouncer realizes that the future of fishing will be what we make of it. Smith is in the forefront of species management and protection. An avid sportsman, he favors laws and catch limits and even supports the idea of marine area preserves to assure that certain species be allowed to grow and reach maturity without the certainty of capture and harvest. He is a voice for the future and for the health of our sport.

Smith donates time, energy and funds to support the ocean and sport that he loves. And still, today, Bouncer offers free trips for Make a Wish kids and youth who just need a few hours away from their pain. Kids
like Charlie who he friended at a fishing show that took place recently after the young man finished radiation treatment… A couple of hours catching small bluefish in the bay made this child’s world just a bit better.

A Legend on the Dock

The essence of a captain is complex. Successfully manning the captain’s chair requires a mix of fishing skill combined with a bit of understanding of psychiatry, friendship, toughness, love for the job and caring. Bouncer Smith, both the captain and the man, represents the best of these. To get an idea of his fishing honors and awards (or to book a trip to fish with him), check out Bouncer’s website at www.Captbouncer.com. You will not be disappointed, rather, you will be very impressed indeed. In fact, you’re likely as not to enjoy the conversation as much as you do the fishing.

Do you have any comments or questions for us? We’d love to hear from you.

 

Young Guns: Alex Tallman

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By Charlie Levine

One of Capt. Alex Tallman’s core values is to always be friendly and respectful to clients and other fishermen. This mantra has served him well as a young captain who scored his dream job, on his dream boat. The Florida-raised Tallman has been running the 63 Ricky Scarborough, Big Smooth, owned by Steve Johnson. Tallman met Johnson through a mutual acquaintance after Johnson purchased some property at Baker’s Bay in the Bahamas and stationed a 39-foot Nor-Tech center console there.

“Steve showed me the properties and the center console,” Tallman says. “I had spent ten years in that area, so I knew it very well. I told him that I liked the setup, but I wanted to fish on a sportfish boat. He said, ‘OK, why don’t you go find one?’ So, that’s what I did.” They purchased the Waterman a 2015 Ricky Scarborough and took to updating her to meet the needs of Bahamas/East Coast operation. “This is one of my favorite boats that I’ve ever been on,” Tallman says. “She’s quick, not too big, and easy to maintain.”

Growing up in Florida, Tallman always had an affinity for fishing. As a young boy he targeted bass and would hit the local lakes whenever he could. He eventually graduated to salt water fishing and would ride his bike down to Juno Pier to fish for snook. He’d save any money he got his hands on to go out on the Blue Heron drift boat out of Jupiter.

He inherited a desire to work on the water from his family which had many ties to the maritime world. His uncle, mother and grandfather all carved out careers on boats. “I always wanted to pursue a job on the water,” Tallman says. “I worked at Jonathan’s Landing Marina through high school, managing the marina’s fleet of boats. It was maybe 40 boats that I would kind of take care of and show people how to use, everything from center consoles to 50-foot cabin cruisers.”

After high school, Tallman attended the Chapman School of Seamanship, his mom’s alma mater, and graduated with a 100 Ton Master Captain’s License. With his license in hand, Tallman hopped on a 75-foot Hatteras motoryacht and spent a year in the Bahamas. “That was a great experience,” he says. “They had a center console as well. We’d fish and spearfish and that kept me interested. I learned how to deal with higher-end owners and keep a really tight boat. The captain was a real stickler and taught me everything from how to turn down beds to cleaning the interior and exterior. It gave me a good basis on the importance of paying attention to detail.” Tallman, just 19 at the time, also ran the boat on short trips.

Photo courtesy Charlie Levine

From there, Tallman moved into the offshore fishing world when he scored a job on the El Lobo, a 90-foot sportfisher run by Frank Gibbs. “Frank saw me grinding away on the motoryacht in the Bahamas, walked up and said he’d been watching how hard I work, and he’d love to get me on board as a mate.”

With a crew of just two people to run the 90-footer, Tallman took advantage of the opportunity to learn from the experienced captain. “Frank is a super mechanical guy and taught me a lot in the engine room. We spent three months in the yard with multiple systems that had to get redone. We worked together for close to a year before that program changed and I jumped ship.”

His next gig was on the ThomCat, a 68-foot enclosed-bridge Hatteras, run by Capt. Bill Davis. The boat spent six months in Palm Beach fishing live bait for sails and trolling for pelagics and six months targeting billfish and bottomfish in the Abacos. “We did it all,” Tallman says. “Anything that had eyes we caught. Bill Davis is one of best fishermen I’ve worked for. He would wake up thinking about fish and go to bed thinking about fish. I had never seen someone that wanted to fish more, and he really got my drive going. All we talked about and thought about was fishing.”

