Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2014 i Anglers Journal

The eye of a fish is a window into the world it inhabits. Mahi-mahi, being visual feeders and swimming at speeds as fast as 50 mph, need a very “quick” eye. They are the fastest-growing fish in the sea, sometimes maxing out at 4 feet and 50 pounds in three years, which is as long as most live. They live fast and eat voraciously. Mahi are “feeding machines,” says Greg Stunz, director of the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation at Texas A&M University. Their eyes have a speed of vision almost twice that of swordfish so they can see their prey as they streak through the water, says Kerstin Fritsches, who has studied how fishes’ eyes adapt to their environment. Mahi usually feed near the surface, where there’s plenty…

How I Got That Shot “I was in the boat with Charlie Perkins from Orvis, and Dave Mangum was the tarpon guide. This was in Florida. We caught this fish just after a big rainstorm, and I was literally laying over the side of the boat photographing it. Charlie caught it — about a 90-pound tarpon. I had to get a manual exposure; because of the shiny scales on there, it would have underexposed it. We didn’t mess with the fish long.” — Andy Anderson Photograph from Salt: Coastal and Flats Fishing by Andy Anderson and Tom Rosenbauer (Rizzoli, 2014) Call Me Ahab Fishing out of Los Suenos in Costa Rica the 42-foot custom Maverick Spanish Fly hooked a pure-white blue marlin. Angler Karen Weaver fought the fish for about…

Gregory Mayhew looks back on more than a half-century of fishing with clarity and affection but not sentimentality. Clear-eyed, he remembers good times and lean times. The best times for the 1lth-generation native of Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts, were when he was perched at the end of a long pulpit, harpoon in hand, the seas greasy calm, stalking a large basking swordfish, which he considers a noble creature. Mayhew is now 68 years old, but the memories are sharp, even the earliest ones. From the time he was a boy, summers meant swordfish. While other kids his age frolicked on the island beaches, young Mayhew followed a family fishing tradition that dates from his great-grandfather, who hunted swordfish from a catboat under sail. This was the 1950s, when plenty of big…

RJ Boyle has had many memorable swordfish fights during the past 15 years, among them the 439-pounder he fought for five-plus hours on 50-pound standup tackle to win the 2012 Miami Swordfish Tournament. I asked him for one that really stands out. This is what he told me. We had a fish jump in the boat once, a 355-pound swordfish. We thought he was done and laying next to the boat, and he ended up launching into the boat. It was five years ago. Sean O'Conner and Rick Gadoian from the Keys had come up to daytime-fish with me and John Barfield to get dialed in. We hooked up on the first drop and fought him fora while and got him coming to the boat. Rick says, “We get to…

I'm told the first word out of my mouth wasn’t mom’ or ‘dad’ — it was ‘fish’ ” Jason Bell, a 19-year-old Florida Keys deckhand, was simply born to fish. His father, Capt. Larry Bell, runs a charter business in Marathon, and he would take his son out early in the morning to catch bait before school started. At ages 9 and 12, Jason won the Juniors title at the Leon Shell Memorial Sailfish Tournament. By 13 he was working as a mate for a number of captains in Marathon. I found Jason wolfing down a burger at Porky’s after returning from a morning of shark fishing. Nothing much was biting, and he and his captain, who like to focus on family fishing, were determined to show the kids in…

Ted's Bait & Tackle smells like a bait shop should — fishy, in a good way, the way these shops used to. That should come as no surprise, given the quantity of fresh-dead bunker, live eels, mummies, sandworms, frozen squid, crabs and plenty more coming and going through the front door in plastic totes, buckets, coolers, worm boxes and plastic bags. Something fresh. Something thawing. Something in between. Along one wall, big eel tanks bubble away. There’s always some water on the concrete floor — no one cares. A few locals are hanging out on the front porch of the shop. Someone shouts for the owner. A dog barks. The screen door slams. A pickup truck rolls into the lot and jerks to a stop. “Dozen eels,” barks a regular.…

Bart Miller has fished around the world and has caught granders in three different oceans, including a monster blue marlin that was released while fishing out of Madeira in the Atlantic in 1994. Some say it was the largest blue caught there during the years when it was the hottest marlin destination on the planet. And there are lessons to be learned from that particular fish. “The fish came in on the port teaser and grabbed the nearest lure in the pattern, then dropped it,” Miller recalls. “I could see the fish was not that interested, not aggressive, so I had the angler tease the fish, almost unheard of with fish and tackle that big. First, we dropped the lure past the fish’s head, then reeled it quickly back toward…

Tim Coleman was a gentle soul who lived the simple life of a fisherman. He may not have been rich of purse, but Tim was wealthy in other ways. He had close fishing friends from Key West to Kennebunkport, and he was able to spend more time on the water than most of us. Tim was the kind of guy you'd want as a fishing partner and a friend. People naturally took a shine to him, including some tough nuts. Hardened charter- and head-boat captains took him under their sharp-tipped wings. Modest, shy and self-effacing, Tim was generous with his fishing knowledge, especially as he got older. He was an exceptional fisherman, too, but he didn’t toot his own horn, even though he had the platform to do so; for…

