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1.) DParker - 04/17/2019
You really do need a bigger boat.
[URL="https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/04/giant-marlin-too-big-for-boat-novice-anglers-get-their-fish"]Giant marlin too big for boat, but novice anglers get their fish[/URL]
[URL="https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/04/giant-marlin-too-big-for-boat-novice-anglers-get-their-fish"]Giant marlin too big for boat, but novice anglers get their fish[/URL]
2.) bluecat - 04/17/2019
That picture is kinda hard to look at. One twist and you have fisherman-kbobs.
3.) DParker - 04/17/2019
Even worse, I chartered a fishing boat when I took the family to Cabo years ago, and we got nothin' but one little barracuda I hooked into.
4.) bluecat - 04/17/2019
Yeah, that would suck.
5.) DParker - 04/17/2019
Actually, it was this place (Villa del Arco).
But still...THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY MARLIN!
Harrumph.
But still...THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY MARLIN!
Harrumph.
6.) DParker - 04/18/2019
I mean, there were a couple of times that the pool-side waiter didn't wander by fast enough...and I had to walk over to that pirate ship bar to get our drinks. It was hell.
7.) bluecat - 04/18/2019
Did you ever get shorted on umbrellas in your drinks. I hate when that happens.
8.) DParker - 04/18/2019
I was drinking Tecate. Luckily, they never skimped on the limes.
9.) bluecat - 04/18/2019
The swim-up bars are the worst. I mean, you pay for an exotic vacation, you deserve a little tlc and they expect you to [B]swim[/B] to the bar? I know right?
10.) DParker - 04/18/2019
By the way...I didn't get a "harrumph" outta' that guy.
11.) bluecat - 04/18/2019
....
12.) Swamp Fox - 04/20/2019
[QUOTE=bluecat;58085]That picture is kinda hard to look at. One twist and you have fisherman-kbobs.[/QUOTE]
The mate is doing the best he can, but you're right ... We're in Major Bozo No-No territory if that fish is still alive. (Or even if it isn't. ---Google it) The gaffer on the far right has absolutely no control. That boat rolls and/or the fish twists and somebody's getting poked. It seems like it happens once or twice every few years that somebody gets impaled or pulled overboard and drowned wrapped up by the line.
[url]https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2015/06/01/hawaii-angler-dies-impaled-swordfish/[/url]
[url]https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2015/04/07/california-angler-holding-trophy-catch-dragged-boat-sea-lion/[/url]
The mate is doing the best he can, but you're right ... We're in Major Bozo No-No territory if that fish is still alive. (Or even if it isn't. ---Google it) The gaffer on the far right has absolutely no control. That boat rolls and/or the fish twists and somebody's getting poked. It seems like it happens once or twice every few years that somebody gets impaled or pulled overboard and drowned wrapped up by the line.
[url]https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2015/06/01/hawaii-angler-dies-impaled-swordfish/[/url]
[url]https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2015/04/07/california-angler-holding-trophy-catch-dragged-boat-sea-lion/[/url]
13.) Swamp Fox - 04/20/2019
[QUOTE=DParker;58088]Actually, it was this place (Villa del Arco).
But still...THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY MARLIN!
Harrumph.[/QUOTE]
"My friend went to Cabo and all I got was this lousy non-bikini pic"
But still...THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY MARLIN!
Harrumph.[/QUOTE]
"My friend went to Cabo and all I got was this lousy non-bikini pic"
14.) Swamp Fox - 04/20/2019
[url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1994/07/03/a-life-and-death-on-the-high-seas/0f54ff89-2c7d-4799-b858-c46bc8aac77a/?utm_term=.a957a09f023e[/url]
[QUOTE]By Angus Phillips July 3, 1994
LISBON, MD. -- It's an unlikely starting point for a big-game fisherman, but here in the deep poplar woods of northern Howard County, Chris Bowie caught a bluewater bug that stuck with him 25 years till it claimed his life last month in the Gulf Stream 60 miles off North Carolina.
Bowie, 29, a 1982 graduate of Glenelg High and a fixture from Ocean City to Mexico wherever marlin, tuna and sailfish are sought, was lost in a bizarre offshore fishing accident June 16.
