InTheBite

Old Salts: Captain Bouncer Smith

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Captain Bouncer Smith at his slip in Miami Beach Marina.

By Capt. Jeff Waxman

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

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

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

Smith with longtime mate and friend, Abie Raymond.

How He Began

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

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

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

Influences

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

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

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

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

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

Smiles Along the Way

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

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

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

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

Proudest Moments

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

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

Hopes for the Future

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

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

A Legend on the Dock

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

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

 

Capt. Kerwin Masunaga: The Best Kept Secret in Kona

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

By Elliott Stark

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Capt. Gary Stuve: Merritt Boat Works’ Favorite Son Still Has Fish to Catch

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By Ric Burnley

“I’ve always been a mate at heart,” admits Captain Gary Stuve. Even though the 77-year-old skipper has run some of the most famous boats for some of the most famous anglers, his soul is in the cockpit.

“I grew up as a gung-ho son of a bitch,” Stuve laughs. Stuve’s grandfather was a merchant seaman, his father a boat captain. “We moved from Staten Island to West Palm when I was a kid,” he recalls.

In the 1960s, West Palm was a Petri dish of early sportfishing, the parts were coming together to mold the future of the sport and Stuve was right in the middle of it. “I would work washing boats or paying my dues,” he says.

In high school, Stuve needed a summer job. “I read in Sports Illustrated that guys were going to Hatteras to catch blue marlin,” he remembers, “so I went to Hatteras to catch blue marlin.”

After graduation, he bounced around fishing with anyone who needed a mate. His flexibility had him traveling to Montauk and the Bahamas. “I didn’t have a family or bills, I was living with my mother,” he says.

Capt. Gary Stuve, standing to the left, and Jack Nicklaus with a 438-pound bluefin.

Stuve has always done whatever it takes to stay on the water. “They say luck is when opportunity meets preparation,” he laughs. “I’ve been very lucky to have some great opportunities.”

His first big shot came when legendary pro golfer Jack Nicklaus needed a captain to run his 37-foot Merritt. “Jack was an owner-operator,” Stuve says. But the Golden Bear needed a skipper who could drive and rig baits. “We would switch off running the boat and fishing,” he remembers.

That job led him to tuna fish with Buddy Merritt. “I learned more from Buddy in one week than I had learned in my whole career.” Stuve considers listening one of the most important fishing skills. “He was like a professor, and I was a sponge,” he chuckles.

Fishing the Bahamas and Newfoundland, Stuve fell in love with tuna fishing early in his career. “They are the spookiest and scariest fish,” he explains. “You don’t catch a tuna by accident.” Bahamas tuna fishing is sight fishing, Stuve compares it to targeting permit on the flats. Even when a bait is presented perfectly, Stuve says a tuna will turn its nose up. “When you hook one, it’s a whole ‘nother game,” he laughs loudly.

Peer pressure was another factor. “Buddy and Allen (Merritt) were my idols, and they were tuna fishing,” Stuve says. His position on the dream team led to tournament wins in Cat Cay. “That opened a lot of doors,” he admits. One of those doors led to the bridge of Dinny Phipps’ Fighting Lady. Stuve fished with Phipps all over the world for ten years.

A young Gary Stuve, middle, pictured with the daily catch of the Hatteras Marlin Club. On the left was Capt. Jerry Black, who three years later moved to St. Thomas with Johnny Harmes. Stuve’s boat didn’t catch them all, but the practice of display made for some impressive photography.

Another door opened in the mid-90s when Captain Peter Wright called from Hatteras with stories of giant bluefin tuna. Stuve recalls, “He told me, ‘The rumors were true, get up here, we need help.’” By midnight, Stuve and a “Splittail” Charlie Hayden were northbound on I-95.

That phone call led to another of Stuve’s most famous accolades—catching a record 73 giant bluefin in one day. “We loaded the boat with 14-flats of menhaden,” he marvels. The fish were schooling over a wreck 25 miles south of Hatteras Inlet. “They were biting when we got there and biting when we left,” he remembers.

