See when he does that when he does that click on that red button that means we’re live brother we are I’m telling you let’s do it it’s such a pleasure to have you up here in our home kind of like the Starting Gate right yeah right when you hear the clock ticking down
Um let’s take us a couple week step backwards if we will when I first met you at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony for your good pal uh Jerry Garrett right uh met you and you had your you and a number of fellow members of the Tuna Club of Santa Catalina
Island were there in support of Jerry’s induction right um you had a great Brotherhood with with two other buddies but Jerry ends up into the Hall of Fame one of your your closest friends you want to speak a little bit about Jerry oh yeah Jerry was I mean he’s uh uh the
Endless Summer when it comes to sport fishing he he particularly in California um and Jerry and I met on a public Pier on Balo Island in 1947 or 48 um I think I had a drop line and maybe a Caster outfit and Jerry did too and you
Know I had my spot and he had his spot and you know we gave each other a little room and then we got to know each other better and better we started fishing um together and exchanging you know stories about fish and then uh and Through the
Years um in fact jery was my sponsor into the tunic Club a number of years later but jery um he he he was just a hardcore kid as I was and uh we really bonded on that and uh not that much longer after that a year or
So uh he his family had a boat and my family had bought a boat and we were a couple of docks apart and that just uh solidified it even further so you know but in those days um I can go back and give you a little history on how the
Fishing was in those days and well we’ll we’ll get there because I want to talk first about about Jerry let me to say a couple of things here about him um the Mantra of his boat was take only uh that which you can use and he carried that
Notion with him throughout his entire life correct uh the history of the pr prestigious Tuna Club there was no more decorated anger than Jerry Garrett and I know that there’s buttons that you receive and you know I’m going to go back even further than that I read this
Book a long time ago and I think I mentioned that to you Nikki uh with Zane gray he wrote a book called swordfish and tuna and we really haven’t spoken to anybody but um one other angler from the West Coast and since when I met you
There it rang a bell because you’re a member of this famous club that Zane gray was a member of and in his book he speaks about all these great swordfish that are lying on the surface they were harpooning them then he had three boats built in Florida and took them to
Gloster’s Main and chased uh you know uh big blue fin tuna right um that is what I’ve never heard in detail uh about and so when your buddy was inducted and I met you at that wow what a perfect guy for the podcast well you know with that
Being said you know your buddies in the Hall of Fame you you grew up together you formed this Brotherhood but in your youth I read that you caught your first Marlin when you were 12 years old you and your dad were out there in the big
Seas right and then you used to run your boat at a very young age for your dad talk to me a little bit about you and your father in chasing these billfish in in Southern California well um that was you know my dad I’ll give you just a
Quick history of of my dad very quick but my mom and my dad were both born in Scotland and they came over here in 1928 and then 1930 and my dad was a uh in the farming uh in Scotland and he noticed that all of the quality seed product was coming
From California so in his head he was headed for Southern California so he got there took up shop in uh Southern California Santa Barbara I was born in Santa Barbara 1940 Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital but we used to go down to Newport Beach Balo
Island um in in the like 19 uh well it be 45 46 47 and the at that time I mean there’s just a plethora of of boats in that Harbor and my day I got got to thinking about boats and ocean he just gravitated to it right away and bought a bought a
Boat so in 1947 he bought 48 just about the time Jerry and I were getting hooked up he bought a 32- foot um they weren’t even sport Fishers particularly back then at least on the on the west coast but we got our gear all set up to
Split bamboo rods you know the older knucklebusters or different kind of reels linen line that was the line of choice at the time and um Jerry was you know two boats down and Bill dmar another Tuna Club member at the time you know he was a couple boats away and Ralph uh Clark’s
Dad who was the other Henry Clark yeah Henry clar he was a member of the Tuna Club so anyway I was just um um you know completely engulfed in fishing and my buddies and so so forth the the the fishing fleet at that time honestly it was seven or eight
Boats and you know so when you went out uh to to fish in in California back in the 50s or late 40s um you have to imagine this we had charts we didn’t have any Electronics so we didn’t know other than dead reckoning or chart uh courses we didn’t have uh
Autopilots we were the pilot we had the course we had to stay on to get a certain bank or a drop off for high spot and um of course along the way you know you’d be in the hunt for signs you know Birds looking for some kind of Life yeah
Sure at any rate so um the early days with my dad I say 1950 um we would go to catleen Island uh we’d anchor up someplace we’d put a light out at night shining on the side of the boat flying fish would fly in hit the
Side of the boat kind of lay over kind of unconscious for a moment I would net those things that was our bait for the next day wow we’d get like six or eight of those things no throwing cast Nets or anything like that no no it was all you
Didn’t have them back then did you cast no e to this day we don’t use on the on the west coast you don’t see a cast net yeah how I mean how what’s how do you typically catch those flying fish I mean is that the only way yeah they get
Stunned yeah you can’t there’s no fly rods there’s no little lucky Joe’s what we used to call uh a string of little feathers on a long line you know they don’t it’s all about they hit the side of the boat and you knit them and that’s
It but I mean when they hit you know they’re flying at a pretty good clip and Bam um they fly right into the light and then you net them uh put them on ice and then wait you know so they were dead because you didn’t have a live well yeah
Right no they were dead Okay um so we fished dead bait so my job was well first all catch the after the wash down and you know get the boat prepared how old are you now 10 you’re 10 years old right this is awesome but did I love it
Or what I mean you know I just I couldn’t wait to get out there every morning uh every day on the boat but so we’d get this we’d get the uh handful of flying fish and then I had um we would sew them up I had a long needle
And we’d thread that needle with linen line and I would sew the eyes in crisscross I’d sew the wings shut to the side of the body I would sew the nose closed and then you could either just hook through the nose or you could set
Up a bridal on the uh forehead so to speak and then you’d have your get your we fish two Outriggers so I’d set that uh once I got the rig set up for fishing and you could fish a quarter of a mile off of Catalina You’ had to go nowhere that it just