He was snatched overboard by a blue marlin and dragged to his death in 10,000 feet of water while serving as first mate aboard the Trophy Box, a 53-foot Carolina-built sportfisherman competing in the $500,000-plus Big Rock Marlin Tournament out of Morehead City, N.C.
Bowie, a veteran offshore professional who captained the 53-foot Hatteras "Midnight Hour" in Ocean City when he wasn't working the East Coast tournament trail, was "wiring" the 200-pound billfish and preparing to release it when his hands were ensnared in a 30-foot-long wire leader attached to the hook, according to his brother, Randy, who went to the scene afterward to reconstruct the incident.
"He didn't do anything wrong," said Randy Bowie. "He was an excellent fisherman and he'd done this hundreds of times. But the fish did something no one ever saw before. It did a 180{-degree turn} and took off. That tightened the wrap and tangled both Chris's hands. It catapulted Chris off the boat. He did manage to get one hand loose ..."
But Chris Bowie never disentangled his gloved right hand from the wire and the marlin dragged him deep in the warm water. Second mate Ronnie Fields, 19, dived in to try to cut him free and spotted the fish 30 feet down with Bowie attached, but when Fields surfaced for air and dived again, all he saw was a spot deep in the water.
Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy helicopters and boats rushed to the scene and searched for two days, but neither fish nor man was seen again, nor does Randy Bowie expect them to be. "The fish probably sounded and died on the bottom," he said.
So ends a life framed by the sea. "The thing we take comfort in," said Randy Bowie, "is that if the Lord had come to Chris and said, 'I'm taking you tomorrow, how do you want to go?' he would have thought it over and said, 'On a fighting deck, fighting a marlin.' "
The Bowies were assembled at the family place here last week, trying to make sense of their loss. Chris Bowie's wife of two years, Laurie, drove in from Ocean City, seven months pregnant with the couple's first child. Chuck and Ruthe Bowie, Chris's parents, and Randy and sister Robyn sat with her on the back porch, overlooking 9 1/2 acres of woods from which the family cleared a homesite years ago and where in better times Chris might be busy planning a fall bowhunt for deer.
"He loved to deer hunt when he wasn't fishing," said Ruthe Bowie, thumbing wistfully through photo albums.
By all accounts, Chris Bowie was an exceptional fellow. A learning disability, dyslexia, kept him from excelling at schoolwork, his father said, but the very first time he put his hands on a fishing rod he found his niche.
"His cousin gave him a little rod and reel when he was 4. We were on vacation at Emerald Isle, North Carolina," said Chuck Bowie. "I don't think he ever got a bite, but for seven days Christopher was on the dock fishing. You couldn't get him in for meals."
By age 12, he was lobbying for a boat. "We couldn't afford it so I told him, 'You get half the money and I'll kick in the other half,' thinking that would get rid of him," said Chuck Bowie.
Instead, young Chris all but disappeared for the summer, leaving at dawn and returning after dusk each day covered with dirt and straw. He worked for farmers, the only job around for a boy his age in rural Howard County. At summer's end, "he handed me $1,200 cash," said his father.
They bought a 16-footer, then a 21-footer and finally a 28-foot Aquasport, which they towed to Ocean City. "It was fish, fish, fish," said Chuck Bowie.
By 16, Chris had contrived to spend summers at the beach with relatives. He formed an alliance with Joe Riley, whose string of dry-cleaning shops in Annapolis helps finance an Ocean City billfish boat. "Chris was always hanging around the docks helping out," Riley said. "He was a good kid. I told him he could mate for me and he wound up staying five years. Then he got his captain's license."
Dyslexia kept Chris from passing the written Coast Guard captain's exam his first two tries, said Chuck Bowie, but he finally got a special exception to have the test administered verbally and passed.
The years since have been a blur of travel to Venezuela, Mexico, Palm Beach, Hatteras, the Bahamas, the Florida Keys and anywhere else big boats chase big fish in big water. His job as skipper of Midnight Hour allowed him to freelance when the owner wasn't fishing, said wife Laurie, and he was in demand.
"He'd do anything that had to do with fishing," said Chris's mother, Ruthe. "He'd put on a wetsuit to scrape barnacles off boat bottoms, he'd fish for bait at night and he was excellent at rigging trolling baits. One time when I visited him at Ocean City, he was on the dock rigging baits with a circle of people around, just watching him."
