For three days, Danthony Winslow and Lathan Price had been, as they call it, “tuna wishing.” They’d been drifting live bait for bluefin tuna off the coast of North Carolina, facing sub-freezing cold in an open 23-foot skiff in the Atlantic, which at least had been mercifully calm most of the time.

“We’d been out there three days and didn’t get a sniff,” said Winslow, a 22-year-old commercial fisherman from Morehead City, North Carolina. “And we’d frozen our butts off.” They needed to break the spell, so on the fourth day they did something a little different. “We brought along a Mr. Buddy propane heater,” Winslow said with a laugh. “In an open boat, it wasn’t much.”

Price, a 21-year-old whose primary gig is as a charter captain, agreed. “At least it knocked the chill off,” he said. The pair, friends since middle school, were huddled around the heater when something else happened that made them forget about the cold. They finally got a bite.

Bluefin Tuna from a Skiff

More than five hours later, the men finally had the fish aboard — and it was nearly half as long as the boat. The 115-inch bluefin would core out at 700 pounds — not a record, but an amazing catch from a small boat.

Price and Winslow are both from fishing families. Price is a captain with Legacy Fishing Charters out of Morehead City. His uncle Eric Price runs the Offshore Outlaw, which has been featured on “Wicked Tuna.” Most of Winslow’s commercial fishing centers on multi-day bottom-fishing trips.

When tuna season opened on Dec. 1, that became their focus. They really hoped they could get it done on Price’s 23-foot Riddick Bayrunner flat-bottom skiff.

“The tuna come in really shallow here,” Winslow said. “We were fishing what we call the ‘Shoals’ off Cape Lookout in about 50 to 60 feet of water. We could see the Lookout lighthouse where we were.”

They were live-lining 3- to 5-pound live bluefish — which they’d caught the night before — on 14/O Owner live bait hooks. “We were out there with about 10 other boats,” Price said.

Fishing had turned on and several boats had hooked up, including Price’s uncle, Eric. “We saw some birds and started making our way over toward them,” Winslow said. Then, boom! The tuna took off on its expected long and fast run.

Fighting a Giant Bluefin from a Small Boat

“They just smoke the reel,” said Price, who was using a Penn International 80-wide spooled with a combination of 200-pound braid, a top shot of 200-pound mono, and a 200-pound fluorocarbon leader. “This one was a solid run of 400 to 500 yards.”

After getting the boat turned and closing some distance, it was time to go to work. “It took us probably an hour just to get him close,” Price said. The pair traded turns on the rod, which was secured in a bow-mounted swivel rod holder. After a few hours the tuna finally showed itself.

“It came up and was just paddling on the surface,” Price said. “Then I knew what we were into.”  

Eventually they got the fish to the boat, but it wasn’t over. “You still lose a lot of them when they get close,” Price said. “It gets hectic.”

The men were able to secure the tuna with a harpoon and tail rope. The next challenge? Getting the fish into the boat, which GPS showed had traveled more than 12 miles during the fight.

Fortunately, Eric Price was on site in his boat and more than happy to help his nephew. After marrying up to the younger Price’s skiff, Eric Price and his two crew came aboard. Together the five men were able to get the tuna aboard the skiff. At the dock, the tuna measured 115 inches, fork-length and weighed exactly 700 pounds after being cored (head and entrails removed).

A Bluefin Tuna Payday

Lathan Price’s previous biggest tuna was a 658-pounder caught while fishing with his uncle. Winslow said he doesn’t know a bigger bluefin in his family’s long fishing history.

At the dock the pair made a deal with a broker. It will be a couple of weeks before they find out how much the tuna will bring at market. It could be $10 or more a pound.

As they wait for their payday, Price and Winslow haven’t been loafing. Every day that weather allows, they are out looking for another big tuna. They haven’t had another bite in the days after their catch, but it doesn’t sting quite so much. “It will be a not-so-cold winter now,” Price said with a laugh.

The post Monster Bluefin Tuna from a Skiff appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Firecrown, the largest media platform for affluent enthusiasts, has acquired Active Interest Media’s (AIM) Marine Group, a premier source for boating content covering yachting, sailing, fishing, and boating. The acquisition includes:

• Consumer Titles: Sail, Anglers Journal, Power & Motoryacht, Yachts International, Passagemaker, Soundings 
• B2B Brand: Trade Only 
• Events and Education: Trawlerfest, Boaters University

Andy Clurman, CEO of Active Interest Media commented, “Firecrown has built an incredible platform in the Aviation and Marine categories. As we further align our portfolio around home building and home arts, Craig Fuller is a fantastic new owner to take our marine assets to the next level.”

