Sport Fishing January 2018

GUIDING IS ABOUT PEOPLE — EVEN BEFORE IT’S ABOUT FISH. Our fans recently chose six top captains in the annual Sport Fishing Charter Captains of the Year contest for 2017. Congrats to captains Peter and Brian Bacon (Snug Harbor, Rhode Island), Rob Crocitto (Staten Island, New York), Adam Peeples (Destin, Florida), Jay Sconyers (Murrells Inlet, South Carolina) and Jason Stock (Anna Maria Island, Florida). (You can read more about them at sportfishingmag.com.) But, of course, there are thousands of great offshore charter skippers and inshore guides around the United States who might not be nationally recognized for what they do, but who are recognized day in and day out by anglers who come to fish with them and leave with great memories. To all these professionals, I say bravo and…

Dredges might be a massive pain in the rear for many small-boat anglers. They can be expensive, bulky and heavy, difficult to stow, difficult to deploy and difficult to clear when a hot billfish zings from port to starboard at 5,000 mph. But dredges are also an essential part of your spread — one you simply shouldn’t do without if you want to have any prayer of competing with the big dogs. SIZE MATTERS “Don’t be scared to put a dredge into the water,” says Capt. Jeremy Hicks, who runs the 36-foot Calypso out of Hatteras, North Carolina. “And I mean any dredge. The fish don’t sit around reading Melton [Tackle] catalogs, so whatever type you choose, it will help fool them into at least looking at your spread. It’s…

Far too many anglers deploy their dredges and lines, then troll, troll, troll until the day is done. You’ll catch more billfish if you actively “prospect” next to your dredges. Prospect with a pitch bait, usually a naked chin-weighted ballyhoo that is held just behind the transom and then freespooled so it sinks right past the dredge. With the bait about 10 feet behind the dredge, thumb the spool so water pressure forces the ballyhoo to swim back up to the surface. Let it swim there for a moment, then reel it in and begin the process again. Although spotting fish that come in on the dredge presents the ideal opportunity, plenty of fish swim up to a dredge and are never spotted from the boat, as anyone who has…

TOUGH, AGGRESSIVE, BEAUTIFUL AND TASTY — WHAT MORE COULD AN ANGLER WANT IN A LIGHT-TACKLE GAME FISH? YELLOW JACKS ARE COMMON OR OCCASIONAL PREDATORS OVER NEARSHORE REEFS OF THE TROPICAL WESTERN ATLANTIC AND GULF OF MEXICO, AND ARE FOUND ALONG EASTERN ATLANTIC COASTS AS WELL. THEY SPORT BRIGHT-YELLOW COLORS ALONG THEIR SIDES AND CAN BE A VIVID BLUE ALONG THE DORSAL SURFACE (SOMETIMES LEADING TO CONFUSION WITH THE SMALLER BAR JACK). YELLOW JACKS GENERALLY RUN FROM 2 OR 3 POUNDS TO 15 OR MORE. THE ALL-TACKLE IGFA RECORD: 23 POUNDS, 12 OUNCES, FROM DUCK KEY, FLORIDA, IN 2013. COLOR SWAP Q My buddy Dan and I were fishing off the lava rocks in Kona, Hawaii, this summer and caught all kinds of different reef fish that we were able to…

(And Win Up to 10,800 Yards of Line!) SPONSORED BY SEND IN YOUR QUESTION and any relevant photos of your mysterious catch or observation for our experts’ ID and feedback. If we publish your question and you have a shipping address within the United States or Canada, you’ll win a 3-pound spool of Berkley Pro Spec ocean-blue or fluorescent-yellow monofilament (1,000 to 10,800 yards, depending on line strength) or a 1,500-yard spool of Spiderwire Stealth braid up to 100-pound-test! Send questions and images via email to fish facts@ sport fishing mag.com (include your hometown) or via post to Sport Fishing Fish Facts, 460 N. Orlando Ave., Suite 200, Winter Park, FL 32789. SF FISH FACTS EXPERTS NORTHEAST Mike Fahay Sandy Hook Marine Lab, New Jersey SOUTHEAST Ray Waldner, Ph.D. Palm Beach…

A 149-pound, 3-ounce Pacific bluefin tuna [A] took Newport Beach, California, angler Ali Pfleger an hour to land on 50-pound line last August, after it struck a flyingfish trolled near San Clemente Island. If approved, it will soundly defeat the current women’s record for that line class, an 83-pound, 4-ounce fish also taken off San Clemente in 2016. A 19-pound, 3-ounce Atlantic halibut [B] might not seem like a monster, but on 6-pound line, it took Dmitry Baturin, of Moscow, an hour to land. He hooked the fish out of Hasvik, Norway, last August. If approved, the catch will be the first record to occupy that line class. It remained vacant at press time. While trolling a live bait across the mouth of Oregon’s Rogue River, Lisa Griffith, of Rancho…