A big bonito was splashing along from the left outrigger leaving a hefty wake. A small mackerel-like scad trailed from the right outrigger and was swimming beautifully below the surface of the Coral Sea. We were trolling at 5 knots. These are my two favorite baits for the giant black marlin that roam Australia’s Great Barrier Reef during the southern hemisphere’s Spring spawning aggregation of these mighty marine predators. I consider this combination the “marlin equivalent” of the steak and lobster dinner humans call “surf and turf”.
Australia's Great Barrier Reef is the spawning ground for giant black marlin which arrive in the fall each year
When the strike came, it was an attack upon neither of my favorite natural baits, but because of what I had previously derided as such a poorly performing artificial lure, I had refused to use it. Moldcraft’s “Spooler” does not perform well at the high speeds at which I normally troll artificial lures. It is prone to leap out of waves and tumble over, often tangling the hooks and skirts, especially on rough days when the boat would surf and change speed and wake patterns, especially on down sea tacks. I didn’t like the look of the thing out of water and hated the way it ran. It sat, unrigged, in the tackle drawer for over a year.
“You’re missing out Peter B.” John Phillips told me. “You won’t believe how good it works at slow speeds. I call it the ‘scad’. You really ought to try it.” “That’s because you can’t catch scad.” I needled him. “And I’ve told you where to go and on what tide.” “No it’s not. Even when I do I have scad, the “spooler” really works. Try it, I promise you— it works great at low speed. I even use it with live bait sometimes, and just the other day, it got bit instead of the livey!” Phillips replied.
A few days later we were fishing together with a group of friends from the Canary Islands sharing our two boats. It was calm and I had plenty of big baits. Late in the afternoon I wanted to look over a sunken patch of reef in shallow water that held enough toothy critters like wahoo, sharks, barracuda, and large mackerel, to make fishing live bait out of the question. In short, there was no need for the small bait lure I usually pull down the center. I might as well give the spooler another try. Minutes later we were releasing a 200 pound black marlin that passed up the surf and turf combo for a handful of junk food!
Moldcraft’s “spooler” is a soft plastic lure modeled after earlier, homemade, lures that were constructed from discarded wooden spools that had been filled with sewing thread. The “spooler” had a nifty action at the five to six knot speeds that I use for dead bait. But the hydrodynamic instability that worked against it at high speed became an asset. The lure head wiggled and wobbled violently leaving a stream of bubbles (or “smoke” as fanatical fishheads call it) combined with a lively swimming action.
The next day we had three strikes. We caught one marlin on a natural dead bait and caught one and lost one on the lure. “A couple of more days like this and I’ll be a believer!” I told Phillips on the VHF radio. I became a “Spooler” fan! Dead bait anglers, or even live bait anglers, for any species of billfish, should try adding a spooler approximating the size of their natural bait to their spread. You will be pleasantly surprised!
Peter B
For a complete list of our other featured blog posts and to see the full line of Guy Harvey Sportswear, please visit:www.guyharveysportswear.com
When the staff of the Tropic Star Lodge tells you it is a fairly hard 35 minute walk/climb from the lodge, across the peninsula, to the white sand beach, believe it! And that is each way, NOT over and back! And if it has rained earlier in the day, which turns the clay soil into grease, it is even more difficult!
We all made it but found out we were not as fit as we would have liked! If one of us had slipped and been hurt, getting someone with even a minor injury like a twisted ankle or busted leg up, and then down ( down was even worse in the mud), would have been a real challenge. Our clothes were wringing wet with sweat from 100% humidity, hot weather and exertion, when we got back down to safety a drink of water and then a cold beer!
Tropic Star is a spot I have been recommending for decades after I had visited a few times several years ago. I first met Terri Kitteredge and her dad Conway when they visited Australia in 1982. Terri and her husband Mike run a great operation.
Before this trip, I had fished Piñas Bay on big U.S. boats owned by Jerry Dunaway and Jean Paul Richard, but had seen the lodge’s fleet of 31 Bertrams in action. I was also lucky enough to have stayed in the original owner’s private home, now part of the accommodation for guests, and referred to by one and all as “The Palace”.
There is a little cable car up the hill to the palace which we used for what we called a cocktail cruise as we had for a much needed shower at day’s end. Mostly, I walked it as it is just enough of a climb to make you breathe heavily, but always glad you did it —good cardio exercise and not TOO hard.
The efficiency of the crews, mechanics, and support staff, make this arguably the best run and most successful, charter fishing fleet anywhere. With over a dozen identical boats (31 Bertrams, a long established gold standard) fishing daily, there are always extras available and every essential spare part is on site.
Black Marlin are the main species of marling encountered off Tropic Star Lodge on the famous Zane Grey — Photo by Richard Gibson
The boat I was on caught a blue and a sail and lost another blue in 4 days fishing, reasonable action, but not great. Some of our boats had quite a bit more action and had multiple marlin days. The sun does not shine on the same dog’s back every day.
