Jon Schwartz's Blog: Fishing, Photography, and Travel

Wife Bests Husband in Marlin Fishing Standoff

2011-12-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

How about this big fish story: a married couple fishing aboard the 35' Bad Medicine in Cabo San Lucas spotted the dorsal fins of two striped marlin breaking the surface. Patricia and Edward Araujo of Chula Vista, California tossed baits to the pair of billfish, and within moments the husband and wife team found themselves hooked up to a pair of javelin-nosed jumpers greyhounding for the horizon.

The married duo strapped on their fighting belts and shouted with glee as the fishing line peeled off their reels in bursts. Patricia's fish headed west and Edward's went east, pinning the anglers in opposite corners of the boat. I grabbed my wide angle lens, raced to the bridge, and snapped away. As a fishing photographer and travel writer, I have plenty of stock fishing pictures, but photos of married couples hooked up at the same time to huge fish are hard to come by!

The Araujos are experienced anglers and spend a lot of time fishing in Baja, but they'd ever enjoyed a simultaneous double marlin hookup together. I couldn't decide what to photograph next!

I wanted to get jumping shots of their fish, but I also wanted to swim with the striped marlin, take underwater photographs, and then take photos from the water looking up at them and their fish. After some thought I decided to put my telephoto lens on and see if their fish wouldn't put on an aerial show closer to the boat. Fortunately they did!

As soon as I got these jumping shots, I readied my underwater camera gear and donned my mask and fins. I'm walking around the boat with the fins on getting in everyone's way and looking like a complete clown. Someone had to decide which spouse would reel their fish in first. Edward's fish was a bit closer so the Captain Bernabe "Bernie" Ruiz told him to bring his fish in. If everything went according to plan, I'd document the release of this fish from the water while Patricia continued the fight with her marlin.

In the meantime I snorkeled off the boat's stern and got shots of the two anglers hooked up.

Fortunately the plan unfolded smoothly and I was able to get some pretty awesome photos of Edward and his fish. The mate inserted the tag into the fish.

If the fish is again caught, the capture and tag information will be reported to organizations like The Billfish Foundation, which can determine the length of travel between travel and marlin migration patterns, etc. The Billfish Foundation helps promote the conservation of marlin, sailfish, and related species worldwide.

Here is a cool shot of Edward and his fish while wife Patricia is battles her own marlin in the background:

Deckhand Alberto “Beto” Ceseña released the first fish; now it was time for everyone to concentrate on Patricia, who fought along gamely as her fish dove for the bottom.

When the marlin resurfaced near me, it became evident that her fish was the bigger of the two. I gave it plenty of space until Beto grabbed hold of the leader, and then took some shots of her posing with her fish. Patricia backed off and the Beto took over. This was one big striped marlin!

The Marinero expertly insertied the tag into the fish and deftly sent it on its way.

This wasn't the crew's first time at the rodeo; in fact, they'd won the 2011 Bisbee's Black and Blue Marlin Tournament. Sensing another cool photo op, I snapped away the entire time and got some neat shots of the entire marlin release sequence. I put together a composite that I will be using in future articles on the subject of how to release marlin. Here it is: (click to enlarge photo)

Ironically Patricia almost didn't make the trip; the couple had a wedding to attend the same night and she almost stayed home to get ready for the occasion. I know my wife would have. As it was, she only had a couple of hours between landing at Cabo San Lucas Marina and the start of the wedding. That's what I call a dedicated angler! Turns out that I have a lot in common with the couple; Patricia and I both teach elementary school in San Diego and our students might become online pen pals. On the way back Patricia filled out the Tag Report that Bad Medicine Sportfishing will send to The Billfish Foundation.

I use fishing and technology to engage my students so you can bet as soon as I get back in the classroom after winter break, I'll be telling the kids this cool fishing tale.

I have a marlin mount in my car right now and the day before school starts back up I'm going to put it up on the wall. When the students come in, we'll do the dramatic unveiling! It will lead to more fish science in our room. I'll be sharing our marlin and marine science work with The Billfish Foundation to aid in their billfish conservation efforts.
Stay tuned as I will be writing another article featuring other photos and stories from this trip to Cabo. Here's a preview:

If you liked this article, please click here to like my Facebook page.
I will be doing a free monthly photo giveaway raffle that is available to all those who have "liked" the page. If you scroll through my blog and website you'll see some of the neat images that might be raffled off. Three per month will be given away to randomly selected "likers" of my Facebook page.
Cheers and tight lines,
Jon Schwartz

UPDATE:
This story was picked up by the San Diego Union Tribune!
Outdoors writer and SD Tribune columnist Ed Zieralski did a writeup and you can see it here San Diego Union Tribune: Couple has Marlin Adventure in Cabo San Lucas.

Giant Bonefish! Fishing Photos from my trip to Oahu, Hawaii

2011-12-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of a huge bonefish that I took in Oahu, Hawaii.

Oahu is what's called a "sleeper" spot for massive bonefish. There are plenty of big ones there. I wrote an article about the trip in Saltwater Sportsman Magazine.

After witnessing the sheer number and size of enormous specimens, I asked my friend and guide Captain Mike Hennessy, "Mike, I don't get it. Why would anyone go anywhere else when they can fly to Honolulu and be in the flats stalking these monsters within site of Waikiki and Diamond Head?"

He explained that it's "varsity" fishery; the fish are incredibly hard to catch, and fly fishing enthusiasts that aren't on top of their techniques can get their hats handed to them by the largest fish. Fortunately the fish cooperated and I got a lot of great shots!

I have a new Facebook Page. If you click on this link and like Jon Schwartz Photography, Fishing, and Travel you will be able to "Like" the page and soon I'll be giving away free prints every month to a couple of random fans.

Yacht Photography in Cabo San Lucas, Baja Sur Mexico

2011-12-17T20:05:00.000-08:00

Los Arcos in Cabo San Lucas is a great location for taking pictures and photos of sportfishing boats.

Today I was out shooting the 35' Cabo Yachts Sportfisher Bad Medicine. It's a super sweet boat and I will be fishing and taking photos with them for several days.

On the way back, a sea lion hopped up onto the back of the Bad Medicine and gave all of us a big laugh! Click on the photo to zoom in.

I finally figured out a way to do a free photo giveaway on my Facebook Page without getting in trouble with Facebook (I registered my FB page on a third party app that is FB approved) and soon all the people who are fans of the page will have a chance at a free monthly photo giveway. Yahoo!

Here are some photos I took of one of my favorite restaurants in Cabo. In the first shot the fellow is getting a tequila tour.

I will be posting photos and details about my Cabo vacation on this blog, and also on Jon Schwartz's Photography, Fishing, and Travel Facebook Page. You can become a fan of that page by clicking on the above link.

~Jon Schwartz

Which big fish are released and why: Marlin, Tuna, and Shark photos and facts

2011-11-23T04:24:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder why sport fishing anglers keep some big fish and let others go?

It might simply be a matter of taste. Marlin are great fun to catch, but in my opinion they don't make for great table fare. They are sometimes prepared by smoking or grinding them up into meatballs called albondigas. The results can be decent, but then again, lots of people say frogs and and pigs feet are tasty, too. "If you cook 'em just right they're delicious!" Fortunately most sport fishing anglers are content to let marlin go.

I took the above photo of a blue marlin that was being released. Taken above or below the water, photos are a great way to celebrate one's catch. Taxidermy mounts are still popular. They're no longer made from dead fish, and this results in a lot less fish hanging at the docks for the sake of a picture. I had a fantastic life-sized plastic marlin mount made for me by one of the best taxidermy companies in the world, and they only wanted to know the species and approximate size. They had molds in different sizes made from fish that have been already been caught hanging up on their walls. I kept telling them, "Look at the photo of MY marlin" and they said politely with a knowing smile, "Yup, that's a marlin alright!"

Having spent a fair amount of time swimming with marlin and examining the photos I take, I can attest to the fact that most marlin of the same species and size range look fairly similar (They probably say the same thing about us humans!) Once in a while you'll see one that's particularly portly or skinny or has a deformity, but for the most part, the accuracy of the mount will depend more on the quality of the artist than anything you might bring them.

I often travel to Hawaii and fish the Kona Coast. I know that a lot of local Hawaiians keep the marlin they catch, and to me, that's OK, because they are different than sport fishing anglers. They are not tourists with extra cash on hand, and they are not really fishing for sport. They live there, and these are the animals they have access to. They are fishing for marlin with hook and line, the hard way. Often they are doing it solo, without the help of a deckhand, using inexpensive gear. Marlin may be one of the few fresh meats they can afford, and they are usually fishing to feed their family. Providing for one's family is what people used to do before division of labor came along....before we paid other people to hunt, fish, and farm so we could chat with people we barely know on Facebook, watch TV, and eat Hot Cheetos.

Tuna, like the above big yellowfin (or ahi) that I photographed, are usually NOT released. They are simply too darn delicious! I love eating tuna, and I am careful about which kinds I eat. Some species of tuna, particularly bluefin, are being over-harvested by commercial fishing enterprises that go out on the ocean with huge ships, massive nets, and spotter aircraft. The fish don't have a chance. The people who are fishing with hook and line, a process that takes more effort and time and is less productive, can't compete with these monstrous fishing operations.

A famous and universally respected captain in Hawaii named Marlin Parker told me something that I thought was pretty interesting and agreeable. He thought it would be a good idea for people to get back to fishing with hook and line instead of using mass capture methods like bottom trawling, spotter aircraft, and floating fish processing factories. What do you think? Here is a photo of Marlin Parker releasing a blue marlin.

He is using a special tool that helps him remove the hook. He'll keep the boat in gear to keep water running over the fish's gills. The fish's colors come back, the hook is removed, and once the marlin starts kicking it's tail, he let's it go and the angler gets to watch the fish swim off. It's a great feeling.

Check out my photo below of an angler hooked up to a 400 pound black marlin, with the mates leadering the fish to the boat so they can tag and release it. I took it at Tropic Star Lodge in Panama, which was named World's Top Fishing Resort by the Robb Report. This photo is now the opening image on Tropic Star Lodge's website.

Below is a picture of one of their deckhands inserting a tag into the shoulder of a black marlin near the dorsal fin. Once the mates tag the fish, it counts as a catch. The tag also contains a code; if the fish is caught again, the second angler can see how far it traveled and how long it has been free.

On that same trip to Tropic Star I took a picture of a marlin that ended up on the cover of Marlin Magazine. That was a great trip! Here is the cover shot:

On the subject of mates, deckhands, and photographs, let me tell you about a friend of mine named Joe Thrasher. "Kaiwi Joe" is a world-class deckhand and mate and is currently working with Captain Teddy Hoogs in Kona. Joe sometimes does the job of 3 people: he grabs the leader and pulls the marlin to the boat, pokes the marlin with the tagging stick with one hand, and takes photos with another. I will email him and see if he won't sent me a pic or short clip of him doing this. You won't believe it! Here is a picture of Joe Thrasher:

I know that giant bluefin tuna are in serious jeopardy. Currently, in some areas like possibly Nova Scotia, people are allowed to harvest a limited number of giant bluefin tuna. That seems to be a pretty smart way of letting people catch a safe amount of fish that are in need of protection. My friend Tim Simpson, the editor of Bluewater Boats and Sportfishing Magazine, was just in that area and released one that may have been over 1,000 pounds! Fish like that are worth a ton of money, and because they can't keep every fish they catch, the captains are very selective about the fish they do keep.

Years ago I read a book called Fish the Chair If You Dare written by Greg Beacher. It was a great read and it's still available on Amazon. If I remember correctly he was one of the pioneers of giant bluefin fishing on the East Coast of the USA in the 1970's. In the book, he showed pictures of giant bluefin laying on docks back about 50 or 60 years ago. Incredibly, back then people didn't view giant bluefin tuna as a delicacy, and they would sometimes leave their fish on the docks because they didn't want to bother with them. Now fish like that can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars!

Above is a photo I took in Hawaii of a Galapagos shark. Sharks are usually released by sport fishing anglers. In my opinion, most don't taste all that good, and some are downright nasty. I see mako shark and thresher shark in fish markets, and some people say they taste great. I haven't ever had mako and the little thresher I tasted was OK. The worldwide shark population is being decimated by shark finning. That's when people cut off the shark's fins to sell for shark fin soup and let the shark sink to the ocean floor. Sharks are vulnerable because they don't reproduce quickly, so personally I am not into eating or killing sharks. Recently I have heard of some shark-free marinas that don't allow sharks to be hung at the docks. Sounds like a good idea to me. To me, the release is the most exciting part of shark fishing.
Here's a picture I took of a Galapagos shark being released.

Sharks get a bad rap for being aggressive, but they actually bother very few people. On the rare occasion that they do bite someone, it interests people and the media makes money talking about it. If you do a Google search and compare shark bite stats and dog bite stats, you'll see what I mean.

There have been times when I didn't let marlin or sharks go. When I first started out shore fishing I kept some small sharks and ate them. I haven't kept a shark in maybe a decade and don't plan to again. One time I caught a 200 pound blue marlin on a kayak. After it towed me around for an hour, it dove down deep and died, and there was nothing I could do about it. I pulled it up by hand, gave most to the captain who lived in the Baja fishing village where I was staying, and I also took some home to try. I didn't care for it but I can understand why he eats it occasionally. That'd be like telling someone from Vermont or Wisconsin that they shouldn't harvest any local deer.

Catch and release fishing can be a lot of fun, and I have since learned that to promote a healthy release, it's a good idea to reduce the fighting time and use heavy enough tackle so the fish experiences less stress. In fact, if you are fishing for tuna and plan to eat them, a shorter fight time will result in a tastier fish.

Note: If you have enjoyed this article, please help me out by becoming a fan of the Jon Schwartz Photography, Fishing, and Travel Facebook Page.
Thanks, Jon Schwartz

Swimming with Humboldt Squid: Photos and Pictures by Jon Schwartz

2011-09-26T00:55:00.000-07:00

Swimming with giant schools of Humboldt Squid at night is creepy!

Saturday I drove to Newport to try free diving with the Humboldt Squid that have invaded Southern California. These strange sea creatures have been washing up on nearby beaches, and untold thousands continue to lurk in boiling masses just offshore.

Unlike the cigar-sized market squid that I encountered in June at La Jolla (click here to read that cool story), Humboldt Squid can be dangerous and I wondered if it was a good idea to get in the water with them at night. I've seen videos of them attacking divers, and in fact have spent a lot of time over the past decade seeking out every last bit of information about people that dive with Humboldts. The encounters are fascinating.

After calling several experts, I decided to give it a go. It turns out that this particular population of Humboldts was just the right size for me to investigate without having to worry about getting dragged down, body slammed, or chewed on. Actually they might chew on me a little bit.

The ones off Newport are about 2-3 feet long, and the biggest Humboldts can get 6 feet long and over 100 pounds. This might seem huge, but Humboldts as a species aren't even close to being the biggest squid in the ocean. Colossal Squid can get as big as a school bus, but they spend their time in the depths fighting off sperm whales in epic battles (or are those Giant Squid?) Here are two images I took off of Wikipedia. One shows a depiction of a sperm whale fighting a massive squid, and the other illustrates the relative sizes of Colossal and Giant Squids.

Sperm whales have been found on beaches covered with scars from the tentacles of massive squid, and their stomachs have been found to contain thousands of squid beaks. Here's an old classic photo of a whale marred by squid tentacles.

Compared to these leviathans, the market squid I came across in La Jolla in June seem tiny. Here's one in my hand, and then a shot of them balled up in a school:

In any case, back to my more recent squid adventure. I guessed that unless the Humboldts in Newport ganged up on me, I'd be OK near the surface if I stayed close to the boat. These squid do have beaks that can take nasty bites, and their tentacles have sharp pointy things that rotate on them, but dogs can bite too, and I don't see people staying indoors on the off chance that they're going to get attacked by Fido. Maybe that's not the best analogy, but maybe you see my point. Compare the amount of people getting mauled by squids to the number mauled by dogs, and the result isn't even close.