Dropped straight down and there’s uh historically and still to this day ample fishery right near uh Catalan Island still have to work you know to get your fish but it’s still but they’re often there you know um and are you only targeting swordfish at the time no that
Was that was Marlin and um tuna and but there weren’t blue fin tuna there in those days there were some smaller School Blue Fins but it was mostly yellow fin and they weren’t you know particularly large but you could get a 100 pounder once in a while I know rarely just
A blind strike you know out in the middle of nowhere but um I mean the swordfish then I mean swordfish weren’t you have to understand that you you they aren’t caught often on the surface um and you you could go for years with no swordfish in the fleet
Even to this day caught on a Surface swordfish so that was that was The Ultimate Fish to be caught on the surface as a swordfish I would say it still is to this day what’s that look like to see to see yeah when you spot what are they doing they’re just Finning
Sleeping they’re just well no they’re not sleeping they’re just they’re laying there mostly they might you know just kicking a little bit moving down not even down swell it’s usually a greased off day I’ll get into that a little bit but yeah you just you see them and
They’re usually swimming um slowly um I’d say once in a five years you might see a feeder really rare uh very rare on the surface a feeder that’s moving actively feeding yeah there’s a school of bait or something he’s in there thrashing away um very rare I mean I’ve
Only seen three or four in my life but like that doesn’t happen very often and you know once in a while we call it a butterfly they will jump uh again not very often um they are not boat shy um they want to have nothing to do with anything it’s
Their territory is that why they were so susceptible and uh in um easily harpooned yes yeah because you could drive right up on them right yeah I mean it’s not easy I mean they there’s a lot of skill with the stick boats and I give
Them credit for that um um but that that they are on the surface the stick boats have over time gen um evolved into where they had airplanes spotter planes and you could see I’ll show you later a picture of what swordfish looks like in the water it’s purple so we call it
Purple fever and you know and then they radio back and forth to the stickboat and they put them on the on the fish and they Harpoon them but again there’s skill and that fish can Dart if he gets spooked you know so it’s not you know there’s a skill definitely
I bet Nolan Ryan Ryan could have really chucked that spear right big tall baseball player no I’m telling you the uh there’s a like I say a lot of skill but here here’s the strength of a swordfish I’ve seen this um actually with uh happened Steve lley in the I’m
Talking about in the later years in the 90s he had his he was had a stickboat and uh we would um occasionally if if we couldn’t get that fish to bite we would give the fish to um say Steve would you call Steve over and say he’s yours now yeah um there
Were moments in the stickboat fleet where some of the stick boers back in the 60s and 70s and 80s didn’t appreciate Sports fishermen fishing for swordfish because well you’d find one I mean I’ve been head-to-head in my tower and and some in the stickboat tower going at it
Where I’m doing this for fun which isn’t the case it’s for fun but it’s a lot of effort to you know days and days and days but that it’s their living right and can you tell me that can you repeat the conversation you would have in the
Tower can you just give me a little a hint no no I mean like no you know get the you know F out of our area you know this is our fish and so forth but it’s wasn’t that’s not actually the case often we would find the fish and they
Would see us off our boat was well known even among the stickboat fleet you know they would um you know see somebody on the bow if you see somebody on the bow of a boat in California with a rod in their hand there’s a fish nearby
Somewhere right so isn’t it like if you find that fish first that’s your fish you have the right to to chase it no one else is going to cut you off and did that ever happen it happened often with the stick boats they come in and cut you
Off yes not only C only um I would say one or two that I’m aware of the other at the time half a dozen or so we’re we’re understanding of the effort that we put into it and we would back off and let them have the the fish and and again
One out of um 20 swordfish or one out of more would ever strike a bait that’s cast it on them uh so you know they most fish don’t bite so that’s what You’ do you’d motor up and actually pitch a dead bait atam a live bait a live bait
Eventually initially it was a initially it was a trolling a dead bait like a barracuda or a a flying fish or something like that in front of a sord fish you would you would troll a barracuda yeah they’ bite a barracuda they would wow what was the what was the
Right size of Barracuda like a little two-footer or something yeah two three-footer uhhuh and so what’s how far do you want to lead those fish if you’re pitching a bait at a tailing sword fish well again the um there’s two kinds they’re either circling and our theory
On that is that they come up from the depths and I don’t know whether it’s it’s the light or what it is but but maybe it’s just them getting acclimated but they actually are doing circles and so I just try to cast within you know 10 or 15t in front of them with
With a any kind of bait and and if and usually they’ll explode because they’re they’re you’ve surprised them you spooked them you sp spooked them but they they all they do is move you know 30 40 50 feet away and then they’re up again just doing their thing because
They’re not you’re in their territory and they I’m telling you they just have no concern basically um about anything in their territory but so you know you cast it out there and you know maybe you get if if you get a hit it’s usually like uh
Babe Ruth on a home run I mean it is it’s bam and if you had any lion Ling in the water it just boom come comes tight like that but they’re just killing the bait they’re not eating the bait at that moment so they’re not hooked yet no so
Then you you know free you know play the rest of the could be two or three minutes it could be longer could be could be uh you don’t if he’s not up I don’t like to drive away from him yeah I was going to say so how do you know when he’s hooked
Well well because he’ll he’ll he’ll really take off fast you’ll make a very abrupt quick run and it’s either do or die right there I mean so you just set the hook and you’re you’re either on or you’re not but most of the time you’re on
But a difficulty with and I’ll get into what Ted nafer uh did he’s a good pal or was a good pal is a good pal uh Ted well so he cast The Bait the swordfish tends to spin down on on bait on on his um what he’s trying to get
Kill so sometimes when he’s going down like that of course we’ve got our bait out here we got a line coming to the rod and reel and they will get a little bit wrapped up in the leader or something like that so you don’t really know what
Exactly is going on so when you set the hook you could be getting you you could be foul hooking that fish and if you that’s why so many swordfish um take are hours and hours and hours I mean I’ve had them on for 18 hours because they’re wrapped up you
