InTheBite

The Championship of Sportfishing: The Evolution of the Captain of the Year

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Captain of the Year

The InTheBite Captain of the Year Cup, presented by Hatteras, is the championship of sportfishing. The Cup is the world’s only quantifiable way to recognize the tournament success of professional sportfishermen. Comprised of 90-sanctioned events that span the world, there is nothing else like it. Winning an InTheBite Captain of the Year Award is a major achievement. From the winners to the Cup’s origin, it is an interesting tale.

Tranquilo crew COTY pic. Photo courtesy Pepper Ailor

Origins of the Cup

InTheBite Magazine started in 2003. Since its conception, the magazine has focused on providing useful, entertaining content for professional sportfishing crews. Over the course of covering the sportfishing landscape in the magazine’s formative years, InTheBite’s publisher and founder, Dale Wills, began to notice that something was missing.

“We began realizing that each year as we covered the magazine that certain teams would get on winning streaks. There was no award for them at the time and we wanted to recognize guys for doing well, so we created the Captain of the Year,” Wills, the son of a captain, recalls. “There was nothing for crews that consistently placed in tournaments. The owners would get checks, but we wanted to do more. We wanted to recognize the crews and the success of our readership.”

The first ever InTheBite Captain of the Year was VJ Bell in 2003. It was Bell’s dominance that spurred the decision to act. “That year we watched VJ Bell cleaning everyone’s clock and we wanted to recognize him.”

Scoring

In 2014, The Captain of the Year Cup took on its current multidivisional format. From 2003-2013, a single captain won the award based on voting by past winners. In 2014, to recognize the regional variations in the sportfishing landscape, the Captain of the Year Cup expanded to five divisions: East Coast Division, the Contender Florida Division, Gulf, Hawaii and the IGY Marinas International Division. Beyond the five divisions, InTheBite recognizes a winner of the World Wide Rankings, the captain who accrues the highest point total in the race each year. Each division is comprised of sanctioned tournaments, the results of which produce points for the COTY scoring.

Sanctioned events must meet a 12-boat minimum. Scoring is accumulated in the catch and release divisions of billfish tournaments: 500-points for first place, 300-points for second, 100-points for third place. For tournaments that include a heaviest marlin division, there is an additional 500-points awarded to the winning captain. The heaviest marlin points are in addition to and separate from the points awarded for the release divisions.

Ronnie Fields party.

In this way, a captain could theoretically win 1,000 points in the same tournament by weighing the heaviest marlin and winning the release division. And in tournaments that award top boat prizes through combined weighed fish and released fish, Captain of the Year points are awarded to the winner of the release division. An additional 250-points is awarded to captains who win series crowns in tournament circuits (Gulf Coast Triple Crown, the Los Sueños Triple Crown, etc.).

The point tallies follow the captain, rather than the boat. It is common for charter captains, especially in the Florida Division, to tally points on two or sometimes three boats in the course of the year. Not only do some captains score on multiple boats, some captains tally points in different divisions through the year. Multi divisional tallies were the key to the top two finishers in 2016’s World Wide Rankings—Captains Jon Duffie and Tommy Lynskey (each of whom scored in both the international and east coast divisions).

What Does it Mean to Win Captain of the Year?

Winning an ITB Captain of the Year Award is a big deal. From the early days of the award, when a single winner was chosen to the point-based divisional system of today, to win requires skill, consistency and dedication (nobody will turn down a little luck, either). Winning a Captain of the Year award requires a sizeable investment in tournament fishing by boat owners, skill and proficiency of mates, and anglers who are consistently ready when the bite happens. While all of these things must be present, it is the captain whose decision making keeps winning boats on the fish.

“It was awesome. I think it’s a pretty cool idea. With all of the new categories and areas, it has changed quite a bit since I won it,” says Captain Travis Butters the 2008 Captain of the Year. “The award was a great idea for the industry. It gives everyone something to strive for aside from just winning tournaments.”

When describing his winning year of 2008, Butters recalls, “First we won something in Key West. Then we won the Custom Boat Shootout and won a couple in Bermuda, and the Triple Crown. It was just one of those years when everything went your way.” Captain Devin Potts is the 2016 Gulf Division Captain of the Year. Potts, who runs the Sea Mixer, a 66-foot Spencer, says “There are a lot of good, good fishermen here. Winning this is a huge career milestone for me. It has been a humbling experience.”

Captain Victor Julio Lopez runs the Tranquilo, a 57-foot Spencer. Lopez was the first Costa Rican born captain to win the award, winning the 2016 International Division. “The success of my efforts may be attributed to the blessing of God and the effort of our team and our anglers. My mate Daniel Arrieta has been here giving his best to keep us in this position. My wife Tania is by my side and has always been my good luck charm,” says Lopez describing his success. “It’s taken a great effort day to day to be in the position and it is a great honor to the first Costa Rican captain to be named Captain of the Year.”

Glenn Cameron party.

So Now You’ve Won Captain of the Year… Now What?

It is standard practice that Captains of the Year host a party along with the presentation of the award. Just as there have been many different personalities who have won, the parties in the past have ranged far and wide. Captain Wink Doerzbacher won the 2013 Captain of the Year and the Florida Division Award in 2014. He celebrated in style with a reception at the Sailfish Point Clubhouse in Stuart, Florida. Captain John Dudas’ 2009 celebration was a catered affair at the legendary Miami Beach Rod and Gun Club.

When Captain Ronnie Fields won it in 2010, the party was an epic affair hosted by Big Oh owner Gray Ingram at his home. The reception for Captain Victor Julio Lopez included a friends and family affair on the cockpit of the Tranquilo after day 1 of a Los Sueños tournament and a formal presentation at the tournament’s award ceremony. Captain Russell Sinclair’s reception was held at the Ocean Club Marina in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Some parties include pig roasts with guest chefs—like Captain Travis Butters (master of the pig roast), and some are a bit more low key. Compare this the bright lights and cocktail hours of some captains with the approach of back-to-back Hawaii Division Captain of the Year Kerwin Masunaga. Captain Kerwin prefers to live bait during tournaments and keep his head down. He lets his fishing do the talking for him. And all of the diversity of approach is part of what makes the Cup so interesting.

Glenn Cameron and mate.

The Sanctioned Events

The Cup consists of 90-sanctioned events. The largest division by number is the IGY International Division with 23-tournaments. The Hawaii Division consists of 11. Sanctioned events are billfish tournaments that contain a minimum of 12-boats. While the award is meant to recognize the achievement of captains, the setup of the structure benefits a wide variety of those with an interest in sportfishing. Tournaments are chief among them.
Randy Bright is the Tournament Director of the Houston Big Game Club’s Lone Star Shootout.

“We’ve been part of it since it started. I think it’s a great program. Captains love to compete and to compare themselves with other guys that they’re fishing with,” says the industry veteran. “It’s a great benefit to the professional tournament captains. Anything we can do to create a tie between tournament and tournament is a good thing. Captains really like the idea of being part of it. It also helps the tournament because it encourages captains to encourage their owners to fish multiple events.”

Pig Roast.

