Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Marlin

Few anglers know it, but marlin can be caught from the continent of Europe. Blues and near-record-size white marlin offer an unusual angling experience. Here’s the story of one such catch. From July to October, the action is hot for white marlin along the southern coast of Portugal around Algarve. If you want to catch marlin in Europe, this is really the only place where you can do it. Blue Captures Fishing Charters operates here with Evader, a Henriques 28 Express. On October 13, 2017, we left from Olhão with clients from Switzerland; one hour later, we reached an area known as the Little Drop. The weather was good: a sunny day with light winds at 4 to 6 knots and smooth seas. The water was deep blue with a…

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE AN OLD-TIMER TO REMEMBER WHEN A 60-FOOTER WAS CONSIDERED A BIG SPORTFISHING BOAT — MAYBE EVEN TOO BIG. MANY FELT BIGGER BOATS WEREN’T MANEUVERABLE ENOUGH TO KEEP UP WITH A GREYHOUNDING BLUE MARLIN, OR A QUADRUPLEHEADER OF SAILFISH HEADING FOR SEPARATE POINTS OF THE COMPASS. YET TODAY, WE SEE 80-, 90-, AND EVEN 100-PLUS-FOOTERS SHOWING UP ON THE WATER AND AT TOURNAMENT WEIGH-INS WITH REGULARITY. BOATS ONCE CONSIDERED TOO BIG TO FISH SERIOUSLY ARE WINNING TOURNAMENTS LEFT AND RIGHT. In July 2017, Fa La Me, a 92-foot Viking owned by Frank Rodriguez and captained by Rob Moore, won the Bermuda Triple Crown with the highest point total in the history of the series, also becoming the first-ever three-time Triple Crown winners. Angler Kevin Pento earned…

Located on Florida’s Atlantic coast between West Palm Beach to the south and Fort Pierce to the north, Stuart is a legendary sport-fishing destination, and has been for longer than most can remember. It’s a short run from St. Lucie Inlet to the offshore waters that hold everything from sailfish to snapper, and the region is also home to some of the sport’s iconic boatbuilders, including American Custom Yachts, Willis Marine, Garlington Landeweer, Jim Smith Tournament Boats and Whiticar Boat Works. It’s an unbeatable destination that’s perfect for a winter getaway. THE SAILFISH CAPITAL OF THE WORLD Stuart earned the self-proclaimed title of Sailfish Capital many years ago, and Capt. V.J. Bell says it was well-deserved in the early days of sport-fishing. “In the 1940s and ’50s, this was as…

The 60-foot Mama C is the first of the new highly anticipated GameBoat series from North Carolina’s Bayliss Boatworks. These boats are designed to chase billfish, be durable and fast, and to clean up easily at the end of the day. The GameBoat is everything you would expect from Bayliss, yet refined to be a simpler fishing platform with all the necessary features required to be a global tournament competitor. + CHECK OUT AN EXTENDED PHOTO GALLERY OF MAMA C AT MARLINMAG.COM/BAYLISS-60-BOAT-REVIEW. According to John Bayliss: “When we returned to the marina after fishing in Costa Rica, I noticed that the docks were empty during the evenings. Most people were staying in the condos or local hotels, not on the boat, with the exception of a captain or mate. So…

When the Ten Brothers team walked the docks before the 2017 Bisbee’s Black and Blue Marlin Tournament, one of the world’s biggest offshore fishing tournaments, there were two common questions about the crew. “People ask us, ‘Hey, are you guys 10 real brothers?’” says Dave Snobl, an angler for the team. “And we say, ‘Yeah, 10 brothers from different mothers.’” The second was more judgmental. When opponents saw the team is from Chicago, not anywhere near a sportfishing haven, they immediately wrote them off. “You’ve got all of those big boats,” Snobl says. “And they look at us like: ‘Oh, these guys are from Chicago. What do they know?’” The answer: They know enough to win nearly $1 million, more than any of those big-boat teams who practically live on…

