The ultimate catch

LAYBOYS GUIDE TO BIG GAME FISHING

I 'm sitting in a classroom floating on the azure surface of the' •acific Ocean 47 miles off the coast of Guatemala. My professor 5 Peter Wright, oceanographer and hall of fame member of the nternational Came Fish Association. Our classroom is a 35-foot i portfishing charter boat. The subject is billfishing—marlin and,. \ ailfish. The professor is explainingthe finer points of free spool- \. i rig and the importance of lightly feathering the free-spinning * eel of line with 'your thumb as you attempt to feed dead bait, in

this case a six-inch ballyhoo with a circle hook protruding from its head, to what could be a 400-pound blue marlin.

"You touch it as you would the arm of a first-date girlfriend-

just a caress. Press harder and it'll either let go or you'll have a

quarter-size blister on your thumb," Wright says. £ f

Deep-sea fishing is a manly sport. We know that from seeing photos of guys like John Wayne standing next to their catches. The chair a person sits on while attempting to land one of these beasts

is called a fighting chair. If the opponent on the other end of .the line is the champ, he's a blue mariin, the uncontested ruler of the sportfishing scene. Directly under him are his mariin brethren-black, white and striped marlins and then the saiifish, any of which are capable of providing an adrenaline rush just short of a date with Megan Fox.

Like golfing, fishing gets exponentially more rewarding when it involves (1) travel to an exotic destination and (2)

LOVE BOAT

ULTIMATE CATCH: HEFCRUISINCTHE CARIBBEAN WITH THE INIMITABLE BARBI BENTON.

gaining skill and knowledge of the sport. Enrolling in Marlin University provided the chance to accomplish

both. MU offers four days of intensive deep-sea fishing with instruction at a choice of venues—Costa Rica, Isla Mujeres, Hawaii, the Galapagos, Australia or, in my case, Guatemala. No textbooks required, just a plane ticket to Guatemala City, deck shoes, sunglasses and plenty of sunscreen. At the airport a van picked me up along with 15 other students—two of whom had trav­eled all the way from Angola—and drove us to the Casa Vieja fishing lodge on the coast, 90 minutes away.

The next morning we were up at six, on boats by seven and had lines in the water by eight. During each of the four days, we were on a different boat with a different instructor. In addition to Peter Wright, our tutors were Pat Dineen, a top charter boat captain from Shalimar, Florida; peripatetic Walker Holcomb, winner of the 2002 Rolex/IGFA Offshore Champion­ship; and Dave Ferrell, editor of Marlin Magazine.

The sport involves subtlety. The fish are initially attracted by the boat's wake, which they likely mistake for a school of baitfish. The boat is also trolling teasers, plastic creations that resemble squid. A couple of teasers may trail hooks with ballyhoo, but most are there to do what their name suggests: tease the fish closer.

Now comes the skill part. When a fish is sighted, usu­ally by the experienced eye of the captain on the bridge, the fisherman picks up his rod and drops his bait back where the fish is. At the same time one of the mates reels in the teaser. It's truly a bait-and-switch routine. The bill hopefully sucks the bait into its mouth, crushes it and swallows. The fisherman offers no resistance, leaving the reel free and disengaged so the fish doesn't sense anything is amiss. If it were to sense danger it

THE BIG

FIV

BLUE

M ARLIN 1,402 pounds; Vitoria, Brazil; February 29,1992

WHITE

M ARLIN 181 pounds; Vitoria, Brazil; December 8,1979

STRIPED

MARLIN 494 pounds; Tutukaka, New Zealand; January 16,1986

PACIFIC ^^

SAILFISH 221 pounds; Santa Cruz Island, Ecuador; February 12,1947

BLACK

M ARLIN 1,560 pounds; Cabo Blanco, Peru; August 4,1953

would spit the hook out. The fisherman meanwhile keeps his cool and counts slowly—some advise to three; others say to five. Then he throws the drag. Resistance pulls the hook back from the fish's stomach. Because the hook has an ingenious circular design, it doesn't catch on anything until it gets to the mouth (thereby avoiding internal injury). Then all hell breaks loose for both fish and fisherman.

For hours that first morning I am lulled by the blazing sun and the rocking of the boat. Then it happens: a call from the captain above—Ron Hamlin, who's been at it since 1959 (see below). A Chinese fire drill ensues. Mates jump to their

THEN IT HAPPENS: A CALL FROM THE CAPTAIN.

feet. As I flirt with the hook and play my first sail, Dave Ferrell is at my side instructing, cajoling.

