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March/April 2008
Big Game Fishing Journal
Read Captain Len's Editorial -- Flexibility is needed in the Rebuilding Policy of the Magnuson-Stevens Act
March/April
Feature Articles
SLOW DOWN FOR WAHOO
by Captain John Fritsch

  Over the past three years we have seen our fuel prices more than double. As a die- hard wahoo fisherman, these price increases have especially hurt. Seems like for the past decade just about everything you have seen written on the subject of wahoo fishing has all been related to high-speed trolling. Running an outboard powered center console, this is extremely fuel inefficient, and trying to operate a weekend charter business, it has been very challenging trying to remain competitively priced and still deliver the goods. more
TIRED OF TUNA STEAKS? LOVE TUNA SALAD? THEN "CAN" THAT TUNA!
by Captain Len Belcaro

  Tired of giving away most of the albacore, yellowfin and bigeye tuna I brought home from the canyons to friends and family, or freezing tuna steaks that within a few months became freezer burned and nearly inedible, I discovered a better way to enjoy the tuna we caught during season throughout the entire year. I love a grilled tuna steak as much as the next guy, but I really enjoy tuna salad in sandwiches, on lettuce or with shell pasta. more
LIVE BAIT
by Mark "Corky" Decker

  Back in the Ol’ Hawaiian days, I remember a boat on the West Coast of Oahu that was named Live Bait. I never met the guy, never even knew his name, but I always noticed he had a bunch of flags flying (always more than I did.), as I drove by his boat on my way home each evening. It didn’t take me long to send out my spy (my 300-pound Hawaiian deck hand Stanley) to find out more about this boat. A simple top secret report back: “They spend all their time live baiting.” Oh, so that’s why the boat is called LIVE BAIT! more
THE EVOLUTION OF THE SPORT
by Riley Love
  There’s an old adage: “Can one understand what it means to be a leaf without knowing that it’s part of a tree?” In the early morning netherlight at Guatemala’s Puerto Quetzal Marina, a small tropical tree grows near where my son is combing the water’s edge. On its branch a leaf dances in the breeze, which courses out to sea from the night-cooled terrain behind us. These land and sea winds have existed for as long as there have been continents and oceans, since before there was life, even in the deep. And for how many centuries have fathers come away with their sons to fish upon the sea? more
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE SHARK MAN CAPTAIN FRANK MUNDUS: What Legends Are Made Of
by Robert Banfelder
  Robert: Mr. Mundus, certainly those involved in bluewater fishing circles know that Frank Mundus pioneered shark fishing, that you and your crew caught the largest great white on rod and reel (3,427 pounds), that you harpooned the largest white shark in the world (4,500 pounds), and that you were the inspiration for Peter Benchley’s famous movie, Jaws (and likely the fictional character Quint). My first question to you in this interview is—and be very careful how you answer it—is not Jeanette Mundus, your wife of 19 years, the catch of your life? more
EELING FOR LOWER CHESAPEAKE BAY TROPHY ROCKFISH
by Captain Len Buchta
  The 2007 offshore fishing season along the Virginia portion of the Delmarva Peninsula was slow, to say the least. In fact, by August, I was beginning to think that the only tuna left in the world were in cans at the local grocery emporiums. No life, no temperature breaks, no fish. The ocean water looked like one big dirty puddle. By early October, with a great deal of anticipation (not to mention a few prayers and offerings to the fish Gods), Dan Zebec my long-suffering fishing partner and I began to fanaticize about the Virginia fall trophy striped bass fishery. more
MAKO MY DAY
by Captain Larry Festa
  June has always been my favorite month of the year. In addition to the first real warming trend of the season, it marks the best of the Long Island shark fishing. Each year the members of my club, The Freeport Tuna Club, compete with earnest to win the club’s two annual mako awards: the Freeport Marine Trophy for captain, for the first mako of the season and the Mako Marine Trophy for the angler who catches the heaviest mako of the season. My crew and I, in years past, have always managed to get one of these awards during the season; however, the ultimate goal has always been the “Grand Slam,” the first and the largest all rolled into one big fish!
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