ITB Staff
WANTED: “I am looking for the perfect mate. My previous relationships just haven’t worked out. I need one that is not too young, not too old, that doesn’t cost too much money and that knows their way around the cockpit. I also need someone that is loyal, who won’t jump ship the next time we’re docked next to a pretty Rybovich.”
It seems that my boat checklist never ends. The checklist is a valuable tool for me which I use religiously. I always keep it handy. If you are like me, and don’t write down what you’re thinking, it most likely will be forgotten. During any given week, my mate and I work off of a checklist that is continuously updated. The list consists of everything, such as supplies needed, metal that needs waxed or repairs that need to be made. One would think that you could run out of things for a checklist, but if you keep a top-notch boat and stay up with all the systems that should not happen.
By Elliott Stark
“You know, that’s something that’s really, really important. Sometimes, it just doesn’t cross people’s minds,” says Capt. Jimmy Waller of Orange Beach, Alabama. Waller, whose nickname is “PeeWee” runs his 60’ Big Adventure. The topic of fishing etiquette touched off something special for Capt. Jimmy. “We have been cobia fishing, spotted a fish and had people on jet skis pull up to the boat and ask us what we are doing. One time it happened in a tournament. We were working a fish and had a guy and a girl come up to us on a jet ski. They pulled up to us and said, ‘Ahoy!’ You can’t make this stuff up. This will be my 36th year in the charter business. I’ve seen everything from pornos being made in the salon to just about whatever you can imagine.”
Fin Gaddy with his twin sons on the Qualifier. Photo courtesy Fin Gaddy
Photos and Story by Scott Kerrigan
For those passionate about fishing, ensuring that your kids enjoy time on the water is a very important—some might say life-altering—consideration. For those who make a living as charter or private boat captains, creating a kid-friendly fishing environment is that much more important. The difference between creating a lifelong angler and a kid that will never fish again can be something as simple as making sure that the tackle and the target species are age-appropriate.
Capt. Emory Dillon with a young Chip Shafer and a blue marlin caught off the Early Bird in Hatteras.
By Jim Blount
In 2013 the offshore fishing community lost a true pioneer of the industry when Captain Emory D. Dillon passed away in Frisco, North Carolina at the age of 87. Captain Emory fished the offshore waters of North Carolina and Florida for over four decades on his boat, the Early Bird, until his retirement in the 1990s. His reputation as a successful charter captain stood out among all his fellow captains, anglers and mates. Emory’s dry sense of humor and likable personality combined with a natural instinct to perform as a charter boat captain earned him tremendous respect for those who spent time around him, especially his mates.
By Joe Byrum
Like almost every industry, the current sportfishing landscape looks completely different than it did 40 years ago. While time changes everything all of the time, in the last five years alone advances in technology and equipment have inspired the development of outcome-driven techniques, altering the state of the mate in a particularly impactful way. With the widespread adoption of innovation, the individuals involved in our sport have changed as well, be it for better or for worse.
We all know the importance of having a competent crew. The vast majority of sportfishing operations employ a captain and at least one mate to even leave and return to the slip safely, not to mention rig baits and tackle, clean the boat and accommodate the day’s fishing group among many other integral tasks.
To further address the mate profession through anecdotal accounts, I interviewed esteemed captains around the country for a deeper understanding regarding workforce training, leadership development, crew longevity and how things have changed over the years.
When it comes to the dependence on technology, work ethic and perseverance of millennials, everyone loves to speculate…
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By Elliott Stark
As we all sit here awaiting the world’s return to normalcy, the fact that the world is more connected now than ever before is an inescapable conclusion. Everything is interwoven. Events and decisions that are made in one place can affect many others—even those that live on the opposite side of the world.
While much of this interconnectedness–and the impact that personal choice can have on others– has been focused on the health side of the equation, there are many aspects to consider. Fishing is something that is normally considered an individual activity or one that is accomplished by a small crew of people—after all part of the charm of going fishing is that you’re not doing it at the mall surrounded by 5,000 people.