Just after nightfall, we headed out. The bioluminescence from the red tide glowed a striking blue beneath our boat.

Finding the squid boats was easy; there was a flotilla lit up like a football stadium just outside of Newport Harbor, including open party boats stuffed to capacity with eager anglers, private yachts, and commercial squid boats that net them by the ton.
Here's some photos of a party boat:

Notice the anglers are wearing rain gear. This is to protect them against the squid that shoot geysers of ink and saltwater into the air. You can see them getting blasted!

I had hoped to find them schooling at the surface, but most of them lay at depths below 20 feet, which is just out of the range of my camera housing. I was able to see some in plain sight, and others remained invisible until they began blinking on and off like a strobe light. They can turn colors quickly, and I imagine they communicate with light. I jumped into the water, which was illuminated by the squid lights that the boats set below their boats.

This is what that water looks from below the surface:

As I was taking a picture of one that was hooked up to a fishing line, I was approached by a free swimming squid. This was what I had come for! My underwater equipment isn't really made for night photography so most of the time when I pressed the shutter, my strobe blinked spasmodically but my camera didn't take any pictures. I did get a precious few shots of this squid. I'm not a squid expert but it seems to be an aggressive stance; check out how the tentacles are thrust forward at me. Was it waiting to strike, or was it merely checking me out? Someone who has dove with them referred to this as "attack mode" but again, I'm not a squidologist. I'd love to hear from some real experts as to what this stance means. If there are any out there please email me or add a comment to this blog.

I'll post more when I get a chance. I'm looking forward to a hands-on science lesson I plan to conduct with my first grade students. We'll use the one squid that I brought back from the adventure. I enjoy using fishing and marine science to engage my students in class and you can see an example of that here.

Below is a sample of our class work from today (9/29). It combines our work with temperature, reading, writing, science, and art. Fun stuff!

One of the neatest things about this Humboldt Squid encounter is that it marks the second time that I've been able to luck get neat photographs in an area close to my San Diego home. When I am not teaching school I often travel to locations like Hawaii, Mexico, and Panama for travel articles and big fish photos of game fish like marlin, sailfish, and tuna.

Here are some photos from my recent trips: Kona Captain Teddy Hoogs, the Puerto Paraiso Mall in Cabo, and a striped marlin up close in the East Cape of Baja Mexico.

To see my travel, scenic, and fishing photo galleries, click here.

To read my fishing and travel articles, click here.

I used to catch and release marlin from kayaks and you can check that out here.

Photography Enthusiasts Take Note:

If you "Like" my Facebook Page Jon Schwartz Fishing, Photography, and Travel you might win a rare fine art print from my collection.

On October 10 I will randomly pick from 3 people who "Like" my Facebook page, and the winners will receive a FREE 16x20" gallery quality fine art print from my private stock! I sell these for 500.00 to private collectors so this is a neat opportunity.

Click here to see details.

Thanks!~
Jon Schwartz

Roosterfish! Exotic Fishing Photos from Baja Mexico's Sea of Cortez

2011-08-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

The first time I saw a photo of a roosterfish, I couldn't believe my eyes. They looked like the world's weirdest fish!

About ten years ago I found out about them on the internet. I was thrilled with the fact that they get huge (the world record is over 100 pounds) and are caught in ultra shallow water. I became obsessed with catching one. Eventually I got into kayak fishing in the East Cape of Baja and learned how to catch them by trolling live bait like mullet or sardines behind my kayak. Here is a photo of the biggest one I ever caught, almost ten years ago. It was about 50 pounds.

It was a tricky proposition because I had to keep the live bait in a bucket that I'd drag behind my kayak, and every time I'd let out a bait, I had to worry that the ravenous bandito needlefish were going to eat it. I kept two sardines pinned on hooks, and let them swim just off the side of my kayak so the pesky needlefish wouldn't venture too close and eat them. When I saw a rooster pass by me, I'd let a bait out.
Here's a photo I took of a smaller rooster that I released after catching it mere yards from the shoreline.

This was tons of fun but very hard work, and the equipment that I was using was rather primitive compared to fishing from boats. I even wedged the rods beneath my legs in lieu of rod holders.

Half of the battle was keeping covered up, surviving the blistering heat and sun, and keeping my bait alive. In August the Sea of Cortez is so warm that I got little relief splashing ocean water over my head, so I had to take a cooler of ice and stuff it in the back of the yak.After much effort and patience I caught and released some big roosterfish (pez gallo in Spanish) and wrote many stories about my time on the water chasing these wonderful fish. Click here if you want to read one of them: Kayakfishing for Roosterfish Story

Years later I put down the rods and switched from kayak angling to big fish fishing photography for magazines, travel bureaus, and calendars. In fact, my new 2012 Offshore Angler Fishing Calendar published by Willow Creek Press is now available online and in stores, and here is what it looks like:

In any case, when I took up fishing photography, my interest in roosterfish returned. Once again I became preoccupied with these elusive, wild looking sea creatures. This time, however, I didn't want to just catch and release them from kayaks, I wanted to capture them on camera. A return trip to Baja was needed!

I hadn't been to the East Cape of Baja in many years and it was great to see all of my old friends. Luckily for me the roosters were around and biting, and I was able to get a lot of photos. Fishing photography requires a lot of luck, and I have taken many trips that have resulted in nothing. This time I hot the jackpot! Here's a big roosterfish looking at me like he's ready to pounce. This is probably the last image that many baitfish saw before they were eaten!

Below is a shot that shows how close they get to the beach. People even catch them from shore. That's one thing I have yet to do. Imagine hooking a 70 pound gamefish from shore! In fact a fellow named Gary Barnes-Webb, one of the world's most experienced roosterfish anglers, was spooled by a monster roosterfish while angling from shore while I was there. That means the fish emptied all of the line from his reel and kept on going! This one below has his trademark dorsal fins swept back.

Below is a roosterfish picture you're not likely to see often: two roosterfish in one image! Keep in mind each one was over 40 pounds.

Some photos in this blog have blue water while others have green water because the fish were caught in different depths and locations. In my experience, blue water is usually clearer and better for fishing. If you show up for a fishing trip and they tell you the water is green, that's not good news. Then again this may not be true in all areas, just in the following areas I have fished: California, Mexico, Hawaii, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. If green water means good fishing where you live, contact me, as I'd be interested in hearing about it.

What do roosterfish eat? Well, as you can see in the above photo, I got to swim in the middle of a school of baby caballitos and I'm sure a roosterfish would have dined heartily on these tender morsels. This bait ball was feeding ravenously on small red pieces of spongy material that was so brightly colored I thought it was going to sting me. Look at how the bait is making the water boil at the surface. Pretty cool, huh? I was so stoked to be in the middle of all of this that I forgot to take my lens cap off and took about 150 shots with it on. Thanks Gosh I realized my mistake!

In addition to roosters, I got photos of some other interesting fish. Here is a underwater photo of a bull Dorado that ate a "hoochie" lure:

There were also plenty of Pompano. These fish are medium sized and fight dutifully for about 5 minutes. They'd be perfect for kids to catch because unlike roosters, they don't take a lot of muscle and strength to beat.

In addition to Roosterfish, Dorado, and Pompano, I also caught a striped marlin. I found that in some ways, they are harder to catch on a boat than a kayak. Pretty strange, huh? Years ago I hooked, fought, and released a bunch of striped marlin from kayaks on National Geographic TV's "Hooked: Monster Fish II" (click here to see Jon Schwartz on Nat Geo), and now that I have caught one from a boat, I can compare the two experiences.

Although each one of the marlin I caught from kayaks gave me a good workout, I don't remember feeling as exhausted and drained as I was after I caught this one from a boat! I'm embarrassed to say it took me over an hour. I wasn't using very heavy gear and the fish and I were locked in a stalemate. By the time it surfaced I was spent but I wanted some pics so into the water I went with my camera.

Interestingly, when I dove in with the marlin, I noticed that it has a tag in it. It had already been caught, tagged, and released by another angler. Below is a picture that shows the tag that was placed in him by another angler at an earlier time. Who knows when that was? Months? Years?

After we removed the hook, we sent the striped marlin back off to the briny depths from whence it came, a fitting end to another spectacular Baja adventure.

Giant Swarm of Squid Surrounds Fishing Photographer Jon Schwartz

2011-06-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

Today I came face to face with a giant shoal of squid and got some amazing underwater pictures! I had hoped to get fishing photos of white seabass, thresher sharks, and yellowtail, but I never dreamed I would encounter a massive, frothing mass of squid. I really lucked out! This was a local Southern California excursion where I accompanied my kayak fishing friend Josh Pruitt. He has an uncanny knack for catching big fish from kayaks. When I'm not teaching school I enjoy taking big fish photos of marlin, sailfish, tuna, and sharks in tropical locations (which you can see on my site http://www.bluewaterjon.com/ and also at the bottom of this post).

Ironically, I don’t have many images depicting fish that inhabit the waters within walking distance of my house. Josh would be my guide to getting more San Diego fishing photos. He actually runs a kayak fishing guide service called Inshorekayak.com so having me tag along as a photographer was a snap for him.

We met at 3:00, launched our kayaks under cover of darkness, and paddled out to a spot over a mile offshore. Pruitt was able to locate shoals (or schools) of squid on his kayak’s fish finder and jig them up with a special lure. Josh kept 20 or so of these live squid in his bait well on the back of his kayak, and pinned one on his rod. Every so often he’d meter a fish (probably a white seabass) and drop a bait down, but he never got bit, and grey light passed without us hooking up.

We did see one boat that landed a big 30 pound yellowtail at 4:30 am, and I wanted to take pictures in the night time with my special low light camera. I refrained because I was too scared to take it out, make noise, and scare away the white seabass that might be lurking just below our kayaks. These “grey ghosts” are easily spooked and one tiny noise can scare them away for good. At 7:30am, Josh's rod bent over his kayak, and it was obviously a big fish. The plan was that if he hooked up, I’d tether my kayak to his, jump off my kayak with my underwater camera, and take photos of the fish as it swam below him.

I used to do a lot of kayak fishing, but over the last several years my passion for fishing photography and travel had taken over, and I had put down the rods and paddles and replaced them with cameras. Years ago I had every kayak gadget I needed, including a variety of leashes that I used to secure my rods and equipment in case I capsized. Below is a photo of a giant trevally, or ulua as they call it in Hawaii, that I caught on the Kona Coast while kayak fishing with my friend Steven Heusser. To read the great story behind this catch that involves tiger sharks and kayak fishing, click here,

At any rate, as I hadn't logged much time kayaking in the past couple of years, I couldn’t locate half of these leashes in my garage, and I did the best I could with what I could find. Honestly I was so focused on my camera gear that I wasn't thinking about the two rods that I brought along.

Murphy’s Law caught up with me when I slid off my kayak into the water with my camera. As soon as I got off, my kayak flipped upside down! I was holding on to a $4000 dollar underwater camera setup and through my mask, I could see some of my unleashed fishing equipment fall in slow motion from my capsized kayak, down into the murky depths. Josh said, "Grab your rod!” but I was more concerned with the other non-waterproof camera that was on (or under!) my kayak, and I made a half-hearted attempt to swim down and grab the sinking rod. I wish I had a video of all the shenanigans because it was all pretty hilarious; I must have looked like a total kook!

In any case, we righted my kayak and Josh resumed fighting his big fish. When it came close to the surface I got a lot of great underwater photos of the fish, a big white seabass that must have weighed at least 40 pounds. After I took all the photos I needed, I climbed back in my kayak and started shivering uncontrollably. Brrr!! I had forgotten how cold it can get on the water in the summer. When the sun came up, I was grateful for some warmth.

Josh is an interesting kayak angler because he is able to stand up on his kayak and sight fish for big fish in the middle of the ocean. Many anglers do this on kayaks in ponds and lakes for small fish, but we were on the open ocean, and Josh frequently hooks huge fish while standing up! As we continued to paddle around (or I should say peddle), Josh noticed many schools of yellowtail feeding on the surface, but he wasn’t able to hook up. Here is a video of us crusing around the open ocean. Notice how Pruitt is standing up, looking for any signs of life. He has a great eye like all top fishermen. I have had the pleasure of riding along with some of the world's top sportfishing captains like Marlin Parker, Gene Vanderhoek, Teddy Hoogs, and Guy Terwilliger (read about them here), and in my opinion Josh has the same qualities they do: an attention to detail, learning how the fish think and act, professionalism, and dedication. The main difference I can see is that his workstation isn't a 50 foot yacht, it's a 15 foot plastic kayak!

At about noon, Pruitt stood up for a bit and saw a red swirling mass of life close to the surface. All seasoned kayakers have seen schools of sardines, mackerel, smelt, and a number of other types of bait on the surface, but this wasn’t finned fish, it was squid…LOTS of squid!!!!

The first thing that came to mind for me was, can I ditch my kayak, get back in the water, and take pictures of them? Would they still be there when I got in? I had stashed my underwater camera in the hatch of my kayak and I would need to get that out, take off my booties, don my fins and snorkel, rub some defog on my snorkel lens, prep my camera, and most importantly, NOT capsize this time if I got in the water.

While I was trying to figure out if this was a good idea, Josh kept an eye on the huge mass of squid. Fortunately, it was hanging right next to his kayak. When I finally got in, I realized why: big fish were below the shoal, forcing them to flee to the surface, and at the same time, mackerel were attacking from the side, and birds were dive bombing them from above!

These squid were under siege and were using any protection they could get, and Josh’s kayak was the best they could find. Again I wondered, would they continue to stay when I swam close enough to take their picture? I swam down to take a shot from underneath, and my heart began racing because I knew that there was the potential for some rare underwater squid pictures.

Incredibly, when I surfaced for air and swam towards them, they swam right to me!! They looked otherworldly, and I could see and feel hundreds of eyes trained on me. I felt as if I was being approached by a group of intelligent beings rather than fish; something about the way they moved and pulsed rhythmically made me feel connected to them.

I kept closing the distance and soon I was in literally in the middle of the shoal, completely surrounded by thousands of squid. My camera was on full burst mode, clicking at 8 frames per second. I hoped and prayed that my camera settings were correct, because if what I saw with my own eyes was being captured on film, I’d have some incredible photos!! The huge mass of squid kept going past me towards the kelp forest, but several stragglers stayed with me and hovered inches from my mask.

They were using me as a source of protection! Was this a good thing? Had I been in Hawaii, where I do a lot of underwater photography with marlin, sailfish, and tuna, I would have been terrified, because being surrounded by prey would have made me a target, but I figured that with there being no huge predators feeding on the squid (other than sea lions and maybe the occasional smaller shark), I felt relatively safe.

The squid were so close that I thought, “I could probably just reach out and grab one!” and so I did.

The one squid I grabbed didn’t seem to mind and I wasn’t holding it too tightly; I cradled it like a pet mouse. My next thought was, “No one is going to believe this!” so I turned the camera around, gently placed the live squid in my mouth, and took a self portrait.

The squid seemed pretty calm. Could it sense I meant it no harm? When I took it out of my mouth it was still uninjured. I then released it and surfaced to tell Josh about all that I had experienced. I was beside myself with excitement and gasping for air!

Knowing that I might have just captured some of my best underwater photographs to date, I gently placed my underwater gear back in the hatch, and by 3:00pm, twelve hours after we had peddled out into the surf in the pitch black night, we were landing our kayaks amidst hundreds of beach going tourists enjoying a hot summer day. When I got home an hour later and viewed the photos of the squid on my laptop, my jaw dropped in disbelief; the pictures came out even better than I had hoped!!

