Indholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2020 i Marlin

• The National Marine Fisheries Service has determined that the recreational landings limit for Atlantic blue marlin, white marlin, and roundscale spearfish has been reached and exceeded for 2020, based upon a review of landings data. Therefore, NMFS is prohibiting retention of Atlantic blue marlin, white marlin, and roundscale spearfish in the Atlantic HMS recreational fisheries. Fishing for these species will be limited to catch-and-release only for the remainder of 2020. That decree rippled through the bill-fishing community in mid-September like shock waves from an exploding warhead. Many were not even aware that we have a limit of 250 billfish—blue marlin, white marlin and roundscale spearfish—allotted to the recreational sector each year. One reason is that we have never exceeded that number in the past. Ever. Rick Weber, tournament director…

BITE TRACKER Stay current with the best bites from the top billfish destinations around the globe at marlinmag.com/travel. WHERE DECEMBER—This month really kicks off the sailfish season in Florida. From Cape Canaveral to the middle Keys, bait is plentiful and the sails are hungry. Panama is also gearing up for black marlin season with the cold upwellings of the Humboldt Current on the Hannibal Bank, and Western Australia’s yellowfin tuna bite heats up.…

• In the words of American Congregationalist Henry Ward Beecher, “Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.” This could very easily apply to what happened to the crew of Boat No. 249, the 73-foot Bayliss Shark Byte, in the MidAtlantic tournament on August 18, 2020. They say karma’s a bitch, but as it turns out, irony is too. The highs and lows of big-game tournament fishing are all too common. Lost fish from broken lines, pulled hooks, or angler and crew mistakes can keep you up at night for years. One of the largest blue marlin ever caught by Rumson, New Jersey’s Peter Cherasia slipped through his fingers on that fateful day in August. Even though the crew made no blatant mistakes, the fish wound up being disqualified.…

• Buying a new boat is exciting but expensive. Although you might have a budget in mind, you most always go over it. The same thing happens when you go to outfit a boat after delivery. What you think will be a couple of quick trips to the marine store instead can end up being a tremendous amount of wrong and duplicate products, and wasted time. Outfitting a boat means different things to different people. Getting all the essentials is the first priority, and, after that, the fishing tackle is another process on its own. The last thing anyone wants to do after shelling out what can be millions of dollars is to spend more money, but having the right equipment is important and should be considered in the budget…

• It is common practice to purchase a vessel and run charters to offset some of the costs. Charter operations of all types can be successful if set up properly, but all state and federal regulations must be closely followed. In particular, the US Coast Guard has recently made a concerted effort to crack down on illegal charters operated throughout the country in violation of the Passenger Vessel Safety Act. Generally, there are two types of charters, each of which have their own applicable rules and regulations. TIME-AND-VOYAGE The first type is a time-and-voyage—or crewed—charter, which is what you would typically find in a sport-fishing operation. Here the entire operation is chartered, with the owner retaining possession, control and responsibility of the vessel and crew. Hence the charterer and owner…

TWISTED SAIL Thanks to a remarkably consistent fishery for both marlin and sailfish, Costa Rica is a great destination to learn the finer points of light-tackle dead-bait fishing. Photographer Hannes Ribbner captured this sailfish in midflight during its battle with angler Audrey Koocher on the first day of the inaugural Ladies-Only Marlin University event held at Los Sueños in March 2020. LOCATION Ribbner was aboard the 43-foot Maverick Geaux Fly with Capt. David Mesen. TECH SPECS CAMERA: Canon 1DX Mk II LENS: Canon 100-400mm Mk II ISO: 640 APERTURE: f/5 SPEED: 1/5,000 sec…

• Although it doesn’t receive much publicity, catching bluefin tuna around the British Isles is nothing new. In the middle of this past century, a historically famous tuna fishery existed in the North Sea, that frigid expanse of gray water that separates the eastern coast of England from Scandinavia. Sportsmen chartered motherships to take them offshore to rendezvous with the commercial herring and mackerel fleet, where they knew they would also find large schools of bluefin, eagerly mopping up the inevitable bycatch each time a net was hauled. Lorenzo Mitchell Henry landed the heaviest fish off Scarborough, North Yorkshire, in 1933; it weighed 851 pounds. THE RISE OF INDUSTRIAL FISHING Following World War II, increased mechanization and efficiency was widely introduced throughout the various European commercial-fishing fleets, which quickly resulted…

• The convenience of online shopping is just that: convenient. Serious fishermen know that there are just some things you need to see—and hold in your hot little hands—before you rattle off those creditcard numbers. As technology advances, fishing products have become more and more personal, which is why I suggest consideration and research before you make an otherwise off-the-cuff purchase. There’s no debating the fact that sport-fishing equipment and accessories are expensive, and choosing items based on convenience alone could have you rethinking your decisions as your garage starts to bulge at the seams with random impulse purchases. Taking the time to analyze what it is you really need—and what is the best fit—for you and your program is worth it. Just because your dock mate uses Product A…

A VERY DEAR FRIEND OF MINE NAMED LEE EVERETT FULLER ONCE TOLD ME THAT EVERY GREAT STORY STARTS WITH, “SO, THERE I WERE…” ¶ SO, THERE I WERE: ARROW NOCKED, BACK PRESSED AGAINST A FROZEN ROCK FORMATION, WINDSWEPT SNOW STINGING MY FACE. JUST DOWN THE HILL 50 YARDS AWAY WAS THE MULEY DOE I HAD SPOTTED FROM TWO RIDGES OVER. AS I PEERED AROUND THE ROCK, I COULD SEE SHE WAS STILL LYING DOWN, HEAD UP, JUST STARING OFF TO THE NORTHEAST. IT WAS A TOUGH SHOT—WIND QUARTERING TOWARD ME, A 20-DEGREE DOWNHILL ANGLE, AND IT WAS MINUS 10 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT; AT LEAST SHE WAS DIRECTLY BROADSIDE. UNFORTUNATELY, THOUGH, THERE WAS NO WAY TO GET CLOSER. THE HILLSIDE WAS ALL BUT BARE, AND THE SNOW WAS KNEE-HIGH WITH ABOUT AN…