Firecrown is already a leader in marine content and entertainment, but with this transaction, the marine platform has grown to 21 titles, serving all aspects of the recreational marine business. 

Firecrown’s marine platform now includes:

• Boating: Boating, Soundings, Wakeboarding, Boaters University
• Yachts: Power & Motoryacht, Yachting, Yachts International, Passagemaker, Trawlerfest
• Fishing: Salt Water Sportsman, Sport Fishing, Sport Fishing TV, Anglers Journal
• Sailing: Sail, Sailing World, Cruising World, Helly Hansen Regatta Series
• Marine B2B: Trade Only

Fuller, founder and CEO of Firecrown, stated, “We are excited to bring these leading marine media brands onto the Firecrown platform. This will allow us to offer advertisers greater distribution and our audience more differentiated content. Our goal is to invest significantly in the next generation of these brands.”

Firecrown plans to retain AIM’s editorial, sales and publishing staff, aiming to leverage synergies for growth in digital, video and events. With this acquisition, Firecrown is the leading media platform in the affluent enthusiast category with more than 50 affluent brands across the marine, aviation and hobby sectors. 

About Firecrown:

Firecrown isn’t just the leading media platform for affluent enthusiasts; it’s pioneering the fusion of content and commerce. With more than 50 prestigious publications in the marine, aviation, and hobby markets, Firecrown goes beyond traditional media. Its business encompasses e-commerce, finance and real estate, all tailored to the communities engaged by its media outlets. Serving more than 24 million U.S. households classified as affluent enthusiasts, these consumers have considerable disposable income and are keen to invest in their passions and adventures. Firecrown is headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The post Firecrown Acquires Active Interest Media’s Marine Group appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The talk of fishing social media this past month has been about a possible new world-record yellowfin tuna landed off Mexico. Here’s the complete story: On a 10-day fishing trip to the Pacific waters of Baja, led by Capt. Justin Fleck of the Excel, a group of anglers set out in search of giant yellowfin tuna. Mega yellowfins are sometimes called “cows” and range in size from 200 to 300 pounds.

No one can argue that angler Earl Gill IV came out on top, bringing to the boat a jaw-dropping 443-pounder. Now, he might be an IGFA champion. His “super cow,” a rare yellowfin tuna weighing more than 300 pounds, was weighed on a certified IGFA scale and submitted to the IGFA on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2024, in San Diego, California. If approved, his catch would take over as the new all-tackle world record for yellowfin tuna.

Fishing for Giant Yellowfins

“We went down to the Lower Banks and there was one particular bank that had all the signs of tuna,” said Capt. Fleck. “It seemed like they were just starting to filter into the area, but the ones [showing] were nice big ones.

“On the first day we got there, we saw them swimming around the boat, but they were lethargic and wouldn’t bite. We only got one fish that day — a 309-pounder on the chunk. We had a family meeting and talked about if we wanted to give it another day, and everyone was up for the challenge.”

The morning of Monday, Nov. 11, another angler aboard the Excel got tight to a giant, hooking into a 275-pound tuna on a sinker rig. After that catch, it seemed like all life disappeared from the area.

Just as Fleck was about to pull anchor, a couple of fish started showing up on the radar. Gill quickly deployed his chunk line after the captain announced they spotted fish. Armed with a California-style rail rod and Okuma Makaira 20 — a 2-speed lever drag reel spooled with 100-pound-test line — he worked the aft corner of the boat.

A Yellowfin Tuna Catch to Remember

The yellowfin tuna took Gill’s chunk bait sitting 150 feet down, sending him racing toward the bow, ripping line the whole time. He knew he had something special on the line. Looking around the boat, other anglers were hooked up battling fish, but his fight felt much different. His fish took an amazing amount of 100-pound-test line, eventually stopping before the reel bottomed out.

After a tense one-hour standoff with his super cow, Gill found himself at a standstill. Fleck had to pull anchor to try to budge the fish from the bottom. The captain positioned the boat over the top of it, and Gill got to work. As the fish rose closer to the surface, he couldn’t feel the tail beating of a tuna swimming in death spirals, so the crew wondered if Gill had hooked something other than a yellowfin.