To set the record, Stuve says everything came together. With 200- to 500-pound bluefin boiling behind the boat, they would bury a circle hook in a chunk of bunker and feed it into the melee. “The water is only 100 feet deep so the fish can’t run too far.” He remembers the team had 300-pound tuna to the leader in an average of seven minutes.

Stuve says advancements in tackle helped their average. Using PENN 130s capable of producing 100-pounds of drag, Stuve worked to develop a system to beat the giants. “We wanted to find the weak link,” he says. After breaking crimps, straightening hooks and snapping gimble bolts, they were able to release 600 giant bluefin in their second season. “When I was growing up, I fantasized about breaking the record of 16 fish in one trip,” he chuckles.

Stuve’s mastery of the North Carolina bluefin fishery led him to working with Dr. Barbara Block and Stanford University’s Tag-a-Giant program. Much of today’s bluefin management can be linked to Block’s research. For over a decade, Stuve’s cooperation furthered both bluefin science and fishing. All because he answered the phone.

For over 50 years Stuve has traveled the world, targeting everything from blue marlin to bonefish. Along the way he has worked for a who’s who list of owners, but one thing has remained constant: his collaboration with Merritt Boat Works. Stuve first came aboard Merritt working for Jack Nicklaus and has run a dozen Merritt boats since.

Cat Cay in 1970. Left to right it was Larry Hastings (kneeling), Charlie Hayden (standing), George Matthews and Gary Stuve.

The relationship with Merritt has kept Stuve busy on land, too. While working on new builds for Danny Phipps, Stuve developed a passion for woodworking and boat design. Stuve says his side-career started when the two were building a tuna boat and only had three months to finish it. “Roy Merritt told me, ‘You’re going to have to get involved,’” Stuve recalls.

Starting as an observant apprentice to the master craftsman, Stuve quickly jumped in with both feet. “Roy taught me, you’ll be surprised what you can accomplish when you have to,” Stuve laughs.

Working on builds with Merritt, Stuve has since made many design contributions that make boats more user friendly. His favorite touches are a reverse windshield on the tower to reduce glare from the bow. He also suggested moving the bunks from the noisy v-berth to the bulkhead for a better night’s sleep.

“We look at the last build and then make the next one better” he says.

After a lifetime in the rat-race, his current owner of 20 years has sold the sportfish and now focuses on flats fishing. “I keep an eye on his house and make sure the two flats boats are ready to go,” Stuve says.

Shallow-water pursuits fascinate Stuve as much as deep-sea adventures. “Any flats guide could be an offshore captain, but not every offshore captain could be a flats guide,” he laughs. The constantly changing nature of the flats and the fine-tuned tackle required to fish for bonefish, permit and tarpon consume Stuve’s fishing focus, now. He giggles like a kid, “When I’m poling the skiff into the wind and loving it, I think maybe I still have a little gas left in the tank.”

When I was young, I wanted to catch tuna all day and drink and fight and arm wrestle all night. – Gary Stuve

Looking back over his extensive career, Stuve attributes his total consumption with sportfishing as a contributing factor to his success. “When I’m not working on tackle at the boat, I’m working on tackle at home.” He remembers bolting a table-crimper to his coffee table so he could work on bluefin tackle while watching TV. “I once tried to work as a bartender,” he shakes his head and chuckles, “That didn’t last a week.”

In his later years, Stuve attributes clean living for his tenacity. “I quit drinking when I was 52,” he beams. After watching friends succumb to the hazards of a dangerous lifestyle, Stuve decided to give it up before he had to. “When I was young, I wanted to catch tuna all day and drink and fight and arm wrestle all night,” he says. “Quitting drinking was the best thing I ever did.”

Today, Stuve still freelances for friends and flats fishes with his boss. When he’s not working, he turns his attention to detail to landscaping his yard and working on wood projects. “I like to build stuff and tinker around.”