Unlike the iconic image of a lone fisherman walking down a deserted beach or stream, the sportfishing industry is far from a singular entity. It rather depends on an interconnected web of commerce and purchase decisions made by people across not only the United States, but the world. As with most any business, those within the sportfishing industry rely on a series of transactions to generate the revenue they need to keep going. For many businesses around the world Covid-19 and its associated decreases in travel, consumption, and overall economic activity has interrupted the necessary chain of commerce.
As we wait this deal out, there may be nothing that we can do to speed along the freedom to travel—you couldn’t jump on a plane to your favorite international destination today if you wanted to (even if you flew down there on your own private jet, they might not let you in). There are however decisions that we can make to help sportfishing businesses weather this time of lost income and general uncertainty. For many, the essence of this movement has been captured in the phrase “Postpone, don’t cancel.”
Postpone, Don’t Cancel
Maverick makes a living putting clients on the trip of a lifetime. Photo Credit Maverick Sportfishing.
If you have a trip on the books that has to be moved because of the pandemic, consider postponing it rather than canceling it. This helps charter businesses considerably. Will Drost, who operates Maverick Sportfishing (https://www.mavericksportfish.com/) out of Los Sueños explains it like this, “For us the best case is for clients to plan long range trips. We know that nothing in our industry hasn’t been affected by this, but we appreciate that most of our clients have been postponing instead of canceling trips. For our situation, everything is in place for postponing trips—airline companies have been issuing credits for displaced travel.”
Captain Kiwi Van Leeuwen who, with his wife, owns and operates the Sailfish Oasis Lodge in Guatemala (https://sailfishoasis.com/) provides a bit more context. “All of our clients have rescheduled instead of canceled, we are thankful for that. For us, it’s best if clients can reschedule for later this year instead of the same dates next year. If that happens (rescheduling for the same dates next year), we effectively lose those days. We are hopeful to be back in business by October. We feel that the Guatemalan tourist industry is in a relatively good position because the government acted early and closed the borders. We hope that this will mitigate the impact that we feel in the country a bit.”
Captain Kiwi Van Leeuwen’s lodge provides stable employment in Guatemala– in addition to all of the fishing memories it creates. Photo Credit Sailfish Oasis
The Charter Industry is Particularly Vulnerable
The men and women who own and operate charter boats and fishing lodges depend on visiting anglers for their livelihoods. While most within the general public might think of a fishing trip as a vacation– an optional trip that can be cancelled without too much inconvenience, the money spent by charter guests is the lifeblood of charter boat businesses and the livelihoods of those who operate them.
Operators in this segment are particularly impacted by the virus. This impact is felt on two levels. The first and most obvious lies in the impact of the travel ban. If you are physically prevented from visiting an area, you most certainly cannot fish there. This leaves operators and lodges forced to close their doors—even if it is the peak of their season. Have you seen the tuna videos coming out of Venice, Louisiana in the days leading up to when the marina was closed? It was the best it had been in years.
The travel bans, and decreased travel in places where it is not banned outright, effect fishing operators all over the world. Those international lodges that rely on US customers suffer from closed borders. There are also travel restrictions in the states as well—you can’t get into the Florida Keys without proof of residency. Marinas are closed and fishing has ground to a halt in many of the hotbeds of the charter industry—the Gulf Coast of Florida, Venice, Louisiana, Ocean City, Maryland, the Outer Banks, South Florida—you name it.
Restricted travel is but the first level of vulnerability faced by fishing operators. The second layer is less obvious, but no less daunting. For many, a fishing vacation is considered a luxury item. What is the first thing that is cut back when someone feels an economic pinch? Luxury items.
How does that happen? The economic impacts from the pandemic are widespread. Beyond those whose jobs or livelihoods have been directly affected to this point, many others have tightened their purse strings as they worry about what the future holds. Economists describe this level of impact in terms of consumer confidence.