There were good luck and bad luck tales every night over a choice of tasty Piña Coladas, rum drinks or beer before we retired to our luxurious accommodations to shower and get ready for dinner.
It seemed to me that communications between crew and anglers, in both English and Spanish, were not as good as they could have been due to a reluctance of both the local crews and our team to TRY to speak in an unfamiliar language. The better Spanish speaking students translated when necessary and after a couple of days both sides found out the reluctance to attempt to speak together were not necessary and basic communications improved.
When traveling, do not be embarrassed, go ahead and try to communicate. Often, both sides know some words, enough to communicate. Things like “weight “ for more drag, and is NOT “wait”, and let him eat it, got resolved over time.
We came home and I retrieved the computer I had left in the TSA screening area in Miami. What a relief that was!! I had failed to back up files on my new computer and the idea of losing all those magazine articles made me decide to get a new flash drive ASAP!
When I got home, I helped coach some brand new members of the “Young Guns at Quail Creek”, the local scholastic shooting team. Some of the youngsters who started shooting less than a couple of years ago are already winning, not only in junior class, but even winning state championships as High Over All – beating everyone including all the adults and the instructors who got them started.
My hat is off to the entire crew of kids, instructors, parents, owners and staff of Quail Creek Plantation. GREAT JOB!! I really enjoy teaching young people to both fish and to shoot. It is very gratifying to give back some of what I was given when I was a kid! Also, ethical fishing and hunting are the strongest forces for real conservation of our game fish and game animals.
Good fishing wherever you are.
—Peter B
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I recently found an old story I wrote while looking up some information about tagging and its benefits. When “Migratory Movements, Depth Preferences, and Thermal Biology of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna” was published in the 17 August 2001 issue of Science there were some great stories to tell. Stories that had to be kept as secrets until the paper was published in Science.
The data presented, and conclusions drawn from them by a team headed by Dr. Barbara Block from Stanford University (and including scientists, anglers and crew making up a who’s who of tuna angling , research and management) created shocks waves across the Atlantic.
National Public Radio, National Geographic News as well local, regional and national newspapers, had already discussed the ramifications of having tuna tagged off Hatteras, cross the Atlantic Ocean, and even enter the Mediterranean Sea in larger numbers than any previous estimates could imagine. This threw a monkey wrench into all management plans and conservation attempts, based on earlier theories, that eastern and western populations of bluefin tuna were separate and need to be managed separately.
Giant Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, each weighing over a quarter-ton — Photo by Guy Harvey
Two types of tags were used in the study, surgically applied internal “archival” tags and pop-up satellite archival tags (PSAT tags in the article’s jargon). Both showed that fish from the west cross over into the eastern Atlantic. These tags, plus captured fish with conventional spaghetti tags, raised the thorny issue of North American fishermen (commercial and recreational) accepting low catch quotas in order to allow the overfished tuna populations to recover, only to have the fish massacred in huge numbers in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic. (East of longitude 45 degrees West twenty metric tonnes of bluefin tuna were being caught for every tonne caught in the west!)
The Science paper is fascinating but takes some serious reading! It is not something you can glance at and retain. Some highlights, with some input from me from information gleaned during the tagging process, include:
There were 377 electronic tags in this study. Electronic tags were recovered from a few days to 3.6 years later, AND the TAG program continues to produce amazing results. Internal archival tags totaled 279 with 49 tuna being recaptured. This 18% return rate is extremely high and by itself suggests overfishing.
The 90% data acquisition rate from pop-up tags is a marvel of both technology and tuna survival rates. The return rate is higher since the fish does not have to be recaptured and the data is downloaded through the Argos satellite system. Although, the percentage of recovery is higher less information per tag can be retrieved, because of the high energy needed to send a radio signal, not just burn data onto a chip.
There were 7065 conventional spaghetti tags applied by Carolina tuna fishermen between the years 1994 and 2000. There were 292 recoveries (4.1%). This is a high rate in itself and valuable information was added, but it is obvious that trained scientific teams with top anglers and crews are more successful than the general public in properly applying tags. (One reason for non-return is probably mortality where a dead fish sinks or is eaten by sharks and the tag cannot be recovered.)
Some tags could record depth (through pressure) and location (by measuring the levels of light). Sunrise and sunset were the “most significant light events” and with an accurate electronic clock allow extremely precise east/west location and reasonable north/south estimates. It became apparent that Western tuna breed later in their lives than originally thought- another huge consideration in conservation and management.
Deep dives to over 500 fathoms (1000 meters) sometimes resulted in lowered internal body temperatures that experiments at the tuna lab showed to probably be the result of feeding on cold squid or fish living at those depths (Block fed captive yellowfins cold bait and measured cold internal temperatures.)
My question is “HOW DO THEY KNOW?” You can dive half a mile in most parts of the ocean and NOT find a meal!