Days later my squid photos appeared on the front page of the San Diego Union Tribune and I was featured on San Diego's CBS TV station KFMB. Here's a clip pf the video below:

P.S.- Here are some of my recent travel and fishing photographs. I also have just taken up surf photography as you can see here with my shot of these tandem surfers in at the Queens surf break in Oahu's Waikiki:

Here's a shot of the Puerto Paraiso Mall in Cabo. Pretty swanky!

Dorado, mahi-mahi, or dolphin: what do you call these golden jewels?

Face to Face with a blue marlin: Hawaii's Kona Coast.

Here's a rare shot of a blue marlin, shot while I was in a helicopter!

About the Author:

Jon Schwartz (http://www.bluewaterjon.com/) contributes to fishing and travel magazines worldwide, and has been featured on Nat Geo TV for catch and release kayak fishing for marlin. Jon lives in San Diego his wife and 3 daughters, teaches elementary school, and enjoys teaching technology to his students and taking kids fishing. Check out his elementary student blogging site http://www.kidslikeblogs.org/ and this video of him Jamming with his students!

Kids catch sharks on after school fishing trip!

2011-05-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Fishing with kids is one of my favorite types of sportfishing because you don’t have to catch huge monster fish to have big fun. Gray smoothhound sharks, shovelnose guitarfish, lizardfish, California halibut, and spotted bay bass are plentiful in San Diego Bay, and I recently took a bunch of my students there to fish. We had a blast!

The fun started as soon as we left the left the dock at Shelter Island. Two of the students had never been in a boat before, so just boarding the boat was new and exciting.

Check out Alex below. We told him to put his hat on backwards and get ready for a speedy launch. He lit up with a huge smile when my friend Captain Tony Miller gunned the engines!

We ventured out to Tony’s secret honey hole and pinned on some live sardines for bait. Within five minutes Alicia was hooked up to a big fish. I couldn’t believe how quickly she got bit!

After a great fight and a lot of hard work she brought her catch to the side of the boat, and lo and behold I’m looking at a first-time angler with a nice sized halibut. How's that for lady luck! It's hard enough to catch any sized halibut. To catch a legal keeper, they have to be at least 22 inches. All eyes were on Alicia as Tony hoisted her magnificent prize.

It was a great fish, but would it be big enough to keep? We measured it to make sure. Captain Tony had a special sticker from the California Department of Fish and Game taped to the side of his boat; it shows the minimum size for most of the fish caught in local waters.

As you can see the halibut measured well over 22 inches, so into the cooler it went! Look at those gnashing jaws, razor sharp teeth, and the two eyes on the same side of the head. Behold the mighty San Diego Sea Monster. What a catch!

The downside to having so much luck early in the trip is that it can set kids' expectations too high. Privately I worried if things would be all downhill from here. My anxiety didn't last long, for within 5 minutes, Alex's reel began screaming and line raced off the rod tip. Fish on!!

The junior angler was amazed at the power of his fishy foe, and struggled mightily. Suspense mounted as Alex summoned all of his power and strength. This was a battle for the ages!

Alex finally subdued the beast, and Alicia bravely pulled the amazing creature out of the water. It was an incredibly strange, weird fish. Alicia thought it was an oarfish, Raul claimed it was an opah, and Alex was convinced it was a cookie cutter shark. Can you name it?

If you guessed Rhinobatus productus, you're right! Of course that's it's Latin scientific name. It's commonly called the shovelnose guitarfish, which is actually a species of ray. They can be caught with bait like bloodworms, squid, or sand crabs, but this critter fell for a live sardine. The kids posed for a picture and then released it back to the briny depths from whence it came. It's important to teach kids the value of catch and release fishing.

After their valiant efforts, Alicia and Alex headed below deck to savor some of the fine cuisine Captain Tony and I had spent all night preparing. If I remember correctly the lobster bisque, duck confit, and escargot were big hits.

That left Raul on deck alone to face the next fish. His peers enjoyed the gourmet treats in the boat's salon, and I went down to witness the feast. The festivities were interrupted by the the ear-piercing whine of a saltwater reel in full meltdown. By the time I reached topside Raul was engaged in a furious battle. His reel glowed red with heat as the gears ground noisily against each other in protest. This was off 'da hook!

The fish was a formidable opponent, but it was no match for Raul's brilliant blend of cunning, brawn, and sheer brute force. Good thing I brought the "A Team" with me! To our great surprise, Raul's catch turned out to be none other than the feared and revered California Lizardfish.

In fact, this was no ordinary specimen, this was a GIANT lizardfish. Specimens of this size and quality are usually immediately shipped by helicopter to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo where they fetch untold thousands, but we were committed to only keeping what we would eat. Since we had already boated the halibut, we released this lucky lizard fish to fight another day.

Seconds after the lizardfish swam to freedom, we heard birds squawking in the distance. This could mean only one thing: more frenzied action! Alex manned the deck and scanned the horizon with our Spy Net Night Vision Infrared Stealth Binoculars.

He spotted a maelstrom of activity, and we sped over to try our luck. We were shocked by what we saw: spotted bay bass as far as the eye could see, so tightly packed together that one could nearly walk across their backs to shore without getting wet! Here's Alicia with one of the bass just before she released it. If you compare the size of the fish to her, I'd say it's pretty obvious it was a potential world record spotted bay bass. Look at how it dwarfs her arm!

Incredibly, before the bass hit the water, Alex was hooked up to another beast. After a long a brutal fight, the dorsal fin of a giant gray smooth hound shark broke the surface. The kids gasped in excitement and we brought the huge, writhing shark aboard for a quick photo.

Catch and release shark fishing at its finest!

After their brush with danger, Alex and Raul sat down on deck, equally thrilled and exhausted. Alicia was ecstatic that she had landed a trophy halibut on her first San Diego fishing trip. On the way back to the dock she told me of her plans to fillet the tasty treat with her family.

Once we hit land, Alicia had time to examine her impressive catch. The fish had been put into the cooler so quickly after being measured that she hadn't had time to fully appreciate the fish in all of it's glory.

Besides being one of the best tasting saltwater fish, halibut are unique in that they have both eyes on one side of their head. In addition, they have a huge mouth full of dagger shaped teeth. Oh the horror!

Alicia posed one last time with her fantastic fish, marking the perfect end to our marvelous day on the water.

Later on that day Alicia emailed me and told me that her family had a lot of fun preparing the halibut for dinner. It turned into one of their best meals ever. She was so proud!

Help Jon Schwartz choose between two new fishing, photography, and travel website designs!

2011-03-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers, This is Jon Schwartz. I am redoing my fishing, photography, and travel website and I am asking for your input. I hired a designer to come up with two choices. The new design will replace the current design at Bluewaterjon.com: Jon Schwartz's Fishing, Photography, and Travel.

Below is the current front page design: (click to enlarge)

Below is "Choice A": (click to enlarge)

Below is the other new possible design, "Choice B"

The reason that I am redoing my site is that I will be adding a lot more content and I need a completely new format to enable me to add new photos and articles quickly. I also want a slide show on the front page because right now I don't feel like my non-fishing photography and work is reflected on my front page, and a slide show with thumbnails would make that possible.

For example, look at these shots, a sailfish underwater, a shot of a resort in Cabo overlooking Land's End (Los Arcos), andunderwater photo of a big blue marlin swimming, another resort shot in Hawaii, and then a shot of a bonefish in Oahu, Hawaii. If I only show one image on the homepage ( which is what my current site does), I can't show all these different sides of my work. That's why I am so keen on a slideshow for the new site.

The new website will be in a magazine format with lots of information on how and where to fish, who to fish with, fishing photography, non-fishing photography, fishing and non-fishing travel, kayak fishing, fishing with kids, and I will also have an extensive fish database with awesome photos. It will have lots of great stuff for hardcore anglers as well as non-fishing travelers, fishing and non-fishing photography enthusiasts, and also for people who don't necessarily fish, but just want interesting material to read and look at.

Please let me know which one you choose by either commenting on this blog or contacting me. If you have any other input, I'd love to hear that as well. While you're at it, maybe you'd like to become a follower of this blog?

Thanks very much! I look forward to your input.

Jon Schwartz

How to Catch Big Marlin: Famous Hawaiian Captain Marlin Parker Reveals Techniques

2011-03-27T01:56:00.000-07:00

Giant marlin over 1000 pounds, known as Granders, are one of sport fishing's biggest prizes. Few know more about hooking and fighting these huge fish than Captain Marlin Parker. My new article in Bluewater Boats Magazine details the big game fishing techniques of this Kona legend. I am stoked because one of my photos was chosen for the cover of the issue in which my article appears. In the cover photo above you can see a massive blue marlin being released after it was caught by a client of Captain Teddy Hoogs in Kona, on Hawaii's Big Island. Just after I snapped the shot the fish swam away in fine shape.

Below you can a shot I took of Marlin and his crew member Frank "Trip" Davis removing the hooks from a huge marlin just prior to releasing it. This one also swam away in excellent health. One of the keys to releasing fish right is using heavy enough tackle to reduce the fight time, and Parker goes into great depth about this in the article.

This will probably be the first of many articles I write about Parker. He was kind enough to let me come along on his boat and interview him for several days, and he proved to be a fascinating interview. By the time our second day was over he'd released a 600 pounder and told me all about the birth of the Kona big game fishing scene. That's not much of a stretch for him, because any discussion of that involves the history of his famous Hawaiian fishing family. His father, Captain George Parker, was one of the very first big game fishing captains in Hawaii and pioneered the sport. Pictured in front of the famous Kona Inn is Marlin (left) with his father George and brother Randy, also a well known captain.

I first heard Marlin's name several years ago was when I was on the press boat for the HIBT ( Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament). The radio was buzzing with news of some guy named "Marlin" hooked up to a giant marlin. The rest of the press boat had been talking about this guy for days, and now that he was hooked up, it sounded like this "Marlin" guy had the game rigged to his advantage! Someone even quipped, "Does he keep them in a pen out here somewhere?"

As I came to find out, luck has little to do with Parker's big game success. The guy is one of the true masters of the sport. Ironically, the very next year I went to Kona, I was placed in a helicopter to get shots of the boats streaming away from the Kona Coast at the start of the HIBT. It was a mission that was only scheduled for 20 minutes. Once I got these shots and the helicopter pilot and I were about to head back to the airport, I saw a boat hooked up to a marlin, and guess whose boat it was? Marlin Parker's!!!

I had one of those shots enlarged and framed and sent it to Marlin.
Hawaii, and Kona in particular, is a great place to meet some of the best marlin fishing captains in the world. There are also a great many world class marlin fishing lure makers in Hawaii, including Marlin Parker himself. The big blue marlin picture that I took for the cover of this magazine was caught on a purple Bomboy Llanes lure. If you look closely you can see that this Bomboy Llanes lure pictured on the cover shot is the same lure that is attached to the fish in this picture. In fact, it’s the same fish!

Halibut Fishing From Kayaks: My New Article in Sport Fishing Magazine

2011-02-26T21:11:00.000-08:00

My new article in Sport Fishing magazine offers how-to techniques and tips for catching big California halibut from kayaks. It's always an honor to be asked to write for one of the world's premier publications. Working on this project was especially rewarding because I didn't have to travel half way around the world to get the photos and interview the anglers!

I accompanied Southern California kayak fishing expert Dave Pliska for several days and got a wealth of information, as well as many photos from above and below the waterline. He's landed many huge halibut, won many kayak fishing tournaments, and even placed well in tournaments for boating anglers. You can bet those boat owners felt a bit miffed when he paddled up with one of the top fish! Here's a shot of Dave and I at work:

Pliska is a member of the Hook 1 Kayak Fishing Crew located in nearby Dana Point. I met him at a fishing convention years ago in San Diego and have used him as a resource when talking about the local kayak fishing scene. When the chance came up to write an article for such a prestigious publication, we got back together and spent many hours documenting his unique approach and kayak fishing rigs.

The most challenging part of the assignment was getting the shot for the opening spread. My editor at the magazine thought it would be great to get an underwater photo with a halibut in the foreground, and the angler in the background- quite a tricky task! It's one thing to be able to get an underwater shot of a live fish, but the difficulty is increased many times when the angler, who is above the water, must be visible in the shot as well. I've done that a bunch with marlin and sailfish underwater photos in gin-clear water, but never tried it in the winter in San Diego where the water can get quite murky and cold.

Of course halibut don't grow on trees, and just when we needed a fish to cooperate, the bite slowed and the anglers couldn't find a fish! Fortunately Kiyo Sato, another champion kayak angler, hooked a good one and I was able to finally get the shot. I was so stoked that as soon as I got home, I emailed it to my editor and said, "How's that!" She must have liked it because it became the opening spread. Be sure to pick up your copy at newsstands now.

Exciting Travel Photography from Hawaii, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Cabo

2011-01-18T00:12:00.000-08:00

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is a thrilling place to visit. It's the site of two of the world's most active volcanoes, and when you visit you can hike to the crater and watch the smoke billow out. In fact there is an excellent hotel with a fine fining restaurant that has the exact view as the above photo.

The Thurston Nahuku Lava Tubes lie below the park, and are pictured above. The tubes used to carry hot molten lava to the ocean below, but seeing as they're extinct now, they make for some great cave walks. My wife and three girls have visited the park twice and we make a full day trip out of it, leaving from Kona in the morning.

The first time I brought my girls to Hawaii, they stepped off the plane and said, "This isn't Hawaii, there's no hot lava!" I guess they were expecting the pointy type of volcanoes you see in Nicaragua ( and in the above photo) which erupt regularly. Nicaragua has a lot going for it; many say that it's like Costa Rica was 40 years ago. I went there to do an article on fishing for Marlin Magazine several years ago, and my trip turned out to be a full fledged adventure into an exciting new frontier. You can see the article on this page: Travel and Fishing Articles by Jon Schwartz

The surfing and fishing in Nicaragua is world class. I lucked out with some really nice underwater sailfish photos, like this one here:

Speaking of sailfish, Cabo San Lucas is another great sport fishing location that I have enjoyed visiting. It's a bustling city that is chock full of high end shopping areas and malls. I like to show shots like these because people are often surprised to see how luxurious some of these Latin American locations are. I took the below photo from a resort that overlooks the famous Land's End, where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean. The clouds made a neat reflection on the infinity pool.

Below is a photo I took at the Puerto Paraiso Mall at the main Cabo San Lucas Marina. I told you it was fancy!

I'll add some photos from Costa Rica is a few hours...

Kayak Fishing for Marlin on National Geographic TV

2010-12-31T13:03:00.000-08:00

Is kayak fishing for marlin safe? Of course not! It was something that I felt compelled to do when I was head over heels in love with big game kayak fishing. I decided to take the risks after a lot of thought and years of preparation. It was a calculated risk, just like surfing large waves, but I imagine surfing large waves takes more skill. Kayak fishing for marlin takes more foolhardiness than skill..maybe a lot of foolhardiness.

When you think about it, many people engage in activities that are known to be dangerous, it's just that kayak fishing for marlin is less common than, say, riding a motorcycle, or skateboarding down a handrail at top speed only four feet above the cement. Other people have caught marlin from kayaks, and bigger ones at that, so it's not a singular feat, but it sure was a HUGE thrill!

Tune in to Nat Geo TV this week to see some work I did that ended up on their show called "Hooked: Monster Fish II". Several years ago I went down to Cabo San Lucas during a crazy red hot bite and caught and released 8 marlin from a kayak in a two day period. I hired a videographer and photographer who got hours of incredible HD footage and stills of the fish going ballistic right next to my kayak. I released them all by hand after hooking them by trolling mackerel behind my kayak. If you go to Kayak Fishing For Marlin: Story and Photos you can read about some related big game marlin kayak fishing that I did. Here's a video on Youtube that shows some of the wild footage:

The trip that we documented for Nat Geo TV represented the highpoint of my kayak fishing fun and after that I transitioned into a somewhat more mellow role as a standard fishing and travel writer and photographer. I haven't been kayak fishing in quite awhile but one of these days I'll get back in the saddle for some more adventure.