What might be as inspiring as the newest addition to the F&S fleet—Soul Candy—is her name. The 61-foot hardtop express was born out of a need for a family-friendly owner-operated vessel. After spending several days aboard a similar F&S model, owners Todd and Storey Reaves tweaked the 64’s attributes to meet their wishes in a new 61. The result? An incredibly bespoke piece of creativity that turns heads wherever she goes. While there might not be a Merriam-Webster definition for the meaning of soul candy, the Reaves certainly have one: Where friends and family meet is where candy for the soul can be found. Ah, the mythical enclosed-express boat—something I had only admired from a distance anchored behind the Great Barrier Reef in Australia or backing up offshore of the…

• I had the great privilege of turning 50 this year and had big plans for an epic trip with the family to celebrate. Having been to Costa Rica many times, I thought bringing my wife, son and daughter would be the perfect getaway: blue marlin fishing at the seamounts, with a few bonus days of catching roosterfish inshore. Well, when COVID-19 struck and Costa Rica closed its borders to visitors, that plan evaporated. I did have a backup though, and wanted to spend the week on Elbow Cay in the Bahamas. We had a house lined up with a boat slip, so we took our COVID-19 tests and received our travel visas, then a hurricane that never fully developed squashed that idea too. Finally we ended up going to…

• For nearly 30 years, the unofficial sign of your arrival in South Florida has been the huge American flag proudly flying over American Custom Yachts, a sprawling 70-plus-acre full-service facility built on the St. Lucie River, splitting I-95 and Florida’s Turnpike in Stuart. A Vineland, New Jersey, native turned Florida transplant, Dominick LaCombe Sr. is ACY’s president. LaCombe spent his summers with his maternal grandfather fishing out of Cape May and hunting in the winters. He began visiting Florida in 1972 while running a 45-foot Hatteras that was based out of Stuart, and finally made a permanent move south at the age of 28. LaCombe’s strong work ethic and creativity—born from a lifetime of working with his hands—has propelled ACY to the upper echelon of the world’s finest custom-boat…

• Repeating as the winner of a prestigious billfish tournament is rare, with only a handful of experienced teams achieving that accomplishment over the course of their careers. The Desperado team, led by Capt. Rob Barker, did just that during the 37th Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tournament in Manteo, North Carolina, this season, releasing 16 white marlin to earn top boat honors. The team’s anglers were Mickey Carter, Brad Ward, Craig Sudbrink, Billy Carter, Andy Gay and Ron Wade, while mates Jeff James and JT Roehrs worked the deck of the 56-foot Taylor Harrison, an Oregon Inlet-based charter boat. This marks the second time in eight years that a boat has won the PCBT two years in a row; Capt. Jesse Granitzki’s Bi-Op-Sea was the last boat to accomplish that feat…

All the finest techno settings and most expensive equipment won’t help your final image if you end up shooting through someone’s head or a rocket launcher full of fishing rods. A portion of your best setup time should be spent on your surroundings. I shoot from the cockpit, so it’s imperative that I know how the crew responds, and where they are going in a few basic scenarios. Study their movements during a bait-and-switch; know where the tag stick and line cutters are stored before the leader pops up. This understanding can help keep you and your camera in an unobstructed place as you move around the boat during a battle. Two things I do whenever photographing billfish is to pre-focus and adjust my shutter speed. If the last photo…

AS WE MOVE INTO a new decade of boatbuilding, the road ahead looks bright indeed. Thanks to new composite materials and advanced construction techniques, hulls are lighter and stronger than ever, although traditional fiberglass and wood remain popular choices as well. The segment from 70 to 90-plus feet has solidified their place in line, and outboard power is coming into its own, with several models designed specifically to take advantage of the new high-horsepower-engine choices now available. MICHAEL RYBOVICH & SONS 94 With its largest build to date underway, Palm Beach, Florida’s Michael Rybovich & Sons is nearing completion on an exquisite new 94-footer. The exterior conceals a superyacht-quality interior highlighting a five-stateroom, seven-head layout. And with 5,200 horses lurking in the engine room thanks to a pair of MTU…

How does faux teak stack up to real wood? Well, it promises half the cost, near-zero maintenance and minimal downtime. Faux teak is rapidly replacing the real deal for helm pods, toe rails, bulkheads and transoms—and really any traditionally teak-clad surfaces. I asked a few artists, along with some boatbuilders and yard managers, if faux teak is all it’s cut out to be. “Real wood transoms look great, but it’s hard just to find boards that fit, much less choose the right piece of teak,” says Roy Merritt of Merritt’s Boat & Engine Works in Pompano Beach, Florida. And this is particularly true of larger boats with broad transoms. “Faux gives us the ability to have a beautiful transom without the added upkeep of wood,” he notes. Merritt’s has shifted…

• As we get set to move into a new season, there are some notable updates and new products from a number of marine-electronics companies that deserve a closer look. Here are a few that are sure to be gracing new builds soon. GARMIN FANTOM 254 This might be the most powerful radar for mariners yet. First, 250 watts of solid-state power from the 6-foot array offers a range from 20 feet to nearly 100 miles. Unlike magnetron radars, solid-state radars are up and running the instant the skipper selects “on.” There is no warmup time. Another great benefit is the much finer resolution from pulse compression, which allows the separation of targets that are nearly touching; it also sees floating items as small as a coconut. Motion-scope technology identifies…