Amy Dukes is the Tournament Director for the South Carolina Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series and the five events that comprise the series—this year marks the 50 th anniversary of the Georgetown Blue Marlin Tournament— are pivotal to the East Coast Division race.

“It’s an honor to have captains that fish the South Carolina Governor’s Cup to be included in such a prestigious award,” says Duke. “The last couple of years we’ve had a great representation in the Captain of the Year standings. Captain Harvey Shiflet, the 2016 East Coast Captain of the Year, won two of our events last year. Before that, Captain Gary Richardson on the Reel Passion, turned success in the Governor’s Cup into a Captain of the Year Award in 2015. Captain Bobby Garmany on the Sportin’ Life placed well, too.”

Rob Moore party.

The Cup Now

InTheBite.com is the source for current standings and the latest cup news. In the fourth year of its divisional format, the InTheBite Captain of the Year Cup, presented by Hatteras, is coming into its own. As the races heat up, the phone lines at the office ring with anticipation. “Who is winning?” “How am I doing?” “Do I need to fish any more events to keep my lead safe?” This is what makes tournament fishing fun and we’re honored to be able to recognize those who consistently produce.

Two Minute Warning: Build and They Will Come

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By Captain Scott “Fraz” Murie

There are many similarities between farming and fishing. A farmer has to plow his field and plant his crop. Then, after a while, it’s harvest time. In the fishing business, if you’re willing to do the work, it’s a lot like farming. This is especially true when it comes to creating and deploying artificial reefs.

Reef building is rewarding but requires much red tape. All of the permitting and inspections can be very frustrating. In our area of the Northern Gulf, the spring season brings the migration of cobia in large numbers. By making your own fishing spots you can significantly increase your chances of catching these fish. We use FADS, or fish-attracting-devices (which are simply underwater kites), to congregate the fish as they pass through.

We place them just under the surface in a safe zone where no boats can hit them. They attract and hold large amounts of bait. This in turn, attracts larger fish. The FADS also work well in deep water (several hundred fathoms) for the purposes of catching wahoo, marlin, dolphin and live bait. We are in the process now of building some large reefs, which will be homes for grouper, snapper and amberjack.

We’re building them out of concrete drums and commercial grade chicken coops. It’s a ton of work but the harvest is worth it. Unfortunately, it’s not all fun and games. The hurricanes have
destroyed, buried, and moved our artificial reefs in the shallow water, forcing us to start all over again. Another frustrating situation is when you see a boat sitting right on top of your reef,
catching the fish that you worked so hard to harvest.

After all, you hauled the reef out there and you bore all the expenses. But in reality, it’s all fair game and there’s nothing you can do about it. With today’s electronics, you can’t let other boats get too close to a reef you’re fishing, or they can what we call, “zap you,” when they use their electronics to get your exact coordinates. Even still, all the work and frustration are worth knowing where you’re going instead of hoping and poking.

The reward of building your own reefs is a great harvest from the sea. So, get out there, plow the field, plant the seed and get ready for the harvest.

– That’s my two-minute warning. Fraz

Tradition and Trajectory at Tropic Star Lodge

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By Elliott Stark

Since 1963, Tropic Star Lodge has been attracting anglers from around the world to one of the most remote, beautiful and inaccessible places in the New World. The fishing out of Piñas Bay, Panama is good enough to justify travel here. It has been drawing anglers since Zane Grey came here under sail power in the 1920s. No matter how many marlin and tuna there may be, describing Tropic Star Lodge simply in terms of fishing somehow misses the point.

Located in the Darien region of Panama, Tropic Star is completely inaccessible by road. The InterAmerican Highway – the thorough-fare that runs from Canada, through the United States (as Interstate 35 it traverses the Central time zone from Minnesota to Texas), into Mexico and Central America – stops in the Darien province. The nearest road is about 100 miles from the Lodge. This is an incredible attribute especially when you consider that most every other place in the world that is totally inaccessible by road is on an island or someplace in Mongolia.

Tropic Star’s expanded, updated dining room.

When viewing the coastline of other places, change is measured in years or decades. “This place has really grown since the first time I came here in 2005…” Looking at the dense, old growth rainforest that extends to the waterline in every direction you look, it is evident that the Darien is different. With the exception of the Lodge itself, a handful of villages and cellphone towers, the coast line looks very much the same today as it would have when the fi rst Spanish conquistadors sailed by in the 1500s. The trees and landscape look the same way they always have.

More than simply an assemblage of trees, the landscape is a wild. The rainforests are cloud machines. When looking at the shore-line, the emergent streams of water vapor seem as though they could be emitted from the chimneys of gnome or fairy houses hid-den beneath the canopy. The physical setting of the place is as magical as it is awe inspiring. It is the type of place that is hard to describe without comparing it to itself. It is even more magical when you consider that there could be lurking 80-pound roosterfish or refrigerator-sized cubera snapper in the waves that break on the rocks just beneath the trees.

Protected by a natural harbor, returning to the dock after a day of fi shing makes for an easy transition to relax mode.

A Lot Goes into A World Class Fishing Experience

Everyone has heard of the IGFA world re-cords produced by those fishing out of Tropic Star Lodge (over 300 to date). Equally as impressive, especially given the setting and the remoteness of where it is located, is the scale of its operation. When running at it’s peak, the Lodge will employ up to 120 workers. Much of its workforce hails from the neigh-boring village of Piñas. Managers and other specialist employees come from other places and live on premises.

A good black marlin on the leader is an experience not soon to be forgotten.

Because the Lodge is so remote, the options for bringing in supplies and people are either by boat, plane or from the village of Piñas. For the majority of guests, it is air travel – a 45 minute flight from the regional airport in Panama City – that gets them to Tropic Star. The Lodge operates a large red steel hulled vessel to bring in supplies from the city. The majority of the work – from construction and property maintenance to vessel up-keep – is performed in house. Tropic Star operates a fleet of 17 Bertram 31s. The iconic boats have been at it for a long time and have caught a lot of fish. Some of the Bertrams were purchased in the early 1960s and have fished here for more than five decades. The Lodge is currently undertaking a major fleet renovation.

The boats will be repowered with Volvo engines. The cockpits will be reconfigured, with the cabins enclosable in eisenglass and with additional insulation over the engines. The bridge will be reconfigured as well to allow comfortable seating and viewing from the top. The boats are also fully repainted and made to shine as brightly as when they were new. The goal for completion is two and a half years for the entire fleet. Currently three 31s have been upgraded.

Tropic Star’s historic dock and iconic fleet of Bertrams.

The haul outs and refits are done in house. The Lodge’s fleet normally moors in Piñas Bay on balls placed apart from the fuel dock. The haulouts take place in a covered ware-house complete with a track that runs lifts to and from the water line. During our trip in December 2018, the woodshop was crafting fighting chairs from locally sourced hard-woods. This same wood shop and carpentry skill are also on full display in the upgrades taking place in the guest accommodations.

