Innehållsförteckning för December 2016 - January 2017 från Marlin

Austin Angel stands ready for a bite in the cockpit. He’s won an impressive number of top angler awards in tournaments from Costa Rica to Mexico, and yet he remains just as excited about the next fish as he was for his very first one.  When the tournament’s on the line, Austin Angel is a good choice to be on the rod. From 2011 through 2015, he was the top angler during at least one leg of the highly competitive Los Sueños Signature Triple Crown in Costa Rica, and in 2015, he was the overall top angler for the three-tournament series. As part of the Sea Angel team, he’s won high-profile tournaments from Costa Rica to Mexico, with his brother B.C. Angel as captain of the family’s 63-foot F&S, his…

+ FOR THE MOST RECENT TOURNAMENT RESULTS, PHOTO GALLERIES AND MORE, VISIT MARLINMAG.COM/TOURNAMENTS. For more than six decades, the International Billfish Tournament of Club Nautico de San Juan has led the way as one of sport fishing’s finest marlin tournaments. The level of competition is amazingly strong, with participating teams, anglers and clubs from around the world visiting the marlin-rich waters off Puerto Rico and vying not for millions of dollars, but instead for beautiful trophies and the recognition of their sport-fishing peers, something that money alone can never buy. Club Nautico de San Juan serves as the gracious tournament host. As the event kicked off, anticipation ran high for good fishing. And the team aboard the 58-foot Revenge AD/HD did not disappoint. Led by Harris Lamont, AD/HD released three…

Capt. Kyle Peet and his crew aboard No Quarter, a 54-foot Taylor Made charter boat based in Ocean City, Maryland, had an incredible overnight trip on September 13, 2016. Reports of good fishing had the team thinking about catching a grand slam — three different billfish species — before they even left the dock at Sunset Marina. They arrived at Norfolk Canyon at 9:30 a.m. and quickly caught a triple out of four white marlin bites within the first five minutes of fishing. “At 3:30 p.m., we had a blind bite, and I immediately put the boat in a turn,” Peet says. “I saw a roughly 200-pound blue greyhounding between two other boats. I don’t think I ever backed the boat down that hard before — I knew getting the…

At Marlin University, we strive to shorten the immense learning curve associated with the sport of biggame fishing. Although a lot of folks think of fishing as nothing more than a hobby, those serious about bluewater fishing spend a lot of precious time and an extraordinary amount of treasure trying to get better at catching billfish and giant tuna in some of the world’s most remote and beautiful locations. Purchasing a multimillion-dollar sport-fisher and traveling the world chasing billfish is a far cry from the place where a lot of us started: sitting on a five-gallon bucket at the inlet waiting for something big to eat our frozen shrimp! We like to say that a trip to Marlin U can take 10 years off that aforementioned learning curve, and here…

WHERE DECEMBER/JANUARY: As the dry season gets underway in Central America, the spotlight falls on Costa Rica’s Pacific sailfish fishery. Large schools of big sails can be found harassing baitballs beneath frigate birds and around schools of spinner dolphins within 40 miles of the coast. The fishing can be simply phenomenal: Multiple hookups are the norm, and 10 or more sailfish releases a day are not uncommon.…

Commercial bycatch is the unintended catch of nontargeted species and continues to be a big problem in fisheries worldwide that target highly migratory species. Longline gear has a really bad reputation for bycatch: It’s one of the most commonly used gears for pelagic fishes and it has an enormous footprint. Nearly half a billion hooks were fished daily in the Atlantic alone during 2009. DIRTY GEAR Drift gill nets, however, might be an even nastier customer than longlines when it comes to bycatch. This indiscriminate fishing gear has the ability to entangle and kill virtually every type of creature that comes into contact with it. Billfish, sharks and marine mammals are all vulnerable. What’s worse: If drift gill nets are lost at sea, they continue fishing until they sink or…

Ever dreamed of trolling virtually unfished waters, past marlin and tuna that have never seen a lure or heard the rumble of a sport-fisher’s engines? Where a robust bluewater current caroms across impressive bottom structure,with depths plummeting from 850 feet to more than 10,000 feet in just 8 nautical miles? And all this with no passport or foreign languages required. Pack your bags (and all the spare fuel you can carry) for a true offshore adventure, Florida style. HEAD WEST, AND KEEP GOING When I moved to St. Petersburg, Florida — located just west of Tampa on Florida’s Gulf Coast — some 15 years ago, I was immediately drawn to the diversity of fishing opportunities. The spring and fall seasons host impressive migratory runs of king mackerel, tarpon and cobia,…