In the field, the emotional highs and lows were enormous! The successful signal reception of the first pop-up tag started a major round of toasts and celebrations. Shortly after, on a rough and stormy night when the second pop-up tag failed to report in on its scheduled time, long faces abounded- until the weather eased and in calm water the tag sang like a bird to the overhead satellite. This alone allowed an adjustment, low tech but important, in additional buoyancy for subsequent tags.
Dr. Block was reduced to tears on the flying bridge one rough day when a large sea lifted the boat and one rudder hit and killed a tuna we were trying to tag. “I’m trying to save them- not kill them!” she sobbed.
The cooperation of anglers and crews, and their donations of time and money were an extremely important factor in the amazing success of this study and along with dozens of scientists and technicians all involved are to be highly congratulated! For more information get a copy of Science (17 August 2001). .
Recently, Paxson Offield was initiated into the IGFA Hall of Fame and a high light of his career and work in conservation was an ongoing program of PSAT tags in marlin. Currently, the internationally noted artist Dr. Guy Harvey is also a leader in not only tagging but other conservation initiatives.
We need people like Dr. Block, Dr. Harvey and Mr. Offield to help conserve our precious stocks of “Marine Megafauna”. AND we all need to do our part to help out.
See my next column in Marlin Magazine for a story of a Sportfishing CLUB gone BAD and becoming a detrimental group of swordfish killing amateur professionals.
Peter B Wright
For a complete list of our other featured blog posts and to see the full line of Guy Harvey Sportswear, please visit:www.guyharveysportswear.com
I seriously question the speeds often given for any fish, especially when Wikipedia and some reputable some encyclopedias claim that sailfish are supposed to be the fastest fish and can hit 60 miles per hour.
I once went to several references and online sites looking for Orca speeds. I found a range of speeds from 25 to 35 miles per hour (from here on shortened to mph) on the publications and web sites. None were anywhere near as fast as some the speeds some fish can supposedly attain.
Since Orcas can run down, catch, and eat, blue fin tuna, I question all the old, unsubstantiated fish speeds. I believe the speed of most fish is highly exaggerated by anglers, especially fishing writers. How excited can a reader get when reading about a bonefish tearing line off a reel at 15 mph, which is slower than many humans can run? In my youth, I could run down a beach in shallow water fast enough to avoid losing line to even a big bone.
Billfish, like this jumping Blue Marlin, are considered to be some of the fastest swimming fish in the sea. Photo by Richard Gibson
As a long time big game fishing guide, part time and ex Biological Oceanographer with decades of personal experience, ( called anecdotal evidence by scientists) I am positive no marine fish can exceed about 25 mph. I often chase large marine fish (tuna and marlin) with a boat and quickly catch them at 20 mph.
In addition, if a fish jumped straight up at 60 mph (88 ft/sec), simple math shows that after one sec the force of gravity (32ft/sec/sec) would have slowed the fish to 38 mph (88ft/sec -32ft/sec = 56ft sec which is 38 mph) The height of the fish at the end of that one second would be 72 ft and it would still going up at 38 mph. Height equals AVERAGE velocity times one second. Average V would be 88 + 56 divided by 2 giving a height of 72 feet.
Last but not least, there is the study AFTCO did decades ago which showed how much frictional drag there was on given lengths of line being pulled through the water. If any fish could go even 30 mph, they would break off before any crew could clear the lines and merely backing up would not make enough difference to avoid breaking the line.
Big fish eat little fish and the biggest predatory fish are the fastest. I doubt very much any fish can go 30 mph — it is too easy for Orcas to catch them for fish to obtain that kind of speed and no one says Orcas can hit 60!
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visit:www.guyharveysportswear.com
In 1986 we were fishing one of the last Giant Tuna tournaments to be held in the Bahamas. Fishing was ok that week but we wound up winning with one fish. Ralph Mongeau caught a 615 pound tuna aboard “Raptor” on a classic day with a stiff southeast breeze. The tuna were pouring but not biting, well and ours was the biggest fish caught that week.
One evening, we watched movies from the International Game Fishing Association’s (IGFA) film library. Hundreds of anglers had donated their old fishing films and many of them had been copied onto video tape. The first film was shot in the early 1950’s and had wonderful action shots including footage taken from a small airplane that showed huge schools of tuna crossing the shallow flats south of Cat Cay. We could see fish peel off from the school and strike the bait trolled behind boats that were the state of the art “fishing cruisers” of that time, according to the announcer.
The film that really got us excited showed one of the greatest fishing guides of all time, Tommy Gifford. I met Gifford several times when I was a teenager and was most impressed with what a crusty old so and so he was, yet, he never paid me too much attention – I wish I had seen the movie before I met him. One way or another, I would have pestered him into letting me hang around, ride along, or something.