Have no control of the head you have no control of the head yeah you’re fou you might be foul hooked in the dorsal or something I mean you know it’s like good luck and but you know we stick with it has anyone ever targeted these surface Swordfish with fly
Rods is that even possible it is possible and I I wouldn’t it may have been done but not in California it might have been done someplace where there were 75 or 100 PB fish um and like in maybe in Africa or um I I honestly think I’ve um
Read or heard or something like that but I don’t it’s you know it would have been but two guys I mean yeah I mean it’s probably may have happened that’s about all I could say cuz I know bouncer Smith and some other people have caught him at
Night when they have the the syum and they’re coming up to the surface at night and they’re kind of blind fishing a little bit but to cast a fly to a tailing swordfish would be be pretty epic yeah I don’t know what would happen you know it would be
Interesting I mean I’ll tell you what if you if you put your time in you would get a chance a shot at it what was your um fish of choice I know that you were a big marlin guy swordfish guy tuna guy did you you have a a favorite
Swordfish I mean and why hands down degree of difficulty you got to find them you got to encourage them entice them to uh bait uh you know to eat which it doesn’t happen that often you know so there’s that’s the highest degree of difficulty that I that I know of in
Sport fishing the guys on do you guys collaborate with the with the captains on the on the east coast and they swordfish them because they do all those really deep drops to 1700 ft daytime sword fishing yeah I know daytime night time I and we’re you know we’re doing
That now in California but um if you’re a purist which I am you that’s I’ve never even deep dropped on a swordfish I mean it’s I don’t it’s the it’s a different um skill level and they’re qualified they’re you know they’re doing a good job um but the hunt for a
Swordfish there’s not a lot of hunt in that right so you’re a sight fisherman you you want these fish dryly fishing versus nyph fishing yeah yeah no totally how how many of these swordfish have you caught hunting them as such nine in 30 years and 30 years of serious effort nine nine no
Kidding in 30 years yeah wow and you’re still and I can’t imagine the patience you have no and if honestly if I was had an opportunity to go out tomorrow for anything I would go out for swordfish in Southern California that’s exactly what I would do what’s the population like there now of
Swordfish yeah well this is interesting um from data that that’s been gathered by more of the scientific uh crowd that we have a good good bunch of guys they’ve determined that a swordfish will be be on the surface only about 8 88% of its time of its life or its
Daytime not even daytime just life so with the Deep drop that’s come come along we find out that there’s 92% of a decent fishery at 900 feet or 800 feet or 1,000 feet and you’ll you’ll see you know today anyway you know a small Fleet three or four five boats in
A little area you know all deep dropping and they want to catch something and they do yeah they catch them they I mean I’ve had you know people that um probably have not ever caught much of anything gone out deep drop to catch swordfish you know it’s it’s it’s a it’s a it’s
It’s a captain’s game it’s a captain’s game and um I would say that um The Evolution the learning process that the hardcore guys went through on the Deep drop was fantastic I mean it’s not that easy to get a bait down to 900 ft uh and
And have a way to get you know get it off of of the weight or whatever it’s it goes on like that I mean the guys the evolution of that is fantastic so that they’ve done a great job they refine the art yeah they really have um but the the
Original Deep droppers came from Venezuela if I’m not mistaken I think they did came from Venezuela and they got into the Miami area and Richard stanic and his son now is is the the captain of choice if you will well we used to fish um um the um what’s that um
Temperature break at you know at 150 200 feet down there the the thermal thermal CL yeah sorry thermal clim we used to that’s where we thought they were if you were going to deep drop and then they determined that they’re sometimes maybe they’re be one
Or two in there but the real the bottom the source is down there um so so hold on you caught nine swordfish in 30 years how many shots did you get at swordfish hundreds uh yeah so they’re that difficult to to catch once you get shot
I would say that um if you if you if you probably one in 100 I think if you I’d say one I’m talking about to to the boat right right 100 a one 100 so you probably had around 900 shots it goes It goes I got one in the binos in the size
To re get your bait live bait on the on your setup that you’re already prepared for I’ll go through that too a little bit cast on them um 10 fish before you get a bite if you even get a bite and then another I don’t know half a dozen before
You actually set get hooked up and then this sounds miserable it does no well it’s hyper it’s the hunt no I see that yeah but eventually I want to see something well you do but I mean you know when you’re uh delivering something one in um every three years it’s pretty
I mean I know it’s patience and it’s a long stretch but it is very rewarding right uh in some you know I don’t know success for sure but let me just finish this um uh so so then and and typically there was only a couple of serious sword
Fishing I was one of them Ted was another one and so a Um a novice could be R fishing out there for whatever and see a swordfish cast a bait on him and that’s the one in 10 so he get he gets hooked up but those fish are not are rarely caught right so it’s you know one and 10 10 you know one and
Those another 10 and it goes up to that’s one in 100 or something so once you make the presentation is there a really refined skill in making that presentation with that live bait because not all fly fishermen throw the fly to a tarp in the same way you
Have to understand how to make the presentation what was the key to feeding a um a surface swordfish with a live bait if there is anything like that well I mean it it with us and I don’t you know I don’t know about others but with
Us it there was an evolution and it was with they were circling where to pitch that bait on that turn and on a straight liner because sometimes they’ll just straight line we try to get down swell or down below them somewhere and let them come to us and when he got within a
Certain range we we would toss but try not to Spook him and then if you nothing much going on I would tweak the line a little bit to get a little Flash in that bait little belly flash or something to attract them um and that’s it’s almost a numbers game as
Much and skill is OB you know not going to skill but you you do need to pitch a lot of baits to get a shot so so a good day in 1950 or 1960 how many shots would you get or how many tailing swordfish
Would you see in a good day and and the weather’s got to be right obviously it’s got to be probably calm well in the 50s and 60s you because we were fishing Marin primarily we weren’t didn’t we had some old army binoculars um we would and we were St I
Was standing on a bench seat in front of the wooden wheel with my head through a hatch you know looking at whatever I could but mostly was uh Marlin I was when I was 10 or 12 years old and we we did bait a swordfish a season maybe but