But they soon had an answer. As sometimes happens when targeting monster blue marlin, Gill’s fish died down deep. He had to pull the dead weight of his super cow up from the depths, a more grueling task than if the fish was still alive.  

“It was my first cow!” explained Gill. “I was hoping for a warmup cow, but I ended up getting the big one. The Makaira gearing worked perfectly. I think a lot of things lined up to help me land this fish.”

Capt. Justin Fleck isn’t new to putting his anglers on near record-breaking tuna. The boat, captain and crew have one of the best reputations in the San Diego long-range fleet, serving up trips that produce giant cow tuna. This record yellowfin was caught on Okuma’s Makaira Black Series reel, which features a silver-etched yellowfin tuna on its frame. How fitting that Gill had the right tackle at the right time to land his historic catch, potentially beating out the current world-record 427-pounder.

The post Yellowfin Shatters Current World Record appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

World Record Pacific Bonefish from Honolulu, Hawaii

Triana holds seven all tackle and line class records for Pacific bones, including one 10-pounder.

“Pacific bonefish on ultra light tackle in Hawaii has been the most challenging record to break,” notes Triana. “It’s difficult to find a Pacific bonefish large enough to eclipse an existing record, because those
larger specimens are few and far between, and spook so easily.”  

World Record Yelloweye Rockfish from Seward, Alaska

Triana has captured 19 IGFA records in this small town two and a half hours south of Anchorage. Among the record-breaking species: yelloweye rockfish and Pacific cod.

“These species are some of the oldest fish on the planet, reaching 80 to 100 years old,” says Triana. “Having the opportunity to fish for large specimens gives you multiple chances to encounter that perfect fish.”

World Record Grass Carp in Miami, Florida

Triana’s hometown has provided him access to myriad oddball species including hornet tilapia, Orinoco sailfin catfish, Oscar, and a record-breaking 48-pound, 12-ounce grass carp caught in the suburb of Palmetto Bay.

“Grass carp were introduced into the South Florida canal systems decades ago to control the rapid growth of hydrilla weed that completely choked the waterways,” Triana explains. “They are the largest member of the minnow family, and grow to massive proportions.”

World Record Andalusian Barbel from Portugal

As Triana does for all his travels, including family trips, he researches species that are unique to the area. The Andalusian barbel record came in the summer of 2022 during a family vacation to Portugal, where they spent a good chunk of their time in the southern region of Algarve.

“The barbel is a common and popular freshwater game fish in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe,” Triana says. “They belong to the carp family, and can be found in river systems and reservoirs.”  

World Record Talang Queenfish from Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Before it was the megalopolis of today, Dubai was a fishing village, and Triana’s research revealed that Talang queenfish is a popular game fish in the Persian Gulf. Triana made the trip with his family in March 2022.

“I rigged a Clouser fly with 6-pound tippet, and waited for the chance to cast,” he says. “Like a light switch, schools of talang queenfish appeared all around the boat chasing small minnows. A queenfish attacked the fly. It fights down and dirty like a jack crevalle, but jumps like a tarpon. After multiple loops around the boat, I landed the fish.”

World Record Black Durgon from Varadero, Cuba

Triana wanted to explore the untapped reef fishery, but Cuba only allowed government-run fishing vessels that troll outside the reef line.

“We anchored in the clearest water I’ve ever seen, and I break out my light spinning rods with 6-pound-test line, and diced-up lobster for bait,” Triana recalls. “I can see the school of black durgon on the bottom.” He caught a 2-pound fish, topping the existing record of 1 pound, 14 ounces.

World Record Tiger Trout in Salt River, Wyoming

Call it world record by bycatch. While fly fishing along the banks of the Salt River in search of brown trout, Triana caught a baby tiger trout. He quickly made his way back to his car to reference the IGFA yearbook he always travels with to check the tiger trout records.

“I saw there was only a 2-pound fish as the existing record on 6-pound-test line class. I quickly put together my 6-pound spinning outfit and began casting a fly. It wasn’t too long before caught another tiger trout in the same exact area.” Except this time, it was a much larger specimen.

World Record Collared Large-Eye Bream from the Great Barrier Reef

Triana traveled to Australia in 2001 hoping to catch a black marlin. After the liveaboard anchored up one evening, “I rigged up one of my light tackle rods and began bottom fishing, catching a multitude of species,” Triana recalls. “One of them was a very big collared large-eye bream. I kept it on ice until I had a chance to do some research the next day.” It turned out he had caught an IGFA world record.