Mahi-mahi, dorado, or dolphin fish: What's in a name?

2010-12-23T21:56:00.000-08:00

Why do East Coast fishing anglers and captains call these spectacular fish dolphin?
In Hawaii, they are called mahi-mahi. From Panama to California, they are called dorado. Supposedly mahi means strong in Hawaiian, and dorado means "golden one" in Spanish, so I get that. But where do East Coasters come up with the term dolphin? I mean, isn't THIS a dolphin?
I've got nothing against the East Coast ( in fact, I grew up there), but whatsup with the term dolphin? Is there any linguistic basis for calling it a dolphin? I'd like to know the answer.

I do know some things about these fish, which I will call dorado from now on. Keep in mind I'm not a fishologist, these are just things I have picked up through my own experience, and from talking with hundreds of anglers and captains over the years.
Dorado grow extremely rapidly, and if I'm not mistaken a 5 year old dorado is an old one. The males have the pronounced Herman Munster-like foreheads, while the forehead of the female slopes back gently. Males get much bigger, and the world record, 88 pounds, was caught in Cabo within the last 20 years.

Providing you don't catch them on heavy tackle, they are in my opinion one of the most fun fish to catch, because they go ballistic in the air and do all types of crazy acrobatic leaps. They turn color in a flash, going from white to neon yellow, green, aqua, blue, and even purple all sometimes within the same jump.

For fishing photographers like me, they make very tricky subjects, because their leaps are so unpredictable and lightning quick. In fact, they are easier to photograph underwater because they are usually calmer in their own element. It's hard to get a decent shot of the fish above water with their true colors; here's one of the few I have. Thanks to my friend Captain Jeff Rogers for dealing with the feisty bugger!

Their beauty disappears instantaneously when they are unhappy ( as in, when they realize they are becoming dinner). They immediately turn greenish brown and so getting a photo of them happy is quite difficult. In addition, they go totally nutso in the cockpit, so many people simply stuff them right in an ice chest to avoid having the thing flip out- literally and figuratively!

Below is a recent cover shot of mine of a dorado that my friend caught in Nicaragua. I was visiting Lance Moss and his wife at their Surfari Lodge (think epic fishing meets dream surfing vacation) and there were plenty of them there. Jeff looks cool as a cucumber in the pic but I can guarantee you it was a real pain to hold this fish. Most people can't handle it and drop it, resulting in chaos.
I probably don't have to tell you that they are one of the tastiest eating fish around, but one thing you might not know is that they just might be one of the healthiest fish to eat. Why? Well, do a google search on mercury in fish. Last time I checked, they have a very low mercury count, and I'm pretty sure that's due to their short lifespan and diet.

Kayak fishing for dorado is one of my all time favorite fishing activities. When they hit your bait or lure, the reel screems like a dentist's drill and all those acrobatic leaps are now happening right next to you, often at eye level or higher!

Fishing for Giant Bonefish in Hawaii: My New Article in Saltwater Sportsman Magazine

2010-11-30T01:59:00.000-08:00

Bonefish in Hawaii get HUGE! I went to Oahu last summer to get photos and content for a how-to/travel article that I wrote for Saltwater Sportsman on these prized fish. I spent a week with Capt. Mike Hennessy watching him put his clients of these monsters, which can grow to 16-plus pounds. Here are some underwater bonefish photos and pictures.

Fishing with Kids- BIG fun on the High Seas!

2010-11-16T18:42:00.000-08:00

I recently had the pleasure of taking three of my students fishing. Spending time on the water together and sharing my passion for saltwater angling, adventure, photography, and technology has proven to be a great way to get to know my students. Every year I try to get as many kids as I can out on the water.

This year, the mission is the same, but the number of students has increased twofold; my 4/5 combination class has 38 students(!) It's definitely the most challenging and rewarding assignment I've had in my 13 years teaching.
I don't have a boat, so I need people to help me. My buddy Mike Proctor owns one, and he has been my salvation many times over.
Here's Captain Mike:

The way I met him shows what kind of a guy he is. I used to teach at a public school on Camp Pendleton Marine Base, and one of the students in my class was upset because his dad was deploying for Iraq in three days. I put out a desperate "Hail Mary" post on a local fishing chat board, asking if anyone could volunteer to take the kid and his dad out fishing within the next two days, and Mike, who I had never met before, sends me an email telling me he's up for doing it!
Lo and behold two days later Mike took out my student, his dad, and the other two brothers, and they had an awesome time fishing, all on Mike's time and tab. So that's Mike. Here's a pic of the boys and their dad on that trip just a day before dad deployed:

I ended up teaching all three of those boys, in fact. The one that was in my class at the time, Luke, is the one with the chips in his mouth. Here is a picture of him the next day in class telling the kids about the monster fish he caught the day before with Captain Mike!

(You'll have to excuse the quality, I took it on an old cell phone)

I gave Mike a call this past August; we'd been planning to take some of my kids out, and we finally found a weekend that worked for both of us. Of course I left it to the last minute, so on Thursday I announced in class that I had the chance to take three kids fishing. How would we make it fair? We decided to use a random number generator that we looked up online.

Trouble was, most of the kids that got picked by the generator ended up not being able to go. Much of that may have been due to the fact that I called the kids' parents up and asked them if they could come on a fishing trip with me with no advance notice. It also didn't help that I was speaking in flawed Spanish to many of the parents, trying to bridge the language gap .

By the end of the day I had three kids who might be able to go, and to seal the deal with two, I needed to bring in a closer who was fluent in Spanish....my wife! It has to be an odd kind of situation, the parents not knowing me very well, and me being new to this school. I don't imagine they get a lot of calls from gringo teachers asking if they can take their kids out fishing on a boat for free, but after they spoke with my wife and I, they agreed to it. I felt honored. The other student, whose parents speak English, wasn't an easy sell either, but after I explained how safe it was going to be, the parents agreed.

Half of the fun was watching the kids interact. Bill, Eve, and Richy aren't exactly chums in class, but they were the right kids to bring, because they hadn't experienced the wonders of the sea. Bill in particular is a very quiet kid at school.

By the time we'd gotten halfway to Dana Point Harbor (which is all of 30 miles away), the kids were giggling excitedly and acting as if they'd been best buds for years. Bill, as you can see in comparing the pics from above and below, had turned over a new leaf and became the life of the party.

The hills to the left, shrouded in early morning mist, somehow morphed into prehistoric mountains in their minds. I had to remind them periodically where we were, and that no, those hills weren't volcanoes, and that yes, we were still in the United States.

We stopped at a tackle shop to check the scene out. Mind you, we didn't need anything (Mike would provide it all) but I thought it would be a good idea to set the stage by letting them see some reels, rods, and fish mounts: tools of the trade, and reminders that were venturing into Poseidon's domain, where we'd summon equal amounts of brawn and brains in epic battles between man and monster. Or kids and fish.

If you take the time to prime the pump by stoking the kids imagination and schooling them on what they are likely to encounter, that makes the trip more meaningful; by the time we showed up at the dock to meet our benefactor Mike and his magnificent motorboat full of gear and grub, the kids were fired up!

Mike fitted the kids with life jackets and I started passing out cameras and food.

We motored out to a buoy where a single male sea lion held court with a bevy of ladies, and stayed until the stench eclipsed our curiosity.

After another ten minute cruise, Mike set anchor just outside the kelp and set out some chum to attract schools of mackerel. The thing about fishing with kids is that they usually prefer action over size. Whereas some anglers are happy to scour the ocean for a chance at hooking into one huge fish, most kids prefer to stay closer to shore, pulling on smaller fish all day. Having done both I'm not sure they haven't picked the better option!

I began to explain what it was like under the kelp forest that we were anchored next to. Because the trip was scheduled on such short notice, I hadn't had time to teach them enough about the marine environment. I decided to put the latest technology to use and bring up images of kelp forests on my iPhone! Is that cool or what? We were doing internet research in real time on the boat! Kelp is pretty unimpressive when you are on top of the water surface, but once the kids learned what it's like below, their excitement doubled. As a teacher, I felt thrilled to be able to use technology in such a meaningful way.
I actually returned to the exact same spot two weeks later to do a shoot for a fishing magazine and I got some cool underwater kelp forest pictures. That's me mired in the kelp in the first pic.

So there we were in the boat looking at pics of the kelp on my iPhone. Soon Captain Mike set up some chum (ground up fish parts) along the side of the boat to attract our "target species", the mighty mackerel. These are great fun on light tackle because it's one after the other fishing, and they school right next to the boat, so it's very visual. Within minutes the kids had mastered the art of hooking these hard fighting brutes, and chaotic contests of fury and might commenced.

Something primeval was born in Bill at that moment; the warrior within him surfaced. I was no longer watching a child at play; I was witnessing an archetypal struggle between man and beast. Soon he had fought his foe to the corner of the boat, gaining line at times, only to watch it fly off the reel in bursts.

Ultimately, Bill's superior intellect enabled him to subdue the sea creature, and he hoisted his vanquished foe aboard in a bold display of strength and supremacy.

Like many of the world's strongest gamefish, mackerel exhibit a fishy taste, so we decided to put them in Captain Mike's bait tank. Soon their catches numbered many. The kids enjoyed watching them circle 'round the pen; it allowed them to savor their victory, while still permitting their later release.

Eve and Richy boated some of the largest specimens.

We also took advantage of another learning opportunity by examining Captain Mike's 'fish finder". California State Math Standard Number Sense 1.2 requires that the students "Order and compare whole numbers and decimals" and we talked about how we might round 41.9 feet of depth to 42 feet, thereby doubling our chances of catching "the big one". With stakes this high, we couldn't get bogged down in whether or not we had 41 or 42 feet beneath us!

To finish off our successful sea voyage, Captain Mike brought the kids to Seal Rock and broke out the last of the booty for the kids. I'm not a big fan of junk food but rights of passage like these call for celebrations of decadence and debauchery. They earned their stripes.

The trip provided a great many opportunities for excitement and learning, and the next day in class I had the students cap off their adventure with some writing and art activities. These would provide a forum for higher order thinking skills like evaluation and synthesis that are mentioned in Bloom's Taxonomy. Here's a sample of the work:

The highlight of the trip for me was watching the kids on the ride home. The kids asked Mike to push the boat to it's limits and Mike granted their wish. Richy kept falling off of the chair and together we all broke out in laughter, to the point where our bellies ached.

Perhaps Eve summed up the trip best in this last part of her letter to our dear friend Captain Mike:

Strange Fishing News: Weird Disc-Shaped Opah Fish Washes Up on San Diego Beach!

2010-09-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

Jon Schwartz of http://www.bluewaterjon.com/ with some incredible fishing news: a large, strange looking Opah fish washed ashore in San Diego, in perfect shape! These bizarre brightly colored sea creatures are only rarely found by recreational anglers in this region, let alone in the surf; they're usually caught by longliners in distant waters, or incidentally by anglers fishing great depths. With the strange water conditions and cooler water temps brought about by La Niña this year, some commercial boats have been netting them at night miles off the Southern California Coast. But why was it here in such shallow waters? Moreover, how did it get to shore untouched by the sharks, sealions, and other predators that exist here? Opah are delicious and go for over 12 dollars a pound!

Surfer Scott Williams was on a cliff overlooking his favorite surf spot at 9:00 am Friday 9/24/10 when he and his friends spotted a manhole-sized red object floating in the water 50 yards offshore. They took out a pair of binoculars to get a closer view. Whatever it was, it may have been moving slightly. According to Williams, a 50 year old surfer who has surfed the area for 41 years, "Once we realized it was a fish, we ran down there as fast as we could!"

Scott is a veteran waterman, and surfs internationally. In the four decades he'd spent surfing this same spot, he'd never seen anything of that shape, color, and size. Soon the large disc-shaped object had washed up on shore. Scott took pictures of it on his cellphone.

A crowd gathered around the unique animal; some suggested they might try putting it back in hopes that it would swim off, but it became obvious that the fish was now either dead, or on it's last gasp. As you can see from the photos, their unusual shape wouldn't help them move much on land. "It was a beautiful fish, and looked very healthy. We were in awe because in all the time I have spent there, I usually only see dead seagulls or pelicans washing up. Once in a while a small decomposed fish washes ashore, but this was huge, bright red and silvery with white spots. It looked like it was from another planet!"

Indeed, of all the fish in the ocean, the Opah, also known as Moonfish, are one of the wildest looking. I first saw a mount of one at Rancho Leonero Fishing Lodge in Baja Mexico, and ever since then I have been fascinated by them. They are not the type of fish that you target casually and no one I know has ever fished for them on purpose. The only non-commercial angler I personally know who has ever caught one is Captain Dale Leverone who skippers a popular charter operation called the Sea Strike in Kona, Hawaii. Here is Dale below with a 138 pounder. We know this was exactly 138 pounds because it was weighed on a certified scale at the Kona Charter Desk.

Judging by that picture of Dale, knowing his size, and comparing that to the photos of the beached Opah, I'd say the San Diego specimen is at least 80 pounds. In fact it could well be over 100. Dale happens to be one of the foremost experts in fishing at great depths for unusual fish. The Kona Coast of Hawaii where he lives is the perfect place to fish the abyssal depths, because it gets incredibly deep very close to shore. It was during one of his "deep dropping" jaunts, when he dropped a whole squid down to 1200 feet, that he landed his Opah, a catch so rare that it made the cover of Hawaii Fishing News.
I actually spent time accompanying Leverone this summer in Kona on the Sea Strike, and had a great time swapping strange fish stories. I sat listening most of the time as we motored along the Kona Coast because Leverone is an expert and I am merely an enthusiast. We made plans to hook up later this year and see if we can't fish for some other deep water oddities.
To me, this Opah incident is particularly ironic, because about 5 years ago when I was obsessed with kayak fishing, I made an action adventure DVD about catching big fish from kayaks, called "Bluewater Jon and the Giant Tuna".

The 57 minute long movie starts with an animation sequence I painstakingly constructed that features, of all things, a dancing Opah!! I picked it because it looked hilarious to me, that an animal could actually live and be shaped and colored like that. One would think it would be an easy target, and forget about camouflage; I don't care how deep you go, pink with opalescent white spots can't blend in anywhere, right? To see an except from that Opah animation sequence and more exciting kayak fishing videos, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgH1hvH3uZ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyS4K4J-7N8&feature=related
http://www.bluewaterjon.com/video.htm

Back to the "Opah Incident": As you can see, this isn't as if any old sea creature landed on a beach 5 miles from my own house- I've long had a fascination with these marvelous fish. I've spent the last several years photographing large fish like sharks, marlin, sailfish and tuna above and below the water (see my galleries at : http://www.bluewaterjon.com/photogallery.htm) but one of my biggest fantasies is to come face to face with one of these amazing Opah. I don't suppose it would jump out of the water next to me like the sailfish below but I'd be so excited I wouldn't much care.

The only time I have ever seen an Opah is in fillet form at the seafood market; they are delicious! Had Scott Williams known this, he may have thought twice about leaving the large, seemingly healthy fish in the sand. "We thought it might have been a sunfish, and then someone said that sunfish are poor eating, so we just left it there." Then again, who knows why the fish ended up so, uh, washed up? ( For my 4th and 5th grade students reading this, that's called a pun!) Eating fish you find on the beach is probably not the smartest way to cop a free meal.
I found out about the Opah Incident when I saw Scott at a friend's party on Friday night. He came up to me and said, "Jon, you know your fish pretty well, what is this?" My eyes bugged as soon as he showed me the pics on his cell phone. "Omigosh! It's an Opah!" There must have been a lot of surfers at this party because another one of our friends overheard us and showed us photos he took of the same fish in the sand later in the day. By that time the fish's beautiful colors had faded. I'll try to get those photos too. Word has it that someone carted the specimen away; I hope it went to a scientist who can make sense of the "Opah Incident"!