We weren’t looking for them and we weren’t in the right so with the Marlin up on the surface just like a swordfish yeah this you got to say the tabletop here the swordfish are just on a calm s they’re not doing a whole heck of a lot they’re just paddling along
They’re not up there feeding they’re feeding deep so they’re up there for whatever reason I don’t I don’t know somebody might know the Marlin there’s four types of Marland there’s there’s what we call tailor we have a nice Westerly um almost every afternoon off the east end of Catalina
Island um and those fish tail down swell so you see a tail pop up on a swell and then you won’t see him for a minute they’ll pop up again it’ll pop up again and sometimes there’ll be you know eight or 10 of those that a
Crack uh sometimes up yeah could be a single yeah but they’re just tailing and so you pitch a bait in front of those guys and um nine out of 10 times you’re going to get a bite oh is that right yeah it’s just Bingo you know I mean what kind of
Bait were you throwing at those fish mackerel live mackerel live mackerel we had Wells live wells at that time right but in the old in the old days it was just a flying fish period that was all we had dead flying fish dead flying fish would toss it we would just troll that
Flying fish in front of the tailor and maybe get a and then of course you know the dorsal pops and he’s chasing that thing and all of a sudden it’s just like wow you know it’s pretty cool and but you know so then you go on to um if I
Could give you a quick um so then you’ve got the tailor you’ve got um free jumper you’ve got a feeder because we would have schools of anchovies on the surface the size of this table and the fish would just crash right through there you know whipping
Back and forth and then picking up the debris that they created I mean it it was those are feeders you see a lot of feeders you can’t I mean that’s one of the main targets you see feeders jumpers and sleepers and then the uh the other
One is a sleeper which is in the morning it’s about uh on a greased off day like this you’ll see about this much tail a couple feet of tail sticking out of the water and they’re just laying there Marlin laid up Marlin I mean laid up and
You you put a throat mackerel out there and there again eight eight out of 10 you’re going to get a shot at that fish that’s a blue marlin no that’s the stripe Marlin a stripe Mar excuse me that’s right because all of that whole Coast is all straight Ming now I fish
Blues and blacks and all that but and they don’t there it’s a different profile and how they are the stri Marland just not as smart as the others possibly well meaning what oh sensitive you know because because I know a lot of my buddies you know are
Fly fishing for them down off in mags Bay yeah you know in the bait schools uh you don’t see blue marlin doing that no it’s a frenzy uh I mean there’re School fish and there’s I’ve seen a hundred tailor you know I mean we used to call it a picket fence you know
As you as far as you could see you seeing Tor down in Baja or in California in California east in the 50s and 60s I haven’t seen that in the last you know 30 years but but mag Bay I fished I was an early early fisherman in mag Bay yeah
I was going to ask you about Mexico when the first years you went down there to see ELO stri Marlin well it was in the 80s um and there was a guy Allan Carlton and he had a boat called the LT gr and Allan became a friend and he was saying God
Dave there’s this place about halfway to Cabo Cabo son Lucas from Newport Beach and he said you know it’s it’s wide open and you know and he would tell me these stories I it was like I mean we a good back in the 50s and 60s a good season
Would be three or four fish um with the Flying Fish and so forth for Marlin and now you know then I’ll give you the evolution of lures came into fashion and live bait and so forth but mag Bay I went down there based on what Allen was telling me
About mag Bay and we went down there in the mid 80s we had a for 43 fish day I mean that’s common yeah every day well yeah yeah yeah I mean as as many whatever you’ve got in the water you can throw a cigarette butt in the
Water and something will crash it I mean it’s it makes your sword fishing a little bit more palatable oh yeah no no no there was uh you know a lot of highs in between the swordfish right well that’s why I did my you know barrier re
Beef and the azors and all that stuff you had to get your fish fill yeah right I had to get that that going and of course we did but so anyway the stripe Mar I have seen I I don’t know Acres of feeding Marlin Acres with frigs diving I
Mean you know I mean it’s it’s just there’s there’s you know I don’t know hundreds of thousands of fish or thousands of fish and it’s almost annually and that’s just where where it’s going off and it’s fished quite a bit more today than it
Was back in the 80s MH and it would when it used to be people go from Newport Beach to K San Lucas and they would just drive right past that area but now they’re stopping there now I I think a lot of boats come up from
Cabo oh they do that we didn’t have any East Coast fleets at that time I I would say it’s probably in the maybe in the into the 2000s before guys started either shipping the boats or bringing them through the canal to the Cabo what do you mean East Coast fleets what’s
That mean well that means um the towers and the merits and the Rices and the you know okay we I mean the big professional sport Fisher yeah and you know Smith I think was one of them um I mean the bill fisherman I mean they were magnificent fishermen
But they I guess they got wind of um Cabo and over time they decided to be a little more venturesome and they came out there didn’t didn’t that black and blue tournament turn on the rest of the world to Big Game fishing and the big katas at a Cabo yeah where the prize
Money is like five three four five million to win yeah Bob Bisby friend of mine he started that tournament and his son now runs that tournament and um it’s called Black and blue and initially Cabo you went there to fish strip Marlin I mean blue and black marlin were not on
The agenda they we didn’t even know they were there um and then in the mid 90s myself and three or four other boats stumbled on an area with blue marlin and we we were catching five and 600 lb Blues you know kind of regularly for over about a 3we period perod and then
We all split but yeah that now with the electronics and with um skill on how to bait you know um trolling live baits and you know there’s a various innovations that have gone on that that they can produce blues and black they do regularly were these other
Fish just swimming in deeper water is that why they couldn’t find them y well we weren’t yeah we weren’t we were fishing much closer to shore like a 500 foot drop off or some fathom you know that nobody was out particularly out there you might go out there see a
School of porpus or something and get it some T tuna off of a school of porpus but we didn’t um we didn’t fish that area but the the place where in the um mid 90s where we stumbled on all these Blues I had I had a chart of Cabo of the
Under uh the um topography topography underwater up Cabo and every time we got a strike I would write down the GPS numbers and then that winter when I got home I would plot all this stuff to see where the heck we were because I we didn’t know
Where we were and it was all about on the 500 fathom drop off which was it’s a sharp edge there were traveling exactly and we it was a really good fishery and and that fishery is still really solid isn’t it yes bigger and better and um I
