Innehållsförteckning för November/December 2021 från Marlin

In 1955, Sunny Briggs was 12 years old. While other children his age were doing normal kid things, he was well on his way to becoming an accomplished mate. Briggs would hitch a ride every morning from his home in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, with Capt. Lee Perry to fish on Ginny B. He then worked for Capt. Omie Tillett, who took the young man under his wing. Soon, Briggs was building boats alongside Sheldon Midgett, Buddy Davis, Billy Holton and Buddy Cannady. After building a few boats with Tillett, and with his blessing, Briggs was ready to start his own. Now at 78, with 60 boats on the water from 35 to 70 feet, it’s time to celebrate a notably distinguished career as Briggs prepares for retirement. What…

The pursuit of wahoo is a relatively easy way of fishing—and catching. There are many teams who have perfected the craft and have had great success with it. The time of year and the conditions are crucial if you want to capitalize on this tasty “fast food”; just watch those teeth. Late fall and wintertime has always been the best wahoo fishing for me, especially in the Bahamas, when the weather and water temperatures are cooler than normal. But fishing in the wintertime usually means it’s going to be rough, so if you’re lucky enough to find some calm days from November through March, by all means, get out there and give it a go. LOCATIONS AND CONDITIONS While many captains prefer to fish for wahoo on an outgoing tide,…

There have been some quiet conversations circulating for a while now about a special new hook design, something so unique that it could be a real game-changer. Something big. The project was about as closely guarded as one can be in today’s modern age of connectivity and social media. Until now. Release Marine founder and president Sam Peters has fished for marlin all over the world with some of the best captains and crews, and he’s also witnessed his share of gut-wrenching frustration along the way. The No. 1 cause of his heartburn? Pulled hooks and lost fish. A skirted trolling lure is one of the best ways on the planet to pick a fight with a blue marlin. The drawback is a hookup-to-release ratio that hovers somewhere around the…

Contender Boats founder and president Joe Neber started building boats in 1984 with the singular focus to build the toughest, most competitive semicustom center-consoles on the market. His vessels set the bar in terms of performance, livewell capacity, durability and more, each carefully engineered and handcrafted in South Florida for delivery around the world. Building on that early reputation, Contender evolved to the current model lineup, which includes a 25-foot bay boat and marches upward through both conventional and steppedhull designs in 10 different models all the way to the 44-foot ST flagship. With numerous C1 boats having fished under the Team Contender banner in South Florida, this particular build would be different. It would be designed and crafted to take on an entirely new challenge for the brand: tournament…

LADIES ONLY: MARLIN UNIVERSITY Marlin U pairs female anglers with top female professionals in the industry for an ultimate hands-on learning experience that is perfect for all skill levels. Guatemala’s Casa Vieja Lodge will host this session—April 10-15, 2022—complete with accommodations, five-star meals and service, airport transfers, and four days of fishing. marlinuniversity.com SKALLYWAGS FLAG SET From a family-run business in Durban, South Africa, that’s big on conservation, sustainability and ethical business practices, Skallywags flags are made from lightweight, 100 percent woven polyester fabric that’s treated with a water-repellent finish and dyed using a special acrylic-pigment dye system. They are packaged in recycled cardboard and in reusable bags made from recycled plastic bottles. skallywagsco.com STEVE GOIONE CUSTOM COMMISSION Sport-fishing boats are every bit as beautiful as the fish they pursue,…

As rumors of a major shift in the Stuart, Florida, boatbuilding community swirled this past spring, it soon became evident that those rumblings were indeed true. While we always hate to see a storied property change hands, especially if it could mean that the one on the selling side might be lost ad infinitum, we also must give props to the buyer who shows a willingness to take on a project that includes nearly 64 acres of land. Mark Willis, who established the now-esteemed Willis Marine Inc. in 1990, joined forces earlier this year with Florida entrepreneur Brooks Smith to form Willis Custom Yachts. Willis—once located on Southeast Commerce Avenue blocks from Manatee Pocket—acquired the Stuart canal-front property that was previously occupied for many years by American Custom Yachts. Willis…