The post One Man’s Hunt for Record Fish appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Dan Caricaburu-Lundin, of Anchorage, Alaska, launched his kayak on Montana’s Ackley Lake with a mission to break IGFA’s all-tackle length world record for tiger muskie. In a Facebook post the morning of May 20, he wrote “I’m not looking for a fish today; I’m looking for ‘the fish.’” The accompanying photo showed a large, trout-patterned glide bait and an official IGFA measuring device.

Sometimes things do go as planned. A few hours later, he found himself posing for photos with a 115-centimeter (45.28-inch) tiger muskie that beat the previous world length record by about 6 inches. IGFA officially approved the new record in August.

“I’ve fished [Lake Ackley] a lot, and the biggest one I’ve caught was 44 inches,” Dan said. “So, catching one that big is pretty cool.”

Montana Tiger Muskie Fishing

Tiger muskellunge are a hybrid cross of true muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) and northern pike (Esox lucius). They inherit traits from both sides of their parentage, which makes them ferocious and toothy ambush predators. They are an awesome game fish with record weights heavier than 50 pounds.

Lake Ackley’s tiger muskie are no accident. Dan said he’s fished the small 226-acre lake a good bit and has seen a number of big ones. Ackley has long been a trout fishery, and about 10 years ago, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) began stocking tiger muskie annually to counter out-of-control populations of less-desirable longnose and white suckers. The resulting tiger muskie population is well-fed.

Catching The World Record Tiger Muskie

Dan said his fish was easily heavier than 30 pounds. He spotted it on Garmin LiveScope cruising about 3 feet deep over deeper water and cast an 8-inch-long, 2.5-ounce custom kokanee salmon glide bait that he made himself in his garage. He was in the process of turning his kayak when the fish ate.

“I wasn’t ready for the bite, so I made kind of a half-a**ed hook set and he jumped like 5 feet out of the water,” Dan said. “I was kind of panicking a little bit. I was kind of under-gunned for it. I mean that fish barely fit in my net.”

Dan made his way to the bank, where he was able to subdue the fish from shore. Fishing guide Boone Tullet just happened to be driving by and saw Dan fighting the fish. He pulled over and helped get photos and an official IGFA measurement before releasing the fish. The previous length record measured 100 centimeters (39.37 inches). It was caught at Blue Water Reservoir, New Mexico by Joshua Daniels in 2022.

The post Tiger Muskie Breaks World Record Length appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Since the term paradox defines a statement or condition likely self-contradictory and contrary to any logic or reason, labeling red snapper management in the South Atlantic as a paradox is on the money. The South Atlantic federal red snapper season this year is one day — July 12, 2024. Clearly, any reasonable person would assume, red snapper are an endangered species to engender such draconian regulations.

Matter of fact, both scientifically via stock assessment data and empirically via captains on the water almost daily, there’s widespread agreement that there are more red snapper in the Atlantic from Florida to the Carolinas than at any time in recent memory.

“They’re everywhere! You can hardly catch anything else!” says longtime sportfishing-industry veteran Dave Workman at Strike-Zone Fishing in Jacksonville, Florida. And they’re spreading. Historically, to catch red snapper, anglers fished roughly 100 to 300 feet of water. Now, as their populations snowball, reds have also moved into shallows, often caught in just 50 feet, and much deeper, even in 600 feet.

Why the Short Red Snapper Season?

So why in the world would the feds have a 1-day season for 2024? Warning: Trying to understand any explanation is not unlike trying to make sense of one’s situation when lost in a house of mirrors.

But, at least as best I can figure it, NOAA Fisheries insists red snapper are “overfished and experiencing overfishing.” Never mind that no one is actually harvesting them. According to fishery managers, the primary culprit is discard mortality from red snapper caught during the year as bycatch by anglers after other species.

That’s hardly unlikely given that red snapper are decidedly aggressive and can show up anywhere in the water column at any time. Since snapper are so widespread, only by closing the ocean to all reef/coastal fishing could they be protected. (Shh! Don’t even say it!) There’s a tendency of snappers brought to the boat to experience barotrauma. And that can make their successful release difficult, although the odds go up considerably for anglers using required descending devices.

Of course, that takes us back to another paradox: If release mortality accounts for decimating the species, how can the South Atlantic be so full of red snapper? Chris Horton, senior director of fisheries policy for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, says if the government’s “stock/recruitment model is correct, this fishery should be collapsing. The numbers just don’t add up.”