Tallman spent five years on ThomCat, but the program wasn’t changing, and he was getting an itch to travel and experience more fishing spots. When the opportunity to jump on the 90-foot John Bayliss Singularis came about, Tallman made the move.

Photo courtesy Charlie Levine

“I jumped on Singularis right after it was built,” he says. “That was definitely the most traveling I did on a boat. We went everywhere. As soon as the boat was christened, we left to fish the Big Rock, the White Marlin Open and went as far north as Nantucket.” From there they fished throughout the Caribbean and motored through the Panama Canal to Costa Rica.

Again, Tallman got to learn from an experienced captain. “The captain of Singularis, Jerry Lanzerotti, is a super mechanical guy who can fix anything. I would listen and watch how he did things. Every program I worked on, I’d watch and see what I like and add that to my tool box. I wanted to take everything I learned and bring it to my own program.”

From Costa Rica, Tallman fished with the Fanjul family who own Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic on their 74 Viking. That program ended in the Abacos and that’s when Tallman met Steve Jonson and decided to take the gig. But there was one more adventure the aspiring captain wanted to put on his resume – heavy tackle black marlin fishing on the Great Barrier Reef.

“I met Tim Richardson in the D.R. and I knew his mate Garrett Penley from Costa Rica. I fished with them on Tim’s G&S the Chaser in the D.R. and told him that I’d love to go to Australia and got hired on as a second mate to fish on the Tradition.” Richardson, an Aussie, has fished the Great Barrier Reef since the late 1980s. For the past few years, Richardson has also fished the Caribbean part of the year on the Chaser.

“Australia was a difficult job but it’s by far one of my biggest accomplishments. Garrett’s a complete animal in the cockpit and Tim is so experienced and well known. Every time we backed down on a fish, I was comfortable because I knew Tim would keep up with the fish and I could hang on for dear life. I’d seen a few big ones in the Bahamas, but nothing compares to Australia.” The crew would catch nearly 70 marlin that season and win top tagging mate and boat honors from The Billfish Foundation for Pacific black marlin.

After Australia, Tallman went right to work for Johnson on Big Smooth. The boat’s owner is a commercial real estate developer whose company is based in Tennessee. Johnson actually played pro football for the Patriots and the name “Big Smooth” comes from a nickname he earned during his playing days. “Steve’s a 100-percent team player. He’s very open-minded and truly a great guy to work for,” Tallman says. “He lets me run the program on the fishing aspect, and never questions my motives.”

They spent seven months in the Abacos and ended up going to Ocean City to fish the White Marlin Open. “That was definitely an eye opener for me. That was the first time I’ve run a boat up there and you’re fishing against best crews in the world.” They didn’t land in the money, but for Tallman, experiencing a new fishing area is his favorite part of the job. “I love the travel program, going to new places and fishing new water,” he says. “You see different techniques, different types of baits, and I love that aspect.” He admits that he misses the action in the cockpit but he’s not about to give up his seat at the helm.

“Driving the boat is the easy part, knowing the ins and outs of your boat as well as learning from your mistakes is key,” he says. “At some point in time, something will go wrong. How you approach and overcome those obstacles will truly define you as a pro. Doing your maintenance, looking around, and trusting your intuition could prevent a serious mechanical failure. My mate, Anthony Delgreco, is a huge help in this aspect.”

And if he can’t fix it, Tallman’s not afraid to reach out for help and advice. Having a network of other captains that you can bounce things off of has been an invaluable resource to him.

“Any captain that knows me, knows I’m all in,” he says. “There is not a job you can ask me to do that I will not do. I’m always there to give a hand and I never want to burn any bridges. You never know, there may come a day when you’re out in middle ocean and need to call for help. It’s critical that you can make that call and have someone to count on.”

Charlie Levine is the publisher of FishTrack.com and the author of the fishing book, “Sucked Dry: The Struggle is Reel,” available on Amazon.

Do you have any comments or questions for us? We’d love to hear from you.

 

Capt. Kerwin Masunaga: The Best Kept Secret in Kona

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Two-time Captain of the Year Kerwin Masunaga and his good luck dog, Ziggy.

By Elliott Stark

For much of the past six decades, Captain Kerwin Masunaga has been mugging fish of all kinds around Kona, Hawaii. While others care for limelight and accolades, Kerwin is concerned with catching fish and enjoying time on the water with his friends and family.