Billfish love to jump. They can be observed free jumping, sometimes for food but usually just for fun. A hook in the mouth further incites their instinct to jump as they try to throw the snare. If dancing across the water on their tail six or seven times doesn't get it done, they take a deep dive or two. The angler's arms weary, but the adrenaline felt by fish and fisherman makes for an unforgettable experience. Once I get the sailfish to the boat, it's released, having never been lifted from the water.

Unless there is a question of a world record, no good sport fisherman keeps his catch. Replicas are available for the wall. Photos and video display fish leaping rather than hanging from a rope on a dock.

MU is one way to experience the sport, but there are a multi­tude of possibilities, from Cape Cod to Tahiti. Instead of using

your thumbs to play video games, try feathering the spool of a reel as you play out line to that big one swimming behind your boat. If it takes the bait, it's the memory of a lifetime. Even if it doesn't, the boat ride isn't all that bad.

Ron Hamiin is the world's greatest charter bill-fish captain. In the 1990s he pioneered use of the controversial circle hook. Its shape makes it far less likely to damage a fish's vital organs. The cir­cle hook is now standard for billfishing charters around the globe. It has saved the lives of tens of thousands of fish over the past 15 years.

THE MAN WHO SAVED _ BILLFISH

OFF THE /

hook/

WHERE TO GO TO nGHT THE MIGHTIEST SPORT FISH, ALL A FEW HOURS FROM HOME

COSTA RICA

Costa Rica offers some of the world's best light-tackle [ action. World-record seekers come for the Pacific sail- " fish and the swarms of small blue and striped marlin that move in from December through March. A stable

government and an eco-friendly national policy make Costa Rica an attractive destination whether you decide to wet a line or

not. Sand, surf, beer and bikinis await. STAY AT: Hotel Cuanamar on the white-sand Playa Carrillo on the Pacific Coast. Rooms from $100 (guanamarhotel.com). YOUR BOAT: Richard Chellemi'scustom-built 31-foot Camefisher II is outfitted with a big pair of turbocharged Volvo engines and enough line to twine the globe (gamefisher2.com).

ST. THOMAS. U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS

No place on earth provides a more consistent blue tnarlin bite than the famed North Drop off the eastern end of St. Thomas, the Atlantic Ocean's deepest spot. Anglers fishing for three days during the weeks before or after the full moons of summer [June to September)

will almost certainly come away with a blue marlin capture. Fish here aver­age around 300 pounds, though 500-pounders are not uncommon. STAY AT: the luxurious Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas, a palatial hotel on theCaribe. Rooms from $379 (ritzcarlton.com). YOUR BOAT: Do your battling in the fighting chair of Eddie Morrison's Marlin Prince; a45-footViking(marlin prince.com}, or Red Bailey's 44-foot Abigail III (visportnsh.com).

GUATEMALA

Another Central American hot spot, Guatemala hosts a ridici lous amount of Pacific sailfish from December through March. Blue marlin and yellowfin tuna make their appearance in these waters as well. WHERE TO STAY: Casa Vieja Lodge in the Port of Quetzal is a one-stop fisherman's paradise. When the day is done the hotel's pool and bar offer the perfect respite. See casaviejalodge.com for package rates. YOUR BOAT: The

queen of the seven-boat fleet is the Release, a 37-footer built in

1961 to be the perfect fishing boat. She was restored in 1999, and her twin

450 hp engines power her to a 24-knot cruising speed.

OCEAN CITY. MARYLAND

You can find great billfish action directly off the Eastern sea­board in summer, and Ocean City becomes the epicenter of the offshore scene in August. Pods of hungry white mar-

lin, blue marlin and tuna move into the offshore canyons, and fisher­men willing to make the 80-mile runs are sometimes rewarded with double-digit days. Those willing to wager can enter the White Marlin

Open, one of the world's richest tournaments, with more than $2 million in prize money. That's more than the winner of the Masters gets. WHERE TO STAY: Inlet Lodge, on the old boardwalk. Rooms from $90 [410-289-7552} YOUR BOAT: Get on any of the great boats working out of Sunset Marina. —Dave Ferrell

NICE

TACKLE

IN THE FIGHTING CHAIR, YOU'LL WANT ONE OF THESE BETWEEN YOUR THIGHS

PENN 5OVSW, $600

HAS FOUR AIRCRAFT-GRADE STAINLESS STEEL BEARINGS.

PENN CLD50II, $400

PULLS IN SWORDFISH AND TUNA WITH EASE.

SHIMANO TIACRA

50A, $580 /•

WITH OFFSET ERCONOMIC POWER-CRIP HANDLE.

SHIMANO TIACRA BOA, $1,250

WEIGHING IN AT OVER 50 POUNDS, THIS ONE COULD HANDLE MOBY-DICK