Marlin were already being caught in the Pacific by pioneering Australians, New Zealanders and Hawaiians. The Avalon Tuna Club was already a going concern with many striped marlin catches and Zane Grey was making expeditions to the South Pacific islands that have not been matched even with today’s motherships.
Ernest Hemingway advised Gifford of commercial marlin fishing techniques used in Cuba (later immortalized in his novel “The Old Man and the Sea”). Mike Lerner (proprietor and a founder of the Lerner Stores as well as the major financial contributor for the fledgling IGFA) chartered Gifford in 1934 to try for a blue marlin off Bimini. Gifford and Lerner decided to give these big cousins of sailfish a try. The movie footage is superb by any standards, doubly so considering when it was taken. Greyhounding marlin with a recognizable but unspoilt Bimini in the background, drew applause from the watching anglers and crew.
When Gifford put on a life jacket as he prepared to wire a good sized blue marlin, Lerner had, alongside the boat, cries of surprise and comments of sarcasm coming from the salty viewers. Then, Gifford billed the marlin like a sailfish. Cheers of surprise and approval echoed through the warm Bahamian night as Gifford billed a series of marlin ranging up to almost 500 pounds!
There were no gaffs -just a short nuggety young man who never let go once he had hold of a bill! “What a stud! I don’t believe it and I’m seeing it!” were two of the many shouted comments as Gifford was shaken like a rag doll. Never once did he relinquish a grip. It is still one of the most awesome fishing movies I have ever seen.
The IGFA museum in Dania, FL is the ultimate destination for angling enthusiasts and those interested in the complete historical record of the sport. It is open to the public 7 days a week
I had been impressed by the IGFA Hall of Fame and Museum when I attended its opening but hadn’t had a chance to check out the library with its video viewing and reading rooms. “Mike, I used to come and hang out once in a while and look at the old books when the office was in Pompano. Is the library open to the public?” I asked the then IGFA president Mike Leech at a chance meeting. “You mean you haven’t been in yet?” was his astonished reply. Two days later, I drove down and was floored by what I found. Leech introduced me to head librarian Gail Morchower, who showed me through a state of the art facility that has since seen a fair bit of me. (A few years ago I was inducted into the Hall Of Fame and some of my log books are now included.)
First, we entered a rare book room containing first editions (all of Zane Grey for starters) and original albums and logs donated by pioneering anglers. The humidity and temperature controlled room is a fishing history researcher’s nirvana. The books can be viewed and read but not removed from the library.
There are two video viewing rooms with comfortable seating to view the more than 1500 videos, including copies of the early movies mentioned above (and hundreds more!) You would have trouble reading just the current magazines as fast as they come in and there is a huge library of older periodicals as well as over 12,000 books. You can find books, videos and magazines from a computer list of titles, authors, and subjects. (It took Morchower about 30 seconds to tell me the year of the video I had seen in Bimini 15 years earlier.)
The IGFA Hall of Fame and Museum is open 10 to 6 daily and admission is free for IGFA members. The airy and spacious reading rooms offer superb views of four wetland ecological zones. Library, museum and ecological classroom, the only thing you won’t have enough of is time.
For a complete list of our other featured blog posts and to see the full line of Guy Harvey Sportswear, please visit:www.guyharveysportswear.com
Bait and switch, also known as pitching bait, is a great way to fish for world records. By trolling hookless lures as teasers then throwing out a bait on the appropriate line class results in almost every bite being a potential world record. It is also an exciting way to fish for billfish. It is dramatically NOT the most efficient way to catch billfish!
“That was a cluster!” is often the last word from a frustrated captain, who could see it all unfold and come unraveled. The average amateur crew will foul up far more fish than they can catch when using bait and switch. Artificial lures are the way to go if you do not have an expert, professional crew and want to catch billfish on light tackle. AND, you should be able to catch at least half the fish that bite your smaller lures.
For tag and release angling on sail fish, white marlin and striped marlin, use small lures and small hooks. There is no need to free spool the lures. Instead, hold the rod tip high over your head and drop the rod tip rapidly down toward the fish when you see it start to strike. This technique throws several feet of slack into the line and allows the fish to get the lure and hooks into its mouth. It is called “Rod Tipping”.
I use lures even on light line. When I am trying to find a body of fish in tournaments, even with 12 lb. and 16 lb. line, I troll lures. The lures I use have heads with a diameter at the forward tip of the head of, at most, 9/16” to 3/4”. Flat heads pull easier than slanted heads or cupped heads. Nothing makes more fuss or pulls harder for a given diameter than a cup-headed “chugger” lure. They are great lures but need to be used at slower speeds if used on light line.
Slant faced lures, “straight runners” or plungers are intermediate between chuggers and cylinders. Even the largest cone shaped lure heads pull surprisingly easy. The diameter of the tip of a cone shaped lure is almost zero and a light lure will tend to plane along the surface. “Green Machines” and Moldcraft “Hi Speed” (A terrible misnomer as it is awful over 7 or 8 knots.) are true cone shapes and pull lightly enough to use on 6 pound line!