As a general rule, when things are good and consumers (people who buy things) are confident that they will continue to be good into the future, people spend money freely. When consumers face uncertainty—such as that caused by the virus and how long its impacts will last—they tend to spend less money. When they decide to spend less money, the fishing trips and other “optional” items are the first to go. Both of these scenarios- restricted travel and dampened consumer outlook– impact the bottom line when it comes to businesses in the sportfishing space.
What Can You Do?
Let’s start with a couple of conclusions. The men and women who operate sportfishing businesses provide a hell of an important service to all of us. Unless you have your own boat or happen to have a good buddy that does, about the only chance for the average person to fish offshore is by hiring a fishing guide. Many of the people that now currently own boats can trace their desire to purchase one to an experience fishing with a guide or lodge. They are also the type of local, small businesses that every community needs.
The second consideration has two facets: Charter boat owners face bills and overhead whether they are chartering or not. Bills such as dockage, maintenance and overhead must be paid whether there are clients coming down the docks or not. Beyond the fact that bills are due whether clients come or not, charter fishing for many operators is a seasonal affair.
Capt. Adam Peeples (left) supports his family with his Destin, Florida-based charter operation, One Shot Charters. Photo Credit One Shot Charters.
In most places, operators make the bulk of their income for the year during their high seasons. For some—like operators in the Bahamas, places like Destin, Florida that depend on spring break business or sailfish operators in Costa Rica—the high season is now. The effect of closures for these men and women is doubled. Not only are they forced to close now, now may be the time that they earn the money they need for the rest of the year.
Captain Adam Peeples runs One Shot Charters (http://oneshotcharters.com/) in Destin. He explains the situation like this, “The big thing for us is that we don’t know when we can get back to work. Having to refund deposits hurts. The beaches are closed through April 30. Right now I have a good May and June on the books, but if the closures are extended it could really hurt. The optimal situation for us right now would be for customers to be flexible. Without knowing when things will open, if they could reschedule to come down when they’re able that would really help.”
Spring break bottom fishing trips– like those canceled by the Covid-19 pandemic– are a mainstay of the Destin Charter fishing community. Photo credit One Shot Charters.
“The charter community here typically spends quite a bit of money over the winter time getting the boat ready for our spring break business. The average charter guy’s financial situation tends to be pretty tight—you do this because you love it not because you’re going to get super rich. You spend the money in the winter time to recoup it in the spring. The spring break season in Destin is lots of bottom fishing—four and six hour trips, but it’s a lot of business. Being down March and April, I might be down 60 or 70% on the year. Its recoverable if we have a good remainder of the year.”
“The consensus around here is that this is worse than the BP Oil Spill or the recession (of 2008).”
Now is a perfect time to….
If you and your family have been fortunate enough to not have been financially impacted by the pandemic, now might be a good time to consider planning a fishing trip. Thinking about—and better yet starting to plan for—a future fishing trip makes the time of being stuck around the house in quarantine that much more palatable. This is a direct benefit to you.
More than that however, putting a deposit down for a future trip can inject some cash into a local fishing business that could probably really use some about now. You can think of it in whatever terms you like, but the deposit could well be used for groceries or a mortgage payment for your favorite charter captain and his family. Not only can a deposit now inject some cash, having a day booked in the future helps with providing the confidence that every small business owner could use about now—that there is hope for a solid rebound once all of this craziness subsides.
Sometimes things are about fishing. Sometimes they are about humanity. Then there are times when the two interconnect. That fishing and humanity intersect so tangibly shouldn’t be surprising anymore—after all, it seems like just about everything in the world depends on something else these days.
There is no better time to book a charter with your kids. It will be good for the captain you book with and the kids are probably pretty tired of being homeschooled too! Photo Credit One Shot Charters
If we can help you with any charter recommendations in the United States or beyond, shoot us a note…
Captain Shane Jarvis’ story is one of the meeting of opportunity, passion and hard work. Jarvis and his father have transformed a remote island in Panama into a first-class fishing operation – from the ground up. Here is his story.