I'll try to follow up this interesting story with interviews of some marine biologists I know who might be able to make some sense of this all.
Stay Tuned,
Jon Schwartz
Fishing News, Travel Articles, and Photography

http://www.bluewaterjon.com/

Amazing Fishing Photos

2010-08-26T06:58:00.000-07:00

Fishing photography has become something of an obsession for me. I used to spend a lot of time trying to catch fish on hook and line, usally from kayaks, but now it's all about capturing their glory on camera! Above you see me taking a photo of a jumping sailfish in Guatemala. They are known for their spectacular leaps and I thought getting up close and personal might provide me with a good vantage point. Below is a female mahi mahi, or dorado. Not the most cooperative species for photos!

Below here we have the magnificent blue marlin, close quarters! I strove to get a head on photograph. I had to head it off at the pass to do so, and then we both veered off at the last moment...

I'll post some more goodies later today: I have to get ready for my first day of teaching school this year. I teach elementary school in Oceanside, CA. If you haven't read the account of how the press boat that I was on in Hawaii hooked into two giant marlin, check out the story here:

700 pound giant marlin tagged by press boat!

Press Boat rammed by 550 pound marlin tags a 700 pound giant two days later!

2010-08-13T01:32:00.000-07:00

This is Jon Schwartz here from www.bluewaterjon.com. By now you know the story of how our little press boat was rammed by a 550 pound blue marlin on day 2 of the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT). Incredibly, the story was on the front page of Yahoo for two straight days. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
In fact, that wild episode turned out to be only the first chapter of a crazy week in Kona. Two days later, our press boat hooked, fought, tagged, and released an even BIGGER fish, providing for a terrifically ironic twist to the prestigious tournament.

On this 4th day, myself, mate KJ Robinson, and Capt. B.C. Crawford were joined Kona photographer Charla Thompson. As you will see later, we were lucky to have her aboard. I greeted the guys with a hug upon boarding the boat; through our wild experience the other day, we'd grown to be fast friends overnight. We remarked on how lucky we'd been to see that marlin going wild, and I was happy as a clam to have gotten some photos that were gaining some attention in the news. (Funny thing is, I haven't even shown many people the best ones!).

Charla and I climbed up into the bridge as we left the famous Kailua Pier so we could get some shots of the boats as they streamed out to find the fish.

While Charla is an accomplished Kona portrait, event, scenic, and wedding photographer, she doesn't spend a lot of time on fishing boats. She was looking forward to an exciting day, but was also aware that the odds of us witnessing anything truly spectacular were not high. Fishing photographers like me sometimes spend weeks on boats without getting a single good shot; magic can happen at any time, or only once in a great while. I've spent entire trips in big game fishing hotspots and come away with nothing.

Now, you may have surmised that we were a naughty little press boat. Press boats have one job: to wait until other boats are hooked up, and then jet over to them in hopes of getting shots of them with their fish jumping near the boat. Press boats ain't supposed to troll lures! But this being 'The Land of the Giants', many HIBT press boat captains and their mates find it impossible to resist deploying one or two lures, just in case...

For this reason, I wasn't surprised when KJ started deploying lures, again. As you can see in the above photo he did it with a grin while talking on his cell, the mischievous fellow! Then again, what harm could come of it? I sure didn't speak up in opposition, especially after our incredible episode two days prior, and I figured that the odds were against us hooking anything again.

So we're trolling lures, the sun is out, and the water is incredibly calm with just a slight breeze; just the conditions that make Kona such an appealing fishing location (BIG fish, calm waters). Less than an hour into our day, one of our reels starts screaming again, and guess what? A giant marlin starts jumping behind our boat!! Can this really be happening?!!

As you may recall, the marlin that rammed our press boat two days earlier had been estimated to be 550, or even 600 pounds. (In fact, B.C had called it 550, and renowned angler and Director of the famous Lizard Island Black Marlin Tournament, Bob Lowe, who witnessed the entire spectacle, estimated it at 600!) Now B.C. is calling the one we have on 700 pounds!!!
It took some fantastic leaps, and thankfully, didn't charge the boat like the one we had one two days earlier. (And to be fair to that fish that "attacked" our boat two days earlier, it wasn't an unprovoked attack, it was doing what it felt it needed to do to get away. Had it only known that we planned to tag and release it..... but I'll revisit this interesting issue in a later blog post and include exciting accounts and video interviews taken from several experienced eyewitnesses).
Now back to the present fish! Of course, we have no anglers aboard; Charla has little fishing experience and although I do, I'm hesitant to put my cameras down, so once again, mate KJ hops into the chair and starts battling the fish. To his credit, the only help I gave him was the occasional sip of water and a turn of his fighting chair.

As if the irony of our little press boat being hooked up to the biggest fish of the tournament wasn't enough to blow minds, I get a call at this very moment from Peter Fithian, the venerable and esteemed founder of the HIBT. I thought he might have heard that we were hooked up again and was going to tell us to quit being such rascals, but he hadn't yet heard the news; he was calling for another reason.

"Hi Jon, this is Peter... I wonder if you wouldn't mind speaking with a reporter from a TV station in Honolulu about your encounter with the marlin the other day?"

"Peter, I'd love to, but there's a big fish on right now and I can't talk now!" I yelled into the phone.

"Who's hooked up, Jon?"

"WE ARE, PETER! GOTTA GO! TALK SOON!!!"

Back out to the deck I ran, trying to see if the huge fish would jump again and provide Charla and I with some more photo ops. KJ kept fighting the fish with great strength and vigor, applying as much drag as his 80 pound tackle would let him. The line grew so taught that it made whistling sounds as the air blew over it, and it cut zigzags through the water, making an incredible pattern on the surface that portrayed the tension of the moment. I tried to capture it on my camera:

This was a truly incredible fish with immense power reserves, and every time KJ would get it up to the boat, it would light up in glowing shades of silver, teal, and blue and take off on another run. It became clear that KJ and B.C. wanted to be able to claim the fish as an official catch and release for the boat; big fish caught on boats are basically their resumes. But before they could claim it as an offical boat catch and release, a tag would have to be inserted into the fish, hence the term tag and release.

These tags contain data on them which is then recorded once the fish is tagged, and then an official tagging report is sent to an organization that keeps track of these things. If the fish is caught again, they can use the information on the tag to assess things like how far the fish has traveled and how much it has grown, all information that can aid in protecting and maintaining healthy stocks of billfish worldwide. (For more information, see The Billfish Foundation's website at www.billfish.org. TBF is a non-profit organization dedicated solely to conserving and enhancing billfish populations through the world).

We were now faced with a dilemna: who would tag the fish? I'd come all the way out here to get pictures of fish, so I was not eager to put my cameras down and miss the shot of this fish jumping out of the water at boatside, but at the same time, no one else could do it. Eventually I put my camera down, joined the team, and talked strategy with KJ and BC. We agreed that once KJ took a wrap on the leader, I'd follow behind him and insert the tag. Although I'd caught small marlin from kayaks and released them, I'd never bothered to tag them, so this would have to be a first for me! You can bet my adrenalin was pumping; I wasn't so much afraid of the giant fish as I was about screwing things up for KJ and BC!

After one hour and ten minutes of fighting the fish, KJ made put the rod in the holder and grabbed the leader, but the fish still had way too much energy and wasn't ready to be leadered. It's tail lit up everytime it got close to the boat and it shook it's massive body like a giant bull. This was one huge animal! In the above picture that Charla took, you can see KJ struggling with the mighty fish at the stern. Finally he led the fish to the port side of the boat and took several wraps with his gloved hands. I followed right behind him, determined not to let the guys down and ruin their chance at glory. The moment of truth had arrived!

"Tag the fish! Tag it!" screamed KJ. I leaned over the rail with the tagging stick and readied myself, but to my inexperienced eyes, it seemed that the fish wasn't close enough for me to implant the tag. I'd seen some trained mates blow it and either miss or send the fish flailing away from the boat. I sure didn't want to botch the job, annoy the fish, and send it racing away from the boat in another desperate lunge; that might put KJ in a bad spot!

"But shouldn't I put it just below the dorsal fin in the shoulder? What if I put it in the wrong spot?"

KJ was insistent:

"JUST DO IT!"

Now I really felt the pressure! Realizing that I'd be better off screwing up by following his directions than hesitating and messing things up on my own, I committed myself to the act, leaned over once again, and followed through, sticking the tag solidly into the fish. The below picture gives a good feeling for just how big that marlin really was! Not a 100% perfect spot for the insertion of the tag but considering the circumstances I think it worked out OK. At least it was close to the dorsal fin!

Thank gosh Charla was there to get the photos because I don't think anyone would believe that we actually pulled it off. Of course, I did almost nothing; KJ perfectly executed the job of both the angler and mate, and BC did a great job of positioning the boat. When the 550 pounder rammed our boat two days earlier, there were many experienced witnesses, including Captain Kevin Nakamaru and angler and respected Australian tournament director Bob Lowe, but this time we were all alone, and showing back up at the Kailua Pier with an a tale about an even bigger fish was definitely going to arouse some skepticism. But as you can see from the photos, as fantastic as the story is, it's all true: the little press boat was the luckiest boat on the whole Island of Hawaii! All hail Captain B.C. Crawford of the mighty Chiripa and his mate KJ Robinson!

Note: Be sure to check back soon at my blog Jon Schwartz's Fishing and Travel Blog for the great stories I have to share about what happened after the HIBT ended! Think sharks, big ahi tuna, and two marlin underwater at the same time, with one of them free swimming!! If you have any free time, also check out my site www.bluewaterjon.com for more cool fishing and travel stories and photographs.

Huge marlin attacks press boat in Kona Hawaii during HIBT fishing tournament!

2010-08-04T04:15:00.000-07:00

Jon Schwartz from bluewaterjon.com here with some wild fishing news: a huge marlin attacked the boat I was on today in Kona, Hawaii! I am a fishing photographer and writer and was on the press boat here at the HIBT (Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament). Captain B.C. Crawford, owner of the 36' Hatteras Chiripa, and mate K.J. Robinson were helping me document the billfish action by chasing after boats that were hooked up. The morning saw a flurry of action and I was able to get some good shots of marlin jumping. By midday the action had slowed down, and I was sacked out on the couch, my 4 cameras strewn across the floor of the salon.

Though we were the press boat, we were also trolling some lures; as long as we had to be moving around, often simply waiting for the next boat to call in a hookup, the boat trolled two lures. That might help us catch a nice mahi mahi or small tuna for dinner, I thought. The rest of the boats are trolling at least 6 so this is a very light setup, and I told KJ that if the lures got hit, I was manning the cameras, not the rod!

I used to do a lot of fishing, mostly kayak fishing, where I chased smaller striped marlin up to 150 pounds in Mexico. One day I was lucky enough to catch and release 5 of them, and it was filmed and featured on Nat Geo TV's "Hooked: Monster Fish II".

I was so obsessed with it for so long that within a couple of years I had gotten it all out of my system and took up writing and photography, which seemed to befit a guy like me with 3 kids, a wife, and all that. Enough with pulling on the fish! I'd let others do the work and simply document the highlights without breaking a sweat. Once in awhile I go in the water and get shots of big fish if they are calm enough, like the below photo (actually that sailfish you see was kind of sketchy, which is another story) but for the most part I sit on my rear end on the boats, twiddling my thumbs, and wait for hours until the action unfolds.

Compared to what I used to do, it often feels too sedentary, but I guess to be a marine wildlife photographer, you have to be patient. It's kind of like waiting for a rare animal sighting; jumping marlin don't (or so I thought until today!!) spend a whole lot of time in the air. So you get a lot of down time with a couple of seconds per day, if you are lucky, to witness something cool. If you're even luckier, you might get a good photo of it. Getting the shot is every bit as satisfying as catching the fish with your hands, and you get to hold on to it forever, assuming you don't delete it by mistake. Here's one I took of a 400 pound black marlin in Panama crushing a football-sized tuna in it's mouth:

Anywho, there we are on the Chiripa trolling lures and waiting for the next called-in hookup. Suddenly I was jolted awake by the sound of a screaming reel- one of our lures had been hit! We'd been pulling those things for the past two days with no hits, and I basically forgot they were even there!

I ran out to the deck and KJ had taken the rod and was yelling, "It's a tuna, it's going straight down!!" That seemed plausible to me because whatever it was, it wasn't jumping. My first thought was, "Bummer that I didn't bring my underwater camera housing; it's probably a nice tuna and because we're not in the tournament I could have swam with it and taken some pictures of it!! Now we'll be stuck here for hours while they reel in this fish, and I won't get any action shots!"

WRONG!!

All of a sudden a huge blue marlin, later estimated by many long time big game angling experts who witnessed the event to be over 550 pounds, starts careening through the air in every conceivable direction, throwing massive walls of water with every move of it's huge tail, and leaving car size holes in the water when it came crashing down, sometimes belly up. This was one angry fish!

I ran back into the boat to get my cameras, and I was hooting and hollering in excitement. Finally some action!!! KJ knew that I wanted to get pictures rather than do the angling, so he took the rod into the chair and started strapping himself in.

I guess I must have kept shooting photos the whole time because I got these images of the fish going ballistic. Notice the remoras on it's underbelly! I wonder what they were thinking!! Some free ride they got!

KJ was born and raised in Kona and has spent time learning from B.C. on the Chiripa as well as doing some work on legendary Kona Captian Gene Vanderhoek's boat, the Sea Genie II. He knew the drill, did everything quickly and efficiently, and was ready in a matter of seconds for anything that the fish would do. Or so I thought....

After a couple of dazzling runs, which big gamed fishing expert Bob Lowe from Australia later called "The wildest thing I have ever seen on my 50 years of marlin fishing!" the fish started to run, and head toward us.

Now mind you, I am watching all of this through my 300 mm telephoto lens. I was so focused on getting the shot that I probably lost sense of what was really happening in terms of how the fish was behaving. All I knew was that the fish came at us so quickly that soon I was unable to see it through the camera (see shot #4 in the photo above) and I was starting to miss it because my lens was too long! "It must be close!" I thought! "Where's my wide lens?"

The last shot I took prior to impact was this:

Then came the impact.

WHAMMMM!

The fish hit the side of the boat to my right, and my first thought was that it had come off (bummer!) and that the boat, and possibly the marlin, were in bad shape. But no! The reel was still screaming and KJ is yelling, "He's still on! He's still on!" but now we had a big problem. The fish had evidently slammed into the boat and just kept on going, and was pulling the 80 pound line under the boat. We were all waiting for the line to snap, but the reel kept on screaming!

Captain B.C. swung the boat around and KJ told me to help him by turning the chair, so I put my cameras down and became the deckhand. By this time the fish was going straight down and when KJ was able to get a bit of line back on the reel, he shook his head in resignation- the line surely couldn't last much longer, because it was coated with the black paint from the underside of the boat and was frayed. B.C. encouraged KJ to stick with it and soon they settled into a rhythm, slowly gaining back line.

If it looks like KJ is forcing a smile, he is! He was rightfully concerned that the fish would break line, and even though they planned to tag the fish and let it go, after the fish rammed the boat we seemed to all be committed to winning the battle and bringing it to heel, if only for a brief minute. Here's what he really looked like when I wasn't asking him to smile:

I'm not sure if you can sense it from the picture but we were all just waiting the whole time for the line to part, and that sinking feeling stayed with us for the duration of the fight. As I mentioned, this kid is a Kona native, and he knew exactly what to do. I helped a bit here and there but he performed the tasks of two people, the mate and the angler, grabbing onto the line to help him wind it on to the reel, repositioning himself, and so forth. He wanted to win and redoubled his efforts, and after maybe 20 minutes, the rubber band on the line had come up, meaning the fish was pretty close.