With a fleet of upwards of 20 vessels – the 31s and a number of upgrade options and a charter operation that fishes most of the calendar year, the Lodge’s tackle needs are immense. Tropic Star operates what may be one of the largest private sportfishing tackle facilities in the world. Each boat is provided with a daily allotment of leaders of assorted sizes. Marlin rigs (for use with large bonito) are 18/0 circles on 400-pound mono. Medium bonito (hook and leader size are paired with bait size) are 16/0 on 300-pound. Sailfish and tuna leaders (for live runners or belly baits) are either 12/0 or 8/0 snelled onto 150-pound leader. Each morning, each boat is provided ten of each of these leaders. Between the leaders and respooling the reels, the Lodge goes through more than one million yards of line per year.

The constant threat of attack by large sailfish keep live baits on their toes.

A Sportfishing University Town

Like many of the workers at the Lodge generally, all of Tropic Star’s captains and mates are from the village of Piñas. This homegrown talent is brought to the Lodge each morning on a panga. Prospective mates go through a serious two-year learning process before ever fishing with a client. After acceptance into the training program, a mate applicant’s career at Tropic Star begins with six months of working in the tackle shop. It is here that he learns tackle maintenance, leader tying (lots and lots of leader tying), reel spooling, smelting lead head bonito feathers and the like.

Black marlin and piña coladas…what’s not to love?

The next step in the process is working on the dock – filleting fish, cleaning and tying boats, etc. From there, it’s training aboard boats without clients. Mates learn on board skills under the tutelage of captains, mates and management. When they progress from this point, it is to serve as a second mate to work alongside an established captain/mate tandem. After a period of this service, they can be nominated for serving as first mate with their own captain. The idea behind the rigorousness of the process is quality control, with an eye for guest experience.

The vast majority of the captains at the Lodge were groomed through this system as well. Living in Piñas, captains enjoy a high profile and bring in a healthy living. Over the course of Tropic Star’s 55-year history, this atmosphere has produced a footprint of fishing talent and skill that far exceeds what you would expect from a remote jungle village. In fact, relative to population density, it would be difficult to imagine that any place in the world has produced more fishing talent than Piñas.

The Man in the Black Suit

There is a category of fishing action that only happens in Panama. One-hundred-pound tuna stacking up blue runners (ku-jinua as they are called) on logs, jumping completely out of the water – creating acres of carnage as they eat as many as they can as quickly as possible… The sight of dozens of 30-50-pound dorado behind the boat at once, with the realistic chance to see a 70-pounder – that happens here, too. Pulling a live bonito, you can catch anything from stud roosterfish, jumbo cubera snapper, sailfish, big dorado and of course the black and blue marlin that headline the fishing. In short, there is something for everyone in Panama. The fish run large and the action can be epic.

While there are options for most anyone here, it is the black marlin that is the headliner. This region of Panama is perhaps the most reliable place in the northern hemisphere to target blacks. The season for the man in the black suit begins to heat up in late November, building into December. Its recognized peak is the January full moon. There are large female blacks around, with the possibility of running across the fish of a lifetime. The black marlin fishing will remain good here until the water turns over. The timing of the event is variable (a consequence of northerly winds that blow consistently enough to create upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water), but it generally happens between sometime after the middle of February. While the offshore scene turns off a bit, the Lodge switches over to a booming inshore bite full of big snapper, grouper and all kinds of things.

The story of the black marlin fishing here has been told before. While nobody has ever complained about running across one while trolling offshore in Costa Rica or Mexico or somewhere, there is something about deploying a spread of live bait with the intent of catching one. Many people come to Panama with the hope of ticking the black marlin off of their Royal Slam list, but fishing for these brutes can put a spell on you. There is something in the savagery of the way they attack live baits and their measured, almost thoughtful ferocity while on the leader that brings people back to this part of the world over and over again.

Tradition and a New Trajectory

Tropic Star Lodge is currently at a very interesting point in its development. A recent change in ownership has brought investment in infrastructure and the fleet – along with a number of modifications that maintain the Lodge’s many traditions while providing an even better experience. Chief among these is the formation of a new private boat membership program that allows registered private boats to purchase fuel, meals and accommodation at the Lodge. For vessels staying longer than seven days, Tropic Star can bring in provisions from Panama City. Private boats are even invited to participate in the Lodge’s annual billfish tournament each November. Teams of three anglers pay $300 per person. The tab includes their tournament registrations and dinners at the Lodge. All of this is designed to make Piñas Bay as inviting as it is remote.

Beyond creating programs designed to make the private boat fishing experience at the Lodge more inviting, it has invested in capital improvements to the same end. Tropic Star has expanded its waterfront dining room – complete with wrap around windows that make breakfast or dinner a scenic experience – and increased dining capacity by 25%. Not only can the culinary department handle more dining guests, but the Lodge has added a door between the bar and dining room. Segmenting the bar makes it easier and less formal for traveling boat crews and anglers to grab a beer and relax, while being a side from the more formal dinner service.

A waterfront bar is also currently under construction. Located between the entry way to dock and the restaurant, it is an inviting place for private crews to decompress after a day of fishing and enjoy a cold beer or two – with their feet planted on solid ground. The waterfront bar, much like the outdoor dinners cooked on the grill three nights per week, is designed to provide casual, inclusive experiences for charter guests and the traveling boat alike.

Panama is a great place to fish. It is, however, a very dangerous place to be a bonito.

Why would Tropic Star make such a commitment to provide fuel, lodging, mooring and provisions to traveling boats? The answer is very simple. The target market for drawing private boats is largely three demographics – the Panamanian fishing scene, sportfishers in Central America and boats traveling to and from the Canal. Unlike places in the Bahamas, Costa Rica and the United States, the Pacific Coast of Panama has relatively few reliable sources of diesel. The coastline between Panama City and the Lodge is covered in either rainforest or mangrove – with only a handful of small villages (that do not have marinas).

Aside from a couple of marinas in the Pearl Islands or traveling with a mothership, there are not many options for fueling in the region. By inviting private boats to register – with the promise of reserved fuel and lodging, Tropic Star opens the waters surrounding Piñas Bay in a way that is otherwise not possible. The result of this hospitality and ease of doing business has been an increase in the number of private boats (and an increase in repeat customers). A number of boats make an annual pilgrimage from Costa Rica to the Darien region of Panama for the black marlin season each year.

Beyond boats that are already in Central America, the prospect of fishing the Lodge becomes easy and doable to boats transiting the Panama Canal. Why not incorporate two or three weeks of black marlin fi shing on the front and back end of an extended Central American campaign. The Lodge, after all, sits within 120 or so miles of the Bridge of the Americas and the Pacific mouth of the Canal. If you have a bunch of buddies who want to share the experience, they can charter a Bertram from the Lodge and fish alongside you.

The Fishing in Context

When fishing Tropic Star, it is readily apparent why it is a bucket list experience. Our first day of fishing we caught a grand slam – highlighted by a 400-pound black marlin. This was great… but you can catch grand slams in a lot of places, right? How about the dolphin fishing? One night at dinner, another group reported going “31 for 34” on dorado. These were big ass fish – 25 to 50 pounders. They were so prolific that we decided to run teasers to stop hooking them. Sometimes there would be a swarm of 40 dorado behind the boat at the same time. If a big one came up, we’d feed it a bonito or sling it a popper.

