Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2017 i Sport Fishing

TECHNOLOGY: LOVE IT. FEAR IT. DESPISE IT. Regardless of your attitude toward all things innovative and occasionally extreme, we have to agree about one characteristic of today’s explosive technological progress: You’d better expect it. High-end semicustom fishing boats, like luxury automobiles, surprise us each year with their fresh capabilities. To get a feel for the features — some standard, others optional — now trickling into the fish-boat market, we talked with six builders who are known for their leading-edge advancements. (Boats are listed alphabetically by builder.) BOSTON WHALER 420 OUTRAGE SPECS: LOA: 42 ft. 6 in. • Beam: 13 ft. • Transom Deadrise: 22 deg. • Draft: 2 ft. 7 in. Dry Weight: 22,000 lb. (w/o engines) • Max Power: 1,675 hp • MSRP: $803,882* * (w/ quad Mercury 300…

Human personalities might be quantifiable as Type A or Type B. But in the marine world, I’ve seen two different kinds of boaters: Type D and Type P. Type D for denial: “No emergency will ever befall me. I’ve got everything under control.” Type P for paranoia: “I can’t go out in 2- to 4-foot seas! Let’s wait till summer, when it’s calm.” I hope most of us don’t exhibit those extremes. But chances are, we each lean one way or the other. I’m a little closer to a P than a D, meaning I believe in preparing, and I believe in backups — in the form of electronic safety gear, such as VHF radios, EPIRBs, PLBs, AIS SARTs, sat phones, satellite emergency notification devices and single-sideband radios. FIRST THINGS…

Anglers are fundamentally curious people, especially when it comes to the fish they pursue. Sit at a bar with another rabid angler for long enough, and questions such as “I wonder where such-and-such species goes during the winter” or “How far can such-and-such type of fish travel in a given period of time?” will likely pop up. And if you’re enough of a fish geek to have gone to the trouble of looking up this information, you’ve probably come to realize that a lot of what we know about fish behavior comes from the practice of tagging and releasing them. People have been deliberately marking or tagging fish for centuries. In his seminal book The Compleat Angler, published in 1653, Izaak Walton described how anglers would tie ribbons to the…

1. WEARABLE TECH Garmin has added GHC 20 autopilot control and the ability to mark waypoints to its next-generation quatix 5 marine GPS smartwatch. The quatix 5 provides boat connectivity with compatible Garmin chart plotters and other marine electronics for remote display of data via NMEA 2000 and select functionality. The watch also offers multisport options and tracking for activities such as paddleboarding and running. Quatix pairs with smartphone apps to display tide data; it also features an anchor alarm, an anchor-rode calculator and a fish-catch log. Water-rated to 100 meters, quatix 5 costs $599.99. A Wi-Fi-enabled Sapphire version costs $849.99. 2. APEX SHADES A longtime partner of the shark-tagging project Ocearch, Costa has introduced three new frames with shark-inspired colors and a new gray silver-mirror lens. Sales proceeds will…

Skipper Brandon Simmons had a prime float plan set for our early-May Fish Trial of the Blackfin 272. We would motor the center console 30 miles east of our Duck Key home base into the open Atlantic waters and troll the famed Islamorada Hump. The hump, a seamount rising from depths of 700 feet to within a few hundred feet of the surface, frequently features an upwelling. Recent reports suggested the zone was swarming with blackfin tuna. But when the weather-service forecasts predicted 7-foot seas, we reluctantly chose plan B: chasing tarpon near the bridges. STEADY AS A ROCK Turns out we were wise. Seas built to more than 12 feet that afternoon, and we still battled sloppy waves pounding in from all directions — a madhouse of confused chop.…

WHEN CAROLINA COMPOSITES introduced the Avenger AV-26 bay boat nearly two years ago, the company had in mind to roll out a 24 with virtually no loss of deck space, fishability or storage. The new AV-24 features the same fore and aft deck space and storage capacity, along with lockable rod storage and three livewells: two 27-gallon tanks aft and a 12-gallon well in the forward console seat. The deluxe leaning post comes with fold-down bolsters, a backrest and four vertical rod holders. Rods can be stored horizontally beneath the coamingtopped gunwales or in the port and starboard forward locking storage boxes. Anglers can customize the 24 with an optional 36-gallon livewell in the leaning post, and a selection of soft or hard tops or a second-station half tower. The…

Visit our website sportfishingmag .com/ICAST and social media channels July 11–14 to see live video and coverage from ICAST. I ’ll always remember the exhilaration of childhood Christmas mornings. While that capacity for delight diminishes over the years, I still feel that flash of adrenaline when I enter the annual International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades (ICAST) fishingtackle show each July. All Sport Fishing editors attend this tradeonly event, and we report on it online with galleries and videos from the site, Orlando, Florida’s Orange County Convention Center. But before all that happens (July 11-14), we want to give you a sneak peek of the tackle, gear, paddle craft, electronics and accessories that we’ll see. As you read about these 22 soon-tobe- released items, we hope you experience a little of…

(Tetrapturus angustirostris) One of the smallest of billfishes, and certainly sporting the shortest of bills (per its name), this spearfish — one of several species — is native to the Pacific and Indian oceans. While the all-tackle world record of 110 pounds, 3 ounces was taken near Sydney in 2008, shortbills are generally far smaller. Despite their diminutive size, their aggressive behavior means many are caught on trolled lures intended for much larger fish. The waters of Hawaii and New Zealand are best bets for anglers trying for this rarest species in a billfish slam. CHALLENGE OUR EXPERTS (And Win Up to 10,800 Yards of Line!) SEND IN YOUR QUESTION and any relevant photos of your mysterious catch or observation for our experts’ ID and feedback. If we publish your…

RACK ’EM IF YOU USE your main fishing boat as a mothership to transport your kayak to remote locations or paddle-only waters to fish, you know the problems associated with stowing and securing these paddle craft inside the boat. They take up a lot of deck space and always seem to get in the way. One of the most ingenious solutions I have seen is Manta Racks’ L2K system (about $600), which stows a kayak using the mothership’s gunwale rod holders. Consisting of two cradle arms — one in each 30-degree rod holder — the L2K holds a kayak atop the gunwale. Straps on each cradle keep the kayak secure while underway. The cradles pivot and lock to suit the curvature of the boat hull and horizontal angle of the…

Some fishing techniques call for moving the boat in s-l-o-w motion, be it trolling with live ballyhoo for sailfish at the edge of the Gulf Stream, downrigger fishing for salmon in the Columbia River estuary or trolling live threadfins over a wreck for grouper and snapper. Yet many of today’s saltwater fishing boats feature powerful marine engines and hulls designed to maximize speed and efficiency — the very antithesis of slow. Even with the engines at idle, some boats move too rapidly for effective slow-trolling techniques. Don’t despair. Here are six ways to slow the pace, no matter what kind of boat you fish. 1 SHUT DOWN If your boat has multiple outboards, shutting down one or more engines will allow you to drop speed. With triple outboards, for example,…