His skills earned Chris an invitation to work this year's Big Rock, one of the nation's top marlin tournaments with close to 200 boats, as first mate for Capt. Alan Fields.
At 175-225 pounds, the fish they caught June 16 was small for a blue, which run up to 1,000 pounds, but it was hooked atop the head, not in the mouth, and took 45 minutes or so to get to the boat, said Randy Bowie. The first time angler Gray Ingraham had it up, Chris Bowie grabbed the wire leader and drew the fish alongside but had to release quickly when the marlin made a late run.
The next time, Randy said, Chris took a standard "double wrap" of wire leader on both hands to hold the fish steady while Ronnie Fields tagged it before releasing. (Billfish tournaments encourage anglers to release fish below trophy size, and some give special bonuses for tagging so information from the tag can be used for research if the fish is caught again.)
Randy Bowie said once the tag was set, Fields turned to grab pliers to cut the wire leader. But the marlin made its sudden 180-degree flip and the wire tightened on Chris's hands.
"Usually with a double wrap you can just open your hands and the wire comes right off," said Randy Bowie. This time something went horribly awry, then got worse as the fishing line parted from the leader and Chris Bowie and the marlin were separated from the boat.
"He did everything perfect, the fish just snatched him off the deck," Jimmy Fields, Ronnie's brother, told the Palm Beach Post. "It's not abnormal. It happens ... but 99 times out of 100 you can get out. Something breaks. The wire breaks or you can cut yourself out or it comes unraveled from your hand."
"You hear of people slipping and falling overboard," said Riley, the veteran Ocean City angler, "and sometimes a fish might pull them over. But I never heard of anyone getting tangled up like Chris did."
Riley said Ocean City big-game anglers feel the loss keenly. "It couldn't have been some worthless druggie," he said angrily. "It had to be this handsome, clean-cut kid with a baby two months away."
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]By Angus Phillips July 3, 1994
LISBON, MD. -- It's an unlikely starting point for a big-game fisherman, but here in the deep poplar woods of northern Howard County, Chris Bowie caught a bluewater bug that stuck with him 25 years till it claimed his life last month in the Gulf Stream 60 miles off North Carolina.
Bowie, 29, a 1982 graduate of Glenelg High and a fixture from Ocean City to Mexico wherever marlin, tuna and sailfish are sought, was lost in a bizarre offshore fishing accident June 16.
He was snatched overboard by a blue marlin and dragged to his death in 10,000 feet of water while serving as first mate aboard the Trophy Box, a 53-foot Carolina-built sportfisherman competing in the $500,000-plus Big Rock Marlin Tournament out of Morehead City, N.C.
Bowie, a veteran offshore professional who captained the 53-foot Hatteras "Midnight Hour" in Ocean City when he wasn't working the East Coast tournament trail, was "wiring" the 200-pound billfish and preparing to release it when his hands were ensnared in a 30-foot-long wire leader attached to the hook, according to his brother, Randy, who went to the scene afterward to reconstruct the incident.
"He didn't do anything wrong," said Randy Bowie. "He was an excellent fisherman and he'd done this hundreds of times. But the fish did something no one ever saw before. It did a 180{-degree turn} and took off. That tightened the wrap and tangled both Chris's hands. It catapulted Chris off the boat. He did manage to get one hand loose ..."
But Chris Bowie never disentangled his gloved right hand from the wire and the marlin dragged him deep in the warm water. Second mate Ronnie Fields, 19, dived in to try to cut him free and spotted the fish 30 feet down with Bowie attached, but when Fields surfaced for air and dived again, all he saw was a spot deep in the water.
Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy helicopters and boats rushed to the scene and searched for two days, but neither fish nor man was seen again, nor does Randy Bowie expect them to be. "The fish probably sounded and died on the bottom," he said.
So ends a life framed by the sea. "The thing we take comfort in," said Randy Bowie, "is that if the Lord had come to Chris and said, 'I'm taking you tomorrow, how do you want to go?' he would have thought it over and said, 'On a fighting deck, fighting a marlin.' "
The Bowies were assembled at the family place here last week, trying to make sense of their loss. Chris Bowie's wife of two years, Laurie, drove in from Ocean City, seven months pregnant with the couple's first child. Chuck and Ruthe Bowie, Chris's parents, and Randy and sister Robyn sat with her on the back porch, overlooking 9 1/2 acres of woods from which the family cleared a homesite years ago and where in better times Chris might be busy planning a fall bowhunt for deer.