Truncated cones like MoldCraft “Wide Range” and other similar lures, truly cylindrical lures like the MoldCraft “Hooker” or “Four Eyed Monster”, as well as many excellent similarly shaped custom lures, are very stable even at very high speeds (up to 17 knots) if the length of the head is 3 times the diameter. Head diameter, lure weight and trolling speed determine how hard the lure pulls and what line classes can be used with that lure. With long 10” or 12” skirts and a truncated cylindrical head shape no more than 5/8” in diameter, I would happily fish at 8 knots for any billfish up to at least 100 pounds on 6 or 8 pound line. With a pair of 5/0 to 8/0 hooks on similar “needlefish” lures, the average angler should catch over half the billfish that bite on 12 pound test—much better than all, but the most expert anglers can achieve on dead natural bait.
The limiting factor on how big a lure you can pull is ultimately related to how hard the lure pulls at 8 knots. Light monofilament stretches up to 30% and light rods bend under tension, then spring back when the tension is released. A lure that surfaces and comes partly clear of the water, pulls less hard for a fraction of a second. In that time, the stretchy nylon contracts and the rod straightens out and the lure is catapulted toward the boat. This is unacceptable! It results in tangled hooks and leaders, causes high rpm spins, and on very light line, can cause a broken line because the lure is now being pulled sideways through the water. Some so-called experts hate lures because novices that use them commonly beat the pros in tournaments!
For a complete list of our other featured blog posts and to see the full line of Guy Harvey Sportswear, please visit:www.guyharveysportswear.com
Wood, steel, aluminum and fiberglass are all perishable to an extent we only ignore at our own great risk. The decay and decomposition of any boat hull is an ongoing process. Fortunately, we can delay, and even reverse, the process, but it takes both time and money.
Keeping your body healthy and well nourished can slow the process of dying, and any well built boat can last a long time and remain healthy and structurally sound if it is well maintained. Unfortunately, like the seemingly healthy person who is about to have a massive heart attack or stroke, but shows no signs of anything except perfect health, boats can also appear to be in “Bristol” condition until just before a catastrophic failure. Cosmetics can hide a fatal disease.
The majority of sportfishing boat hulls from 30-75 feet are constructed of some combination of fiberglass and/or wood (with more exotic “composite” materials frequently playing key roles). The ability of resins, adhesives, welds and mechanical fastenings to hold things together is of paramount importance.
Most of the chemical bonds are internal, and other types of joins and secondary bondings are hidden by structures like tanks, furniture and decks added after the original hull was constructed. Modern wooden boats are generally sheathed in fiberglass or some other resinated fabric. Many problems or potential problems can not be seen by the average owner or captain.
Even a skilled boat builder may be totally unable to determine what is still sound and what has faults and flaws that may fail under the stress of heavy weather. Old fashioned surveyors tapping with hammers and listening for the change in sound that indicates a void or laminate failure would miss many potentially catastrophic flaws.
Luckily, both physicians and surveyors have miraculous new tools to help them investigate beneath the surface, many of them using similar technologies. Think of a marine survey as a physical exam. X-rays, sonograms, and radar type of technology are all used by modern marine surveyors. Not getting a hull survey is an enormous acceptance of risk and one that could (usually would) stop an owner from getting adequate insurance.
The phenomenon of “osmosis”, a blistering of fiberglass hulls, is of particular concern in older fiberglass hulls. I would never be involved in purchasing an older glass hull without having a competent surveyor check the hull with a moisture meter. Repairs can be made but they are expensive.
WARNING – even the best surveys include the phrase “inaccessable to inspection” with regard to major components that can not be adequately inspected and surveyors do NOT accept liability for potential problems in these areas.
Can you See From the Helm?
I get to go for sea trials on multi million dollar boats I would not accept as a present. If I can not see the bow, or at least the deck hand on the bow, from the helm station, I do not want to dock the boat.
If I can not see the angler in the chair well enough to be able to see if the reel is turning over I do not want to fish this boat seriously. It may be fine for cruising but not for fishing.
Can you see the electronics? Can you see them in real world conditions when the sun’s light is at a low angle? Do you have to stand up and lean over to read any of the display screens because the screen is mounted at less that a 60 degree angle (measured above the horizontal)? Any one of these being answered “yes” would mean I have to spend money correcting that particular flaw and could tip the scales toward a different boat.
Engine Room Lay Out
Engine room layouts have improved enormously in recent years. Manufacturers have made most of the critically important preventative maintenance much easier to do. (If you do not know what this entails plan on hiring a captain.)
Fluids and filters must be easy to change or they may not get done regularly enough. This includes primary and secondary fuel filters, lube oil filters, coolant filters and all fluids.