The adrenaline rush of tackling a powerful adversary, connected by only a thin strand of monofilament, is nearly indescribable. Capt. Ed Frekey took that rush to the next level during a trip out of Grand Isle, Louisiana, aboard the 68-foot Hatteras, Kemosabe. This is his story of that memorable day offshore. We departed from Grand Isle at 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning in early November and traveled approximately 125 nautical miles south to a spar platform named Tahiti, where we deployed a seven-line spread consisting primarily of ballyhoo and three teasers. The owner and I were chatting on the bridge when he yelled, ‘There’s a fish!” and we hooked a blue marlin. Then the center rigger goes off and starts dumping a Tiagra 50. As the crew started clearing…

in the early years of sport fishing, anglers were not even sure if blue marlin existed in Australian waters. Now we have found them in good numbers; we just need some luck to stay connected to a giant. The challenge now is to weigh a grander blue — one over 1,000 pounds. IN THE BEGINNING While Australia is rightly famous for our incredible black marlin fishing, with scores of granders weighed over the years, targeting blue marlin in Australia didn’t really take off until the 1970s, and strange as it might seem, it didn’t take place in the tropical waters off North Queensland. Australia’s blue marlin fishery began in New South Wales after a couple of game fishermen named Arch Livingston, from the Port Macquarie Game Fishing Club, and Joe…

Ask nearly any passionate bluewater angler about the sport’s legendary boats, and there’s one model that keeps coming up time and again: the iconic Bertram 31. Based on a prototype hull that Dick Bertram ran in the 1960 Miami to Nassau powerboat race, in which he beat the second-place finisher by more than two hours and the third place boat by a full day, the 31 was soon a sweetheart of the worldwide billfishing community. The boat had an unusually large cockpit — seemingly half the boat’s length — that made her incredibly fishable. + FOR AN EXTENDED TOUR OF THE BERTRAM 35, VISIT MARLINMAG.COM/BERTRAM-35-BOAT-REVIEW. The widely spaced engines allowed her to spin on a dime, and that solid fiberglass deep-V hull easily powered its way through all but the…

TWIST AND SHOUT Capt. Chris Sheeder captured this Guatemalan sailfish in midflight. “I had just picked up the camera as the fish leaped toward the boat,” he says. “My mate Nico Melendrez shielded the angler, Pete Zotos from Dallas, Texas, and deflected the fish back into the water as it tried to jump into the cockpit. Pete had the thrill of a lifetime, and I got this shot.” LOCATION The photo was taken aboard Rum Line, fishing out of Puerto San Jose, Guatemala, in an area known as the Pocket. TECH SPECS CAMERA: Canon EOS 1-DX Mark II LENS: Canon 100-400mm L II ISO: 1000 APERTURE: f/8 SPEED: 1/5000 sec…

“Let’s go marlin fishing.” That’s how it usually starts. The next thing you know, somebody hands you a box of lures and says, “Let’s build a trolling spread with these.” Now the hard work really begins: Choosing which lures to use — when, where and, most important, why — are all questions you need to ask yourself before you even leave the dock. TEASERS VERSUS LURES One of the first concepts to tackle is whether you’re going to pull your lures with hooks in them or use them as teasers, and if so, are you going to pitch-bait all fish that come up? If you decide to pitch-bait, be sure you’re pulling good teasers and not just good lures. If the lure constantly digs in and grabs the water as…

THE BOATBUILDING INDUSTRY is as strong as ever, and while new builds continue to grow ever larger in size, boats in the 60-foot range also remain very popular — we highlight eight new models from 60 to 70 feet in this year’s lineup. Express and walkaround designs are also attractive options, especially for owner/ operators who fish with family or friends on a regular basis. So whether you prefer a 90-foot battlewagon or a 45-foot express, there is a boat for you coming soon. BERTRAM YACHTS 61 Expected to hit the water in early 2018, the Bertram 61 pays tribute to the classic battlewagons of the 1980s and ’90s while displaying the modern construction, advanced technology and features found in the latest generation of Bertram sportfishers. There is a familiar…

Fishing in places like the Gulf of Mexico, the boat needs to be at the oil rigs well before first light, with lines in the water at sunrise. Ten years ago, you had to run blind through the darkness; even radar wasn’t completely safe, since it wouldn’t pick up a dead head jutting just a few feet above the water, or a shipping container floating right at the surface. A collision with either one could put your crew in the water and your vessel on the bottom, and it’s happened. Ten years ago is around the time when FLIR came online for civilian use, and since then, Capt. Danny Veid of Amarula Sun, currently a Viking 80, has been getting safely to the fishing grounds with these high-tech eyeballs. “We…

Most boat owners do not understand the intricacies of salvage, a unique part of maritime law that also has a blurred relationship to a towing service. Indeed, the law of salvage applies to all boats, so it is important to understand the difference between the two. WHAT IS SALVAGE? Salvage is a concept in maritime law which states that a person who recovers another’s vessel or cargo after peril or loss at sea is entitled to a reward commensurate with the value of the property saved. Salvage is a voluntary action, and the public policy behind it is to provide an incentive for boaters to come to the aid of vessels in peril. There are two types of salvage: contract and pure. CONTRACT SALVAGE Contract salvage is exactly what it…