You know there there have been purses you know the biggest one you know somewhere around 4 million or more at the black and blue yeah and that’s you know they get the Daily Doubles if you compound it you can get up to four over four million did you fish in that ever
No yeah uh as a tuna Club member you cannot fish money money tournaments that’s one of the regulations interesting is that because you’re then you become a professional Fisher well they just maybe you’re fishing for the wrong a different reason I don’t know right uh so tell me a little bit
About Zane gray and the history of Zayn and the Tuna Club uh because I saw his home on Catalina Island yeah and it overlooks um Avalon right the Bay of Avalon tell me about Cataline I tell you and I may have said this one other time
In one of our podcasts and if and if I if I’m redundant I apologize but um I got HT as a ski racer back in 1981 I broke my neck my back and my leg and I was in crutches I had a cast and I was living in Corona
Delmare and my girlfriend at the time that I eventually married came from U Balboa Island M um and i’ I as on crutches I’d go out to the end of The Jetty and catch these fish and I eventually one day on a dayboat went to Cataline Island and I was on the bow
Throwing my fly rod catching these Bonita when they’re Ching up and that the those were the grounds of Zan gray and and and what we’re speaking about totally I mean that’s to this day when I’m out there on a like the 14 mile bank
Or off the east end of C I mean it is I know I’m I feel like I’m in Sacred Water honestly God I I’ll never forget that I couldn’t believe when the B would come in there’ Blow The Bait fish up and you you’d hook one into I’d never seen anything like that
Before coming from Colorado and trout fishing yeah no it is I don’t know it’s it’s it’s and it’s still pristine after all these years yes e even um you know well starting with AAL 1898 the Tuna Club was founded and it was founded in a little Bay you saw
The bay yeah not much but nice and in that bay even in those days they were catching Dorado and you know miscellaneous stuff right there and then um holder um and a couple other guys and they were boat boatmen and they rode boats and they were in Tweed suits the the Anglers
Right they would row out there in into you know a mile or two off the beach and you know the on a calm day they might see a ripple of a you know a school t a tuna bigger tuna going through and and and one thing led to another and as far
As the tuner because the tuna was the start of the Tuna Club right and uh I think the first one was two 250 lbs or something like that it’s in that book probably but the um so they they started from scratch I mean absolute scratch in
A in a Metropole hotel I think putting this thing together and um they wrote up all the angling rules the line classes the rod you know class um catch a certain size fish on a certain size line so that that was the qualifications to get into the Tuna Club went on like this
And they they so so you had to you had to prove your ability to even be mentioned as far as a nomination to get in correct yeah first uh thing is that you’re invited second thing is you’re a associate member uh you’re not a me voting member so you then have to catch
A certain size fish generally a tuna or or only a tuna or a swordfish or a Marlin um on certain tackles so it might be 100 PB Tuna on you know 30 lb tackle or something whatever it is um and then you become a voting member and you’ve
Got to you have to you go prove your metal you prove what about the patches the the buttons yeah well there’s uh I think there’s 12 but 12 buttons 12 buttons of which Jerry Garrett has has 10 um and um how many do you have seven um um he’s got seven more than
You well you know um how do I I my I was just passionate about fishing and you know the Tuna Club that these are the tackles you use and so forth and so on so a lot of um I didn’t do a lot of targeting of buttons yeah it
Was you were just fishing they were by catches You by you know and I it would still be that way with me today I I um you know I mean I think early on I might have targeted a couple things I had to to get in yeah sure right right
Well if you take a I’m not saying Jerry did either Jerry caught you know fish and his passion was as great as anybody’s on the planet U about saltwaters but was the button like catching swordfish on the surface or was it like swordfish over 500 lb no there
Was a weight weight associated with a line there was okay um and we and we also had the the length of the rod is defined um the butt length is defined um the whole it’s all defined very well so it’s not you can’t just walk in a in a
Tackle shop and buy a rod off the shelf yeah um I’m me Ed whether or not some of these rules were were shared from the Miami rod and re club and if you go back in history The Saltwater fly roders of America in the Northeast for these striper guys they would collect at
You know restaurants uh C somebody’s house and then that’s where they really started to Define how are we going to catch these fish a group of really passionate guys MH and eventually I’ll shortcut the whole thing Mark sosen took some of the rules from the Miami Roden and real Club
Implemented those into their working systems and then refined those rules which the igfa um absorbed which set the standard by how to catch International world records and I wonder if any of those Miami rod and real records eventually somehow got to the Tuna Club in Cataline
Island well let me ask you this when was the rod and re Club founded I was going to ask that too that was founded I think in 1929 if I’m not mistaken okay we were founded in 1898 so we got our rules from you it’s true that’s interesting no I mean that
That’s one uh extra chapter you might want to read you know is that the oldest fishing club in oldest saltwater fishing club in the world in the world in the world what’s what what does it mean to become a member and to be invited and you or accepted that must have been a
Really like a beautiful thing oh totally I know I mean it’s a it’s yeah I mean it’s a very sought after club and very few members yeah it is I mean yeah there’s 250 members or something in that nature it’s yeah I mean it’s a it’s a
It’s an honor I guess you would say uh to be invited to join um you know the Anglers I mean it’s been um you know like all clubs that’s evolved quite a bit and the and the fish oh the whole fishing Community has has evolved I would say that back in the 50s
And 60s you were you were hardcore to be out there fishing for Marlin and swordfish and tuna um but say over a period of 30 40 50 years the fleet you know if you got two or 300 boats out there on a weekend uh um with good quality tackle and so
Forth and so on but I mean the passion of of you’d have to still um filter that down out of those 250 300 there’s I don’t know 20 that stand out as being passionate and and successful and so forth and so on so you get the so it kind of gets diluted to
Some degree but it’s a totally an honor uh to this day to be a member of the Tuna Club M and just plain is I love all the guys and I love the fraternity because at the hall of fame he had like 10 10 buddies that were there supporting
Jerry’s induction yeah um this take a little side step if you don’t mind because you fish the Great Barrier Reef uh I think in your lifetime you guys ended up catching I think nine granders or something like that yeah I’ve had 12 but yeah 12 12 granders What’s um I can’t even imagine