It should also be easy to do battery checks, get access to bilge pumps, fuel priming pumps, shaft glands or seals and all refrigeration and air conditioning pumps. You should not have to cut salon soles (engine room overheads) to work on main engines.
The key word is prevention! A good boatman avoids trouble by anticipating it. On a good boat this is easy to achieve. Look for it and make it high on your list of necessary features.
Beware a Cream Puff
Most buyers would consider low hours of use by the previous owner as a plus when looking at a used boat but watch out. Low engine hours and lack of use by a loving owner can actually be a negative.
Consider these facts. When an internal combustion engine is first shut down there is a film of oil coating all its moving parts. Over time this oil drains away leaving the metal dry and unprotected. Since at least one cylinder on every engine has an exhaust valve open, or an exhaust port exposed, there will be some degree of exposure to a salt air environment, even on turbocharged engines, and over time a thin coating of rust will form.
If special lay-up procedures are not followed when the engine is left idle for long periods of storage, the first few seconds when the engine runs after a long time without starting will cause more wear than hundreds or even thousands of hours of normal use. The rust particles on the cylinder walls can act like a grinding compound when the piston begins to move up and down and can create enormous wear to pistons and cylinder liners!
Towers
The higher up you are the better you can see ahead of the boat, and with experience the easier it is to read the depth of the water before you cross over it. I can not take boats safely to some of my favorite places in the Bahamas unless I have the advantage of height of eye a tower gives me.
Most people do not use a tower for anything except styling and are not therefore familiar with what make a tower functional. Unfortunately, most tower manufacturers never use their products, so functional towers these days are scarce as hen’s teeth.
It should go without saying, a tower should be easy to climb (not too steep) and it should be easy to enter the upper platform. Controls should be easy to reach from the padded corner of a belly rail so the skipper can always hang on with at least one hand and never has to use both hands to adjust gear shifters or throttles. A good tower has all the electronics a flying bridge has and they should be easily visible. A loud hailer with a microphone in the tower and a speaker under the cockpit overhang makes communications between the cockpit and the tower easy and saves a lot of yelling.
Sea Trials
Sea trials are an absolute necessity and the rougher the better. You might have the wettest boat ever built and never know it if you do not have some chop and at least a modest breeze. Wet boats often have poor vision ahead, a serious impairment. (On one boat test of a well known brand of express boat I was afraid I would run over a wind surfer because I could barely make out their bright sails.)
ALWAYS try to run the boat on one engine! Can you steer in either direction? Or is this a one way only rig that would be a nightmare to dock with one engine shut down? What about windage and maneuvering in a tight channel?
Does she track straight in a following sea? Does the auto pilot handle her or will you be hand steering constantly, in a quartering or following sea? What about beating into it? Does she come down softly or with a bone jarring SMACK that will eventually loosen fastenings and beat swinging doors off her hinges?
We boat for the fun of it. The more advance research you do, the better the professional help you can hire, and the better your new boat suits your needs the more fun you will have.
Happy boating and good fishing!
For a complete list of our other featured blog posts and to see the full line of Guy Harvey Sportswear, please visit:www.guyharveysportswear.com
All boats are compromises. There is no single perfect boat anymore than there is one perfect car. Ferrari sports cars, Land Cruiser SUVs, Ford pick up trucks, and Chevy soccer mom vans are all designed to fill a specific niche in the automotive world and each has special functions.
Boats are much like cars. I will, in this article, only discuss twin engine, diesel powered, sport fishing boats over 32 feet in length. That still leaves an enormous amount of variability and equally many pros and cons of the multiple variables.
Rather than start out looking for a 42 foot Brand A or a 53 foot Brand B, a prospective boat buyer should start by drawing up a comprehensive list of where he intends to go, and the maximum number of people who will be on board 90% of the time (It is crazy to buy a boat with enough staterooms to give optimum privacy to the one biggest crew you will ever have in the next 3 years!). Then, calculate how much fuel you need to make the longest crossing you intend to make more than once or twice a year. Carrying a bladder or some drums once a year beats having a boat with the capabilities of which you rarely use. Here is why:
Size Matters
The size of your new dream boat may be a lot like the responsibilities and demands of your job. According to “The Peter Principle” an executive who performs well tends to be promoted until he reaches a level at which the demands of his position overcome his abilities and he can no longer be promoted or maintain his position. He or she is pushed sideways into a job with equal (or lesser) status, but one where he will remain for the rest of his career.
In my analogy, I see one reason for the thousands of boats that sit, wasting away, in canals, at docks behind their owner’s house. Often they are just too much for the owner to cope with! In particular, they may be too big for the owner to enjoy taking out by himself, or with family and friends, but no professional crew.
A 50 foot plus convertible is too big to take out for an hour or two when her owner finally does get a little free time. It takes so long to wash down the entire exterior, chamois off the water droplets, including the spray curtains, and of course do the engine room checks that it is not worth the hassle.