Similarly, the numbers for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico were “not adding up” only a few years ago, such as in 2017 when NOAA Fisheries offered red snapper anglers a three-day season for the year. Here, too, the uproar was mighty since the Gulf was absolutely teeming with red snapper.

But the past few years have seen seasons for Gulf snapper get longer and longer. This year, while South Atlantic anglers get one day to catch the super-abundant red snapper, their Gulf of Mexico counterparts will likely enjoy fishing for red snapper for more than 100 days, stretching selectively from June through November.

The difference has little to do with abundance of the fish. Quite simply, a few years back, the feds allowed Gulf states to begin managing the recreational red snapper quota off their shores on their own. In essence, Gulf-state fishery managers, politicians, and anglers had no trouble proving to the feds that its numbers were totally out of whack, and that state management could and would do a much better job of accurately estimating how many red snapper were being landed by anglers, and managing accordingly.

Finally, NOAA Fisheries said in effect, okay, if you can do it better, go ahead. State fish managers did go ahead with their own, more robust yet more nimble systems to collect recreational-landings data. The result showed that anglers could be fishing more days while not exceeding red snapper quotas. At about the same time, an unrelated but independent Great Red Snapper Count showed — guess what? — at least three times the number of snapper swimming in the Gulf versus federal estimates.

Fixing the Red Snapper Season

So therein lies the primary reason for 100-plus days of snapper fishing for Gulf Coast states and a single day of snapper fishing in the South Atlantic. Put simply, it’s state management of federal quotas versus federal management of federal quotas. As you might guess, there’s increasing pressure on Georgia and the Carolinas to take over management. Florida has a head start for its Atlantic coast fishery thanks to its experience managing the state’s Gulf-side snapper.

But, Horton points out, all four South Atlantic coastal states will have to develop their own recreational data collection programs and divide up quotas equitably as was done by Gulf states. And there’s still pushback, with some at the state level citing the cost of taking over management of snapper. But it’s worth it, in the opinion of Horton (and many others): “It’s a great thing to get out from under the constraints of poor federal catch data in favor of more accurate and timely state data-collection programs,” he says.

The post The Great Red Snapper Paradox appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Fifteen years ago, Western Atlantic bluefin tuna stock assessments reported that total numbers of bluefin were down about 90 percent from 1970. The number of giant bluefin, estimated to be more than 1 million fish in 1960, was estimated to be about 100,000 fish, possibly half that number. At that time, some experts said that bluefin could be so reduced that they might need endangered species status. Today, the big tuna are back.

The current rebound in Western Atlantic bluefin stocks is one of the greatest fishery success stories of this century. From a point near depletion a decade ago, their stocks have improved to a level of sustainability that seemed unimaginable back then.

“For me,” says John Walter, “it’s one of those amazing career arcs to have started with bluefin tuna in 2007, at literally the worst point in bluefin tuna management, and now have this success.”

Walter is the Deputy Director for Science and Council Services at NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center and Chair of the Western Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Committee at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

“Back then,” Walter says, “we were talking about endangered species listings for bluefin, CITES listings, a catastrophe in the global stocks. We have now turned the corner to where bluefin is so abundant that it’s a sustainable fishery and we’re recommending people to eat more bluefin.”

According to ICCAT estimates, three key metrics of the species’ sustainability have all improved in recent years: total biomass, recruitment, and fishing mortality as a percentage of the total stock.

Total Biomass Gains of Bluefin Tuna

Total Biomass is an estimate of the size of the entire stock. For Atlantic bluefin, that includes a combination of both western and eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean stocks. The fish mix together in the Atlantic Ocean, and American fishermen catch a lot of eastern bluefins. That mixing of the stocks has been documented by satellite tagging and backed by genetic testing.

Prior to 2006, the fisheries were catching way above the eastern Atlantic quota. “We think that the catches may have been nearly double the quota,” says Walter. “Without the greatly improved reporting measures that we have today, it was much harder to track catches. Fisheries in the Mediterranean also targeted a lot of younger bluefin. That wasn’t very sustainable, nor did it achieve the yield that one can get from allowing the fish to grow.”

In response, ICCAT took dramatic action to lower catch quotas from a high of 32,000 metric tons (t) as late as 2006 down to 13,500 t in 2010. They also put in size limits to protect smaller fish. The fishery changed from focusing on small fish to targeting large fish fattened in open-ocean farms for the sushi market. Scientists estimate that the eastern population size is much larger than the western population, so what happens in the east deeply affects the western Atlantic populations.