Growing up on Marthas Vineyard was an endless summer for me. I lived for fishing on our 96-square-mile island, which lies about seven miles across Vineyard Sound from Cape Cod, Mass. My grandfather was a fisherman, as was my dad, so I guess its not surprising my brother and I would fish, too. My friends and I fished any time we could, including some nights when we sneaked out our bedroom windows to catch stripers, blues and enormous conger eels. You never found us home watching television when we could be fishing off the Steamship Authority Dock in Oak Bluffs, my home for 12 years. The dock watchman knew us, so we had the run of the place. We could catch something almost any day there. One day, when I…

RJ Boyle was into art long before he got into swordfish, but his two passions became so intertwined that they have both shaped and defined his adult life. An expert on daytime swordfishing, Boyle has conducted seminars from New England to Texas, and anglers hire him to teach them how to catch swordfish. For several years, he sold the swordfish he caught to fish houses. Boyle also has a tackle store in Lighthouse Point, Florida, that specializes in big game fishing gear and his artwork — both originals and reproductions that sell for as much as $10,000 — of swordfish, sailfish, marlin and tarpon. There are also hats and T-shirts emblazoned with his designs and his “In the Spread” series of how-to fishing DVDs. Its a pretty full palette, yet…

Tucked into a corner of Hurricane Hole Marina just outside Key West, more than two dozen charter boats are lined up, waiting for their afternoon clients. Among them is a sleek, spotless Maverick 17 flats boat owned by 25-year-old Capt. Jared Cyr. A fourth-generation “Conch” and professional fisherman, Jared is waiting to take two Brits tarpon fishing. One will be fly-fishing, the other spin casting. On this perfect spring day there may be 50 to 100 charter boats heading out from Key West. Like Jared, many of today's captains are young, working hard to prove themselves to their mentors. “We have big shoes to fill” he says. Two of these shoes are worn by his dad, an offshore fisherman who switched to flats fishing. “Finding a good, reliable mate for…

I AM TAKEN by rivers. I am used to small ones — the South, flowing through the Massachusetts hill town where I grew up; the Deerfield, running clear and proper below the hayfields of the hill town where I live now. My father, who was a fine student of the Berkshires, once said that a river was ‘stones refusal of water” I have gone by that, and by the smells of the water around here. Rust in the early spring, and the musk of ferment before the wind comes around and blows autumn in. The ice of November, scouting the banks and anchoring in the eddies and, some still, gelid night, closing in on the current. The rivers of January turn cataract blind, and there is nothing in them or…

On autopilots: “Lures need to be run straight and true for marlin without those small course corrections that are hard to avoid when steering a course by hand. While this is less important when trolling rigged baits, it is critical with lures, so let your autopilot do the driving while you concentrate on the spread in your wake” On sea conditions: "I take what the sea gives me on any given day and respond accordingly. Calm seas allow for faster trolling speeds and a comprehensive mix of lures and teasers. Rougher seas require slower speeds and fewer lures. Really rough, to the point of almost not being able to fish, only a few lures run directly off the rod tips with no outriggers." On setting a spread: "When conditions allow,…

We were young and filled with optimism. There was nothing we couldn’t do, or at least take a stab at. It was the spring of 1971, and my good friend Buzz and I were finishing our sophomore year at colleges 1,500 miles apart. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but at some point we decided to go into the charter boat business. We both loved to fish, and what a grand way to spend the summer and make a ton of money! Buzz’s family owned a modest seasonal home in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, with a small guest cottage that he and I had taken advantage of during the previous two summers while working as crewmen on various tour boats. But now we knew everything there was to know about taking…

For the past 20 years, Capt. Diego Toiran has fished nothing but a SeaCraft. “I like a little bit of weight when it’s rough,” says Toiran, host of the Spanish-language fishing show Pescando en los Cayos and a former charter skipper. “Some of these other boats built with a lot of foam get thrown around. I want to find me an old Potter, nice and heavy, you know?” Anglers know. Bill Potter built the first SeaCraft 23 in 1970, and owners have been praising the soft ride and fish-friendly layout ever since. Used SeaCrafts, especially the Potter models, continue to attract fishermen who are willing to spend some time and money refitting this proven hull. "There are guys who have 1970s and 1980s SeaCrafts who have never owned anything else…