While Kerwin’s dedication to his craft is evident in his tournament accolades and catch log, if anyone were to mention the depth of his perspective and skill it would certainly not be him. Kerwin cares so little about recognition, in fact, that after winning back to back InTheBite Captain of the Year Awards in 2015 and 2016, our Hawaii correspondent practically had to hide in the parking lot and surprise him in order to get a picture for the magazine.

Kerwin grew up in Kona on his family’s coffee farm. After getting all of their work done, his father would take the family to the beach on the weekends. While his brothers and sisters would swim, Kerwin would fish.

After a tour in the Army, Kerwin came back to Kona with the idea of relaxing for a bit. On a trip to the outboard shop, the owner convinced him to take a job. He worked there for a while fixing motors and fishing on the weekends. Masunaga worked at the parts store long enough to purchase a boat, motor and trailer.

It was an 18’ skiff. Before long, he was fishing more and more, but people kept calling him to fix their motors on the weekends. In 1975, he took the plunge and started commercial fishing full time. “I’m still fishing now,” he says.

At the beginning, Masunaga bottom fished quite a bit targeting deep-water snapper on the Grounds out of Kona in 700-1,000’. “When we first started, it was all trial and error. There was no GPS, no depth recorder,” Masunaga recalls with a laugh. To find the ledges and bottom structure, they would tie a rock to a string and drop it to the bottom to measure the depth. Everything was handline.

“We’d drop down here, there…too deep, not deep enough. It was all trial and error. We would keep track of where we were by landmark positioning. Reading the currents was important—everything was by hand. Now, if you look at the landmarks, it’s all changed. Good thing for GPS!”

Captain Shane O’Brien began fishing with Kerwin when he was 13—they still fish together every chance they get. “He was this kid that was always at the harbor. One day we invited him fishing and found out he liked fishing, too. At first, he was a real jumpy guy…he would run to the rod anytime a line got knocked down. We’ve kinda calmed him down,” Kerwin says with a laugh. O’Brien has quite a bit to say about Kerwin.

When speaking to captains in Kona, it is the number of grander blue marlin catches that counts. Here is one of Kerwin’s two…he has seen others.

“He bought a 19’ Glass Pro skiff and really excelled. Kerwin would fish dark to dark every day—all tuna fishing. He also did quite a bit of night fishing. His best night was 12 tuna all over 200-pounds. To let you know how well the boat was rigged for commercial fishing, all the tuna fit into boxes—nothing on the deck,” O’Brien describes. “He made his name there. Later he bought a 34’ Raddon, a big commercial boat for here.”

The Raddon’s name is Holly Ann…you can find it on the list of boats to have won the Blue Marlin World Cup.

“Kerwin was one of the first guys in Hawaii, certainly in the United States, to have a greenstick. He bought his off the greenstick’s inventor (who visited Hawaii from Japan trying to sell them) in the 80s. He killed it,” O’Brien says. “The greenstick was all on handline. He had a 1,000 pound mainline the baits would pop off straight to rope. If you had two or three on at the same time, you’d really have your hands full.”

“Kerwin would tuna fish quite a bit and bottom fish in the wintertime. He would marlin fish when everything else was slow. He fished five days a week, no matter what. He caught 500-700 pounders regularly,” says O’Brien. “He caught a grander solo on the Holly Ann. It went 1,140 and he fought it for seven hours. It died and he had to plane it up. He would run forward, then throw it in reverse to gain line. He had to run back from the throttles to crank. Teddy Hoogs came on board and helped him with the last 50 yards or so.”

“He’s been a staple of the commercial fishing community for a long time. He’s really good—you don’t want to live bait against him… he’ll hurt your feelings,” O’Brien, who at 30 has won his share of tournaments around the world, describes. “Kerwin has been involved in sportfishing for much of his life too. He crewed for John Llanes and Peter Hoogs.”

In 2008, Kerwin’s took a job running a 35’ Cabo, the Rod Bender. To illustrate Kerwin’s humility, here is his version of the story. “In 2008, my friend Carlton Arai invited me to Mexico, the owner was looking for one more guy.” He went on to describe how he met a guy that wanted to buy a boat, which turned into a job running the Cabo.

Masunaga’s 34’ Raddon, the Holly Ann. A fishy vessel if there ever was one, Masunaga won the Blue Marlin World Cup fishing aboard this boat.

Here is Shane O’Brien’s version of the same story. “Kerwin went to Mexico in 2008. He ran the boat Karma. They fished the Bisbee’s and won the Los Cabos tournament. They won $559,000, which I think is still the record for the largest amount won.”