Think running a charter boat in Miami or the Outer Banks is a tough way to make a buck on the water? Try operating a completely self-sufficient fishing lodge on a private island 12 miles off the coast of Panama. Were the need for self-sufficiency not enough, now consider that the island was bare when you bought it. Captain Shane Jarvis and his father may have undertaken the fishing equivalent of “Field of Dreams” – if you build it, they will come.
by Dave Ferrell
Taking the helm of a sportfishing boat, travelling the world’s oceans in pursuit of billfish, represents a “dream job” for a whole lot of people…many of which have never spent much time offshore. The image of a tanned captain, beard wagging in the sea breeze, steering the boat over the horizon with nothing but freedom and fishing on the calendar for the days ahead, fuels a lot of daydreams in corporate boardrooms all across America. It’s like being a quarterback for the Dolphins (Give me a break, I’m from Florida!) or photo editor for Playboy magazine…you just can’t imagine having a bad day at the office!
Well, you all know that while that there are some incredible perks that may come along with the job – travel to foreign hotspots; extra tournament money; insane bites; and making incredible memories. The captain’s chair, however, also comes with a whole host of pitfalls and enormous responsibilities – not the least of which is having the lives of your crew and guests in the palm of your hand.
Along with all the life-and-death stuff, a captain also takes care of a state-of-the-art piece of functional artwork that may cost many millions of dollars. You almost need to be a museum curator and an industrial engineer rolled into one to care of one of these machines, and we haven’t even started fishing yet! If all of this weren’t enough, a captain must also skillfully navigate a whole host of egos and character flaws that find their way onboard. You know the type – the psychotic mates that seemed just fine back on the dock or an owner’s guests that can drink more liquor in one day than an entire frat house consumes on homecoming weekend!
Factor in the competitive fishing aspect, whether that means tournament success or just keeping up with the rest of the dock every day, and the captain’s chair turns into a hot seat rather quickly if your boat doesn’t live up to the owner’s expectations. As dream jobs go, it’s one of the toughest ones there is. Amazingly enough, there’s no one route to the captain’s chair. If there ever was one single path, it’s no doubt changed dramatically over the last 25 years or so, just as certain aspects and responsibilities of the job have as well.
Run Before You Fly
One of the few things you can get captains to agree on is that you have to be a good mate before you can be a good captain. I first met Capt. Newt Cagle while he was working the deck for the legendary Capt. Butch Cox at Marlin U in the Dominican Republic. He instantly impressed me with his teak-side manner, treating my students like royalty and patiently answering all their questions as politely as possible…even the most absurd ones. He was an excellent mate and has since become a successful captain on the tournament trail. That’s not a coincidence. “A captain is only as good as his mate. A good mate really makes the captain shine. No matter how good the guy upstairs is, if you don’t have a good mate things aren’t going to go well.”
Legendary Capt. Randy Baker came to fame as one of the best mates in the world, not as a captain. He’s since made quite a name for himself upstairs as well. Baker got his start on his father’s charterboat and on the docks in Destin, Florida. He began working on private boats in his teens and soon found himself working on the most prestigious fishing team in the world, Dunaway’s fabulous Madam and Hooker operation. “I preferred the mating part in my early days. But in my opinion you can’t be a good captain unless you’ve been a good mate for a while…you really need to know both sides of it,” says Baker. “It’s very important to get on a good boat that travels and fishes a lot. You have to get some good time on the water. You definitely need to be a mate before you step up to the wheel. That way, you know what the guy’s going through down in the pit.”
Baker’s first day as a captain was on the Hooker, a pretty sweet first captain’s gig. “I mated on the boat for several years, and after a while, I became like the second captain. Whenever Trevor [Cockle] had to leave or take care of something, I’d run the boat. My first full-time captain’s job was with Jerry Dunaway when we built the 43-foot Hooker that was sent to Madeira. Fishing and working on boats is all I’ve ever done…I’ve never had a job on land.”