I always quip “Let me make sure we’re not sinking” when I enter the hot engine room after even a short trip, but sometimes we are! The last time I had that sinking feeling when I climbed into the engine room water was pouring from a dripless shaft seal that had a rubber boot that needed adjusting. Nothing really major, but enough to make me always check the engine room while I am still dirty, and before I have a cocktail.
Then you still have to clean the interior, vacuum the carpets, wipe off the countertops, do the inside surface of the windows – ad infinitum! The care and maintenance of a boat is a direct function of the area of its cockpit deck, fore deck, bridge deck, salon and galley soles, and number of marine heads that need to be cleaned. Size does matter, and this is where one of the inherent conflicts in boat brokerage comes into play. Brokers get paid a commission on the total cost of any boat they sell, and bigger boats cost more and create bigger commissions.
There is an old joke about the winter it got so cold in Florida that the yacht brokers had their hands in their own pockets! Unfortunately, there really are way too many sleazy yacht brokers. However, a good, reliable broker is your friend and the expert upon whom you rely. Finding a good one is all important!
Choosing a Broker
A reputable broker should gladly give you names of his or her previous clients so that you can call or visit to inquire about the relationship between the broker and his client, and the satisfaction of any transactions they had shared. Getting the right broker is in many ways the most important part of looking for a boat.
It is not a broker’s job to sell you a boat, it is his job to steer you toward boats that fill the bill your descriptions and discussions have indicated would suit you. Often this is a boat you would never have thought to look at! The ultimate decision must be yours.
Jeff Fay and I once bought a Rybovich for less than the price of a far lesser production boat that I had in mind because a (now retired) broker friend, Peter Schweitzer, found her languishing in Sarasota. “Humdinger” was, and is, what her name implies and she is still going strong 30 years later. Still under the care of my friend and ex-partner, she is one of the prettiest and most successful charter boats in Kona, Hawaii and still strong and sea worthy- thanks to a good broker with his finger on the pulse of things and a wide range of contacts.
In direct contrast, I once went out on a sea trial with a friend. My friend really liked his broker, considered him a friend, and trusted his advice. I knew it would do little good, and only damage my relationship with my friend, if I mentioned that not only was I getting half soaked, I was about to lose half the fillings in my back teeth on the ride which the broker was describing to our friend/client as both soft and dry! The broker was selling a boat, not guiding the customer in his decision.
The deal was made but the owner did not keep his new boat for very long. The professional captain he had to hire to run his new, bigger boat steered him into a much better choice for him to achieve long term boating pleasure.
Surveyor- A Buyer’s Friend
If a broker helps you understand what style and size of boat suits you best, a good marine surveyor is the hero who protects you from dangers you can not see or imagine when you have finally found what seems to be a suitable choice.
Perhaps the most anxious I have ever been during a boat survey was when I was in the Canary Islands and on the selling side. I knew my boat, a custom built, foam sandwich composite 40 footer named “Duyfken” well and loved her. She had carried me through hazardous situations over thousands of miles of ocean and we had caught every species of billfish off her.
The surveyor, a Spanish gentleman, with a degree from M.I.T., was the most thorough going I have ever seen. He went over her with a fine tooth comb. What if he found something seriously wrong that even I did not know about? At that moment, the importance of getting a good surveyor the next time I was on the buying side became more obvious than it ever had been before.
Part II to follow
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Since I usually want to catch some other species in addition to billfish, color WILL matter on my smaller lures. I use blue, black or purple on big lures up close, in the wake, and like some red long lures because I can see that color easily. BUT, color does not matter for blue and black marlin—use your personal favorites!!!
I would strongly suggest NOT pulling a teaser, but would pull a Soft Head Magnum Super Chugger in a very short teaser position—with a single 12/0 hook located way back in the tail. I would use an 8 foot trace leader of 480 cable with a 20 foot wind on leader of 400 mono. Fish this lure right out of a rod holder in one corner—not in an outrigger. Change to a Wide Range in rough weather if the chugger jumps and flips over in rough weather. Have a fairly heavy strike drag, for example, 25 pounds and only back off when you get at least 200 yards off the reel. You won’t get a lot of bites on the very closest lure, but when you do, it will often be a really nice one!
Proper lure spread is key to gaining the fish's attention
If anything, EXCEPT a BIG blue or black marlin, tries to bite the large “Magnum” lure, I would take it away and pitch a smaller natural bait on a large spinning reel with lots of 50 pound Dacron backing and a 100 yard top shot of good mono. This is a perfect set up for striped marlin and all smaller species, as well as blues or blacks up to at least 200 pounds.
On the next short position, a flat line or a short rigger about 50 to 100 feet back, pull a Senior size wide range rigged the same way and also only let a big marlin eat it.
On the shorter of your long outriggers—say 100 to 150 foot back—pull a standard size chugger if it is calm. Pull a standard wide range if it is rough and the chugger style jumps out of the water too much. Have a single 11/0 well back in this lure on 400 mono.