BBack in September 1966, an American fisherman by the name of George Bransford set off from Cairns aboard his 32-foot vessel, Sea Baby, and he had a good feeling about catching a large billfish. The former charter boat captain from Florida had been stationed near Cairns during World War II and returned following the war, drawn by what he had experienced during R & R on the Great Barrier Reef. What happened that day changed fishing history forever. BUILDING THE DREAM Capt. George Bransford’s dream of skippering his own charter boat out of Cairns came to fruition in the early ’60s when he met up with Capt. Alan Collis and his father, Harold, who had recently built the 32-foot timber vessel Sea Baby. Bransford purchased the vessel, and Collis worked…

Wireless headsets are becoming standard equipment for tournamentfishing battlewagons. With them, crew members can talk in normal tones among themselves, bridge to deckhand. Even on a charter operation, skippers have the ability to maintain crew privacy for easier professional communication, but sometimes they give customers radios so they can participate in the conversation. These radios are nearly ubiquitous now, but they were once resisted by the staunchest of current users. GAIN THE EDGE Take Quinton Dieterle, captain of Cutting Edge as well as the highly competitive Get Lit on the South Florida sailfish scene. “We hated them at first,” Dieterle says. They began with FRS (Family Radio Service) voice-activated two-way radios and headsets. The problem was, only one person could talk at a time. If the action was hot, with…

Imagine entering a tuna or billfish tournament a few weeks ahead of your new-boat delivery only to discover you will be unable to get a Highly Migratory Species permit in time for the event because an official number has not been issued by the U.S. Coast Guard. Fortunately, there is a way to expedite the documentation process — but only in certain situations and with the right help. WHAT IS COAST GUARD DOCUMENTATION? Most sport-fishing boats are, or should be, documented with the Coast Guard. Vessel documentation is essentially a national form of registration that is performed through the National Vessel Documentation Center. Generally speaking, all vessels of 5 net tons or more in volume engaged in fishing activities on the navigable waters of the United States, in the Exclusive…

HOT MARLIN Richard Gibson snapped this incredible shot, framed perfectly, of Alberto Regis tied to a 300-plus-pound blue marlin aboard the 52-foot Viking Triple Tail with Capt. Jose Ramone. Regis caught the blue on 30-pound tackle, earning him bonus points during the highly competitive San Juan International Billfish Tournament. LOCATION Nearly 200 anglers fishing aboard 47 boats competed in the 63rd annual event in San Juan, Puerto Rico. TECH SPECS CAMERA: Canon EOS-1D X Mark II LENS: Canon EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM ISO: 2,500 APERTURE: f/8.0 SPEED: 1/8000 sec…

FUSION Pick up one of the new StereoActive portable speaker systems and you’ll never find yourself saying, “I wish we had some music.” Fusion engineered this system for the ruggedness of life on the water and to deliver crystal-clear music when you’re on the go. fusionentertainment.com SD MODEL MAKERS A custom replica of your pride and joy is a perfect way to recall those fond fishing memories while in the office or at home. The skilled craftsmen at SD Model Makers can build a custom replica of your boat, with incredible attention to detail. The workmanship is simply exquisite. sdmodelmakers.com YETI Grab your boat logo or cool graphic and send it on over to the folks at the Yeti Custom Shop for a unique personalized gift for your fishing buddies…

Capturing the power and emotion of a billfish greyhounding into the distance through paintings, drawings and sculptures takes skill and dedication, similar to that of anglers and captains during our bluewater pursuit. Offshore-inspired art evokes memorable fishing expeditions and those visions that live tucked away only in our minds, and there’s something in this gallery to meet anyone’s unique taste. Artist Craig Brumfield won this year’s Audience Pick by our Facebook fans with his Unleash the Kraken gyotaku oil on canvas. You can view all the submissions online at marlinmag.com/artgallery.…

It was the trip I’d been waiting for the entire year. The countless stories about epic blue marlin numbers and grand slams — even royal slams — that I received from the elite teams and operations that ventured to the offshore waters of Costa Rica over the past year seemed limitless. The mere thought of seeing 20- to 30-plus blue marlin in a single day left me sleepless during the days and weeks leading up to the trip. What I encountered there still flashes vividly in my mind as I reflect back on the incredible experience. NOT SO EASY On the direct flight from Orlando, Florida, to San Jose, Costa Rica, the captain’s voice echoed over the speaker, rousing me from a semi-coherent sleep. Moments before, I was deep in…

Take a look at the transoms of some of the sport-fishers the next time you walk the docks: Can you tell the difference between a painted faux teak transom and one made from the real thing? My guess is that unless you look closely at some of the latest works from a handful of marine artists, you won’t be able to tell the difference — I know I couldn’t the first time. One of those talented artists is Josh Everett from Everett Nautical Designs, so I spent some time picking his brain about the rise in popularity of painted faux teak and some of its advantages. THE SUPPLY SHORTAGE One of the biggest obstacles boatbuilders face today is the availability of quality teak. It’s not just isolated to the boatbuilding…