Capt. Bill Harrison got his start on Miami’s legendary Pier 5 in the early 50s. He went from working the decks of full time charter boats to chasing blue marlin all over the Caribbean with Ralph Christianson. He agrees with Baker and Cagle and thinks it’s imperative that a captain starts out as mate. “I like those guys who are doing the same things at 60 that they were doing at six,” says Harrison. “A lot of guys never even cared about becoming a captain. They were good mates and they enjoyed doing that. It was a 9 to 5 job for those guys back then. They were in it to make a day’s pay. They’d get off the boat and didn’t want to talk about fishing or anything like that. It was just a job. Sometimes these guys would be 30, 40 or 50 years old.”
Harrison says that the reason the mates and captains at Pier Five were so good was that they pursued a wide variety of different species. “We learned how to catch everything because we would sell it. We could catch sharks, groupers, mackerels, whatever was running we were fishing for it. This translated to learning a lot of different fishing techniques,” says Harrison.
When it comes to fishing, Capt. Bill Harrison has done it. When he speaks of perspective, it is best to listen.
On that first trip, Newt told me that he wanted to be the captain of a sportfishing boat for as long as he could remember…he never wanted to do anything else. “I was very lucky to grow up around boats and fishing, so it’s all I really ever knew. My father was an owner operator and my uncle owned a charterboat. I started out by washing boats for free, just so I could ride out and be a part of the team. I’d help the mate out, watch the baits and do anything just to learn from those guys. That’s something that’s changed quite a bit. There’s no longer any kids coming around these days with the burning desire to work on the boat or get the chance to be around the boat. Nowadays when a kid wants to go fishing, he wants to know exactly what he’s going to get paid and he already has a list of demands for me! I would do anything just to get to go fishing. I’d drive on the ride out or in, let the captain take a nap, do anything just for the chance to go. Kids today won’t even do that now. Everybody you talk to is going to give you the same story,” says Cagle.
Keeping Up Electronically
One of the greatest challenges that today’s captains face is the rapid pace at which ship’s systems evolve. From the complex navigation and communication suites on the flybridge to the electronic engine controls down below and the high-tech A/V equipment in the salon, the race to keep up with the latest and greatest, or just to keep things working properly, can run a crew ragged. Experience with how boats are put together and how all these systems operate and interact goes a long way these days.
“My Dad built several boats and I was always very involved in the build. My Dad was a very hands-on guy, so it was a sad day around here if he had to call a mechanic or someone to fix something. I try to fix everything on the boat by myself, but I also realize that a man has to realize his limitations,” says Cagle. “You can screw something up worse if you try to fix it without knowing what you are doing.”
“Nowadays you really can’t do anything with the motors. If you get a problem and try and tackle it yourself you can make it worse or mess up your warranties,” says Cagle. “One thing that has really changed things for me has been the internet. Instead of calling my Dad or other people, I can just look online. I hate to say it, but if I have a problem or project, I have no problem going online to read other people’s advice on how to go about fixing it. This is especially helpful with my electronics. Instead of pushing buttons for hours on end, I can Google the problem and find several ways to do what I need to do.”
Baker grew up around boats so maintenance and mechanicals are second nature to him, but even he takes pause when it comes to messing around too much with the today’s new engines. “I can do all the maintenance and troubleshooting to a degree, but there’s so much computer stuff going on it’s better to just have the guys hook it up to the laptop,” says Baker. “I’m kind of old school that way. It’s been a little hard keeping up with all that stuff…I’m not that computer literate myself.”
“Unfortunately, there’s no text book to live by,” says Cagle. “There’s no standard operating procedure on how to be a boat captain or how to be a mate. It’s all about what you learned from the guys you worked for in the past. How they did things is normally how you do things. You just have to use your best judgement. There’s no manual you can refer to. The only thing you can do is hope you had a good teacher along the way.”