The Great Barrier Reef fishing for those big fish and seeing something like that let me tell you the first time I saw I couldn’t believe it either I mean I actually thought maybe I stepped over the line and gone a bit too far with my passion passion I mean what scared you
Most yeah what scared scared me the size of the fish and the U strength and the you know I was fishing 130 lb tackle with 50 or 60 pounds of dragon the thing was just ripping and jumping I mean how do you you know how do you do that how
Do you catch something like that well that I mean in your mind you’re you’re initially thinking oh my God now what yeah um well you you know you’re in the moment and you’ve you you’ve bit into something you got to finish what you started you so you uh and you know
On the Barrier Reef in those boats which maybe more so like the East Coast but on the west coast we didn’t we don’t have didn’t have in those days um fighting chairs and you know guys that were turning the chair for you went to captains that could back the boats and
All that yeah yeah you know we we were all in the learning process if you but on the Barrier Reef that you know so you’re in a fighting chair you’re on 130 lb tackle you’ve got a harness on and you’re sitting on the bucket kind of seat you’re hooked up it’s attached to
The Reel and you know you’re you’re you’re putting in your time there’s a method of U managing the chair and the fish and so forth and so on and you know it takes sometimes um you know an hour or so sometimes it’s long much longer three or four hours you
Know depending on what you’re up against but the but the like a lot of fishing I mean I’m fortunate to have had the fortune the luck that I’ve had over there but that it’s just being the right place at the right time I mean you know it’s you can’t you can say you’re
Targeting 1,000 but they’re yeah you can’t they’re few and for but they’re you know they’re not that up man but I’m interested in your relationship with with Peter Wright possibly the greatest grander uh fisherman of all time W yeah and he just passed this last year tell me about
Peter well yeah it chokes me up um I met Peter um we had a mutual friend that had a house house on bimy and um I I uh and went back to bimy I think it was in the mid 70s or so and staying I was staying with my friend and Peter was
Staying with my friend so you know if you knew Peter I mean he is just a mile a minute and you know a lovely guy a great fantastic personality but just crazy crazy crazy about fishing and uh so and L Lori Wright I don’t know if you know
Lori but Lori Wright was with Peter at the time as his deck hand and so was that the best team ever assembled for big game fishing that’ be my guess right awfully good there’s some good ones out there now to this day but that those guys they were really good
They were really really good so Peter so you know a couple of days into this you know we got to go fishing don’t we I said yeah so anyway anyway so we went out uh we got a bear booat um it was a it was a center console inur what’s a
Bear boat mean without all oh it’s just Peter we it was we just got borrowed somebody’s boat and it was Peter um Lori and myself and we’re going to go out of bimin and we’re going to fish tuna on the white sand yep exactly how cool it
Was so cool it was not another boat out there that day and we were like in a I don’t know a 28 30ft you know Center con it wasn’t um but it was in board for some somehow at any rate so Peter’s in the tower you know we’ve got two mullet
I think it was out there and there’s these swells that are coming over the white sandy it’s 100 feet deep pretty shallow and you know Pete you know he’s eyeballing fish he sees them uh in this in the swells and you know he points
Them out and I look hard and I find oh God look at that anyway he would present the bait perfectly get a strike look we got a fit we got hooked up I got you know the thing out ripped out of the Outrigger and you know I was in the
Chair and I came tight um and that thing um I’m going to go a little more into Peter but that um uh I mean it was just amazing to me I mean totally amazing and we took that fish but we took it back into bimy and
We hung it I say it was 8:50 that was by measurements and so forth we didn’t there was no scale in there but we hung that fish and it was a wonderful custom in bimin at the time there was probably 30 people in line more senior people in
The front elderly people and little kids at the end and they all had a um filet knife of some sort in their in their hand or a little not switchblade but something um all the locals all the locals yeah came to to get their meat their dinner they came to get their meat
And their dinner and of course we you know we took enough and Pete was a great barbecue guy I mean really good and I had the the I still remember the the finest blue fin tuna dinner I ever had was with Pete on bimy that night it was fantastic
But the um uh anyway so the whole local community came in there got their fish and I mean I mean what a I mean it’s kind of a heartwarming deal really absolutely you see it going is but I would I’d be defending my blue fin tuna at all costs I love tuna too
Much well you know and Pete cooked it up that night I think it was barbecued you you know this but at that time I had not had a lot of blue fin tuna maybe in a sushi bar maybe not and um the thing Cooks up like a steak it doesn’t even
Change color hardly it looks like a filet to me um and we um in fact my friend’s house this will give you the kind of the Char that we were running with the name of his house in a wood wooden scroll sorosis by the sea that was the name of
His how perfect that was um well let’s talk about uh The Genius of Peter Peter right oh man well I think it starts started with you know he had a degree in finance also and had a degree in marine biology so he was brilliant he was he really was he was really
Smart and he had the personality and the camaraderie and all that to go with it I mean he was a really unusual helpful guy you know he wasn’t holding all what he knew to his vest he was sharing his stuff and taking it with him to different Fisheries in the world
Even and he was learning but he would learn fast he was a fast learner but he he understood the ocean he was marine biology he understood so I mean we would be going someplace on a boat and he’d shut down and dive in and you know come
Up with a lobster and that’s what we’d have for a lunch that day on the boat as you were traveling yeah I mean he he knew the waters that was around bimy at that time but he he he was a he really was a genius when it comes to sport fishing
And learning he was a fast learner and he could put things together fast I mean um his um ability to connect the dots and come up with an answer quickly was was good um I had two experiences like that with Pete on the Great Barrier Reef one of them is we were coming
In you got to get out you’re outside the reef but you have to get in you try to get you want you don’t want to get stuck on the outside the reef at night because you don’t there’s a small channel to get into where you’re all anchored right
Right yes yeah so you got to do it in daylight as much as possible but there were some um I guess they were sport fishermen but they had been diving on the inside of the reef free diving and and with an outgoing tide they had gotten sucked out through that