Tuna Recruitment to the Stock Increases

Having stricter ICCAT regulations has played a big part in bluefin’s comeback.

“We talk about good and bad years of recruitment of fish to the stocks,” Walter says, “and 2003 was a really good year. Subsequently, there were other good years where we’ve seen strong year classes of fish born in the western and the eastern stocks. Concurrent with that, it seems that there have been favorable environmental factors that enabled those recruits to survive. U.S. fishermen are often the first ones to see these good year classes and they have been great at providing their knowledge and data.

“The most basic reason for the increase,” Walter says, “is that if you allow the fish to survive, grow, and spawn they’re going to make more babies. That’s the basic story here. It’s fisheries 101—stop catching them at age 2 and let them get big and fat out in the Atlantic where all the food is and let them come back at age 9 and spawn.”

According to recent ICCAT estimates, there was a big spike in the recruitment of fish to the stocks after 2015, with more fish surviving per year to spawning age, and it’s still on the increase.

Tuna Fishing Mortality Decreases

Fishing mortality is the fraction of the stock removed from the fishery. It’s a measure of the number of fish caught versus the entire stock, and it’s dropping, another indication that the stock is increasing.

“Mortality is about 8% to 10% of the total fish and that’s down from about double that figure—which was unsustainable,” says Walter. “Now we’re in a sustainable rate of removal, which means that the population is self-reproducing. That’s the goal. Now we need to fish them at ages that provide better fishing opportunities and the ability for the stock to reproduce.”

Bluefin’s Slope Sea Spawning Location

Along with the increased numbers of bluefin, recent documentation of another spawning area for Western Atlantic bluefin, in addition to the Upper Gulf of Mexico area, has researchers like Walter intrigued and curious. It’s called the Slope Sea spawning area, located about 100 miles offshore of Long Island, and both eastern and western fish spawn there. Researchers have collected eggs and larvae.

“We don’t necessarily think it’s a new location,” Walter says, “but when the populations were lower, perhaps we lost sight of it. Now that we have a larger population, we’re seeing the fish there. Recently we’ve received funding from Congress for a survey of that area that we’ll be doing in 2025, a dedicated scientific survey to document the importance of that area to collect larvae and spawning adults.”

There has been other good news, as well. Recently, the U.S. government implemented several measures that have dramatically reduced bluefin mortality, including requirements to use “weak” hooks that bend to allow spawning giants to go free on pelagic longlines in Gulf of Mexico waters and an individual bluefin quota program, which reduced bluefin tuna bycatch by 65% fleetwide. There’s also now incorporation of Ecosystem Reference Points in the management of menhaden, a primary forage fish for bluefin. That provision is a specific consideration to allow for predation of menhaden, essentially leaving more for bluefin to eat. All these factors combined mean good news for Atlantic bluefin and for the anglers who love them.

The post Bluefin Tuna’s Amazing Comeback appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Catch, Cast, Release follows Marina Gibson’s obsession with fishing from her earliest days plodding along the river with her mother to her current role as the head of her own fly fishing school. Along the way, we follow her as she sheds the trappings of city life for a more fulfilling life on the water, fly rod in hand.

Like so many in their early twenties, Marina found her life lacking direction. She was living in London, carrying on as many of that age do. But she found that lifestyle lacking, and she needed a change. That change would come in the form of a 21st birthday gift from her parents. Given the choice between a fly rod and jewelry, she chose the fly rod and rekindled the love she had for angling as a child. This thoughtful gift kicked off an epic adventure.

Soon, Gibson found herself completely immersed in fly angling. She takes this calling with her across continents and through a few serious relationships, finding peace in fishing when things start to go sour. As her marriage failed, she found solace in the rhythms of fly casting. She found sanctuary in rivers. She hit the road in pursuit of the next big fish.

Gibson does an excellent job comparing the ups and downs of her life with the struggles faced by salmon on their journey home. She uses this metaphor to illustrate the hardships that she, and so many others, experience. Her writing draws careful parallels, without it being over the top. The text is descriptive without being flowery; an easy read for those looking to share in the adventure or figuratively escape their commute home.

