Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Marlin

When did you decide to retire as a captain and get into the tower business? After our daughter was born in 1998. My last year running the Viking demo boat was in 2002. At that time, the program required a good amount of traveling between Mexico, the Bahamas and the East Coast, and I wanted to spend more time at home with my family. What has been your most memorable tournament or fishing trip? I am fortunate to have so many great memories over the past 34 years of fishing with the Viking program, as crew and as an angler. It’s difficult to point out just one. The first summer I ran the demo, we won four tournaments. It was a very humbling and rewarding experience for a college kid.…

While still recovering from Hurricane Maria in 2017, the fishing off the island of Puerto Rico remains solid. This year, the Club Nautico de San Juan hosted the 65th annual International Billfish Tournament, with 43 boats and 172 anglers, including 30 international anglers from as far away as South Africa. And while Caramba maintained a comfortable lead throughout the week thanks to a big first day where it released four blue marlin, the competition was incredibly tight among the fleet. At 1 p.m. on the final day of fishing, the eventual third-place finisher, Demencia, released a blue marlin doubleheader to bring its total to five for the week. Mi Lujo and Lady Abi also battled hard all afternoon. At 3 p.m. Mi Lujo was ahead when Lady Abi caught a…

A collection of papers from the sixth International Billfish Symposium that was held at the International Game Fish Association headquarters was published in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea’s Journal of Marine Science in April 2018. Of those papers, one authored by Rishi Sharma and his colleagues gave a very interesting analysis of the factors that drive the decline and rebuilding of billfish stocks in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Globally, most billfish mortality comes from longline gear in the form of unintended bycatch. As unfortunate as that is, industrial longline fisheries provide the most comprehensive data set available to scientists and managers, and have been measured consistently for the past 60 years. The authors compared the number of longline hooks deployed in each ocean over time…

As digital editor of the Danish fishing magazine Fisk & Fri, angler and tuna enthusiast Ask Futtrup returned for a second year to the port of Skagen in the northernmost part of Denmark to take part in a bluefin tuna tagging project spearheaded by the Technical University of Denmark. Satellite tagging could reveal migratory patterns as well as potential feeding and spawning grounds. If bluefin tuna are indeed returning to the waters off Denmark, proper management — something that was clearly lacking when these fish disappeared from the area in the 1960s — needs to be developed. This is Futtrup’s account of that experience. There had not been any tuna sightings so far when we arrived, but we were up for the challenge and excited to put what we learned…

Art has always told a story. Early humans used it to keep historical and evidential records; without visual art, we would have no knowledge of the ancient world. As the written word became the standard for record keeping, art continued to evolve as decoration, but also as a way of telling a visual story. For lovers of all things big-game, no matter what the medium, art continues to evoke our passion for the sea and the sport. Welcome to this year’s gallery.…

These marine media systems are becoming more sophisticated and customizable, thanks to NMEA 2000 network capability. Independent control of up to four zones on most systems allows personalized volume, tone and balance control for each individual area and its occupants’ tastes. Even better, the moment somebody screams, “Right rigger!” the system can instantly be muted throughout the ship while the anglers get down to business. Here are some tailor-made setups from the top companies in the industry. JL AUDIO JL’s Media Master source unit networks with Lowrance, Simrad and Garmin multifunction displays so the captain can control, limit and adjust the sound in any of four zones. The large color screen makes sorting music easy on the device. Select the compact MHD-series amplifier (12- or 24-volt), one per zone, and…

BLUE MAJESTY She roams the peaks and contours of the North Drop, dodging huge sharks and feeding at will on the clouds of plentiful baitfish throughout the depths. Once hooked, she takes to the air with raw fury, propelled by a giant sickle tail and heavy, muscular body. Crashing through the wave tops, more airborne than surface-bound, a crazed oceanic acrobat. LOCATION Richard Gibson captured this moment in St. Thomas aboard Chad Damron’s 75-foot Weaver, Sodium. TECH SPECS CAMERA: Canon EOS-1D X Mark II LENS: EF100-400mm IS II USM ISO: 200 APERTURE: f/4.5 SPEED: 1/2500 sec…

As Hurricane Willa made landfall just 50 miles south of Mazatlan, Mexico, 114 teams prepared to compete for the second-highest purse in Bisbee’s Black and Blue tournament history — just $127,000 behind 2006’s $4.16 million. The tournament fleet was scheduled for a shotgun start the next day, and with a full moon, they knew it was going to be interesting, as the seas of the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Cortez continued to boil. At 1:21 p.m. on Day One, Max Briggs, fishing aboard Reelin’ & Deal’n, landed a 395-pound black marlin for his team, 4 Yahoos. The fish won the daily and a whopping $645,425, but was edged out when angler Charles Lee, of the team Chinito Bonito, boated his 510-pound black on Day Three to take over first…

The swimming mackerel is one of the world’s best setups when fooling a marlin into taking a bite. No matter where you fish, they will have no problem homing in on this relatively slow-swimming snack. Another bonus: When the bait is rigged correctly, it’s entirely possible to get a second shot at the fish if you don’t come tight the first time. I was very fortunate to learn this rig when I was fishing on Calypso with Capt. Tim Dean in Australia. In three seasons, we made a few minor adjustments for changing sea conditions and situations, but for the most part, it has remained the same: deadly. Begin by prepping the bait slowly, defrosting a frozen gutted Spanish mackerel in a saltwater brine and removing the eyes with a…

