Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2017 i Sport Fishing

The Florida sun shone bright and warm on the late-winter day that I met Martin Rusin, marketing director for Robalo Boats, and Chris Erickson, of Erickson Marine, for a test run of the new Robalo R302 on Sarasota Bay. Even before stepping aboard, I found myself intrigued with this 29-foot-2-inch center console. The $148,895 base price piqued my curiosity, as that’s well below many other boats in this size range. What could I expect at such a price? I was determined to find out. NEW INTERIOR The R302 runs on the Robalo HydroLift hull of its predecessor, the R300, but with a fresh interior, including a new hardtop that integrates with a redesigned console. Striding along the 22-inch-wide walkways beside the helm, I noticed that the powder-coated aluminum uprights for…

FLORIDA PANHANDLE BOATBUILDER Cape Horn has introduced its new 32, featuring a redesigned floor plan that includes a more spacious cockpit and additional storage. The 31-foot-10-inch hull features a transom gate, coaming pads throughout, aft flip-down seating and a deluxe bolster-seat leaning post. Inside console headroom measures 6 feet 3 inches. Equipped with 20- and 60-gallon livewells standard, this Cape Horn offers 29 rod holders, a 7-foot, 185-gallon insulated fish box and a 20-gallon freshwater system. Keep the standard T-top, or option up to a hardtop with powder-coated aluminum frame or a T-top crow’s nest. Other options include power-assist steering, a windlass and underwater lights. Commonly powered with twin Yamaha F300s, the 32 can handle up to 700 hp. It carries 273 gallons of fuel. Cape Horn quiets and stiffens…

9:30 P.M., LATE AUGUST: Atlantis Canyon, 100 miles south of New England. The night was pitch-black as I motored my Northern Bay 36 among a dozen other boats trolling the darkness. We’d seen a nice tuna bite at dusk, but we had missed our one opportunity. I was pushing my comfort level, trolling in close quarters using radar and a deck watch, hoping for another knockdown. Bam! Long rigger down hard. An hour later, with much sweat and effort, we boated a nice 160-pound bigeye tuna. After we cleaned and iced our fish, we set up for our normal nighttime swordfish drift. At 2 a.m., I awoke from my midnight nap to take the helm in deteriorating conditions. Three more hours until dawn, and the building 15-knot wind was already…

COOLER RACK THE SEAT ON the forward portion of a walkaround cuddy represents wasted space, in my opinion. It’s comfy on a harbor cruise, but too bouncy while underway. So I swapped this seat on my boat for a cooler rack to carry extra ice. Each boat requires special engineering, but in my case, I removed the seat cushion, then cut a platform from a 24-by-27-inch sheet of ¾-inch Taco Marine plastic lumber (about $145). The platform rests on four through-bolted King Starboard legs made from 1-inch material. An Attwood coolermounting kit (about $15) prevents sliding, and a Yeti cooler tie-down strap kit (about $49) dogs it down. Now the cooler is out from underfoot but easy to access. MICROFIBER MAGIC MAKE IT A HABIT of keeping three or four…

CAPT. GLYN AUSTIN WANTED ME TO TOSS MY TOPWATER PLUG LIKE I WAS HALFWAY THROUGH A GAME OF CORNHOLE. BEFORE CASTING, AUSTIN’S SON JESSE, ALSO A LOCAL CAPTAIN, SMEARED PRO-CURE BLUE CRAB SCENT ONTO THE LURE TO SWEETEN THE OFFERING. I PLOPPED THE PLUG A BOAT LENGTH AWAY FROM AUSTIN’S 23-FOOT SHOALWATER. “Leave your bail open; just let it drift freely,” said Austin. “If the reds are around and hungry, they’ll hit that lifeless plug.” I planned on trying out new topwater plugs such as the Rapala Skitter V and LiveTarget Mullet, ready to compare their actions, but instead should have brought a crab imitator. We were hunkered down in Sebastian Inlet, in about 15 feet of water, located along Florida’s central east coast. Austin wanted my topwater to imitate…