If you came here for angling action, you won’t be disappointed. Gibson has traversed the globe in pursuit of some of the most exotic fish that swim, such as bumphead parrot fish off the Farquhar Atoll, golden dorado in the jungles of South America, and giant salmonids in Iceland’s wilds. In addition to the ever-present salmon in this book, she also covers permit, redfish, bonefish, and plenty more in salt and fresh.

Angler Extraordinaire

Gibson’s angling resume is impressive. She is a certified Fly Fishers International Casting Instructor, which in and of itself is an accomplishment. But Gibson’s skills go far beyond her casting abilities, having pursued a variety of species across the globe, including the saltwater brutes that frequent the Seychelles and the golden dorado of South America’s jungles. Of course, she can swing a Spey rod with the best of them on Europe’s toughest rivers.

Gibson has made quite the career of her angling prowess, serving as a brand ambassador for such companies as Orvis and YETI. She has guided trips for a variety of species across several continents. Time will tell, but I would wager that Gibson will continue to host trips all over the globe.

She founded the Northern Fishing School at Swinton Estate in North Yorkshire in 2019, teaching over 400 people a year how to cast, mend, and everything else involved in catching fish on the fly. And at the beginning of 2024, she fulfilled a lifelong dream by taking over the lease of Bywell beat on the River Tyne.

Gibson is also a passionate conservationist, using her substantial social media presence to address environmental issues, including but not limited to those faced by Atlantic salmon. She serves as ambassador for the Atlantic Salmon Trust and the Angling Trust, as well as a trustee for River Action UK, which combats water pollution in the United Kingdom. And as co-founder of the Cancer and Pisces Trust charity, she helps cancer sufferers find peace through fly fishing.

Final Thoughts

Catch, Cast, Release is a wonderful tale of one woman’s love affair with fly fishing, initiated by her mother on the banks of a salmon river. She turned that love into a lifelong adventure, fly rod in hand. Along the way, she used the mindfulness afforded by the rhythmic casting to ease her through life’s rough patches. Available on June 4.

The post Cast, Catch, Release: A Review appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

An 80-foot Viking yacht, a network of fish-attracting structures, SONAR technology, and the last bait on the boat combined to help a group of Florida men catch the fish of a lifetime.

The six-person crew of the Flat Dangerous were just out for a shakedown cruise on April 24, and thought they would try for blue marlin in the Gulf waters off Destin, Florida. The shakedown was a good idea — the group lost three fish to old mono on their reels before re-spooling with fresh. The new stuff held up well enough for the crew to christen the boat with a massive 888-pound bluefin tuna.

“It took every single one of us to pull it into the boat,” said John Balters of Destin, a mate on the boat and sophomore at the University of Miami. “Once we got it in, there was just a bunch of cheering and photos. It was just incredible.”

Aboard were the boat’s owner, Warren Wlliamson, Capt. George Gill, first mate Eddy Griffith, friend Kole Melancon, Balters, and Dennis Bennett, who knows a bit about catching big tuna. Bennett had a hand in Rick Whitley’s 2017 catch of an 827-pound bluefin, the current Florida record. (The Flat Dangerous fish was fought by multiple anglers, disqualifying it from eligibility. The International Game Fish Association all-tackle world record bluefin is 1,496 pounds, caught by Ken Fraser in Nova Scotia in 1979.)

Fish Aggregating Devices Produce Fish of a Lifetime

Capt. Gill took the boat out to the Capt. Kelly Windes FAD Buoy Network, a string of fish aggregating devices installed in 2020 60 miles off the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area. The group began looking for blue marlin in about 2,000 feet of water at about 8:30 a.m. They caught small yellowfin, skipjack, and blackfin tuna, which went into the boat’s tuna tubes to stay frisky for the real fishing.

Soon Bennett, on the bridge with the captain, noticed marks on the sonar similar to those he saw back in 2017. It was time to get a bait in the water. “It gets maybe 30 yards behind the boat and probably about 20 feet under water, and I just see this huge flash in the water,” Balters said. But they barely had the first angler sat in the chair when the first fish was gone, hook and all.

The group swapped in another Shimano Tiagra 80 Wide reel and continued patrolling the FAD. Another mark, another bite, and then this fish too was gone. And then another. The anglers switched to a Shimano Talica 50 with fresh mono, caught another small tuna, and got a bite with an explosive rise in shallow water. But 30 minutes into that fight, “this one just pulled the hook. Nothing we could do on that one,” Balters said. He began to worry aloud: “We missed our shot. We had three hookups. That’s all God’s giving us.”