"He loved to deer hunt when he wasn't fishing," said Ruthe Bowie, thumbing wistfully through photo albums.
By all accounts, Chris Bowie was an exceptional fellow. A learning disability, dyslexia, kept him from excelling at schoolwork, his father said, but the very first time he put his hands on a fishing rod he found his niche.
"His cousin gave him a little rod and reel when he was 4. We were on vacation at Emerald Isle, North Carolina," said Chuck Bowie. "I don't think he ever got a bite, but for seven days Christopher was on the dock fishing. You couldn't get him in for meals."
By age 12, he was lobbying for a boat. "We couldn't afford it so I told him, 'You get half the money and I'll kick in the other half,' thinking that would get rid of him," said Chuck Bowie.
Instead, young Chris all but disappeared for the summer, leaving at dawn and returning after dusk each day covered with dirt and straw. He worked for farmers, the only job around for a boy his age in rural Howard County. At summer's end, "he handed me $1,200 cash," said his father.
They bought a 16-footer, then a 21-footer and finally a 28-foot Aquasport, which they towed to Ocean City. "It was fish, fish, fish," said Chuck Bowie.
By 16, Chris had contrived to spend summers at the beach with relatives. He formed an alliance with Joe Riley, whose string of dry-cleaning shops in Annapolis helps finance an Ocean City billfish boat. "Chris was always hanging around the docks helping out," Riley said. "He was a good kid. I told him he could mate for me and he wound up staying five years. Then he got his captain's license."
Dyslexia kept Chris from passing the written Coast Guard captain's exam his first two tries, said Chuck Bowie, but he finally got a special exception to have the test administered verbally and passed.
The years since have been a blur of travel to Venezuela, Mexico, Palm Beach, Hatteras, the Bahamas, the Florida Keys and anywhere else big boats chase big fish in big water. His job as skipper of Midnight Hour allowed him to freelance when the owner wasn't fishing, said wife Laurie, and he was in demand.
"He'd do anything that had to do with fishing," said Chris's mother, Ruthe. "He'd put on a wetsuit to scrape barnacles off boat bottoms, he'd fish for bait at night and he was excellent at rigging trolling baits. One time when I visited him at Ocean City, he was on the dock rigging baits with a circle of people around, just watching him."
His skills earned Chris an invitation to work this year's Big Rock, one of the nation's top marlin tournaments with close to 200 boats, as first mate for Capt. Alan Fields.
At 175-225 pounds, the fish they caught June 16 was small for a blue, which run up to 1,000 pounds, but it was hooked atop the head, not in the mouth, and took 45 minutes or so to get to the boat, said Randy Bowie. The first time angler Gray Ingraham had it up, Chris Bowie grabbed the wire leader and drew the fish alongside but had to release quickly when the marlin made a late run.
The next time, Randy said, Chris took a standard "double wrap" of wire leader on both hands to hold the fish steady while Ronnie Fields tagged it before releasing. (Billfish tournaments encourage anglers to release fish below trophy size, and some give special bonuses for tagging so information from the tag can be used for research if the fish is caught again.)
Randy Bowie said once the tag was set, Fields turned to grab pliers to cut the wire leader. But the marlin made its sudden 180-degree flip and the wire tightened on Chris's hands.
"Usually with a double wrap you can just open your hands and the wire comes right off," said Randy Bowie. This time something went horribly awry, then got worse as the fishing line parted from the leader and Chris Bowie and the marlin were separated from the boat.
"He did everything perfect, the fish just snatched him off the deck," Jimmy Fields, Ronnie's brother, told the Palm Beach Post. "It's not abnormal. It happens ... but 99 times out of 100 you can get out. Something breaks. The wire breaks or you can cut yourself out or it comes unraveled from your hand."
"You hear of people slipping and falling overboard," said Riley, the veteran Ocean City angler, "and sometimes a fish might pull them over. But I never heard of anyone getting tangled up like Chris did."
Riley said Ocean City big-game anglers feel the loss keenly. "It couldn't have been some worthless druggie," he said angrily. "It had to be this handsome, clean-cut kid with a baby two months away."
[/QUOTE]