"Get the tagging stick!" he told me, so I reluctantly put my cameras down and got it for him. I didn't know what the hay we were going to do; I guess I was going to have to ditch my camera, but I figured I'd get one last shot in. KJ turned a few more cranks, and just as we started getting ready for the end game, and I fetched his leadering gloves, the line came up and the fish seemed ready to jump.

And then the line went slack..... it was off, and so close!!!

We figured the hook had pulled, but upon closer inspection, it turns out the hook had in fact broken! Tackle failure! Bad hook!

Below here you can see some pics of KJ, and also of the reel with the line that still had paint from the bottom of the boat:

KJ and I talked a bit about it and decided that we might dive underneath the boat soon and inspect the boat to see if it has any damage. I will take pictures if we see any!

Here's Captain B.C. Crawford, mate KJ, and the boat back at the Kailua Pier after it all was over:

I have many more great pictures that I'd like to share but I have to get to bed- it's 2:10am and I need to get up in less than 4 hours to go out again tomorrow! I will try to post some videos of the interviews I recorded on my iPhone with the people who witnessed it all. It turns out that as incredible as it seemed to us, the anglers that witnessed it were doubly blown away! Many of them have been fishing for giant marlin their whole lives and said that they had never seen anything like it, and they'd never seen a fish act like that or move that fast. They also said that they were worried about the guys in the boat!!

Check in tomorrow for my blog and report after day 3 of the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT). Hopefully I'll have some more big fish tales- and photos- to share with you. In the meantime check out the gallery on my site Bluewaterjon.com: fishing photography, articles, and travel for interesting content.

Until then,

Jon Schwartz

HIBT day 1 results: Kona Marlin Fishing Tournament sees red hot action!

2010-08-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

Jon Schwartz here reporting from Kona, Hawaii on the HIBT (Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament) results for day one. I witnessed some great marlin fishing action, including one boat that had two on at the same time!

I don't have all the stats for today, I was so busy taking photos that all I know is what I saw from the press boat. Above you see a team of anglers from some far off country (New Zealand maybe) getting ready to tag a marlin. People have gotten the impression over the years that the fishing scene is Kona is all about keeping the marlin and bringing them back to the docks. That is a falsehood. Yes, fish are kept, but most are tagged and released. (In fact, if you are really concerned about protecting billfish stocks, go to The Billfish Foundation, a non profit that is dedicated to maintaining healthy billfish stocks worldwide, and learn about what what is really doing the damage to big fish stocks, which is longlining)

Look at the guys above. The marlin that their anglers had caught had gotten tangled in the leader, aka "tail wrapped". They brought it in and carefully cut the line off of the fish and then the mate took great pains to revive the fish behind the boat. It swam away in great shape.

Let's talk about how the day started. Anglers showed up with big smiles and boarded the boats that they drew for today; remember, everyone gets an equal chance at fishing on every boat here at the HIBT; no ringers.

The fishermen then boarded the fabled Kona fishing fleet and set out for glory, prestige, and sport:

A real Hawaiian priest came and blessed the 2010 HIBT, reciting Hawaiian prayers over the VHF for all the anglers to hear.

An hour or so into the contest, we got a call that the Korean Angling team, on the Northern Lights with Kona Captain Kevin Nakamaru, had TWO marlin on at the same time. One guy was even on the side of the boat reeling one in. Did I say two marlin at the same darn time? We raced over to investigate!

Sure enough it was true. And not only that, a kid was manning the tag stick! No joke here though, he turned out to be super qualified and did the job of 40 one man easily and with panache. They tagged the smaller one and let it go. It might have looked just like this blue marlin below that I photographed last year in Kona. It too had just been tagged and was swimming back home to, uh, wherever it calls home. I don't bring my underwater camera equipment and fins on press boats because the contestants would scream at me if I caused them to lose a fish while I swam around in the water!

Captain Kevin then backed down hard to enable their angler to reel in the other one, which was much bigger. Behold the mighty power of those engines!

I have a ton of really cool images from today's event but I am going to have to wait till another day to post them because I need to get my stuff ready for tomorrow. I do have times to share a couple more things that I think you might find interesting:

The above is what's called a "floater"- a log or a net or piece of something out in the middle of nowhere. EVERYONE loves seeing these things when they are trolling around for fish. They attract tiny organisms that attract small fish that attract bigger fish that attract huge fish. If a boat finds a floater, they'll spend time seeing if there are any big predators lurking around. There often are!

One of the most common sport fish that love to congregate around these FADs ( fish attracting devices, I think) are mahi mahi, aka dorado, or for you East Coasters, "dolphin fish". Sometimes there may be hundreds of them around a floater, and if you fish there it can be 'wide open' action.

The above is ( how did you guess?) a sailfish. They are great fun on light tackle and people travel to exotic destinations like Guatemala, Panama, and Costa Rica to tussle with them. Some of them might be landed here at the HIBT but they will be quickly released and the anglers will be in a hurry to move on; they won't put up much of a fight on the beefy marlin tackle they use here at the HIBT and don't earn the anglers as many points, if I remember correctly. Can you guess why they are called sailfish? See below:

Also check my blog here about The Great Marlin Race because I will be talking about this exciting marriage of sport, science, and conservation via a collaboration between marine scientists and the HIBT. In a nutshell, these important marine scientists including Doctors Randy Kochevar and George Shillinger have come here to Kona to implant satellite tracking tags in marlin that are released. They then monitor these fish with the tags as they swim around, and whoever sponsored the sat tag on the fish that travelled the farthest in 180 days wins!

Above is the tag they insert in the fish. below is how they insert the tag. Then they let the fish go and it swims, as my 4 year old daughter Leilani would say, "Far, far away...." One fish swam over 2000 miles in 90 days.!That helps us learn about and protect billfish.

Below is Bob Kurz, he is here as an angler and also as the Great Marlin Race Director.

I figured I might pitch in to the Great Marlin Race by donating some photography so I told them, (and I am telling you!) if you sponsor a tag by contacting The Great Marlin Race, I will hook you up with some rare fine art fishing photography. You can even pick the species, including black, blue, striped marlin, mahi, tuna, sailfish, and sharks. Come on down!

Be sure to get the results of day two of the HIBT by checking in later on Tuesday. I'll be on the water all day hoping to witness some more great big game fun, and then I'll be blogging again after I get off the boat!

Jon Schwartz

bluewaterjon.com: fishing, travel, and photography

HIBT Kona Hawaii Marlin Fishing Tournament begins NOW!!

2010-08-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Jon Schwartz reporting from Kona, Hawaii to announce that the 2010 Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament is boarding anglers onto the famous Kona fishing fleet as we speak! Anglers from all over the world have streamed into this famous fishing town to hook monster marlin and engage in big fish mayhem. I've got to run down to the docks right now and board the press boat!!

The above shot is a huge marlin crashing a lure, the below is one thrashing the surface and then being released. Hopefully I'll get some great images today from the press boat as I follow anglers in their quest to battle monster marlin that can weigh nearly 2000 pounds! Check back later today for all the latest news and photos! In the meantime scroll to earlier posts to read about the fishing scene here, or go to my website to see the articles I've written about different types of fishing here in Kona.

2010 HIBT Hawaii Marlin Fishing Tournament Update- Sunday afternoon

2010-08-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

Jon Schwartz of bluewaterjon.com: fishing articles, photography, and travel here with your update for the HIBT, mere hours from the beginning of this epic marlin fishing tournament! We now summon the forces of Neptune, and whatever god is in charge of fish, to bless this event and that that transpires.

Ok done.

Anyway, as you can read in my previous blog post, the captains and mates here are students of big game fishing and rig their lures with exacting detail. I was on a boat last summer called the Kila Kila captained by Teddy Hoogs and the mate rigged a lure over 40 minutes, which ended up looking like this:

Every color and detail has been careful selected, every minute thing executed in exacting detail. Then the mate threw the lure overboard ( attached to a fishing line of course) and jokingly said, "Now watch it get bit!"

Within 5 minutes a reel goes screaming and a blue marlin launches itself out of the water, throwing the lure around like a rag doll! It worked! I got some good photos of the action, but they are somewhere on my external hard drive and I need to get on using the images I've got ready for this post, otherwise I'll never finish this cool tale. I had talked with Captain Teddy Hoogs about how we might plan it out so that I could get some cool underwater shots.

Here's Hoogs:

We decided that if the fish calmed down, and was in good shape, I would get in and snap a couple of quick ones. Under I go, and I got some beauties, clearly showing THE VERY LURE that had been prepared right in front of me on board, yet it was now attached to the swimming marlin!!!

Look where I put that arrow in the pic, you will see that same lure the mate rigged! Teddy's mate did spectacular job of leadering the fish, bringing it to the boat so I could take some pictures of him holding the line and lure, with the fish still in the water. That shot is going to be on the cover of a mag so I can't show it now, but here you can see a closeup of the deckhand doing the deal, with Captain Teddy in the background manning the controls!

I don't know about you but I was impressed as heck with those guys. As big game legend Marlin Parker stated, Teddy Hoogs is one of the best new captains in the world. It's hard enough to catch and release a big fish, but to stage it for a photographer in the water ratchets up the difficulty level quite a bit!

2010 HIBT Hawaii Marlin Fishing Tournament Official Blog Update Sunday Aug.1

2010-08-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

Jon Schwartz here from bluewaterjon.com reporting from Kona, Hawaii, at the headquarters of the 2010 Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament ( HIBT), scheduled to begin in less than 24 hours. The tension is mounting as the anglers are meeting downstairs in the ballroom, where they are drawing random lots to see which boats they will be fishing on this week. One of the cool things about this tournament is that you can't just show up here with a gazillion dollar boat and top name captain and sweep the thing; everyone gets a fair chance at drawing all the boats.

And of course, just because a team draws the boat they wished for on day one of the five day event, doesn't mean that will translate into victory. Boats viewed as 'cock of the walk' one year have ended up as feather dusters the following year! To that end, to try and get the best fishing photography I will be in the press boat, following the action wherever it is. I could try and glom onto a certain boat with my cameras, but I stand a more even chance of finding action on a chase boat. Once a hookup is called into tournament headquarters, the captain of the press boat guns the engines and brings us photographers over to the action- and hopefully it's in full swing when I get there!

In comparison to other fishing tournament locations, the boats here in Kona are in a fairly compressed location, pretty close to shore, so theoretically it's a good place to be in a press boat for a fishing photographer like me. But there are times when a boat hooks up in an area that's 45 minutes away, and the press boat captain has to make a judgement call: is it worth it to jet all the way over to where that boat is hooked up? Won't it be over when we get there if it's too far?

The great majority of the time, we hear about a hookup, and the captain goes into full throttle, only to throttle back down 30 seconds later. So many things can go wrong with a hooked fish, where the line can break, the hook can pull out, that we on the press boat get lulled into a sense of wondering if it's just another false alarm. Tension climbs and then drops precipitously.

Funny things happen, too. Two years ago, there was a big fish hooked, 40 minutes north of the press boat. After days of gunning the engines and cutting them off seconds later when the fish got off, we on the press boat decided that there'd be no way the fish would still be on when we finally got there. BIG MISTAKE! It turned out to be a 973 pound giant blue marlin that put on an incredible hour long display of tailwalking and aerial jumps. It was captured on video by the Hawaii Goes Fishing TV, whose editor happened to be aboard, but no photographers witnessed the big fish mayhem. Needless to say we were all kicking ourselves in the foot for deciding against the trek toward the hooked up boat; we'd missed the chance of a lifetime!

In addition to my blog being an on the ground reporting of the HIBT, I am writing it so that it's like a multi-chapter article on the how's and why's of big game fishing. because it's an ongoing discussion and I will be referencing prior posts, I encourage you to read past posts so you can get the whole picture. I left off yesterday talking about how the anglers, mates, and captains do a lot of lure fishing here. They troll various resin and plastic lures rigged with material that makes it mimic baitfish, hoping to entice strikes from the target predator, the giant pacific blue marlin. These fish can reach almost 2000 pounds! Some of the best captains in the world live in Kona, and I have been impressed with how much attention they pay to every minute detail when prepping their gear.

When I was on the Kila Kila, Captain Teddy Hoogs and his deckhand rigged a lure that looked awful pretty. They spent over 30 minutes on it, getting everything just right. Notice that the darker sides of the lure head (the shiny plastic knob on top) are lined up with the darker sides of the plastic skirt. The fellows even went so far as to use purple tape underneath! They then took a marker and blacked out any exposed shiny metal on the hook ( actually I didn't have a pic of them doing it so I used one of Captain Marlin Parker's mates at work on Marlin's boat, the Marlin Magic II. I think that was partly to hide the hook, to add some rust prevention, and also to possibly let him know where the hook might need sharpening if it came back after a fish hit it.

Well, right after Teddy's deckhand showed me the lure, he said half jokingly, "Watch it get hit when I put it in the spread of lures!" and guess what happened??? IT GOT HIT IMMEDIATELY!

Coffee break time, be back in a jiff with the rest of the story, and more...

Kona HIBT Marlin Fishing Tournament Update Saturday 6pm!

2010-07-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

Jon Schwartz here reporting from the 2010 HIBT (Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament) in Kona, Hawaii. Anglers from all over the world come to the Kona Coast every year to try and land huge blue marlin. Why? Well, I'm very superstitious. For that reason I will not tell you that the waters will be as blue and calm as they usually are here, nor will I tell you that this is the blue marlin capital of the world, because we all know that would jinx the whole thing!

Let's talk about the methods the anglers, mates and captains use. I'm no Jim Rizzuto (Jim is the local Hawaii writer who happens to be one of the most knowledgeable people on all things related to fishing Hawaii), but I do know that lures- artificial contraptions made of plastic, rubber, and so forth rigged up to mimic baitfish and draw strikes- were popularized here by Henry Chee and George Parker, I think starting in the 40's. (I could be off by a decade).

When I first started riding along with captains, I thought fishing was mostly about picking a fancy lure and hoping luck would strike, and a fish would show for that reason, rather than the look and play of the lure. Wrong! The more time I spend with top Kona captains who have graciously shared their wisdom like Gene Vanderhoek of the Sea Genie II, Marlin Parker of the Marlin Magic, Teddy Hoogs from the Kila Kila, and Guy Terwilliger, the more I realize there's a LOT to it.

Luck plays a part, for sure, and as they say, "On a good day anyone can run over a marlin and get a hookup, but top billfishing captains are true students of the game. They spend thousands of hours observing how different lure colors, lure shapes, hook types, trolling speeds, and drag pressure affect their rates of hookups, and are constantly making changes to adapt to the conditions.

I actually did an article on Hawaiian lure secrets for Marlin Magazine, where I worked with Captain Teddy Hoogs.

He skippers the Kila Kila, a '53 Merrit based here in Kona. It was an incredibly educational experience, and also provided us all with lots of hot fishing action that I documented from above and below the waterline. Here is a link to the article:

Article: Marlin Fishing in Kona on the Kila Kila with Teddy Hoogs

I sat down in the boat's salon and spent a lot of time with Teddy and mate Josh Bunch, who both showed me how to rig lures, explaining the entire process. I was amazed at how detailed their preparations were. The attention to detail really blew me away. I've been in locations where the mate rigged lures with rusty hooks and sloppy rigs, but these guys did everything flawlessly, and if they spent 40 minutes on a lure and it didn't "run right" in the spread when they threw it into the pattern of lures they were rolling, the took it apart and did it all over again.

In the above photo you can see Josh Bunch talking with the angler about just how he plans to rig the lure. Lure heads- the pieces of plastic that are attached to the trailing pieces of plastic- are sometimes chosen by the mates or captain, and are sometimes chosen by the angler, and even brought by them from their hometown. It's fun to bring your favorite lures, but it's a good idea to go with what the crew says might work because they usually have a good idea of what the predators have been eating. So if the marlin have been eating squid, they pick a shape and color that will mimic a squid. An angler can spend 200 dollars on a choice lure but if doesn't match look and action of the food that the fish have been feeding on, they might be missing their chance.