Then there is the history. There is a photo John Wayne at the Lodge in the dining room. Any place that is good enough for the Duke is good enough for me… Were that not enough, the food is really is also really good and the pool makes a great place to go for your personal best Piña Colada record. It is a wonderful place.

Tales from the Smelly Bilge: Feminists Blockade Marlin Tournament: Event Canceled

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By Elliott Stark

“I am a redneck, I eat gas station nachos. Before that phone call, I didn’t even know what a feminist was… and I certainly wasn’t trying to piss any of them off,” says Bobby MacGrath, director of the Marlin Grander Prix. “We’ve just been down here, minding our own business – running a fishing tournament for three decades. Aside from a couple weather cancellations, the events have gone off without a hitch. Then this happened.”

Bobby MacGrath has run the Marlin Grander Prix for the past 30 years. While the tournament has made headlines for big fish weighed through the years, the event itself has never been a focal point of the international news media. That all changed in 2017. “Two days before the 2017 tournament, I get a phone call. In and of itself this is not an unusual scenario. It was a lady on the phone – said her name was Dr. Martha Jones. She said she was the director of some organization. We give lots of money to charity each year, so I figured she was after a charitable contribution from the tournament. Turns out she wasn’t.”

Dr. Martha Jones is the director of the International Female Empowerment Symposium, or IFES. Traditional feminist groups focus on such things as equality of payment for men and women and ending sexual and workplace  harassment. IFES’ cause, however, goes far beyond the standard platform of feminism. Dr. Martha Jones’ objections to the Marlin Grander Prix had nothing to do with the Lady Angler division. The following excerpt is taken from a press release published by the International Femalem Empowerment Symposium: “IFES aims to bring about a new world order.

Our vision is for a world in which females – human or animal – are treated fairly, equally and justly. We aim to end discrimination against females of any species, human or otherwise. The Marlin Grander Prix awards prizes for the boat that kills the largest blue marlin. All large blue marlin are female – male blue marlin, in fact, do not even grow large enough to be killed in the tournament. Because the Marlin Grander Prix targets only large, FEMALE blue marlin the event discriminates against women. This is gender inequality that is morally wrong and socially irresponsible. The International Female Empowerment Symposium stands with our blue marlin sisters in opposition to this injustice. It must stop.”

“Dr. Jones was nice enough during our first conversation on the phone, but she insisted on coming by the tournament office at the marina. I thought that was a strange request for someone who wanted a piece of the charity purse, but I told her to come on by. What a mistake that was….” MacGrath says. “I should have called Sheriff Johnson right then.”

“The next morning at 9:30 sharp, a convoy of Subarus pulled into the parking lot. There must have been 45 of them. All of them were the same… black with super dark tints. You couldn’t see who was driving or how many ladies were inside,” the tournament director describes.

“On the road leading to the marina, they were driving single file. When they hit of the parking lot out front of the marina, they spread out into attack formation. They looked like a flock of pelicans flying in a vee. All the Subarus screeched to a halt, spreading out to block all access to the weigh station and the registration table.”

“When they finally stopped, a single car door opened. Out stepped Dr. Jones. She walked over to my office door and knocked three times. I opened it up, thinking she was from the Ronald McDonald House or some place. I reached out to shake her hand… that was another mistake. Her grip was like Hulk Hogan’s… she actually dislocated one of my knuckles.”

“After shaking her hand, she told me ‘Bobby, there will be no tournament this year. Times have changed!’ I was pretty surprised, I still thought she wanted charity money,” MacGrath explains. “As she said this, three yellow Priuses drove into the parking lot. Out jumped eight man-hippies. They were wearing leather sandals and those pants that are half jeans and half shorts. My office is downwind of where they parked… they smelled like lemon balm. It was weird.”
“I am not sure what they thought was going on, but the man-hippies jumped out of their cars and chained themselves to the palm trees that sit out front of the office. They were chanting something or other… Apparently they thought someone was trying to cut the palm trees down for lumber… and they were not gonna let it happen.”

“The Subarus and the Priuses blocked the whole parking lot. Nobody – not the anglers, the vendors or even the band could get anywhere near the registration table. All of a sudden, all of the cars started a synchronized honk attack. They were layin’ on it,” MacGrath says with a look of wild bewilderment in his eyes. “At first I thought they were just trying to annoy us into cancelling the tournament. But it turns out that all the honking was a signal. They were starting their sea attack. It was a blockade!”

“As soon as the cars stopped beeping, I heard a horn blast from what looked like a cruise ship. It was one of them boats that is normally chasing the Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic. It was backing into the fuel dock at the marina. There were two lines stretched from its bow. Each ran to a sailboat – one to its left and the other to its right. The sailboats were full masted. Their sails had logos of the International Female Empowerment Symposium and a Marlin Grander Prix logo with a big red x on it. That’s when I knew they were serious…”

“If the boats and the lines blocking the marina were not bad enough, they also bombarded our radio communications. Someone on the antiwhaling ship had teevo’d all 13 seasons of The View. They somehow found out that the tournament runs on VHF channel 68. Next thing you know we had the audio of 159 episodes of The View playing back to back on Channel 68! How the hell are you supposed to have a tournament in conditions like that?!”

“What all came of it? You might guess. Long and short of it, for the first time in 33 years, there was no Marlin Grander Prix. All because a bunch of ladies thought we were unfairly discriminating against their blue marlin sisters. Times are a changing I guess… it’s a dismal tide.”
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Tackle & Maintenance Tips

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Foam Reel Storage

Capt. Jeff Donahue
70-foot Hatteras, Hatterascal
Skill Level:

When it comes to interior design, rod and reel storage on a boat is commonly an afterthought. Capt. Donahue  utilizes strategically-placed foam under the salon sofa to securely stow his arsenal of reels (as pictured). Captain Donahue purchased his foam from www.thefoamfactory.com and says “outline each reel and cut out the sections as needed.”

Cable Puller Trick

Capt. Kevin Deerman
74-foot Viking, Draggin’ Up
Skill Level:

When doing electronics upgrades, you’ll likely run new cables at some point. Running wires can sometimes be problematic. We recently had a tech on the boat who was having a hard time running a new cable in the buggy top of the tower. The main problem was that it was full on one side and there were no pull cords or cables on the other. His solution was ingenious. He tied his pull cord to a ¼” hex nut and dropped it into the empty aluminum pipe opening on top of the buggy top. Next, he took a strong cabinet magnet he picked up at the hardware store. From there, he was able to “walk” the nut through all the turns in the aluminum pipe with the cord attached. In doing so, he made a new run with room to spare. It’s also a good idea to tape the face of the magnet to keep from scratching your aluminum or paint. Want your teak deck to dry faster and cleaner with no fish scales? Next time you visit Home Depot grab one these Unger Squeegees. They connect to your standard brush pole and will help clean off all the hard to see fish scales.

Teak Squeegee

Capt. Tucker Colqhuin
72-foot Tribute, Huntress
Skill Level:

Want your teak deck to dry faster and cleaner with no fish scales? Next time you visit Home Depot grab one these Unger Squeegees. They connect to your standard brush pole and will help clean off all the hard to see fish scales.