Avid Texas tournament angler Paul Veale faced a conundrum. After concluding that his center-console no longer fit his fishing style, he decided to buy another diesel-powered sport-fisher for better range and more comfort. At his marina on South Padre Island though, draft was restricted to 4½ feet, limiting his choices. So he turned to a longtime friend for help. Jim Greene was one of the original partners in the Marine Group in Orange Beach, Alabama, and a boat broker for the past four decades. He has also owned a marine service company for 35 years, so he was well-suited to assist his former client. In addition to several Bertrams, Veale counted a Cabo 47 Flybridge among his prior boats, so he was familiar with the brand. “After I sold the…

The newest addition to the Hatteras Yachts line will be the GT65 Carolina, signaling an advanced direction in design with increased performance and numerous custom features. The boat will feature a sleek profile that refreshes the look of the GT Series while still maintaining the core Hatteras DNA. The GT65 Carolina’s key advantage lies in its cutting-edge hull design. Utilizing computational fluid dynamics analysis, the Hatteras team of engineers optimized the boat’s hull form to ensure superior handling and seaworthiness. In addition, the hull and stringer system will be infused as a single part — an industry first — to reduce weight and increase strength. The GT65 Carolina includes an all-new engine room layout for ease of maintenance and serviceability. Available as an option, twin Seakeeper 9s can be installed…

The 2018 hurricane season has finally ended, but not before hurricanes Florence and Michael left their marks on the southeastern United States. I have previously covered hurricane removal clauses in dockage agreements, but I have not written about hurricane plans required by insurance carriers in any detail until now. There are few things more boring than reading a marine insurance policy, but there is some information with which all owners and captains should be familiar. One of those such items is a vessel’s hurricane plan, oftentimes more formally known as the Named Tropical Storm Plan, attached to an insurance policy. WHAT IS IT? The Named Tropical Storm Plan typically comes in the form of an endorsement to the policy, in which the insured expressly warrants he will comply with specific…

Leading Palm Beach Towers, one of the top tower companies in boatbuilding, Drew McDowell is really just a regular guy. The son of an Ocean City, New Jersey, attorney, McDowell grew up detailing boats and fishing when he could during the summers. In 1983, at the age of 17, McDowell went to work for the Viking Yachts demo program as a mate. Two short years later, and while still in college, he was running that same program — which included sales, design, testing and tournament fishing — a position he held for the next 19 years. McDowell still fishes on the Viking demo tournament team as an angler, and he also travels extensively.…

After fishing the 2018 White Marlin Open and MidAtlantic tournaments, the 76-foot Spencer Bad Daddy was ready to head back to Palm Beach, Florida, for the winter. Departing from Ocean City, Maryland, on September 4, 2018, with captains Rob Olive and Tucker Ersek on board, Capt. Jason “Tiny” Walcott encountered the blue marlin of a lifetime. He was ready for it, or so he thought. We departed at noon, with a plan to fish our way home. We arrived at the Norfolk Canyon at around 5 p.m. and put out a simple traveling spread: two bridge teasers and four Andy Moyes lures on heavy tackle. The water was cloudy and green, with sulfur lines and rips in 320 feet of water, just southwest of the canyon wall. Trolling along at…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Veteran photographer Richard Gibson spent several months in the summer and fall of 2018 aboard Sodium, Chad Damron’s 75-foot Weaver. As they fished the North Drop off St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands under Gibson’s watchful eye and camera lens, the team of Damron, Capt. Randy Jendersee and mates Capt. Travis Butters and Tyler Valles experienced an incredible stretch of blue marlin fishing.…

When Bart Miller died in 2018, he left behind a rich legacy as one of the sport’s most well-known fishermen-turned-lure-designers. His line of Black Bart lures has become the gold standard around the world for their ability to raise and catch marlin. Miller’s friends and longtime business partners, Jack Tullius and his brother Gary, continue that legacy as the current owners of Black Bart Lures. And yet for all the popularity of artificial lures, natural bait remains a top choice in many areas of the fishing world. Mark Pumo grew up fishing off Miami and the Bahamas. He started fishing some of the local billfish tournaments after college, where he noticed a need for high-quality natural baits. His team at Baitmasters of South Florida has become one of the sport’s…

As a rule, smart captains will avoid backing down into a big sea. Cockpits flood with hundreds of gallons of seawater and bad things can happen very quickly. Experienced skippers use the ocean to their advantage, positioning the boat upwind and up-sea of their quarry, then spinning at just the right moment. But sometimes a wave over the transom just can’t be helped. The marlin makes an unexpected dash for freedom, the leader just inches from the mate’s outstretched hands. Turbos screaming and seas crashing, this is the endgame.…

From 1991 to 2000, Viking Yacht Co. sold more than 110 of its now-famous 58-foot Convertibles. At the time, it was the company’s largest boat to date, and it put the New Gretna, New Jersey-based builder squarely on the sport-fishing map as a boatbuilding powerhouse. Eighteen years later, Viking has introduced an updated version of the 58, and it’s a winner right out of the gate. To check out the new Gen II 58 C, I headed to the company’s annual dealer meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey, only about 30 minutes from the Viking factory’s location on the Bass River. Foggy weather had rolled into the area, so we had plenty of time to take a look around before departing for a quick sea trial in the waterway —…