Small opening you’re talking about and it was a it’s a pretty Whitewater you know 20 knot afternoon almost every day out there not every day but a lot of the days and they nobody knew where these guys were and Pete you know dug in and tacked back and forth over and around
And found those guys both of them saved their lives saved their lives he did I mean it was you know and he would you know right away Mayday you know I mean he he brought it to everybody’s attention instantly um and we had there was another day like that we have um on
The barrier reef at lizard Island on Halloween there’s a party that’s you know memorable really great you know I mean I mean all the deck hands all the captains all the uh Anglers you know it’s a pretty heavy they go through a lot of liquor at that
Deal deal and it’s it’s really it’s it’s it is I don’t know if it’s almost it’s a I think it’s pretty iconic I I don’t know is it still continuing there’s well that’s what I’m wondering 80th anniversary upcoming I think do we get the invite for that one no I’m
Telling you I think um at any rate so that thing goes on and I mean there’s it’s pretty sloppy but fun and the um uh one of the good guys uh deck hands decides he’s he’s leaving and he gets in a a a rubber ducky they call him a
Little rubber you know sure so he’s going to go out to the to the boat that he’s on anyway so the next day comes you know we’re all getting ready to go out that night that day to go fishing as best we can that deck end and that
Dinghy is go isn’t there he’s not on the boat so where is this kid you know what happened to him so I think it was Pete put together a a plan and that plan was that out of the Harbor from Lizard Island we all would take uh we would be
5 degrees apart on a spoke and go out we found that kid 12 miles off the beach laying in the bottom of this dinghy know just passed out he was fine um and his first I don’t remember his first words but you know whatever they were they were pretty you know in Aussie
Pretty Prof yeah you know you know you got another you know Forex or something you know Ian yeah again Peter saved another person’s life I would say he did yeah and he he he may have done that at mult other venues you know over the
Years but he he you know he he he took ideas and uh played them out and tweaked them and uh to they worked and he was extremely consistent I mean unbelievably consistent I heard I think Nikki you might know this number better than me but I heard he caught 75 granders or
Something like that and he let at least that many go right I would say that’s true whatever the numbers are he he was high he was a highliner on catching and uh and releasing um granders I mean he he just did I mean he I mean he of course he
Fished the reef and that was one of his venues where he would uh for his season he would be on the reef but I think he went to the reef just out of Interest initially like so many of us did we just sounds fantastic over there let’s try it
Is Nicole your wife she was for 32 years yeah 32 years cuz in lizard Island she caught some big fish well we had a uh on on I ended up having a boat over there before I had a boat I chartered and it was with Bruce dolman local
Captain we fished and fish to fish hard as normal fishing two these are Big baits you mentioned the size of the baits I mean we one day we put down a 60 lb tuna that’s your bait head rigged as a bait 60 lb tuna a whole a whole tuna tun live
Live to live yeah we nothing we didn’t get bit but that we put it down because it could happen happen you know there there there’s been big bait Big Fish yeah exactly holy cow yeah uh but anyway this particular but often a bait would be this big and you know they would rig
It and rig it all head rigged and so forth at any rate we had a double strike I was on the right rigger Nicole was on the left and you know gentlemen you Nicole you take the chair and I’ll figure this thing out over here anyway it got as it
Turns out my fish was about I got him pretty quickly it’s like 250 lbs on 130 lb tackle I mean it’s not uh much pretty easy yeah so that was fine ni Cole’s in the share got the harness on and she’s you know she’s fished with me by that time for years
And knows that nobody can touch anything and it’s all about her all about the rules all about the rules you know we’re not doing anything we’re going to do it right that uh fished I remember it jumped once and we thought it was you know 850 and you know we didn’t want to
Exaggerate but we that was and it was Big Fish four hours later we that fish took us we we didn’t go a lot of distance but at the end that F we were from here god it feels like to that glass window there to the reef
Backed up to the reef that fish was right there cuz the reef dropped straight off and we took took that fish and we knew it it was big we have a lot you took it mean you killed it you took it to the yeah we took it yeah we took the
Fish yeah well we took the fish and we couldn’t get it through the fish the swim step door to get the at all the thing was too 7 foot girth couldn’t get him into the boat couldn’t get it into the boat um weird destroy there because it was kind of a
Basic boat we were using the we had a line coming from the anchor winch through the salon back to that fish and we were using the winch on the anchor to try to pull that fish in and we couldn’t do it so we there was a mother ship out
There I have all videos of this it’s really kind of a wonderful scene um uh there was a mother ship out there and you know maybe 80 90 ft they had a block and tackle and it was like three stories high so we took that fish over
There and they lifted it and they waited 1340 oh my gosh the photograph with Nicole next to this fish it’s like but you couldn’t you couldn’t enter that as a record because you waited on a boat correct right yeah yeah so what did we do brought it in took it into lizard
Island yeah the wait there and it laid there overnight and we waited the next day it took a small tractor to to lift that darn thing and everybody said stand you know don’t get too close in case the breaks but anyway 1320 in the morning and that was everything was uh done
Correctly and so forth and so on so that record stands to this day and that was 1981 wow um as the ladies uh 130 um black marlin record and they’ve got a little plaque at lizard Island for that um but I might add that there was it’s not the all tackle record because
All tackle record was is about 10 or 20 lbs greater it was caught by a lady on 80 lb at some point in time I don’t know when that was but anyway but Nicole has that lady’s um 130 130 yeah I mean it’s unbelievable it had a 23in coddle area
How can you not just spend the rest of your life there looking for those big fish I I would think I’m never going sword fishing again I’m gonna get a home in lizard Island and I’m gonna spend the rest of my life chasing granders right
Here well I was going to say is I’m sure you don’t trout fish I do you do yeah oh awesome yeah well you don’t may not know this but well I’ll tell you L I think they dumped 50,000 little pin heads in the river a couple weeks ago we must have
Had I don’t know how many we got six and8 inch fish you know yeah that’s very cool he still trout fish after all those years chasing granders and swordfish yeah the the the the reef um um we took I’ve only take we took three I first
Fish9 you got to take it because it’s your first grer I thought I had to take it um the second one was the first grander for the next season and that was 1179 and then the next two or three years later was Nicole’s 1320 so but every other grander we released and