Cover Board Seal

Capt. Jeff Donahue
70-foot Hatteras, Hatterascal
Skill Level:

This is an added step that Captain Donahue incorporates to the teak covering boards on Hatteras boats. The idea here is to stop water from intruding into the teak end grain. Water’s entry into the teak can ultimately leads to teak cracks. Each covering board is finished with a biscuit edge glued to the edge of the teak covering board. Then the edge is coated with epoxy as a final sealant.

Clip the Downrigger

Capt. Scott Fawcett
Offthechainsportfishing.com
Skill Level:

When running dredges from a center console, attaching flatline clips to your downrigger boom is a great way to get flatlines out into the clean water and provide a bigger footprint.

Wanted: Boat Maintenance Tips

Send your best tips and techniques to info@inthebite.com.

 

Kona: You Should Really Go

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By Elliott Stark

Kona, Hawaii is a wonderful place. In terms of distance from a continental landmass, the Hawaiian archipelago is one of the most remote strings of islands in the world. Kona sits on the western edge of the Island of Hawaii—the Big Island. Its rocky coastline is the result of millions of years of volcanic deposits piling atop one another. The Hawaiian Islands are mountains that jut from the sea floor, covering thousands of feet beneath the waterline and thousands more above it. The mountainous interior of the Island of Hawaii creates a giant wind block, large enough to create a permanent lee and break apart hurricanes.

Thousands of miles from the nearest large river mouth and input of nutrients necessary for green or brown water, the waters that encircle Kona are bluer than blue. Not only is the water blue, so too are the majority of the marlin that transverse them. Many of the largest blue marlin ever tamed on rod and reel were Hawaiian-caught—most of them caught out of Kona. Grander blue marlin have been caught in every calendar month here.

The combination of calm waters, big and consistent blue marlin, remoteness, and Hawaiian hospitality has created one of the most unique and influential cultural traditions in sportfishing. Over the years, what has happened in Kona has touched the sportfishing world at large in many ways.

Captain Bart Miller, fishing aboard the Kona-based Black Bart, is credited by many with having the tuna tubes. Many of the lures you see dragged everywhere in the world were first designed in Hawaii—the tradition of master lure makers here is too great to mention. Kona is also on par with any place in the world when it comes to crews coming to accumulate knowledge. For many, the place is so enamoring that what was intended to be a stint working in the cockpit of a Hawaiian master soon becomes a longer-term job or the place they make their career.

There are many charming things about Kona. These charms relate to the fishing and the place generally. If you enjoy being offshore or have ever dreamed about catching a bruiser blue marlin, you should fish here. The following provides some context to this claim.

If This Dock Could Talk 

One of the most charming things about Kona (even more so than the fact there are wild mongoose running all over the place!) are the people who fish here. The careers and catch statistics, which are measured chiefly in the number of granders hung, are second to none. The lineup of captains and boats fishing out of Kononkohau Harbor could just as easily be found in the pages of a Zane Grey or Ernest Hemingway novel. There are too many great captains and boats fishing there to list here.

Most anyone who has spent any time fishing here has seen his or her share of big fish. As the fishing community is close knit, there are plenty of firsthand accounts of Bobby Brown’s world record Pacific blue marlin or Choy’s 1,805-pound monster or the exploits of Capt. Bart Miller. Captains are as excited to speak of the big fish they’ve seen and lost as they are about the granders they’ve captured. You can ask the question, “Have you ever seen anything bigger than the biggest you’ve caught?” in plenty of places. But when a man who has hung multiple granders and seen plenty of others weighed gets the faraway look in his eyes while recalling a sea monster lost, it makes you sit up a bit straighter in your chair.

To put this in perspective, we asked Capt. Fran O’Brien this question. When Bart Miller hooked up to the fabled 1,656, he called O’Brien in to leader it. There might be someone in the world with more big fish credibility than Fran, but I’m just not sure who it would be. In response to the query about whether he had seen anything bigger than what he had caught, he recalled this story…

“You can’t ever really know for sure, but one time we had been fighting a fish for 14 hours. It was the middle of the night… she took a big run and came up jumping. You could hear the splashing,” O’Brien recalled. “I looked up at the captain and he said, ‘We’re ___ed.’” The fish would go on to break the line.

A PhD in Lure Fishing super 

While it has been years since most places in the world succumbed to the dink ballyhoo revolution, Hawaiian captains still proudly pull plastic. In some of places where lures still appear, their selection is haphazard… the old, “Grab that one over there and throw a hook in it” type thing. In Kona, lure fishing is equal parts science and applied engineering with a healthy dose of aesthetic appeal mixed in.

The scientific approach to lure fishing makes sense. Many of the lures used around the world were designed here—some by captains still fishing out of Kona. Many captains still make their own pulling lures (producing a batch whenever they need some themselves—keeping some, selling a few others). If you were to ask around, you’d probably find that by percentage there are about as many “craft lure makers” among the charter fishing docks in Kona as there are craft beer makers in a neighborhood full of hipsters.

The hook sets and rigging procedures are equally dialed in. Where mates in other places might spend the ride out rigging dredge mullet or swimming ballyhoo, Kona mates will meticulously adjust hook sets to match the day’s conditions. “Hook up for slant heads, hook down for everything else.” In 2019 it is a unique proposition to set out for a day’s marlin fishing without a cooler full of dead baits.

Gorilla Fishing

The global domination of dink fishing has been accompanied by the prominence of smaller and smaller high-performance reels, fitted with strong drags and hundreds of yards of braid. Kona has largely been immune from this. Hawaii, along with perhaps Bermuda, the Great Barrier Reef and Nova Scotia, is one of the last strong holds of the 130. Whereas some boats fishing the Northeast or the Gulf or elsewhere pull out a couple 130s to look cool, the big guns are used here for a reason.

Big fish and deep water have spawned a saying that we heard more than a couple times, “They’re big reels but sometimes they are not big enough.” Captain Gene Vanderhoek runs the Sea Genie II, a charmingly appointed 39-foot Rybovich. Vanderhoek is credited with four grander blue marlin here— and he has released another. A more than capable conversationalist whose perspective is as wide-ranging as the stories he launches into, Vanderhoek provides context for the captains’ preference to use the big stuff.

“We had a father and son fishing with us. They wanted to catch a big tuna on 30-pound. We caught them one, and they wanted to put the 30 back out. There had been a good class of fish around—a grander had already been caught. I suggested that we stick to the 130s as a very special opportunity could present itself,” Vanderhoek begins. “We put out the 30 as a shotgun. A little while later, a grander came up and guess what it ate? It looked to be 1,100-pounds…I warned them.”

There is more than a bit of charm to watching lures bounce behind the boat, cockpit equipped with four hooked 130s. This type of charm emanates from the fact that, statistically speaking, a day fishing in Hawaii has a greater chance to produce the largest blue marlin you’ll ever catch than do most places. Any bite can be that bite. Most captains seem to prefer to remove chance from the equation, 130s spooled to the brim. While other places a captain’s success is measured in numbers of releases or grand slams, the king metric in Kona is number of granders brought to the scale.