Masunaga has created quite a legacy as a sportfishing captain. “For many years, he was the most consistent captain in Kona. He was always placing, a consistent money winner,” O’Brien says.

In addition to winning the 2000 World Cup with a 633 aboard his commercial boat, Masunaga placed second after a last-minute fish by Capt. Bobby Brown edged him in 1990. He also caught a grander (1,043) to win the 2013 Marlin Magic Lure Tournament. Kerwin’s son Brent runs his cockpit. His daughter Heather is a frequent angler with her father.

When speaking to captains in Kona, it is the number of grander blue marlin catches that counts. Here is one of Kerwin’s two…he has seen others.

Much of his tournament success results from his mastery of the live bait. To hear Kerwin describe it, “I live bait a lot during tournaments…or I could troll around and waste all this gas. I started live baiting to catch tuna. Marlin would bite in between the tuna…but it can be a long time between marlin bites, you know,” he says with a laugh. “I started using down riggers before people used them.”

When asked about the secret to successful live baiting, Masunaga is circumspect. “It’s a current thing. You’ve got to know what the current is doing. I used to live bait the ledges, then the buoys came.”

When asked the secret to Masunaga’s success, O’Brien puts it like this. “He can catch anything, he really understands the ocean. He reads structure and currents better than anyone I know. He also takes fishing super serious,” Shane relates. “He has something you can’t teach. His attention to the environment and what’s happening around him… What he sees is more than what you or I see.”

Old Salt and Young Gun, Masunaga and Shane O’Brien have been fishing together for going on 20 years.

Having fished his whole life in Kona, Masunaga certainly has seen his share. “I was fighting an ahi (yellowfin tuna) one day, my sister-in-law was onboard. The fish was coming up and going down again. I thought, ‘What is the matter with this fish.’ Finally, I got it on the leader—it was about 150-pounds.

When I got it on the deck, I looked down and saw what I thought was a bunch of porpoises coming toward me. It was so big, I didn’t think it could be one fish. It was a giant fish coming straight (head toward the boat from the depths). It had huge eyes.” It was not a group of dolphins, but a single, gigantic blue marlin.

“I saw the 1805 (Choy’s monster)—big belly, big old eyeballs. Its shape, this fish looked like that one. Huge belly. The fish swam around the boat, its eye moving around looking at me. ‘What did you do with my dinner?’ it said,” Kerwin laughs. “It looked like the 1805 type…but who knows. It was over 1,500 any way. Huge…big belly.”

Do you have any comments or questions for us? We’d love to hear from you.

 

Young Guns: Captain Drake Sawyer

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On Location

57-foot Capps Boatworks

Owner: Paul Knowles

By Charlie Levine

Many captains are born into the fishing industry and taken under the wing of their fathers or an uncle. But you don’t have to be born into this industry to succeed. The majority of captains who make it to the top of the ladder work harder than the rest and never stop learning. Drake Sawyer falls in line with that ethos. And when you have some of the biggest names in offshore fishing singing your praises, you know you’re doing something right.

The 29-year-old captain is originally from Port Aransas, Texas. Drake began working on boats at 14 and never stopped. He started as a mate on charter boats and head boats (party boats, if you’re from Port Aransas), fishing for king mackerel and red snapper in the Gulf. When he was 16, he fished his first billfish tournament on a 31 Bertram.

“That was my first exposure to tournaments,” Sawyer says. “The runs were long and very wet on that 31. We didn’t billfish much on that boat, but we fished a handful of tournaments. The majority of the time we were meat fishing.”

Throughout high school the burgeoning young skipper bounced around and kept working on head boats. Soon he landed a job on a 61-footer but when the skipper took the boat to Mexico, he left Drake without a ride.

The On Location and Capt. Drake are switiching from a numbers approach in Costa Rica to fishing for large blue marlin in Madeira in 2019 and 2020.

“That winter I had just left college and I was working on any boat I could,” he says. “The captain of a 42 Tiara named On Location saw me buffing a boat in the middle of a cold front and asked me if I could help him. After he had seen my hard work, he asked me to fish with him in Mexico, so I ended up fishing down there that season regardless.”

On Location was owned by Paul Knowles from Corpus Christi, Texas. Ten years later, Drake is still working for Paul. From 2009 to 2011 Drake mated on the boat as they fished Isla Mujeres and Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, and then headed back to the Gulf for the summer.