+ FOUR INDUSTRY SALES PROFESSIONALS GIVE US THEIR THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE JEFF STRUBLE SOUTH JERSEY YACHT SALES POINT PLEASANT, NEW JERSEY Boat shows are a vital part of the marine industry. For manufacturers, it’s a time to introduce new products to the world. For the public, it’s a chance to see what’s out there. And as a broker, it’s both a time to sell and to meet-and-greet with clients. Boat shows have been a part of my life since I was 5 years old, and attending them—in person—fueled my passion for the industry and led me to where I am today. Virtual shows are good for showcasing a product, but without a true boat show, you lose the experience that is a big part of why they exist. MICHELE…

The purchase of a modern sport-fisherman is an incredibly complex process. Not only do the boats contain hundreds of thousands of moving parts and come with price tags pushing into the six, seven, even eight digits, but the boating market offers an array of options, models, hardware packages and layout configurations as well. These days, an offshore fishing boat can be anything from a 27-foot centerconsole to a 150-foot yacht-fisher. And at times, the process can be dizzying. Thankfully, there exists a category of sport-fishing professionals whose specialty lies in putting their clients into the right boat—at the right price. The modern boat broker is more than a salesperson, but is, rather, a boating consultant who leverages knowledge, experience and professional network to guide the client’s journey into boat ownership.…

THE BIG ONE With 444 boats and a cash-prize purse of $9.2 million, the 2021 White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Maryland, was one for the record books. Despite days of bad weather, photographer Harry Hindmarsh made the two-hour drive from his home in coastal Virginia to capture this incredible drone shot. “I had only five or 10 minutes with no rain while the sun was setting,” he says, “but the results were well worth it.” LOCATION Ocean City’s Sunset Marina hosts the bulk of the WMO fleet. TECH SPECS CAMERA: DJI Mavic Pro Drone LENS: FOV 26mm ISO: 100 APERTURE: f/2.8 SPEED: 1/2000 sec…

With four blue marlin releases over the course of the three-day event, the team aboard First Class-Rocio, based in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, took home the win in the 68th anniversary of the International Billfish Tournament of San Juan. Tournament chairman and director Roger Casellas said that consistency prevailed on each of the three fishing days, with 21, 21 and 24 blue marlin releases, respectively, each day. “This was a tournament fought until the very last moment,” he says. “Every day was a battle because there wasn’t a clear-cut winner until the end,” he continued, referring to the seven teams that released three billfish each, as well as 11 more boats with two releases each. In the end it would be the lucky First Class-Rocio that scored the fourth marlin to…

A single, hungry sailfish hunting the Atlantic waters east of Edisto Island, South Carolina, would ultimately determine the winner of the 2021 South Carolina Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series. The competition remained intense and unpredictable to the very end of the three-part series, with nearly 100 boats vying for a shot at the prestigious Governor’s Cup title. Typically, the series consists of five billfish tournaments, but due to ongoing marina repairs, two locations were unable to host events this year. Those setbacks certainly didn’t deter participants from turning out for another year of summer tournament fishing. GEORGETOWN BLUE MARLIN TOURNAMENT Over Memorial Day weekend, the Georgetown Blue Marlin Tournament kicked off the 2021 series with a record-breaking blue marlin bite for the 65 boats participating. The Georgetown tournament is a fan-favorite…

The choices are varied when deciding if your next fishing boat will sport an open flybridge with a hardtop and crystal-clear enclosure or, perhaps, you’ll opt for a climate-controlled enclosed-bridge command station instead. Although many skippers take sides when it comes to their favorite design, and for no shortage of logical as well as personal reasons, more often than not, it is the owner’s choice that finally decides the matter. Studying the purpose and accommodations of the layout provides a definite view of the benefits, attributes and limitations of each style. The open bridge today is a far cry from its origins as simply a place to operate the boat with heightened visibility, in spite of being totally unprotected from the environmental elements of sun, wind, salt spray and rain.…

People often ask me, “If you had plenty of money, what kind of boat would you have?” The answer, however, isn’t an easy one. I grew up fishing on drift boats in South Florida, and in 1971, a North American S-19 or S-22 was my dream boat. I even bought one and fixed her up. I wanted to troll offshore for billfish, wahoo and mahi; I had caught enough kingfish and bonito. When I graduated to the charter docks, I worked on an Avenger, a Cubavich, a Norseman and similar older boats, but I sure never thought about actually owning one. I had seen some beautiful Merritts and Ryboviches, and even few Bertrams and Hatterases, but I hadn’t yet fished on one of those fancy boats—although I do remember when…