Right they they you know did you ever have any remorse killing a big fish um no but I you know I I didn’t have any desire to continue to do that right I mean release yes um I yeah I did have I didn’t have a remorse but as you know in strip Marl
Early on I was a release Advocate and U well let me clarify that in that as an article I read about you in 1985 Dave was one of the first supporters of cash and release Dave’s unwavering support of tag and release may be His Highest greatest contribution
To local fishing and I think it the first Marlin of the year was really possibly the most important Marlin of the year and everybody would kill that fish and take it and you I think uh that year 1985 caught that first fish and let it go and that set the standard for the
Fleet well it did but like all diff difficult things you know it takes a while to uh be accepted to catch on yeah well but now today I mean you know we we C we released so many more fish than we C than we weigh I mean
You know they’re all whatever you know 125 to 200 lb and they all look the same and why do we need to you know how many pictures of that fish do you need with of with you in that fish yeah you’re 80 some years old now hold old 80 well be
83 in November that’s a month are you still chasing big fish I’m invited to go often um and but you know in I the answer is I would but you have to remember 1950 to n to so 70 years and I’m not kidding you it’s um a hard 70 years lots
Of days on the water are you burned out no no I’m not burned out but uh you know I started off with a uh 36 foot boat then I had a 42 44 foot boat then I in order to keep going I bought an 80 foot
Boat so I could get a good night’s sleep that kind of thing and you know and there’s a you know often you know you’re going uphill to go someplace and you know we would leave at 3: in the morning and end up you know it was just endless uh torture
Sometimes well you never felt that way CU you were you know you were um you know the unknown is so cool we’re going to go over there and we’re g you know who knows what we’re going to find and how’s it going to work out but no I but
I’ve been you know kind of beat up enough and I’m happy to you’ve done it float the r Fork it’s almost like if you want to do this you got to dedicate your entire life for it if you want to do it well yeah I mean you know and yeah I I
Don’t know I mean you know we haven’t covered it we may not but the in between all of this kind of stuff there’s another you know I fished morius in the Indian Ocean I fished in South Africa I fished abuan I fished um the asor Florida you know the master
Tournament down there Venezuela and fish you know every little spot in Mexico I fished Hawaii wow you know it just it goes on and on and on and on and we could probably spend a a bit of time you know because every there’s a story to every one of those things that’s right
Interesting and then between all that I had a career you know I have to you had a huge life in fishing yeah the what are you most proud of because here’s another thing it says throughout his sport fishing career David denholm has Keen Ardent supporter of organizations working to protect the
Ocean’s resources anchovy quotas drift Gil Nets white seab bass and many other battles over the years have benefited from his personal and financial support well um which you may not have gathered I kind of a quiet person actually so everything I’ve done has been Anonymous um very cool
Yeah you’ve done it for your own personal gain for your own to fulfill your own heart yeah but I will you know I mean I mean conservation obviously well not taking fish you know releasing early on the the 1980s and I mean you know it’s always been about conservation it’s
Always been about giving the fish an equal chance you know you’re just no use having you you know fair game yeah fair game so I think I mean um I would say that um um probably my best catch irrespective of other contributions which probably been the um 143 12b big
Eye on 12 lb because you know T tuna don’t give you much WoW break they’re you know they’re down you got to figure that out Marlin uh not swordfish so much but Marlin on the surface I mean boats can go you know you can you can work that
Fish it’s it’s a total skill involved but um so that’s you know that’s a 12 to1 catch and as you know 10 you know you get to 10 to one is pretty Ser successful catch right um so I would say that was probably the degree of difficulty maybe one of the hardest
Sword Fisher uh I would say I thought that a 200lb swordfish pulled like a th000 lb black wow I do feel that way H um but I think that um gee I don’t know I mean you know it’s I think the most um rewarding thing of
The whole thing is just the things you see at you know when you’re out on the ocean or doing what you what your passion is whether it’s big game hunting or fishing or what it’s just it’s not even what you uh succeed with it’s just I mean it’s just the environment and
What you see that you can’t even U describe to people often it’s that that unique I guess the process is more important than the result yeah yeah you’re going fishing not not catching you know yeah what’s your next [Laughter] chapter I don’t know but it’s not the
Couch I don’t see that either look I’m so I’m so honored and happy that we met in Springfield yeah and seeing you with your Brotherhood and all your pals there supporting Jerry yeah that was for real family there’s big big family yeah we we missed Jerry a lot I mean Jerry
Went down to New Zealand about 20 some 25 years ago or whatever it might have been and um it it just we were sorry that he decided to do that he it was where he retired um and of course he was so successful down there with his continued
Fishing and I think he had a one time he had a world record sword fish uh deep drop 850 PBS or something like that you know it’s been overcome since then but you know Jerry just I mean it is not even it’s just Jerry I mean Jerry is is fishing oh I
Can see why he loved you too man I mean like I said I I I get tyod ited all the time you know when you speak from the heart it’s pretty easy yeah you know and I’m just uh so honored that we’ve got your story here on our podcast and we
Got the hang out here in Aspen and at some point we got to go up and see what kind of a skier you are well yeah we’ been doing that for a while that but before we close out here you know you got to you know my parents uh you know
My dad actually started started fishing with my dad at fly fishing steel head uh in a river and then they put a dam where this River was and now there’s no more right but that led to that and then you know all of my uh captains over you know
35 or 40 years are all spectacular uh I wouldn’t mind naming them Joe Mike Lopez and Doug Carson um uh Ned falander Jeff illingworth um don’t think I slipped to John kpatrick I mean the you think I’m passionate I mean they are as you know they are there you know
They’re up half an hour before Me Maybe or or maybe not I mean I’ve pluged the coffee pot in a lot of times so it’s um anyway I just wanted to recognize that that that’s a team effort and so forth M It is Well thank you yeah well thank you
Guys thanks so much for coming on no thanks for your interest I I just uh Andy yeah yeah I’m not kidding you thank you I’ll tell you you I closed off for not closed off your invitation required me to go back I hadn’t been there for so
Long well we got your story uh for many years to come so thank you reliving those memories buy oh don’t never stop all right pal thank you it was good
source