For fun, he grabs his paddleboard and spinning rod. “I recently caught a 100-pound bull shark on the paddleboard,” he brags. The huge fish dragged him around before he brought it onto the board for a photo. “I like the pure simplicity of fishing from the paddleboard,” he says.

Whether he’s running a 70-foot Merritt or a 12-foot paddleboard, Stuve wants to be on the water chasing fish. He reflects on his career: “I was fortunate to have good boats and good anglers; I didn’t f*ck up too much and I got a good reputation.” He’s always been eager to learn and share his knowledge, satisfied with putting anglers on fish and looking for the next door to open. “I had some great opportunities in the beginning. I might not have deserved many of them, but made the best of it,” he says.

For a full list of Old Salts, visit our directory. Do you have any comments or questions for us? We’d love to hear from you.

 

Captain Peter B. — The One and Only

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Stuart Campbell (in chair) signed this photo captioning it the “Reel” Dream Team. On March 20, 1995 in North Carolina with Stuart Campbell on the rod and Peter B. at the helm, the team caught 73 bluefin. Peter B. is pictured in the lower right. (L-R) Charles Perry, Gary Stuve, John Rafter, and Charlie “Split Tail Charlie” Hayden.

By Capt. Charles Perry

In this very magazine, there is a yearly contest for the Captain of the Year award. I think it is a great idea for giving recognition to captains who achieve quite a lot during the year. I would like to go one step further, however, and give recognition to someone I think should be Captain of the Century—Peter B. Wright.

While most anyone reading this magazine will know who Capt. Peter B. Wright is, there may be those who don’t know all that he’s accomplished in his fishing career. And yes, there are some readers who may not agree with Peter on all subjects. I may at times slip in that category myself. A thoughtful man, Peter not only blazed many trails in sportfishing, but has never been one to shy from telling others what he believes.

While I have been known to find myself on the other side of the fence from Peter B. on various topics from time to time, I have often found that after a bit of reflection, I just might find the grass to be a bit greener on Peter’s side. Whether we agree or disagree with Peter on his many opinions, his career accomplishments are beyond refute. Were Peter B. to create a fishing resume, it might look a bit like this… and it’s impressive.

Accomplishments

I dare say that very few, if any, people have fished 40 consecutive seasons on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (by season I mean September, October and November). Most fishermen would give anything to fish one or two seasons there. One of the many great things about fishing the Great Barrier Reef is that you have to catch your own bait, process it yourself, and then target a species of fish that is generally large in size. The faster you caught enough bait, the sooner you could fish for the blacks outside the reef. Peter was very good at catching bait and was quite often the first boat out on the edge.

Once equipped with bait, Peter B. knew well what to do next. To my knowledge, Peter B. is the only captain in history to have weighed in three granders in one day. Most big game fishing enthusiasts would be more than thrilled to have captured one grander in their lifetimes. If three granders in a day were not enough, Peter B’s career total for weighed grander black marlin is 76 fish. That is not likely to ever be equaled.

Peter was also an accomplished and knowledgeable free diver with an undergraduate degree in marine biology. Fishing on the GBR with him was a continuous education on the incredible natural setting that makes up the reef—the many different fish that inhabit it, the tides and current, the coral, and its overall composition. It was like fishing with a marine professor of nature. His knowledge base was furthered by his global fishing travel. Peter B. went everywhere—to places like Madeira and Cape Verde when their fisheries were just developing.

Peter had exceptional boat handling skills. Many of the large blacks that we captured over the 1000-pound mark had gaffs in them in less than five minutes. If the fish stayed on the surface and got outside of the long rigger distance, Peter would spin the boat around and run the fish down. When the fish slowed down to get a second wind (our term), we were usually right there with the gaffs. Most fishermen will just have to imagine what it was like to have a 1000-pound-plus fish on the gaffs five minutes after the bite. Incredibly exciting to say the least!