In 2010, Paul purchased a 57-foot custom boat built by Nelva Capps of Virginia Beach, Virginia. The boat was only four years old at the time and had 800 hours on it. With a larger boat, the On Location team began traveling more. They ventured over the Bahamas then up to Massachusetts in search of giant bluefin tuna before heading back down the coast to fish the Gulf circuit. Then in 2013 they set sail for the Pacific, running through the Panama Canal.

They fished Piñas Bay, and upon the urging of Drake, decided to hit the FADs in Costa Rica. That was their home base until this past fall.

As the mate, Drake kept learning everything he could from tackle to engine maintenance. In 2014, Drake got his shot to run the program. He was 24.

“A lot of the things the previous captains taught me turned out to be incorrect,” Drake says. “We started fishing the tournaments in Costa Rica and I realized I had no idea how to sailfish, at least down there where you’re fishing next to some of the best in the world in one of the best fisheries. We needed to learn how to do this or we were just wasting money. I asked questions to everyone on the dock I possibly could.”

The young skipper befriended some of the most respected captains in the industry. Gentlemen like Bubba Carter, John Bayliss and Chip Shafer. Those were the men he fished next to, and those were the men he emulated. Drake’s hard work in the cockpit and bilge paid off. He caught an average of 900 billfish per season in Costa Rica and released his 1,000th blue marlin at the age of 28.

“I took the boat over with 3,000 hours on it,” he says. “We’re at 10,700 now, in the last five years. We’ve been fishing it hard.”

In Costa Rica, the crew exclusively teaser fished, and they’ve got it dialed. “Paul would come by himself to fish the FADs for five days, and he pitches every single fish,” Drake says. “On his best day he caught 20 blue marlin. The boat caught 22. The only reason Paul didn’t catch the other two was because they were doubles.”

For any boat to put up big numbers and hit goals, the crew must work together. “Paul is a really good boss to work for,” Drake says. “We always come up with a game plan, but when it comes time to fish, he trusts me to make the calls.”

After finishing their Costa Rica deployment in 2018, the On Location headed to Mexico’s Baja Peninsula to fish Cabo and Mag Bay. “I’d been egging Paul on to do that trip for the last couple of years. When we decided to move the boat out of the Pacific, it made sense to take advantage of that destination before we go. We got lucky and hit it on a good year.”

The team fished three multi-day trips out of Mag Bay for a total of 12 days of fishing. They released 652 striped marlin – more than 200 billfish per trip! “It’s an absolute incredible fishery,” Drake says.

After Mag Bay, the On Location headed back to the U.S. to get some work done for its next big adventure… Madeira, the Canaries and Portugal. “We let our 1,000th blue marlin go this last FAD season in Costa Rica and now we want to go and try to catch a 1,000-pounder,” Drake says. That’s quite a changeup from teaser fishing on light tackle.

After more than 1,000 blue marlin, Drake may be as comfortable with the boat in reverse as going forward.

The plan is to ship the boat to Madeira in June and keep it there for two seasons. In 2020, they’ll embark on some serious travel, fishing for tuna in the Canary Islands in March and April, grander blue marlin in Madeira from May through August, white marlin off Portugal in September and October, then back to the Canaries.

There is much work to be done. It’s a 13-year-old custom boat, so there’s plenty of glass and finish work to keep them busy. They’re also installing a transformer to be able to keep regular voltage with Euro power. And then there’s the tackle.

“We’ve got a lot to learn about heavy tackle,” Drake says. “I’m looking forward to switching gears. It’s a whole new fishery to put my mind to. My boss and I have been working really hard. He’s working on his technique as an angler, and I’m working on mine as a captain.”

They’ll be fishing 130-pound tackle almost exclusively, at least in the beginning. “I don’t want the right one to show up and be under-gunned,” Drake says. “I’m starting to gear my head toward the tackle and getting as many recommendations as I can as to what we need before I get over there. It’s going to be fun.”

The crew has caught two blues around 700 pounds in the Gulf of Mexico and a handful of blue marlin in the 350- to 400-pound range in Costa Rica. It’s definitely a big learning curve but the young captain is ready to put his skills to the test.

“We will start lure fishing then move over to teaser fishing,” he says. “If we get to switch on one over 800 pounds, we’ll have accomplished our goal.”

The opportunity to travel and experience new fisheries is the ultimate dream job for Capt. Drake Sawyer, but it took a lot of hard work to make it happen. “Fishing is all I’ve ever done,” he says. “Luckily I’ve had an owner like Paul who has given me lots of opportunity to spend time on the water.”

Do you have any comments or questions for us? We’d love to hear from you.

Young Guns: Capt. Kyle Peet

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The fleet in Ocean City is arguably the best in the world, and you have to be determined to rise to the top.