In the early 1990s I got my first look. The wind honked out of the north on the first chilly day in September. It just felt fishy. Running toward the birds, I thought at first the boils were stripers. But when the fish came up, I knew this was something different: Streamlined muscular fish with green backs slashed through baitballs at an ungodly speed. Composure lost, heart pounding, adrenaline level through the roof, I made several casts, which went unnoticed. About an hour and 30 casts later, I finally came tight, and it felt unreal. Line peeled offthe reel so fast I didn’t know what to do. I cranked down the drag a quarter turn and the reel literally blew up, falling to pieces on the ground. Didn’t matter. I…

1. KEEP COOL Yeti’s newest soft-sided cooler, the Hopper Two, expands on the design of its original namesake. Yeti tweaked the body shape of the cooler to make it easier to haul in and out of a boat, and extended the leak-proof HydroLok zipper for easier access. The Hopper Two comes with the same puncture- and mildew-resistant DryHide shell and up to 1½-inch ColdCell insulation. Available with handles and a removable shoulder strap, the cooler comes in three sizes — 20, 30 and 40 — and costs $299.99 to $399.99. 2. ACTION TRACTION SoftScience has announced its new Fin Boot, combining the outsole of the high-draining Fin fishing shoe with a fast-drying neoprene and mesh upper. The boots also come with SoftScience’s proprietary insoles for comfort and support. They feature…

SAVVY BOAT BUYERS seek value. So when builders design a package — a boat plus select options, or a specific model-and-power combination — they create the bundle effect. And that often translates to better prices. The most popular fishing-boat packages seem to involve smaller, single-outboard center consoles, for which pricing can be a key factor. For a closer look, I asked four boatbuilders to identify their customer favorites. The models are listed below by boat length. PIONEER 202 SPORTFISH SPECS: LOA: 19 ft. 10 in. • Beam: 8 ft. 2 in. • Transom Deadrise: 18 deg. • Draft: 1 ft. 1 in. Dry Weight: 1,900 lb. (w/o engine) • Max Power: 175 hp • Package Price: $44,650* * (w/ Suzuki DF150, T-top) “We feel what drives the sales of this…

For my style of inshore fishing, in my coastal Georgia location and for my 22-foot bay boat, I need some specific sonar capabilities. I want to see what’s to either side of my boat, and I want to see subtle depth transitions in shallow water, without surface clutter. Analyzing how I fish helps me understand what I need electronically. To help other anglers, I’ve asked pros and experts who use a variety of sonar gear in vastly different environments to offer suggestions regarding what units and features are optimal for different kinds of fishing. ON THE BOTTOM Furuno pro staffer Capt. Sean Gill, of Savannah, fishes many of the same coastal Georgia locations as I do, though he also works offshore waters. “I use the bottom-discerning technology in my Furuno…

Thefts of large outboard engines have ticked upward over the past six months in coastal states of the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions, according to a number of marine insurance companies. Taking care to safeguard your motors, particularly when your boat is in storage, can be as simple as parking properly and using relatively inexpensive locks. “There has been a rash of organized thefts of multiple outboards throughout Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia,” says Mark Yearn, of Norman-Spencer Agency, an insurance provider offering coverage for boat dealers and marinas nationwide Armed with cordless impact wrenches and power saws, teams of thugs strike boat dealerships and storage yards at night, cutting through fences, unbolting large outboards and muscling them into trucks, says Yearn. Boats in dry storage or on trailers are…

AS THE USE OF BRAIDED LINE BECOMES MORE AND MORE POPULAR, THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOTS USED TO CONNECT BRAID TO A LENGTH OF MONO OR FLUOROCARBON LEADER TAKES ON GREATER SIGNIFICANCE. MOST ANGLERS CHOOSE TO USE A LEADER WITH BRAID, BUT BASED ON THE RESULTS OF THIS CHALLENGE, IT WOULD SEEM THAT MANY ARE LOSING 30, 40 AND EVEN MORE THAN 50 PERCENT OF THE BRAID’S BREAKING STRENGTH AT THAT KNOT. ON THE OTHER HAND, SOME KNOTS RETAIN 80 TO 100 PERCENT OF THE BRAID’S STRENGTH. THE FUNDAMENTAL PURPOSE OF THIS KNOT CHALLENGE IS TO SHARE WITH SPORT FISHING ENTHUSIASTS WHICH KNOTS ARE THE STRONGEST AND HOW THEY ARE TIED. THE TEST, METHODOLOGY Before looking at the winning knots, here’s how the challenge worked. Those who answered our call for…