Upon the coaxing from one of his anglers, Peter went back to school and got an MBA degree in finance. After the following season on the Reef, Peter took $4500 of his money and $500 of his deckhands’ money and went to Brisbane to talk a bank manager into lending him enough money to buy a block of land in Cairns and build a set of flats. He was successful in acquiring the money he needed and proceeded to build the apartments. Peter was quite successful in most anything he set out to accomplish. Once a friend of his was asked by a stranger if Peter Wright had any degrees. His response, “Peter Wright? Hell, he has more degrees than a rectal thermometer!”

Many years during the 70s and 80s, after finishing the season on the GBR, Peter would return to the east coast of the U.S. and take a boat to Bimini or Cat Cay and fish the season (April-May) for the giant bluefin tuna. This type of fishing is a favorite for many of the captains and deckhands who ever fished it. The crew would spend the entire day in the tower looking for schools of large bluefin tuna traveling north with the current and seas.

These tuna were not interested in feeding… spotting them was only a small part of the task. Once you found them, you had to position the boat in front of the school without causing the fish to sound out of sight. The captain would decide when to throw the bait (which had to swim as perfect as when it was alive to tempt the tuna to bite). Unfortunately, the local barracuda recognized this as a buffet line and ate way more baits than the tuna ever did. This was definitely one of Peter B.’s favorite types of fishing and he mastered it.

In the winter of 1995, when Peter found out that there were lots of bluefin tuna on the wrecks off of Hatteras, North Carolina, he brought a friend’s forty-foot boat up from Florida and proceeded to catch lots of them. In 16 days of fishing, he caught 347 bluefin. On one of those days with Peter driving the boat, angler Stewart Campbell caught 73 bluefin. That’s catching a bluefin tuna every 9 ½ minutes for 11 ½ hours. These fish were from 250-400 pounds with the odd 500-pounder mixed in. I doubt this record number of bluefin caught in one day will ever be topped—after all, they don’t usually bite all day long and there are seldom that many fish in 20 fathoms of water.

One year, Peter got a set of plans for what was considered to be an ideal tuna fishing boat for the Bahamas and took them to a boat builder, Frank Woodnut, in Innisvale, Australia. He oversaw the building of a 40’ sportfisherman which he ran in 1974. The first fish caught on that boat was a black marlin world record on 20-pound test line. I fished on the deck for Peter that year and we caught 136 blacks. We weighed six over the mark and seven over nine hundred in 69 days fishing.

Peter B’s many mythical fishing achievements have resulted in widespread recognition. He is the only person to be inducted into the IGFA Hall of Fame and also in the IGFA Captains and Crews Hall of Fame. Peter B. is more than his many granders or tuna records… he is more than 40 consecutive years on the reef… he is more than a wealth of fishing knowledge and accomplishment. If you ask me, my friend Captain Peter B. Wright should be the Captain of the Century.

Check out our Old Salts Rule Captain’s Directory. Be warned of no B.S. commentary!  Click Here

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Comments:

My wife Trina and I had the pleasure of fishing with Captain Peter B for 10 days off Cains where we caught 11 black marlin, 2 over a 1000 lbs. Because of what we learned with Peter B, Trina was able to apply the extra drag to catch the Texas State record blue fin tuna (808lbs) which stood since 1985 (35 years). Records were made to be broken, our congratulations to Daniel Miers and crew on the ROCK MAMA.

We still have our same 33′ Bertram, ANXIOUS, and are now living and fishing out of Kona, Hi. Come see us… Thanks Peter B.

Captain Neal Isaacs.

Old Salts: Capt. Phil Dulanie

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

By Charlie Levine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ever the Innovator

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

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

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

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

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

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

Master Boatman

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

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

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

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

Very Few Men Qualify as Legend, as Pioneer… Jack Morrow Does!