Pull a standard wide range on the long rigger on at least 300 pound leader if using mono leader. Use two good 8/0 or 9/0 hooks, one well up into the head and other way back. (ALL the “way back” hooks on these lures should have the eye of the hook just barely covered by the strands of the skirts.) This is the first lure I would care about color. Use chocolate or pink, if there are any squid around, blue or blue and white if you see lots of flying fish, and green and yellow if there are mackerel or scads of this color. I also like 200 pound nylon coated cable as leader on this and other little lures. The long rigger can be up to 300 feet behind the boat.
I only ever use a single skirt on Mold Craft lures. When too many dingle dangles are cut off cut them all off and glue the inside skirt in place. You get twice the bang for your buck.
For the very long “shot gun” I would fish a small metal headed (3-5 inch) jet or bullet lure in a pink or chocolate color with a strong 8/0 or 9/0 SS hook on 300 mono. Pull the shot gun at least 50 yards back. The littlest lure will catch more fish than anything, except maybe the standard wide range, and do NOT be surprised if a 500 or even 800 pound marlin nails it!!! Again, I often use nylon coated cable for my trace leader. (Always use 2 sleeves when crimping this leader.)
For a complete list of our other featured blog posts and to see the full line of Guy Harvey Sportswear, please visit: www.guyharveysportswear.com
How much of the color range a marlin can see is still an open question
Among the questions I get asked the most, two of the most frequent are: “What colors do you prefer in marlin lures?” or “Can marlin see color?”
Answer number one is “I don’t really care” — which is only partially true. I tend to prefer colors that I can see. I like colors that allow me to quickly see the lure when I glance back at the baits. Red catches my eye and so does white. Purple isn’t bad, and an orange and black combo is quickly picked up by my eye when I look back at the lure spread.
I also like colors that remind me of something that actually exists in the world of marlin food stuff. Blue and white reminds me of flying fish. Both purple, and a combo of red, white, and blue look a lot like the color I see when I get a side view of skip jack tuna surfing down the waves. Yellow and green is the color of small dolphin fish and some of the scad mackerel that most bill fish regularly snack on. I have had great success on chocolate or reddish brown lures that look to me like squid and stay down and DON’T make a bubble trail. I think it doesn’t really matter.
The answer to the second question is “No one really knows.” We have a few ways of making educated guesses but there is still some argument among the top bill fish scientists about what bill fish can see.
There is no doubt that some fish (including tuna) have excellent color vision. The rainbow hued reef fish species that divers and snorkelers revel in should have color vision — Why else would they be colored like that? — and they do. They live near the surface where all the colors of the spectrum still exist and use color displays for a wide range of behavior including mating, species recognition, and territorial defense.
Bill fish cannot be kept alive in a confined space. We can only look at their eyes and compare them to the eyes of other species: fish, mammals, or reptiles and compare the physiology. From sophisticated experiments on other animals we know which types of cells are necessary to see color. Marlin eyes are mainly lacking in the types of cells known as “cone” cells needed for color vision.
Scientists can also analyze the chemicals present in the specialized cells that send the signals to the brain. Marlin retinal cells have a high proportion of the photo active chemicals known from other species to respond to the wave lengths of light in the part of the spectrum we call blue but have little of the chemicals for other colors. The inference has been that marlin see mainly shades of blue (the only color left at extreme depths), but can’t distinguish between other colors and are “color blind”. A new study by an Australian researcher indicates that marlin might have some limited ability to perceive color.
The only CERTAIN thing about lure color is that if the lure does not first attract a fisherman it will not get used. If it does not get used it will not get bitten. No marlin, anywhere in the world, has ever stolen a lure from a tackle shop or out of a tackle drawer.
I once brought in a particularly ugly, over skirted, all white with rust stains, lure, that ran like an old rag that a client had asked me to put out. When asked why, I said, “it didn’t run very well as it had too many skirts.”
“I’ve already weighed one over 1,000 pounds and another over 900 pounds on that lure” was the hurt reply at my rejection of his favorite lure.
Needless to say I put it back out and left it out!!!
I would like to welcome you to the Guy Harvey Sportswear web site. Here we will feature my blog where I will report on expeditions, adventures, and various marine conservation efforts. We will also include various guest bloggers, videos and photos that I believe you will find interesting, whether you are a serious fishing or diving enthusiast, or simply someone who cares about the marine resource, loves living the coastal lifestyle, or just wants to learn more about Guy Harvey sportswear.
I would like to welcome you to the Guy Harvey Sportswear web site. Here we will feature my blog where I will report on expeditions, adventures, and various marine conservation efforts. We will also include various guest bloggers, videos and photos that I believe you will find interesting, whether you are a serious fishing or diving enthusiast, or simply someone who cares about the marine resource, loves living the coastal lifestyle, or just wants to learn more about Guy Harvey sportswear.