By Charlie Levine

On September 13, 2016, Capt. Kyle Peet left Ocean City headed for the grounds aboard his 54-foot Taylor Made, No Quarter. Aboard were Peet, his mate Erik Mateer and a group of anglers from Xtratuf boots. Peet had his sights on a piece of water 85 miles offshore for an overnighter.

“I wanted to try for a grand slam,” he says. “That’s all I wanted to catch. I’d never caught a grand slam here.”

The bite was on. In the first five minutes of trolling, the No Quarter hooked a triple header of white marlin. Packs of fish mobbed the spread. As soon as they put new baits back, the fish bit.

Kyle and his father bought and refit the 54’ Taylor Made that was previously the Tijereta run by Capt. Bubba Carter.

“It was one of the coolest experiences ever. It was like fishing in Costa Rica, but it was right here in my back yard. I was marking 20 at a time,” Kyle said. By lunchtime, they had released 12 whites. Then they got a blind bite that turned out to be a 200-pound blue. Peet hammered the throttles in reverse to get the release. A few
minutes after that release, they turned loose a sail. Kyle had his grand slam… and a lot more time to fish.

Late in the day the boys hooked another billfish, thinking it might be a blue. As they got the fish to the boat, it turned out to be a longbill spearfish. Their fourth billfish species on the day. They now had a super slam!

They trolled till dark, releasing more whites. The next move was an obvious one—put out the swordfish gear and hope for the fabled fantasy slam. While grilling steaks, the swordfish rod went off. What happened next was an epic, 7-hour battle. “It was absolutely the most mental experience of my life,” Kyle says. “Driving around all night in the dark fighting this fish.”

Capt. Kyle Peet with photos from the first fantasy slam ever captured in the United States.

The sword came up the surface and sounded again. It was no slouch. The battle continued until finally they got the fish close and the boys sank the gaffs. Just as Kyle was yelling to the crew to not let go, he saw a big mako make its move. The shark took a bite out of the sword’s tail, but they were able to haul the fish in. Oh, and they caught the mako, too. The end result was the first fantasy slam ever caught in US waters.

As the sun was coming up, acres of cutting marlin showed up on the surface, balling bait. Peet and crew couldn’t leave that action behind. They caught another 12 whites by noon before finally calling it quits. The final tally for the trip: 23 white marlin, two longbill spearfish, one blue marlin, one sail, a 345-pound sword and a 247-pound mako.

The young captain had certainly made his mark. Now 32 years old, Peet began fishing offshore with his father Mike when he was ten years old. They mostly charter fished, going offshore just about every week. It didn’t take long for the young angler to enter the charter ranks. At 15 he started working as a second mate. The next summer he did it again.

“I probably fished 120 days a summer for two summers in a row. It was the school of hard knocks for me. I just tried to learn everything I could,” he says.

Kyle graduated from high school in 2005 and went to work full time on a charter boat. He also tried his hand at commercial fishing, doing a two-month stint on a longliner. Peet saved up and bought a 23-foot Regulator, fishing weekends and working in the family business during the week.

“One day my dad came out with me and we got caught in storm,” Peet says.

This experience lead to the decision that it was time for a larger boat. They were still chartering a lot and it made sense to put that money toward a boat of their own. In 2010, after looking at 30 boats, they settled on a 54-foot TaylorMade. Not just any 54 Taylor-Made, but a boat that was previously the Tijereta, having spent six years fishing Venezuela with the legendary Bubba Carter behind the wheel.

“We knew she was a fishy rig,” Peet says. “But she was in rough shape.”

The father and son team began refitting the boat—a process that they’ve plugged away at for the past eight years. The only original thing left is the planking and some of the bottom.

The Peets repowered with Cat C18s, put in a mezzanine, updated the interior, installed new electronics, running gear—you name it. They renamed the boat No Quarter, and decided to charter when not fishing tournaments.

Capt. Butch Davis and Jon Meade, who were fishing on Cerveza and winning a ton of tournaments, fished with the Peets on No Quarter that first summer. Kyle worked the cockpit with John, getting an education in bait rigging and running the pit.

The next summer Kyle shadowed Butch on the bridge.

“I fished with Butch for close to three years,” Peet says. “What I’ve learned and how I apply it was 100 percent through him. He didn’t have to teach me, but he did.”

In 2013, Kyle took over as captain. He had the honor of catching the first white marlin of the year out of Ocean City. Then he won first place in the first tournament he fished, netting the team $330,000. He became the youngest captain to ever win the Ocean City Tuna Tournament. In the following years, the No Quarter has topped the leaderboard in the Ocean City Marlin Club’s annual tally several times.