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By Capt. Jeff Waxman

Capt. Jack Morrow came of age in Palm Beach, Florida during the hey day of Cat Cay and as sportfishing in the Caribbean came into its own. After nearly 70 years on the water, Morrow shares his perspective.

There are hallmarks among the cadre of Top Guns in our sport. It’s a bit like the fishing version of “masculine measurement.” It often goes a bit like this….

Catch multiple blue marlin in one day? Check. Catch double digit sails in couple hours? Check. How about multiple giant tuna in one day? Check. Multiple sails? How about 54 in about a half day? Check. While these statistics have become somewhat common place these days – with all of the technology and communication, Captain Jack Morrow’s career began in the mid-1950s. As he says, “I am glad I did what I did, when I did it.” Growing up in Singer Island, Florida, Jack would ride his bike to the boatyard and marina to help clean boats while in grade school. He was paid 50 cents a boat then.

Quickly, a couple of realizations came about… First, he really liked being around boats and boat folks. Secondly, he was welcomed and treated very well in this new world. And of course, once he hung about, he was invited to ride out and see what it was all about…and he was fascinated. His first mate job was with Captain Dennis Killane aboard the Ho Hum, for which he was paid $2 for a half day and $4 for a full day. They were fishing with linen line and piano wire in those days.

Capt. Jack Morrow, bottom left, with the second place blue marlin in the 1970 Hatteras Blue Marlin Tournament.

At the age of 14, he cut school and went on his first true offshore foray to Walkers Cay, when Walkers was in its heyday. Morrow caught his first blue marlin on the trip with Captain Jerry Black aboard the Jolly Roger. And thus, began a truly exceptional life on the water…as a top-notch mate, graduating to wireman. Then on to charter captain and private captain. Jack grew up at a time in a place where bluewater sportfishing was coming into its own. These days there are sportfishers dispersed far and wide, in most every place you look. In the late 1950s, this was not the case. Morrow grew up near Bill’s Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach. The list of captains and boats he worked aboard reads like an IGFA documentary.

Captain Frank Ardine ran the Sail Ahoy – the first Rybovich charter boat. There was Captain Robert Rast aboard the Comanche. Captain Bobby Haines was one of Morrow’s most influential mentors. He was tragically killed when he was electrocuted in the engine room of his boat – Morrow carried him out. There was Captain Johnny Thomas on the charter boat Joker and the Wendy II owned by Al Nathan. Morrow was perfectly positioned (and endowed with all of the passion necessary) to fish the early Rybovich boats or Merritts. The boats and the folks were the best of the best. Everyone looks back on who influenced them. In Jack’s case, some of the names themselves qualify as pioneers – folks like Jerry Black, Bob Rast, Bobby Haines, Frank Ardine, Jack Stephens and Johnny Thomas.

Coming of age in such an influential place, it was not long before Captain Jack was himself fishing in some of the best places – and himself being recognized. Think about it carefully…and imagine being the top dog in St. Thomas during the blue marlin season. Or, of being top in New England catching giant bluefins. How about being the captain requested by both the top anglers and the rich and famous? Morrow was all of these things. “In the late 50s/60s, not many boats traveled. Walker’s and Chub Cay were really far in those days – most places beyond those two were seldom fished. Bimini and Cat Cay were the popular charter destinations. When I started going to St. Thomas, we were one of the first boats on the North Drop,” Morrow recalls. “Jerry Black owned the marina – the Lagoon Fishing Center.

Morrow’s career brought him into contact with the who’s who of fishing. Here is Morrow, Paul Newman and Greg Garvey in 2008.

If you saw eight or 10 boats on the North Drop that was a lot – a lot of days, I’d be the only one.” With the opportunity to speak with someone with so much depth and experience, it’s interesting to understand the drivers that push them to the top. In Jack’s case, the answers are clear. “I liked it all. I love the giant tuna bite, I love the blue marlin bite, but truth be told…I love it all!” This passion helps to understand how and why he’s earned his place…and The IGFA’s Tommy Gifford Top Captain Award as well. The Tommy Gifford Award, named after one of the world’s great charter captains, is a high honor awarded to recipients in “recognition of their extraordinary contributions to the advancement of sport fishing through innovation, outstanding catches or noteworthy examples of leadership in their trade.” Morrow is most proud, however, of the recognition by his peers.