They were down to one blackfin tuna, and it wasn’t all that frisky after several hours in the tuna tube. The crew stripped one of the Tiagras and re-spooled with fresh line. Eventually, there was yet another mark in the fish-rich water around the FAD. In went the bait.

“It just kind of laid sideways,” Balters said. “I’m like, ‘Oh man, we’re not gonna get a bite.’” And soon after came a strike that “looked like someone dropped a car in the water.” This was the big one. “We’re having to follow him a little bit. He goes straight down and strips us of all the mono we had just put on and goes into our braided backing.”

Perhaps an hour into the fight, the fish became entangled and died. Then began several hard hours of pulling the dead weight to the boat. The crew had to bend its fins flat along its body to get it to fit through the tuna door.

They got back to Destin after 9, welcomed by a small crowd of well-wishers, and got the triple eights on the scale at Boshamps Seafood and Oyster Bar. They saved the filleting for the morning.

“I was sore the next day for sure,” Balters said. “When it was all said and done, it was four huge tubs of just pure meat. It all went quickly, but probably all of Destin got some.”

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Three anglers were standing in neck-deep water off a beach on the Florida panhandle, being circled by a 12-foot shark—the kind of shark that makes its living attacking swordfish, tuna, and other sharks. It was the next-to-last moment in a beach-fishing adventure none of them will forget, and it ended safely for all of them, including the shark.

On November 12, Travis Lucas and friends Joshua Smith and Ben Brandner caught and released a very large shortfin mako shark from the beach. It’s exceedingly rare to catch a mako from shore; they prefer deep water and the larger prey that live there. This was the first confirmed shore-caught mako at Cape San Blas, about an hour east of Panama City. The shark was released per the rules; harvesting Atlantic mako sharks has been prohibited since 2022 due to overfishing.

Lucas, Smith, and Brandner never expected to catch a mako, let alone one that’s about as big as they get. “We usually just target big species, like bull sharks,” Lucas recalled. A week earlier, they had caught a 12-foot dusky shark and a 13-foot great hammerhead.

The Hometown Sharkers Score Big

The group, “Hometown Sharkers” on their social media, specialize in overnight beach outings.
Lucas was set up with an Okuma Makaira 130 reel spooled with 200-pound Reaction Tackle braid, a 300-pound mono top shot, and a homemade 800-pound leader on a 7-foot Rainshadow rod. The 24/0 circle hook was baited with a chunk of a blacktip shark caught earlier in the day.

Lucas had dropped the bait from a kayak about 1,000 yards offshore at sunset and paddled back to camp. During the evening, “we ended up catching a smaller bull shark on another rod,” he said. After that, it was a calm, cool night on a quiet beach—until it wasn’t.

“We had actually dozed off,” Lucas said. “I woke up to the 130 screaming.” He got into his harness and immediately knew the fish was heavy, perhaps a tiger shark. “It started pulling pretty significant drag pretty effortlessly,” he said.

Ten minutes in, the fish “woke up” and began leaping in the moonlight, “pretty much back-to-back for three or four minutes in one position, and then again in the next,” Lucas said. Eventually, the acrobatics ended. The fish ran toward shore a couple of times, which made life easier for Lucas, and the fight was over in 35 minutes.

As the fish neared the beach, the anglers still didn’t know what they had caught. Maybe a hammerhead, they thought. When it reached the wash, they thought it may have been a great white. When they finally got a light on it, “there was a lot of screaming,” Lucas recalled.

Team Release

“Releasing that fish was one of the most memorable situations I’ve had,” he said. “We realized it was a mako. Josh runs out with the tail rope. I come out with bolt cutters and the hook remover. We get out there, assess the situation, get it unhooked, get the leader off of it. It was about 49 degrees, it was cold.”

Lucas’s wife, Flower, and the other guys’ girlfriends watched and held flashlights from the beach. The group began moving the mako to deeper water to ease its release. “So it’s pitch black outside. We get out past the sandbar, so we know she can swim off. She swims out 10 or 15 feet and comes back at us. She made three full circles around us before thrashing at the surface and then swimming off. It was definitely nerve-wracking.”

The group saw for themselves why makos are sometimes confused with, blue sharks. “They are in every sense of the word ‘blue sharks’,” Lucas said. “When the light hits them they’ll go from deep purple to blue, and it’s a color you’d never expect to see from an animal. It almost seems like it’s a holographic. They’re pretty wild looking. It’s definitely a once in a lifetime fish.”

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