In 2017. they were named top charter boat and released the most billfish overall, beating out Capt. Jon Duffie on Billfisher, who had dominated for a decade. “It was cool. No one caught 100 that year. Fishing was slow and I was persistent,” Kyle says.

In September, you typically get ten bites or so out of Ocean City, but in 2017 you were lucky if you caught one fish a day. “I kept going and going. It taught me lot of patience. I fished 90 days to catch 80 fish. That’s what it took to beat him.”

The local Ocean City boats are competitive with each other. In 2018, Peet had an active battle with Capt. Gary Stamm, one of his mentors. “We had one of best fishing experiences of my life for the whole month of September,” Kyle says.

The two boats, docked right behind one another, were in the top two spots all month.

“We talked about it every night, where we were going, what we were doing. It was a gentlemanly thing.”

It went down to the wire, and Stamm ended up beating Kyle by two fish. Kyle caught 149 billfish over his 92-day season. Going into the 2020 season, the Peets are phasing No Quarter out of the charter fleet but Kyle still has his eye on the prize.

“I spend hours studying the water,” he says. “I grew up playing ice hockey and they teach you that you don’t want to be where the puck is, you want to be where the puck is going. You want to be ahead of the fish.”

You can bet that when the bite turns on, No Quarter will be on them.

Do you have any comments or questions for us? We’d love to hear from you.

Old Salts: Capt. Phil Dulanie

By

A New Jersey legend looks back on his career, and the heyday of the canyon tuna bite

By Charlie Levine

Having run two of the most respected charter boats in New Jersey, the Ol’ Salty and the Canyon Runner, there’s a good chance that Capt. Phil Dulanie has fished the canyons more than any other human being to ever sit in a captain’s chair. “Jesus, I lived out there,” says the 71-year-old Dulanie. “The joke was that they were going to put a mailbox in the canyons for me for the season. I have a friend who fished 15 years in a row and every time he came out to the canyons and called me on the radio, I answered.”

Dulanie was born into a fishing family from North Bergen, New Jersey. His grandfather fished, but it was Phil’s father who really got the saltwater pumping in his veins. “My father always fished,” says Phil. “My mother told him to take me, and so he took me out when I was nine. That was it. That was the end. I was hooked.”

Both his father and grandfather had captain’s licenses. In 1960, his father took delivery of a 31 Kulas, a Jersey-built boat, which they named the D 4 (after their family of four). “My father made sure I knew how to do everything on that boat—clean the carbs, adjust the distributor cap,” Phil says. The boat did 9 knots. When Chrysler came out with a marinized gas engine, they upgraded and were able to hit 13 knots. “That was the best of the best!” Phil says. It even had a built-in oven. They’d warm up sausage, peppers and egg sandwiches on the engine manifolds.

After high school, Phil got into the clothing business. He was a salesman for Lee jeans, starting out in the women’s and teen’s departments. In 1969, the course of Phil’s life took a major course change. He received draft papers to Vietnam. Luckily for Phil, the war was nearly over. He ended up spending two years in Germany and quite literally dodged a bullet. While he was stationed overseas, his family would send him photos of fish. All he wanted to do was head back to Jersey and get out on the water.

“When I got out of the service, I went right into fishing,” he says. “I got out of having to fight in ‘Nam, so I figured you only live once, I’m going fishing.”

Capt. Bob Pisano, the legendary New Jersey giant tuna captain and owner of the Ol’ Salty, was putting together plans to get into the charter game and approached Phil about working together. “I told him I could start tomorrow,” says Phil. It was 1971 and Phil took the weekend shift, working pretty much nonstop from Friday night till Monday morning when he went back to his day job. “I didn’t have to be in till 10 a.m., so it worked out alright.”

They mostly caught bluefish and striped bass till June, then started to look for tuna, running at the most 32 miles. “We had no problem catching tuna back then,” Phil recalls, and the tackle was a far cry from the gear used today. “Basically, all we had were cedar plugs and feathers.”

This was before the government established the 200-mile exclusive economic zone and foreign fishing fleets decimated New Jersey’s inshore tuna fishery. Phil and Bob began running further offshore in search of bigger fish. A lobsterman friend said he’d seen giant tuna while setting pots in the canyons. That was all the intel they needed. They invested in a deep-water machine, took some time and distance measurements and rolled the dice. They ran by compass and worked across the edge in 600 to 1,000 feet. Loran had yet to show up.