I’ve fished cypress swamps for 50 years and never tire of the solitude and natural splendor. As the sun rises through the cypress, the swamp comes alive with bird sounds — the melody of warblers, the squawks of herons and egret leaving their roosts, the buzzing of chickadees and titmice gleaning insects. It’s like a concerto written for me, and as it grows to a crescendo it enriches my soul. The aromas of the bottoms are; mix of rich, earthy smells, the fragrance of clean water and the piney scent of cypress needles. I can conjure them even now, along with the gentle caress of a breeze; sightings of eagles, whitetail deer, black bears, turtles and snakes. As I enjoy all this, I am ever watchful for a cypress knee…

◆ The Latin name for swordfish is Xiphias gladius, or “the gladiator,” because it uses its swordlike bill as a weapon to hunt prey, as well as for protection. ◆ Swordfish are found in nearly all temperate and tropical ocean waters around the world. ◆ Swordfish in the northwest Atlantic annually migrate north in the Gulf Stream — from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean up to Canada’s Grand Banks — and back. ◆ Unlike many other pelagic species, swordfish are solitary and travel alone, rather than in schools. ◆ Swords are able to feed on the surface and as deep as 2,000 feet. ◆ The favorite prey of swordfish include squid, herring, mackerel, mahi-mahi and bluefish. ◆ The mako is among the few sea creatures large enough and…

Hanging out at Bud N’ Mary’s Marina waiting to meet Capt. Nick, I am surrounded by quintessential charter captains. Unshaven, tan, burly and boisterous, these boys live big. Suddenly a trim, clean-cut young man introduces himself as Nick Stanczyk. He looks like a college kid, yet he has been a fishing guide or charter captain for 10 years. Nick is 29 and the son of legendary Capt. Richard Stanczyk, owner of Bud N’ Mary’s. His uncle Scott runs the well-known charter boat Catch 22, and his older brother Rick is a popular Keys fishing guide. “All we ever do is fish,” explains Nick, who runs the Jersey Devil 36 Custom Sportfish Express Bn’M II. Old salts move like a grouper, slow and easy. Nick has the energy of a baitfish,…

James Prosek is one of the best young fish and natural history artists of his generation. At 38, he has published 11 books of his work, including Ocean Fishes (Rizzoli, 2012), a remarkable collection of 35 fish, each painted life-size. Prosek traveled from Nova Scotia to Africa to see and record the fish individually. Look closely, and you might see a reflection of the artist in one of their eyes or along a flank. The yellowfin tuna on the cover of this issue of Anglers Journal is from Ocean Fishes, as are the paintings in this feature. A skilled watercolorist whom The New York Times said was a “fair bid to become the Audubon of the fishing world,” Prosek has grown into more than just a fish artist. “He is…

As the 27-foot center console Y-Knots clears Port Everglades Inlet for a night of swordfishing offshore, we start putting out a Spread of small, feathered bullet lures with teasers and our old standby, a cedar plug on a daisy chain of birds. We take our time trolling offshore to the southeast through the dirtier, greener coastal waters, where king mackerel are typically found, to the bluer transition waters that hug the inner shelf offshore of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, home to mahi-mahi and tuna. Our destination is that so-called great river of salt that runs up the Florida coast, turns eastward off North Carolina and flows northeast across the Atlantic. Off the southeast U.S. coast, I call it the Florida Current, although it is known more commonly as the Gulf…

“Their brains were similar in size as well, which is to say exquisitely tiny and incapable of anything we might recognize as thought…” I had just finished a salmon and steelhead season in California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia that had me discouraged because of the crowds, and this invitation came as a surprise, one which I thought of as an unexpected privilege. In the real light of high overhead sunshine, $1,000 a day for six days to wet a line, no matter how fancy that line might be, was an insane idea for someone to whom that was a years earnings. What closed the deal for me, though, was the promise of a river full of fish with no one else on it, a river to which you essentially…

Eddie Juan had owned his 2014 SeaVee 320 deep-vee center console for only a few months when he heard the news. SeaVee was coming out with its first stepped hull, one that could run so efficiently it might allow Juan to cut fuel expenses by as much as 20 percent. “The type of fishing I do requires long-range traveling, and this, I hope, will make it cheaper to go fishing,” says Juan, 45, of Coral Gables, Florida, who sold his deep-vee and took delivery of the stepped boat, the SeaVee 320-Z, this spring. “We run about 250 miles round-trip [fishing the Bahamas]. In two days, well do 200 to 300 miles easy. I think I will be very happy with a stepped hull. The whole high-performance aspect should be great.”…

I love to hunt bigeye tuna in the Northeast canyons. And I never get tired of four rods arcing over at once. Back in the 1980s and ’90s these fish were easier to catch because there was more bait, thus more tuna. I have seen bigeyes on the scales at the dock — caught over the Hudson Canyon back when pair trawling was still permitted — that weighed in the low-300-pound range. Now, with less bait and seemingly fewer fish, I need todays electronics to give me the proverbial leg up. Here’s an example. When I run across a concentration of bait out on the edge that shows up on my video sounder, I first mark the target on my chart plotter. I then start looping around the school to…