Interestingly, large hooks are not always chosen by mates or captains when rigging lures for large fish. I know one captain in Kona who has caught about as many giant marln as anyone in the world, and he happens to use the smallest hooks of any captain I have met.

In the above photo you can see the mate holding the finished lure. Get a good look at this lure because after I have dinner I am going to blog about what happened it right after it was put in the water!!

Official 2010 HIBT Blog: Marlin Fishing Tournament update from Kona, Hawaii

2010-07-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

Hi Jon Schwartz here, welcome to the official blog of the 2010 Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT) Blog. Anglers are coming in this weekend from all over the world to Hawaii's Kona Coast, the "Land of the Giants, to troll the deep blue waters in hopes of hooking giant marlin that can reach 2000 pounds!

I just flew in to tournament headquarters this afternoon and I'm super excited about being able to witness this historic event, which will actually start Monday morning. I guess last year's event was the historic one, as it was the 50th anniversary, but let's hope this one makes history for big fish mayhem and fun. It sure has the potential! I've covered the HIBT for the last two years and spent many additional weeks on the water with captains and anglers gathering photos and fishing content. Prior to covering the HIBT as a journalist I spent many fishing trips of my own here, learning about what makes this such a special big game fishing destination.

One aspect is that big pelagic game fish seem to like being in clear deep blue water that has lots of bait that they can feed on. Kona has that, for sure. It gets so deep so quick here that you can be 100 feet off the jetty, and be in 250 feet of water or more.

Check out this illustration that I got and put a label on, showing where the Kona Coast is. You can see the steep dropoff points. No need to motor out to where the big ones lie- they are right there within 1/4 mile from shore at times. In addition, this is the leeward side of the Big Island of Hawaii, as opposed to the windward side. I am not going to say that there is no wind because if I do, that might jinx everything and we'll be blown off the water on Monday, but for the most part, let's just say that this is not the windward side...
If you want proof that huge fish can be caught within a stone's throw from shore, check out this picture of a 64.5 pound giant trevally ( Ulua in Hawaiian) that I caught at the mouth of the harbor, about 50 yards off the jetty, about 5 years ago here....on a kayak!

It says "Ulua #3" on it because it was actually the third one that I caught in three days, if that's any indication of how good it can get here. So if you can't tell, I've been sold on this place as a big fish mecca for awhile now.

Now let's talk about the bait. There's tons of it here, and you wouldn't believe the sized of the baits that they use to catch marlins with. They catch tuna that others would be happy to catch for trophies, and then put a hook through them and wait until a monster shows up and engulfs it. I don't have any good pictures of this, but I do know that when a 1800 pound fish was caught on many years ago, it coughed up a 150 pound tuna that it had just eaten. We'll have to do with this picture, which shows a regular sized bait.

Notice that it's been sliced in half? Well what happened is, the aku, or skipjack tuna that had been caught and then thrown out as bait with a hook on it had been sliced clean in half by a wahoo, another fish that lives around here with razor sharp teeth. Wahoo had kept eating all our baits so we put a trap hook- another hook that dangled towards the back of the bait, but the wahoo ( ono in Hawaii) was wily and cunning enough to come in for his attack and take away half of it without getting hooked!

Of course with such big baits, and bigger predators eating them, you need beefy equipment.

See that "4/0" reel there on the left? That's actually a very big reel, big enough to catch a 200 pound marlin. I brought it over here on my first trip to Kona and they laughed when they saw it, because they usually use the biggest reels made in the world- 130 pound test reels. They are bigger around than a coffee can and can withstand the torque required to tussle with the beasts that roam these waters. People in Kona can choose to use lighter tackle, which will be fun for smaller fish in the 20-50 pound range, but if a 500 pound marlin comes along, let alone something three times that size, they are going to get "spooled"- which means that the fish will take all the line off the spool and leave them dry and sorry they had underestimated the potential of this place.

I'm pretty sure there are 35 or so boats in this year's tournament. Each boat will be manned by one angling team, and the cool thing is that the teams have to rotate among the boats, so no one gets to have their favorite boat the whole time- it's done by random drawing. On Monday just before the tournament starts, the boats will line up at the Kailua pier, collect their anglers, and then at precisely 7:00am (I think it's 7:00, I'd better check!), they are given the green light, and they scatter in all directions, hoping to be the first to hook up.

I'll be getting in the press boat, hoping to watch other boats as they are battling jumping marlin. I took the above photo from a helicopter last year at the start of the tournament. A really wild thing happened about two minutes after I took this photo. I told you that big fish can be caught close to shore, right? Well while I was in the chopper, we were making our last fly over for photos like the above one. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a boat going backwards. That seemed strange to me, here we are in the first couple of minutes in the tournament, everyone is streaming at full speed for gosh knows where, and one boat is going in reverse. Could it be???
I told the chopper pilot, "Follow that boat!!" and sure enough, this boat- the Marlin Magic, owned by captain Marlin Parker and skippered by Jason Holtz, was indeed hooked up to a big fish and was backing down on it so they could get to it and tag and release it.
Right when we get on top of the boat, the most amazing thing happened: the fish, a marlin, jumped out of the water and started greyhounding off the stern of the boat!

Luckily I was able to catch it all on camera and I got what are probably some of the rarest fishing shots in the world. I say that because I think it would be prohibitively expensive to rent a chopper and hover around until a boat hooks up. It can take two minutes, 4 hours, or all day with nothing, you know? It was all luck and I'm grateful that I had that opportunity. Within minutes they had the blue marlin o the side of the boat, removed the hooks, revived it and let it go. And that was all in the first 15 minutes of the start of last year's HIBT!

Later on in the month I spent some time accompanying Captain Marlin Parker himself, who granted me an extensive interview about his life and experiences. I'll be writing a series of articles on him for Bluewater Boats magazine about Marlin Parker based on these interviews with the first one coming out soon. Here's a copy of that magazine with a picture I took of a fellow releasing a sailfish in Guatemala:

Check back in a couple of hours; after I get some sleep and have breakfast I'll continue blogging, and soon enough the tournament will be at hand!

Bring on the 2010 Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT) !!

2010-07-28T23:48:00.000-07:00

This is Jon Schwartz welcoming you to the official blog of the 2010 Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament! The HIBT is one of the oldest, grandest, and most prestigious fishing tournaments in the world. Anglers from all corners of the globe gather on Hawaii's fabled Kona Coast, the "Land of the Giants," to fish for Pacific Blue Marlin that can grow to 2000 pounds. These are the fish of legend, and Kona is the world's ultimate blue marlin battleground.

Captain Marlin Parker, one of the world's top captains and a big game fishing legend who has landed blue marlin over 1400 pounds, fought one in Kona that he estimated well over 1600 pounds for over 23 hours. I've seen experienced anglers put to the limits of their endurance after 3 and 4 hour fights (see below pic), so I can't imagine what it was like for 23!

Indeed, the potential for hooking massive fish in azure blue, calm waters, sometimes within a mile of shore, is what attracts such an international, faithful contingent of contestants.

There's no guarantee that you'll hook a huge fish, but as soon as you motor offshore and reach deep blue water (which can be a mere several hundred yards from shore!) a monster can strike at any time. Some of the world's best captains, including Parker, Guy Terwilliger, and Gene Vanderhoek, call Kona home, and they've all learned the hard way that they need to be prepared for "Godzilla" every time they leave the harbor.

Thousand pound marlin- known as "granders"- have been landed in almost every month of the year in Kona.

To that end they only use the heaviest tackle, lest they be caught, as Vanderhoek puts it, "with their pants down." In fact, I interviewed Marlin Parker about the 23 hour marathon fight, and he told me that when dawn broke the next morning, he dove in to see if the heavy leader line that was attached to the fish was in danger of breaking. I've dove in with a few marlin myself (for photos like this one below), but nothing nearly as large, so I was curious about his experience with such a leviathan.

"What was the fish doing 18 hours into the fight when you dove in?" I asked. He replied with a grin, "Pretty much anything it wanted !" What an understatement! I guess it was like putting a lasso on Kong Kong and asking if it cramped his style.

Big game sportfishing finds many of it's roots in Hawaii, and if you want to read about the history of sportfishing and the birth of the HIBT, check out the article I wrote about it here: HIBT: Fishing for Giant Marlin in Kona, Hawaii. One of the tournament's founders, Peter Fithian, still presides over the HIBT. This will be his 51st year at the tournament's helm , and I look forward to meeting up with him and "talking story", as they say in Hawaii.

Check in in a few hours; I'll be adding a lot of content about last year's HIBT, explaining the significance of the tournament, what it's like for the anglers, what type of equipment they use, the type of fish they hook (blue marlin are the targeted species but there's plenty of other fish that they encounter), how they fight them, how they release most of them and why they keep a few, and what the local scene is like in Kona during the HIBT.
Once I arrive in Kona on Friday, I'll be your on the ground photojournalist, uploading exciting content onto this blog, Jon Schwartz's HIBT Fishing Blog on a daily basis. I'll be in the press boat every day chasing after the boats that are hooked up to fish in hopes of witnessing wild big game fishing action and landing "the shot". After the day is done I'll sit down at my laptop with a plate full of wings and a club soda and enter the day's juiciest tidbits for your reading and viewing pleasure. Don't forget, all along the way you can also catch detailed information about the tournament at the Offical HIBT Website

Here's a shot I got from last year's HIBT:

Hawaii Travel Update: Grand Times on the Island of Oahu!

2010-07-27T02:06:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a fabulous trip to Oahu. I was gathering content for an article about an exotic fish that lures well-heeled anglers from all over the world. Along the way I spent time with my family savoring this fantastic vacation destination. Sorry if that sounds like an ad, but there's no other way to describe Oahu. On the South Shore you have Waikiki, which is a busy metropolis, world class shopping hub, and home to some of the world's most famous beaches. On the North Shore, you have a rural, down-home country feel, mixed with some of the most beautiful mist shrouded valleys, sun soaked beaches, and of course, the most famous surf spots in the entire world.

We stayed at some really awesome resorts. One was the Kahala Resort, which is a high-end exclusive resort about 10 minutes out of Waikiki, located just past Diamond Head. In addition to being a travel and fishing writer and photographer, I do a lot of resort photography (you didn't think I just sat around on these trips, did you?) Anyway, I got some neat shots at the Kahala. Here's one I took of the Spa they have:

and here's a shot of my daughters living it up in the pool:

and here they are chilling on the beach:

Maybe I should trade jobs with my kids! At the Kahala, they have this thing called Dolphin Quest, where there's a salt water lagoon and dolphins swimming around in it, and you can swim and interact with them. It's fantastic. I pointed out to my daughters that the girl in this photo below, who I assume is a dolphin trainer, seems to be having the time of her life, and is getting paid for it. So I gave them the "Hey, go to school, get good grades, specialize in marine science, and become a dolphin trainer" speech. I don't know if you can relate but I am getting to the age where I need to start guiding them in life choices, and having a fun job that you like, like this dolphin trainer here, seems like a great thing to strive for. Plus they can do that in Hawaii and I can come visit them!

Anyone who goes to Oahu and doesn't stay for a spell in the heart of Waikiki is really missing out. My wife LOVED it there, because it's like a little mini 5th Avenue, NYC style, right on the prettiest tropical beach you can imagine. It's where surfing took root, and where I first fell in love with the State of Hawaii. Here's my whole family...

Here's what it looked like at night from our hotel room:

After Waikiki we ventured over to the North Shore and stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort. It's a high end resort on the very tip of the island, and it has stunning views, beaches, golf courses, restaurants, and privacy, if you want it- just the place to go to after a stay in busy Waikiki. Here's a shot I took at sunrise our first morning there:

This is the view from the resort looking out over Turtle Bay itself.

and here's a picture of my own daughter ripping it up on the surf they have right next to the resort!

I've been fortunate to do a lot of traveling and have a lot of exciting personal adventures but watching my daughters enjoy themselves, and photographing them surfing, was a special treat! I was the proudest daddy in the entire world!

Just past the Turtle Bay Resort, there lies an expanse of secluded beaches that are breathtakingly beautiful. I went for a short hike there with my daughters, in part because we wanted to see the rare Hawaiian Monk Seal. I was told that there are very few of them left. I took this shot with my long lens because you're not allowed to get very close to them. I also wondered where her pup was, as I was told that she was spending time on the beach with her pup and waiting until the pup was grown enough to fend for itself. Maybe the pup already flew the coop?

One of the shots I did in my resort photography there was to capture the view that massage clients have when they are in the spa. It's kind of an interesting puzzle to get the shot so that the inside of the spa is lit properly, while the view through the window is not blown out and overexposed. Here's what I got:

My daughter Leilani is a pool freak. She gets a crazed look in her eye when she is playing in the pool and is in a total world of her own, she is having so much fun. It's almost like she doesn't hear you when you talk to her, she's in such a state of bliss. Last year I took a neat picture of her underwater and when she saw me with my camera she told me that she wanted to try for that shot again.

Great kids fishing picture

2010-07-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

I frequent fishing chat boards and saw a post that asked readers to submit their favorite kids fishing photos. Because I have three kids of my own and have been a fishing enthusiast and elementary schoolteacher for over a decade, I have had many opportunities to get some great ones. The above is one of my favorites.

Kasey and his grandfather came out with me to kayak fish in Southern CA and we ended up catching a big fat yellowtail. In fact I picked the two of them up at 3:30 in the am and like a true angler, Kasey bounded down the steps barely able to contain his excitement at that early hour. We paddled out in the dark and made squid for bait under the moonlight, and were finally rewarded with this tasty treat.

Kasey was a very advanced student and also knew a lot about the local fishery. In the first week we struck a bond and I ended up going over to his house to meet his family (it was a public school that I taught at on Camp Pendleton). His dad was deployed in Iraq and his grandpa (pictured) was helping to take care of him with his daughter, Kasey's mother. He turned out to be a master angler and was schooling Kasey in all things fishing so we became fast friends. I told them, "Look, when the squid start spawning, I'm going to call you and we'll go out and catch us a big one!" Sure enough I got a call that the fish were biting and so I put the plan into action. You can bet he was stoked to tell his classmates about our adventure!

My Fishing Calendar published by Willow Creek Press

2010-07-10T00:21:00.000-07:00

The first official calendar exclusively featuring my photography has just come out and I am excited! It's published by Willow Creek Press. They do all sorts of high interest wall calendars (way more than just fishing calendars) and seem to be a big name in the publishing world so I was honored to have my work selected.

Ironically the image you see here that is on the calendar cover was one of the first shots I ever took from the water. I sent it to my friend who is an editor and he said "Nice shot but you should have shot it vertically so I could have used it as a cover!" Ever since then I have been hyper vigilant about shooting vertically when I am doing these types of shots.

The fish is a striped marlin and it was caught and released off of Cabo San Lucas at the Golden Gate Bank. I've been meaning to do more blogging but I keep getting so caught up in photography and writing for magazines (which is a good thing!) that I haven't had time to log in and blog.

I was recently on assignment on the island of Oahu. I had such a great time there that I can't put it into words. I was like a kid in a candy store. Stay tuned for some really cool pics that I took of the fabulous scene there!

My new article & cover shot in Marlin World

2010-05-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

I wrote an article about some of the great fishing adventures I had in Kona, Hawai this past summer for a really cool online magazine called Marlin World. The web has completely changed publishing, and Paul Watson, the editor of Marlin World, may well be onto something we'll see a lot of in the future. One can visit his website or subscribe to the free mailing list, and then you are can view the publication on your computer. The cool thing is that it reads much like a magazine- a virtual magazine. The pages flip with the help of some fancy dancy computer program and you can zoom in and out, and also watch videos imbedded on the page. It's interactive. Videos play as you are reading text above and around it. Pretty wild!