“We fished squid then, using wire, and we’d catch all the fish we wanted,” he says. “Yellowfin, bigeye… it was unbelievable.” That’s how it started. Word spread and the next year they had to hire another captain and another mate to handle the charters. Their overflow kept a good three boats busy. The boat chugged out to the canyons at the blazing speed of 11 knots. “It’d take nine hours to get there. We left at nine at night, got back at 6 p.m. and left again at 9 o’clock. Luckily, we didn’t need a lot of time to catch fish,” he says.

They had no weather forecast, no temperature charts, and the fishing was outrageous. In the winter, Phil worked on the boat. They put twin engines in her so she could do 17 knots.

Phil worked on the Ol’ Salty for 15 years and then Bob sold the boat. Phil ran some private boats for a while and got his own charter operation going. In the winter, the master carpenter built houses. In mid-1990s Phil partnered up with Joe LaRosa and started running charters on the Canyon Runner, a 48 Viking. The Canyon Runner 2, a 60-foot Richie Howell, was added later and the company grew into one of the premiere charter operations on the East Coast with a long list of tournament wins, a line of tackle and a seminar series that packs the house.

Dulanie with then mate Mark DeCabia and a pair of stud bigeyes.

Ever the Innovator

By spending so much time offshore, Phil was able to come up with new techniques and find the bite when others were simply clueless. Chunking came to be thanks to a chance encounter with a Portuguese squid boat. While trolling, Phil watched a guy on the squid boat catch yellowfin using a piece of bent wire. “He said, ‘Give me some hooks and I’ll give you some squid.’” They pulled up beside the boat and he filled the cockpit with fresh squid. Fishing hooks directly on snap swivels, Phil caught 37 tuna up to 80-pounds and a couple over 100.

“We pulled away from the squid boat, threw some squid in the water and saw 40 tuna come up to eat it. That’s when we started bringing bait out,” Phil says.

Phil also dialed in the bigeye tuna bite, figuring out how this particularly shy species of tuna liked to feed in the low light hours of daybreak. “In the morning, we were putting lures in the outriggers and as soon as we put the boat in gear, three rods went off. That’s how that started,” he says.

Phil also played a major role in developing the spreader bar, which really changed the game for tuna hunters in the canyons. The guys at the Brielle, New Jersey-based Reel Seat tackle shop designed a high-speed spreader bar and gave Phil a set of them to test out.

“There must’ve been 500 boats in Hudson Canyon and no one was catching fish,” he recalls, so he decided to put out the spreader bars. They ran one off of each outrigger and one down the center. They didn’t go 50 feet before they had a double of white marlin on. “We had two of the best white marlin guys up here, one fishing on either side of me,” says Phil. “They call me up and say ‘What’s that you’ve got on?’ I said, ‘It’s a double of white marlin.’ They say, ‘I know they’re white marlin! What’s that rainbow thing?’”

Phil caught 13 yellowfin and six whites that day and not one bite came on a single lure, each fish hit a spreader bar. Over the years, Phil perfected fishing with spreader bars, how to set up the spread, what squids or lures to run on the bars, etc. “I’d drag nine of them around,” he says. “To this day, if there are sand eels around, I’ll put out Mamba Bars. When mackerel are around, I’ll run a Green Machine bar.”

Master Boatman

With so much time and water under his hull, Phil can do anything you could possibly imagine to a boat. He and his partner once converted a single-screw charter boat to twin engines over Easter weekend. In just four days, they installed a new stringer system, slid one engine over, dropped in another and blocked in the shaft lines.

He also spent six years building Runaway Boats, known for its 36 express that is beloved by tuna hunters. The boats were known for being super solid, with every piece fiberglassed together. “I could glass a deck to the hull in 45 minutes with no leaks in the sheerline,” he says.

Phil knows boats inside and out, and while he agrees that the boats are much better these days, the guys running them are sometimes a bit green behind the ears. “It’s sad what I see going on,” he says. “I’ll walk down the dock and guys ask me the stupidest questions. One guy came up to me and said he couldn’t get his genset working. I told him to see if the breaker was on, not the one on the panel, the one on the actual generator. Sometimes it gets hit by accident. He comes back to me later to thank me and said he would’ve never figured that out.”

In his nearly 50 years as a professional captain, Phil has logged more catches than most anglers can ever dream of. He caught two giants over 1,000 pounds in a single day. He’s landed two striped bass over 60 pounds. But he’s not really about keeping score. He keeps closer tabs on the weather, waiting for the wind to lay down so he can head back offshore.