A slow day of fishing in Kona is given solace by the fact that after catching a massive blue in the afternoon, nobody in the history of fishing has ever cared that the morning might have been a little slow. There is additional comfort in the fact that it is most always calm fishing out of Kona and that big fish have been caught in every calendar month. This same charm does not extend to places where sailfish bite best in 8’ seas and it’s 40-degrees outside. When you’re having a slow day of sailfishing— cold, wet and getting your teeth kicked in, there is generally no hope that thing that will break the cycle of monotony might weigh 900 pounds.

But the Flight is So Long? 

This is perhaps the biggest objection to someone from the eastern or central time zones planning to fish Kona. There are a couple of approaches to resolving this dilemma. Sure, it’s a long trip and it takes a bit of time to adjust to jet lag. But you can take solace from the fact that if you are tired while fishing, you’re still trolling around for giant blue marlin in one of the most productive, historically and culturally influential destinations in sportfishing.

You can also think about it another way, considering two scenarios.

Scenario One—Four Days of East Coast Marlin Fishing: Say you live in a spot on the East Coast and plan to go marlin fishing for four days. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the ledge or canyon you are targeting is 75 miles from the dock and that you come and go from the dock each day (no overnighters). Let’s further assume that your boat cruises 25 knots and that there is no travel time between your house and the dock. Your total travel time for four days of fishing is 24 hours—three hours out and three hours back each day—six hours total per day, for four days.

Scenario Two—Four Days of Kona Marlin Fishing: Say you live in the same place on the east coast and decide that instead of marlin fishing out of your place, you decide to fish four days out of Kona. Assume that you decide not to cheap out on plane tickets and book a trip that includes one layover. You fly from

the east coast to LAX and then to Kona. Your total travel time each way is 12 and a half hours. Next you factor the run time out of Kona… the first day fishing with Gene Vanderhoek aboard the Sea Genie II, we nearly snagged the dock with our long rigger! (Not really, but you get the point…there is no run in Kona.)

For those keeping score, the total travel time, combining flights and runs to and from the fishing over four days, is within an hour or so of being equal. If you were so inclined, you could next factor the cost. The fuel tab on your four-day east coast endeavor would dwarf the charter bill for your Hawaiian marlin fishing expedition. The options for a day’s rate on a great boat out of Kona would set you back in the $1,000-$1,500 range, before tip. After all, costs are low when the fuel burn is minimized, and there’s no ballyhoo tab. A final benefit? You can get a much more awesome Hawaiian shirt in Kona than you can at your local marina store.

Seasonality 

Beyond the draw of big blue marlin, Kona sits squarely on the list of most people who are serious about the Royal Slam. It’s perhaps the best place in the world to tick off the spearfish (the species that might be the most common bottleneck in the quest). The tuna bite here can be good too and certain times of year there is a great wahoo bite. So now that you’re thinking about booking your ticket, when should you come?

Captain Gene Vanderhoek provides a breakdown of Kona’s fishing seasons. “Up until about five or ten years ago, we had good winter runs of small stripies and spearfish. Now it seems that the blue marlin fishing is good year round—it has been the past two years. The best times to come for blue marlin would be June through September. The best days are dictated by the tides and the moon—Kona has always been a dark of the moon type of place. That said, this year there was a grander caught on the full moon—so who knows? There are blue marlin, tuna… everything. Lots of spearfish in June and July,” the Kona veteran describes.

“In the spring, April and May, there are lots of wahoo around. The Sea Genie’s boat record is 28 in five and half hours. The spearfish are best in May, June and July. The big tuna show up in late May and June, through August. We typically catch them on jets and lures… 200 is a big one here.”

No Worries Mate: Working a Season on the Great Barrier Reef

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Photo courtesy Dave Ferrell

By Dave Ferrell

Grander marlin popped up like ants at a summer picnic this past November on the Great Barrier Reef, providing lucky anglers and crews with some of the best black marlin fishing they’ve seen here for some time. According to Granderwatch.com, boats took or released 15 fish over 1,000 pounds this year, with two weighing over 1,200 and one topping 1,400! (And the way they routinely let go of 900-pluses on the Reef, you can rest assured crews caught plenty more). Th e 1,431-pounder, caught on the Too Easy II on November 29 with Capt. Russel Gage at the helm, narrowly missed Capt. Peter Wright’s Australian-record fish weighing 1,442-pounds caught way back in 1973!

Not only do you get to use the heaviest tackle and the biggest baits to catch the biggest fish, you get to leader those fish on .040 wire or 600-pound-plus mono…and use the gaffs when they are big enough! It’s a learning experience that you really can’t get anywhere else in the world. So yeah, everybody who wants to pull on a big fish wants to work on the Reef for at least a season…and if you are serious about fishing as your profession, you should. But it’s not all “Granders every day and rum all night” either…a season on the Reef means long, hard days with barely any time off. You cook, clean and fish nonstop for 60-plus days, almost 24 hours a day. You do pay a price for every big girl you get to pull on…but it’s worth every penny.

This 1,431-pound black, caught aboard the Too Easy II in 2018, was a mere 20 pounds off the Australian record. Photo courtesy Dave Ferrell

Not a Regular Gig

Nicholas “Nick” Bovell gets around. A good fisherman with a tremendous work ethic, Bovell hails from Trinidad, but has fished all over the world with some of the best crews in the business – including stints on Gray Ingram’s Big Oh. He’s seen a lot of big fish on the leader and he knows how to get them in the boat – a skill that’s become increasingly rare since most sportfishing crews let the vast majority of their fish go unless they are in a big-fish, big-money tournament.

Those skills with a gaff make him a prized team member for crews looking to take big fish…That’s precisely how he wound up on the Adventum with Capt. Darren “Biggles” Haydon in 2018 for his third season on the Great Barrier Reef.

Bovell came to fish on the brand new Adventum thanks to Haydon’s relationship with the boat’s proud new owner, Kevin Hodgson, from South Africa. Hodgson hosted Captain Haydon on a trip to Cape Verde to fish his big boat. It was in Cape Verde that Haydon talked to the new owner and his captain, Dean Comberbach, about a possible first mate for the boat’s first season on the reef. Comberbach, who would be coming along for the boat’s maiden season as the second mate, brought up Bovell’s name.

“I was looking for the right job and was grateful for the chance to come back here. There are a finite number of boats and spots each season, especially good ones,” says Bovell. “The fish on the Reef are the biggest in the world and they test everything,” says Bovell. “And it all starts with the bait fishing in the morning…everything has to be perfect. There’s no Baitmasters out there, so you have to catch and process all of your own bait.”

You go through a lot of bait when you are black marlin fishing on the reef, even if you are only pulling two or three at time. Everything in Australia sports a nasty set of teeth and chop-offs can come fast and furious. “The sheer volume of everything is a lot more than I expected,” said Comberbach, “Catching and processing a lot more bait than I’m used to was a big adjustment. Instead of having ten baits rigged and ready, you need 20 here. Looking after your baits is such a critical element to this fishery. The boats are mainly set up for taking care of bait; with good brine boxes, freezers, storage…everything. The attention to detail in every aspect was startling. The weather is a big factor too… It can blow like hell for an entire month…20 knots…which just makes everything a bit harder.”