In the course of being recognized for his body of work, Morrow was the first to win the Master’s Sailfish Tournament twice. He also won the legendary Cat Cay Tuna Tournament. Beyond the tournament successes, there was epic fishing. The trip with Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops, when they caught seven giant bluefins in one day off Chatham, Mass aboard the Pretty Patti. These were all big weighing 600-800 pounds, but owner George Markham caught the biggest weighing in at 1025. Morrow also caught nine blue marlin in one day off the North Drop out of St Thomas…biggest weighing in at 825! How about 25 blue marlin in five days…that was a record that stood for 18 years!

A nice Montauk swordfish from 1960.

And, note that these catches were big fish caught trolling dead bait (generally Spanish on long rigger) with single strand wire. This was very different from fast trolling lures around the FADs. Beyond the fishing, there was also the dock comedy. The policy of getting dunked after first billfish was always a fun scene. As always, Jack was the guy who did the push off the dock…owners, high flyers (singers Mel Tillis, Perry Como or Alan Jackson – he performed boat deliveries for Jackson), movie stars, all got the same treatment to everyone’s amusement. But, one in particular sticks in his mind. It occurred at Jerry Black’s Lagoon Fishing Center in St Thomas. A very pretty, well dressed young woman, perhaps best described as “prissy” – with perfect bowling alley hair and a very expensive matching outfit caught her first billfish.

It was also likely her last…because she got the same treatment from Capt. Jack…you can imagine the result. Jack chuckles about it to this day. But, dig a bit deeper into the funny incidents and they become what we all love about this sport. Good fishing with good anglers always makes for a day of fun and laughs! After more than 55 years of running Rybovich and Merritt boats, Morrow’s last job was running the Boys-R-Us, a 65-foot Viking owned by Greg Garvey.

These days he still travels on long trips aboard the boat, but his youngest son Kevin is the captain. “I was very fortunate to have both of my sons work with me, each for about eight or nine years,” Jack recalls. Captain Tom Morrow, Jack’s other son, mated for him aboard the Juro, a 65-foot Merritt, that fished the Northeast. Jack recalls how each of his sons were skilled mates who have grown into capable captains. “If you don’t have a good mate, you don’t have much. They can make you or break you,” he says. In addition to his sons, Morrow names Ted Tardonia (Pretty Patti) and Tim Sperling (No Problem), as a couple of the more memorable mates he’s worked with in his career.

But, as in the case with most folks who reach this level of success, the true essence of the man is not the accomplishments nor the specifics. Rather it is the man himself. And, though most of us can never reach his level of fishing accomplishment, we can all learn from Jack. When taking away from the story of Captain Jack Morrow, two lessons emerge: 1. Never stop both learning and teaching. They are one and the same. In his own words “If you think you know a lot, you’ve got a lot to learn.” 2. Treat everyone with respect and care…pay it forward.

Jan/Feb Issue 2019: Hitting the Docks Now

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Forget about New Year’s resolutions… InTheBite is straight to the point in 2019.

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December Issue 2018: Hitting the Docks Now!

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Hitting the docks now— The December issue wraps up 2018 in style! Grab your copy today, available in both print and digital.

July/August Issue: Hitting the Docks Now

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2018 July/August Issue –

In many places, the summer time is the peak of fishing season. InTheBite has all the goods to keep you on track. July/August issue includes Chef Andi Bell’s Take on Wahoo, Covering your ASSets – the Law of Sportfishing, the Evolution of Big, Do-it-All Center Consoles, a Young Gun an Old Salt and more….  

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