“You certainly don’t have to rig scad like you do here anywhere else in the world,” says Bovell. “Bait rigging here is an art form, and I’ve learned from some of the best guys. This place can humble anyone really quick. The mates here are really good fisherman who  have worked with some of the best captains, who, in turn, were some of the best mates. And they all catch the biggest fish in the world. I’m so grateful the for local mates that have taught me. They have been very welcoming. If you’re not cocky and a dick they are very welcoming. Dave Cassar helped me out a lot; and Jay and Rhys [Reese] on the Askari and Dean Ford. I’m very grateful that they let me come and enjoy their fishery. They all have a lot of knowledge and have seen a lot of big fish…you can learn if you listen.” “You just can’t buy a boat and come here and do this shit!” says Comberbach. “Just listen and learn. Put your ego aside. If you are not hitting the bed entirely wore out every night, you’re doing it wrong.”

The ever-present opportunity to wire big blacks keep mates keen for the long heavy tackle season. Photo courtesy Dave Ferrell

Long Days

One unique aspect of the Great Barrier Reef fishery presents one of the biggest challenges for any crewman who wants to spend a season on the reef – the live aboard charter. A fishing trip to Australia takes a lot of time, money and commitment. Charters here usually run five days or more, with an average charter lasting ten days. Most of these are done without the benefit of a mothership – with the charter and crew sharing close quarters for the duration of the trip. Most of the charter boats here are 50-feet or less. This means that cooking three squares a day (plus snacks), doing laundry, washing tons of dishes and trying to make sure you guests have a great trip…no matter what kind of fishing or weather you might encounter – is all done in close quarters. It’s a 24/7 job that you never get to leave. There are no trips home until the season is over.

This is what it’s all about. This is also why you rig a lot of bait. Photo courtesy Dave Ferrell

“It’s not that hard, it’s just different. Not going home or getting off the boat each day, a lot of guys have a hard time with that aspect. A lot of the guys from North Carolina make it; not so much the sailfish guys from south Florida,” says Bovell with a grin. With everything going on at once, Bovell likes to establish a routine and stick to it. “Since you are essentially a floating hotel and restaurant, getting into a good routine ensures that you don’t forget to do something. We can’t control the fishing, but we can control what you eat and how much fun you have. I’m not the guy who likes to stay up late and entertain, I get up early and clean all the heads. I tap out early and let Dean stay up late…hangovers are the worst!”

When working a season in the cockpit, prepare to rig lots of baits… and big ones. Photo courtesy Dave Ferrell

“You certainly provide a lot more than just the fishing,” agrees Comberbach. “You have to provide entertainment above and beyond. You are still on when the sun goes down.” Although he agrees that a routine keeps things humming, Comberbach also realizes the need to know when to make adjustments to fit each client. “You really get to know your clients when you are with them 24 hours a day. You can start to anticipate what they are going to need or want. If a guy is going through a ton a of beer a day, you have to make sure to make time to get those beers into the cooler so you don’t run out of cold ones!” With just a short 60- or 70-day window to the big fish season, crews scramble to come into port with one charter and leave the next day with another. After a fi ve or 10-day trip there’s a whole host of cleaning and provisioning chores that need to be executed in a very short amount of time.

“You have to pull all the sheets and get all the laundry done and then you have to make the boat look like it’s the first day of the season. I like a clean boat. Th e clients appreciate it and it makes things easy for us as well…less hassle,” says Bovell. “Team work makes the dream work…and it takes a really good team to go 60 or 70 days straight here.” “We spent 30 days with one charter, the owner Kevin Hodgson, and we had one half day in Cooktown,” says Comberbach. “We were on this brand-new boat and we were working a few things out…fortunately nothing major occurred and we never missed a day of fi shing. You just have to build some trust with each other and do a good job. It helps if you have a great captain like Biggles. Capt. Haydon is amazing. He makes the hard stuff look easy…his program is sick.”

Mates Rhys Younan-Wise (left) and Jay Househan of the Askari. Photo courtesy Dave Ferrell

Keen

Aussies still frequently use a lot of words that American English speakers have largely abandoned – with “feral,” meaning “wild,” an obvious favorite of mine. (Ferrell-feral … get it?) “Keen” is another example. Keen pretty much translates as “eager” or “hungry” to do something. According to local Aussie mate, Rhys Younan-Wise (pronounced Reese Uniwize), on the Askari, “keenness” for fishing is the most important thing a mate can bring to Great Barrier Reef when looking for a job. “Th ey can expect hard work and long days…you need to be keen. You need to be a very keen fisherman to be able to handle it and do it for the whole season. Lots of rookies show up…and lots of rookies do really well. But to perform consistently for the entire season you really have to want it. It’s a long slog, but good fun!” he says. “It’s all worth it when you finally get here and catch the big one,” says Jay Househan, Askari’s second mate. In addition to being keen, that Younan-Wise suggests making sure you have a job lined up before you get there. “

These days, with all the Facebook and other social media, it’s a smart move to get in contact with a lot of people and let them know that you are wanting to come. Get your name out there among the captains and mates. It shouldn’t be too hard to get a bit of work. And once you’ve done it, your name gets around pretty quick. It’s not hard after that if you do a good job. Just make sure you get your name out there before you turn up. If you turn up without a job…just keep walking the docks. Keep talking to people and making friends. Keep asking all the captains…somebody is going to go down during the season.” “You don’t do it for the money either,” says Bovell. “You get paid, but it’s not a whole lot.” It’s the experience that keeps you coming back. “The wildness of this place, out on the reef at night, with all the jacks in the lights it’s just indescribable,” says Comberbach. Comberbach got a real treat during his first season when the Adventum caught a big fish for the owner.

“We wanted to take a big one for Kevin. He’s always wanted a big one and we were working hard towards doing it. To get it done you have to have a plan.” The plan came together on October 29th and Dean was on the gaff. Dean made a perfect shot in the dark under the lights and the team got the 1,260-pounder into the boat. It was Capt. Haydon’s biggest fish in his 31 years on the reef. Can you imagine? Your first year on the reef, sticking a 1,260 in the dark? Gives me a horn just thinking about it.

 

 

Captain John Louis Dudas, Sandman, 63-foot Spencer

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Captain John Louis Dudas, Sandman, 63-foot Spencer

Homeport: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

1,200 points include: Buccaneer Cup, 3rd Place; Sailfish Challenge, 1st Place; Jimmy Johnson’s Quest for the Ring, 1st Place; Final Sail, 3rd Place

Not only is Captain John Louis Dudas in contention for the Captain of the Year in Florida every year, Dudas was named InTheBite’s Captain of the Year in both 2007 and 2009. Add to Dudas’ consistency and skill in finding sailfish in tournament situations, the Sandman fishing team is powered by an owner and crew who are as dedicated to fishing as is perhaps anyone in the world. The result of the combination is a high performance, high powered fishing team that is consistently successful – year in, year out. The consummate professional, Dudas is quick to deflect credit to others.

“For one thing, we’re lucky to be with an owner who fishes as hard as we do. She loves it and understands what it takes. You couldn’t ask for a nicer boss or a nicer friend,” says Dudas of Sandra MacMillan. Dudas next attributes success to the team and the approach to fishing. The Sandman’s tournament crew consists of first mate Jeffrey Liederman, mate Domi Adams “who is in charge of keeping the boat up and fishes, too,” and tournament anglers Alex Ramirez, Robbie Ramirez, and Robbie Waddick. For tournament fishing, Corey Ryan serves as the team’s camera man. Captain Chris Kaulen, who normally runs the Marlin Darlin, helped the team out for the Jimmy Johnson Tournament and the Buccaneer Cup. When it comes to the Sandman’s approach to fishing, it involves fishing as much as they can. “We fish as much as we can. We approach fun fishing the same way we approach tournaments,” Dudas explains. “For me, the crew is the best I think you can find. Everybody knows their role, it is like a well-oiled machine. It makes it really enjoyable to fish with everybody.”

Beyond overseeing a very skilled, professional crew, Dudas also manages a highly organized, precision-based bait program. South Florida’s kite fishing crews rely on an arsenal of live bait tactics that are near scientific in their approach. The Sandman’s approach exemplifies this well. “There’s lots of preparation – catching bait and bait care. Countless hours of preparation,” John Louis describes. “We catch our own bait – gogs, herring, pilchards and sardines. We keep feeding them and pen them behind Sandra’s house. We always have plenty of baits for the tournaments so we can focus on fishing instead of sourcing bait.”

“Every day we bring around 350 baits when we’re tournament fishing. We always have too much – but we approach every day like it could be a great day of fishing. It’s better to have too many than not enough,” Dudas says. “If we are fishing somewhere that we have to travel with the boat, we will bring extra bait and pen them up once we get there. If we have extra bait after fishing, we will put them back in the pen. Keeping baits for long periods of time builds up their strength and allows you to be able to move them.” With a great crew, a dedicated owner, and captain with decades of success, the next step in the process for the Sandman crew is belief in themselves. “Even if the fishing is slow one day, we know that we always have the chance to come back. Everybody believes in each other – that makes it a lot of fun.”

This approach paid special dividends in the Jimmy Johnson’s Quest for the Ring Tournament in Key Largo – a tournament that paid a purse of $395k to the winning boat. “We prefished the week before,” Dudas begins. “It’s always nice to learn the area where we are before the tournament. We were ready. On the first day, the fishing was slow. We caught three. The last day we caught ten. In the middle of the day, we were in the middle of the pack. In the afternoon, we caught five sails at once to take the lead. It was really exciting.” Captain John Louis Dudas even-keeled nature and eye for detail has resulted in sustained tournament success for a long time. InTheBite congratulates Dudas and the Sandman team for an outstanding 2018 campaign. If recent (and not so recent) history are any indication Dudas may well be in contention in years to come.

 

Capt. Greg DiStefano: What it Takes to Make Captain of the Year

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Captain Greg DiStefano, El Suertudo, 80-foot Weaver

Homeport: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

900 points include: Bisbee’s Black and Blue, 1st Place Release Division; Bisbee’s Los Cabos Offshore Tournament, 3rd Place Release Division; Los Cabos Billfish Tournament, 2nd Place Release Division

Captain Greg DiStefano is no stranger to either tournament victory or magazine write ups. In addition to his skill catching blacks and blues in tournament situations, there is a near 100% chance that DiStefano and owner/2018 WINNERS international division angler Guy Yocom have caught a bigger yellowfin tuna than you. In 2012, the pair won a million dollars for catching a world record 427-pound yellowfin on a Mustad hook. DiStefano’s experience fishing the waters surrounding Cabo San Lucas is extensive and marked by successful endeavor. When discussing his approach to tournament fishing, DiStefano is laid back and thoughtful.

“We focus on pre-fishing. Go do your own thing and focus on what you’re doing,” he recommends. “Forget what everybody else is doing. Focus on what you see and not what you hear on the radio or at the bar. We don’t expect people to tell us the truth if we asked… so we don’t ask them,” DiStefano says with a laugh as he describes his tournament preparation. “This year we pre-fished a lot with just the crew. Guy gives us the tools and says, ‘We’ll see you when the tournament comes,’” DiStefano says. “We couldn’t do it without him. He gives us every bit of opportunity – he says, ‘Go for it.’ He doesn’t ask a bunch of questions, he lets us do our thing. It really helps having an owner who understands what it takes to be successful. He is an all-around great guy. It also really helps to have a family that supports us, with all the travel that is involved.”

While the majority of the El Suertudo’s Captain of the Year points came from finishes in the releases divisions, the team is also accomplished in targeting large marlin for the scales. In the Los Cabos Offshore Tournament, the team finished third in the release division and weighed a 361. “We pulled the hooks on a good one on the second day of the Black and Blue – when nobody caught anything,” DiStefano recalls. The El Suertudo, roughly translated the Lucky One, is marked by stability of captain and crew. “I’ve worked with the owner for 12 years. My mate Oswaldo and I have been together for 11 years. We have the yellowfin record and a bluefin line class record,” DiStefano says. Guy Yocom owns the boat. For tournaments, he brings his buddies down to fish. Anglers on El Suertudo include Yocom, Bruce McDonald, Chris Kirkley, Greg Chase, Gary Mason and Azam Flores.

Running the cockpit are first mate Oswaldo “Balin” Ortega – first mate, Noe Cruz and Alfonso Ortega, Oswaldo’s father. When tournament marlin fishing, DiStefano deploys mullet or mud flap dredges, two teasers (squid chains mainly) and a five lure spread. When it comes to their pitch baits, the El Suertudo’s arsenal includes sierra mackeral, horse ballyhoo, and rigged caballitos (goggle eyes). More than the spread and putting in the time to prefish, DiStefano credits the close relationships of those who fish together.

“Balin and I are really close friends. We’re all dedicated to the boat and to fishing, but we’re also really competitive. We race cars off road in Baja – my boss does it, too. We’re very competitive.” DiStefano’s southern California roots are evidenced by his laid back, reflective manner and approach to fishing. He grew up in San Clemente, California in south Orange County. While much of the operation is based out of Cabo San Lucas, Guy Yocom also owns a 61-foot boat in Dana Point, California. The current El Suertudo is an 80-foot Weaver. “We’ve been extremely happy with the Weaver. We bought it used a year and a half ago out of Texas. It’s a 2008. Jim Weaver builds an amazing boat.”

Captain Greg DiStefano and El Suertudo’s 2018 campaign took top honors in a hotly contested Los Sueños International Division. DiStefano’s 900 points were enough to best the five other captains who finished within 200 points of the lead. Congratulations also goes to Captains Brent Gaskill (Builder’s Choice) and Cookie Murray (Auspicious) who finished in a second place tie with 800 points on the year. Captain Greg DiStefano is also the first Cabo-based captain to win Captain of the Year honors.

Read about another InTheBite Captain of the Year, Capt. John Louis Dudas, here…