In any case, in the article I talked about the great times and luck I had photographing marlin, sharks, and other big fish from all sorts of vantage points in Hawaii, including face to face underwater (that's how I got the cover shot of the blue marlin that you see on the cover of Marlin World) and even from helicopters. Tell you what, between the pic I took of the marlin for the cover, and the self portrait I took above, I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm uglier than a marlin. Like, way uglier. Is that sad or what? Maybe if I got a hairpiece....

But I digress. Back to the Kona trip... I got so lucky that on the very first helicopter ride of my life, I witnessed something possibly only a few people have ever seen from above- a marlin jumping out of the water behind a boat!

The bizarre thing is that, as I noted in some hastilly scribbled text on the above photo, this is a photo of a marlin, jumping behind a boat called "Marlin Magic", owned by a famous captain named Marlin Parker! ( That's not something he calls himself, his dad named him that. His dad caught the first recognized blue marlin in the Pacific in, I think, 1954, and then months later had a baby, so naturally he named him Marlin.) In fact, right now I am penning a series of articles about Captain Marlin Parker and his fishing techniques for a fantastic magazine called Bluewater Boats and Sportfishing. I was lucky to have one of my photos chosen for their cover earlier in the year- a shot I took of a sailfish being released in Guatemala:

The first article I write for Bluewater Boats will be on Captain Marlin Parker's fish fighting tactics. In reviewing the tapes I came upon a story of Marlin's that blew my mind; he and a friend were chasing the world record, day after day, when they hooked into a MONSTER that was "way bigger" than the 1400 pound behemoth he landed at another point in his career. He and his friend fought this fish for 23 hours and, well.... you'll have to find the rest in upcoming issues of Bluewater Boats!

Now if you don't mind I am going to share some photos that I took in Hawaii last summer. My wife and 3 girls were there with me for two of the four weeks I was there, and we had a great time hanging out and sight seeing. Seems like no matter how far we go from home, all my girls ever want to do is lounge in the pool! Then when I chase after them with the camera they tell me all I ever do is want to take pictures. Below is a picture of them chillin' at one of their favorite places, the Sheraton Keauhou.

Now here's a pic of them at the Hilton Waikola:

One of these days I am going to write a major tome about all of the cool things to do in Hawaii. They have an active volcano and they also have inactive ones. You can take hikes through the tubes that the lava used to flow through. This is one of the pics I took that I like the best from that area

( Hawaii Volcanoes National Park)

They had these awesome flowers there at the Park ( it's a huge place, like Yellowstone, so when you hear 'park' don't think like the postage stamp place down the street from you where the kids play). Anyway I spent hours photographing these flowers. Then the problem is I get hundreds of nearly identical shots and can't help but look at each one carefully to pick the "best". Moreover, I snuck over a rail to get some of the flower shots, my expensive shades fell out, and I immediately stepped on them. The curse of the sunglasses repeated itself at Tropic Star Lodge in Panama not more than 4 months later.

And here's your standard. guy throwing flaming sticks in midair and then catching it in his legs shot.

And then we'll wrap it up with a picture of my youngest daughter at a luau. Her name is Leilani, it's a Hawaiian name and it means flower from heaven:

My new article on fishing and travel in Panama

2010-03-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

The editors of Official Guide to Billfishing contacted me recently; they'd read my travel articles on Cabo San Lucas, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Hawaii, and Costa Rica ( which you can see on my site in the "articles" section) and asked if I could write an article on Panama. I've been there three times in the past year and it's one of my favorite destinations, so I jumped at the chance!

One of the reasons I was excited to do this article is that the editor wanted me to include a lot of travel content. Panama is more than a great fishing destination- it's an incredibly diverse country that plays host to a thriving modern metropolis (Panama City), dense jungles, indigenous tribes, a large amount of retirees from the United States and Europe, and the Canal Zone, which is like a mini Hong Kong because of the Duty Free Zone.

Plus, Panama uses the dollar- did you know that?

It's listed in many travel magazines as one of the best places in the world to retire. Google "Panama" and "Retirement" and you'll see what I mean.

I grew up 45 minutes from New York City, so I am not usually wowed by cities, but Panama's capital is indeed impressive. This waterfront city is mostly comprised of completely new and soon to be finished high rise condominiums, office buildings, fancy malls, and even a John's Hopkins Hospital and Trump Tower (I'm not sure if he actually calls it that, but he owns it and it's a towering building!)

The article gave me a chance to share some of the images that I'd recently taken of the bustling Panamanian skyline, as well as photos of Choco Indians and upscale stores like Tiffany's and Gucci.

People's eyes always pop when I show them these photos and then tell them where they were all taken in the same country! To read the full article, follow this link:

Panama Pastimes: Fishing and Travel Article by Jon Schwartz

My New Article in Marlin Magazine: Hawaiian Lure Magic!

2010-02-24T00:12:00.000-08:00

I wrote an interesting article on fishing with lures in Hawaii called "Lure Magic" that's in the March 2010 issue of Marlin Magazine. Funny story: I had already penned several features on my trip to Hawaii in various publications, including another article in the February issue of Marlin on fishing for spearfish in Hawaii (see earlier post ), but I couldn't find anyone who was interested in having me write an article on Kona's great blue marlin fishery.

Why? Well, the topic has been covered many times over; writing an average garden-variety article about fishing for blue marlin in Hawaii is like writing an article about the existence of taxicabs and skyscrapers in New York City!

Anyway, I followed Jim Rizzuto's advice (Jim's a legendary writer and expert on all things fishing in Hawaii) and made arrangements to accompany Captain Teddy Hoogs for several days in August.

Teddy ( pictured above) is a young, talented, and very well respected captain on Hawaii's Kona Coast, and happens to be the son of Kona Legend Peter Hoogs, who's been operating a charter boat in Kona since the late 60's. Teddy happens to run one of the nicest boats in all of Hawaii, a 53' Merrit called the Kila Kila.

During a lull in the action, I decided to pass the time by documenting how they rigged lures. Along with recording the whole process on audiotape, I took about 50 close-up pictures of the lure as it came to form in the boat's salon. Once the lure was completed, Teddy's mate put it into the spread behind the boat and then only half jokingly said, "Now watch that lure get hit."

Within minutes all heck broke loose- a real started screaming, and we all ran to the deck. One of the lures had gotten hit by a nice blue marlin- the very same one that the mate had painstakingly constructed in front of my camera only minutes earlier!!

The fish flailed wildly in midair, tossing the newly-rigged purple Bomboy Llanes bullet lure like a ragdoll. I got some decent pics of that, and then dove in (Teddy and I had rehearsed a plan well in advance) and I got some really incredible photos of the marlin swimming underwater with the same lure. To finish the release of the fish, the mate grabbed hold of the blue marlin's bill, held the fish's head parallel to the water to run water through it's gills, and they made a pass by me as I lay submerged in the water. Right when they began to pass me, just as planned, the mate released the fish and it went streaming off calmly into the clear blue depths.

If this sounds too good to be true, check the article and the pics out! I have a slew of images documenting the whole episode, and they are all among the best underwater images of blue marlin that I've ever taken.

My latest cover shot, Saltwater Sportsman Magazine Feb. '10

2010-01-23T02:31:00.000-08:00

I took the above sailfish shot, now the cover of Saltwater Sportsman, last year in Guatemala during a stay at Casa Vieja Lodge. Yes, that young lady did catch the fish! Here is a pic of her in action:

As soon as the fish calmed down and got near the boat, I dove in and started taking pictures.

When I am taking pictures, especially underwater, I am not usually thinking about getting a size estimate on the fish, I'm more concerned with getting myself and the fish into position for "the shot". It wasn't until I looked at the photos later that I realized this was one huge sailfish! Everyone keeps asking me how big the fish was, and my honest answer is, I have no idea, I just know it's very large for a sailfish. The fish was released in great shape right after the shot was taken.

On board was the young lady in the shot, and her father Ric Weider and younger sister. The older daughter got the cover shot, but I don't want to leave the youngest daughter out. She caught several with the help of her dad. Here's her in action:

If I didn't get a picture of her with a fish it wouldn't have been fair, so I jumped in and got this photo:

I talked to Ric yesterday and he said the older daughter was running around her school showing off her cover shot. That must have been fun for her! I'm glad I was able to play a small part in enhancing their Guatemalan vacation.

New Article on Fishing for Spearfish in Marlin Magazine

2010-01-18T23:58:00.000-08:00

Do you know what a spearfish is? Pick up a copy of the Feb. 2010 issue of Marlin and read my feature on spearfish, the world's rarest billfish, to learn all about them. The title of the article is "Spearfish Skippers", and it has a lot of insight on how three top Kona captains fish for the shortnose spearfish.

I interviewed veteran Captains Marlin Parker, Guy Terwilliger, and Gene Vanderhoek for the article, spending days with each one during the height of the season on the Kona Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

There's been very little written on the species. When I was tasked with writing the article, I felt a little overwhelmed, so I let the experts do the talking, quizzing them for interesting information, tips, and anecdotes. For example, Gene Vanderhoek talked about the time he hooked one on 4 pound test, and 6 hours into the fight, his potential world record fish was eaten by a giant blue marlin!!

You'll also get a chance to see some of the very rare shots I took of spearfish. Catching a spearfish is rare enough, but getting high resolution images of spearfish is much more difficult because you never know when they are going to be there. It was all about being in the right place at the right time, and with a LOT of luck, I ended up with lots of goodies, all of them taken from the water. That shot on the cover is not mine, though- it's a striped marlin taken by Brandon Cole. I wish I took that shot!

To read the article go to this link Spearfish Skippers: Fishing for Spearfish in Kona, Hawaii

New Article: HIBT, Hawaii's Legendary Marlin Tournament

2010-01-11T19:39:00.000-08:00

If you go to this link you can see one of my latest articles. HIBT: Legendary Hawaiian Marlin Fishing Tournament. It's on the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament's (HIBT) 50th Anniversary that took place in July. Kona's got some of the calmest, cobalt blue waters in the world, and some of the best big game fishing on earth!
By the time you read this post there will another article of mine on newstands; it's one about fishing for the world's rarest billfish, the shortnose spearfish, and it will be in Marlin Magazine. I'm really excited to see how it looks in print. There will be many rare spearfish shots that I took above and below the water and it will be exciting for me to see how the magazine laid it all out. There will also be a shot of mine that is on the cover of Saltwater Sportsman Magazine due out in about a week.

Photos in new books from Guy Harvey and Rybovich Boats

2010-01-10T03:45:00.000-08:00

Two new coffee table books are due out soon that feature my photographs. One is from the legendary Guy Harvey, entitled "Panama Paradise: A Tribute to Tropic Star Lodge" and another was put out by the world renowned Rybovich Boat Company, simply titled "Rybovich". I look forward to seeing these books as they come out in a matter of weeks, and it's an honor to have my work selected for inclusion. If you go to my gallery pages Jon Schwartz Photo Galleries, which happen to contain over 50 new images, you will see some of the photos that will be in the books.

This week I also submitted feature articles to Marlin Magazine and the World Billfish Magazine. The article in Marlin is about how the pros lure rigs in Kona, and the other article is about Panama. This is the second article I've written on Panama, and this one goes into Panama's history, the history of sportfishing in Panama, and reviews some of the best fishing lodges in the area that exist today.

For the Kona article, I spent many hours interviewing Teddy Hoogs, captain of the Kila Kila, a beautiful 53' Merrit, and I interviewed a wide range of people for the Panama article, including Guy Harvey.
I may end up going back down to Panama in February. I have some time off from my school teaching job ( you know I teach third grade, right?) and the places I reviewed look so spectacular, I just may have to visit one!

Fishing for Marlin in Panama

2009-12-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

I am having a grand time here at Tropic Star Lodge in Panama. The setting here is incredible, and the fishing is fantastic. It's a fishing resort deep in the heart of the Darien Jungle in Panama, 100 miles from the nearest paved road- or maybe any road for that matter.

I wrote an article about this place for Sport Fishing Magazine after my first visit here, which you can read here Fishing and Travel Articles by Jon Schwartz

I came here to witness 'His Majesty the Black Marlin' jump within meters of the boat. They get huge here, and they hit big trolled baits about 10 minutes offshore, depending on the season. When I say big baits, I mean BIG. Here's a mate holding a live bonito bait just before he bridles it to a huge circle hook and tosses it overboard to entice a bite from a monster:

The marlin are pretty thick here right now- good numbers of them. The bite usually happens first thing. First baits in the water get bit. As soon as the reel starts screaming they back the boat down at warp speed and the fish launch themselves all over the place. The fights are full-on adrenalin rushes. It's hard to get good photos because the boat is backing down so hard to catch up with the fish and there is water coming over the transom.

Although the fish get huge, the Humboldt current here, according to several staff, make for an oxygen-poor environment at deeper depths. Instead of heading for the deep like they do in many other locations, the fish tend to stay near the surface. For that reason, they are able to use much lighter tackle- 50 pound rods and reels versus 80 and 130 pound gear that is used in many other big marlin locations- so the interaction with the fish is much more intimate. Smaller boats lower to the water with lighter tackle like they have here make for front row seats to big fish mayhem!

Last year, the first day on my first visit to Tropic Star Lodge, I lucked out with a photo that made it onto the cover of Marlin Magazine.

I kind of had a feeling that after having such luck on my last trip, I would have to do some dues-paying this trip, and my feelings were right. Although the fishing here turned out to be much hotter than last year, I did a lot of zigging when I should have been zagging. I accompanied one couple who caught 8 marlin here in six days ( I think 5 blacks averaging 400 pounds and 3 blues averaging 300), but their best luck occurred on days when I was on other boats.
This all started to mess with my head; I started to think I was bad luck, and went looking for all sorts of things that may have resulted in the hex. Could it be my white socks? I tried wearing the same shirt for 4 days, stuff like that.
Catching fish is hard, but catching a photo of a jumping fish is many times harder. Not only do I have to be on the right boat that is experiencing the action, but the fish has to jump, the lighting has to be right, I have to maintain my balance in the midst of a lot of action, my camera settings have to be spot on, and my gear has to be functioning perfectly. The below shot is one of me posing. In the heat of the battle it's all I can do to stand up straight, and you'd never find me sitting down.

Anyway, as soon as we got here, they had some children from the small village across the bay come and do some folk dancing. It was awesome! It made me realize I should have brought my kids ( I have three girls). My kids are bilingual, and my wife is from a similar-sized town in Mexico; they would have become best buddies with these kids right off the bat.

I took some neat pictures of them, with them, and then made a CD for their parents so they can get them printed the next time they travel to Panama City. For most, if not all, of the parents and children, these are the first photos that have ever been taken of them! You should have seen the look on their faces when I downloaded the shots and showed them to them on my laptop. They are such dolls. Que bonita!

I was super stoked to hang out with them too, but don't show my wife these pics of my new Panamanian beauties!

I talked with their teacher, and it turns out that that her husband is the head of the school at the village. I want to go visit the village tomorrow and hang out with the kids and their parents. Many of them work here at the resort. It's a special feeling, you meet the kids, and then go out on boats manned by their fathers. The personal aspect of it makes it just that much more exciting to me, because I am also a 3rd grade school teacher.

I am already thinking that the coolest thing to do would be to maintain contact with these kids and the teachers and their parents, and have them be pen pals with my own students in San Diego. They are all about the same age. I'll be able to speak with them as I can get by in Spanish, and my wife and daughters can help out with anything I can't handle. It would be terrific if I was able to combine teaching with my sportfishing photography and travel writing and involve my students as well as my own family!!!

I was fishing with Richard and Edie Kearley for several days as well. They were very fun to hang out with. Here is a photo I took of Edie on the way out to the fishing grounds.

And here's a photo of Richard 'going great guns' on a 60 pound tuna:

Below is a shot of Richard with a tasty dorado.There's so many dorado here, they are like pests. Pretty funny considering that these same fish would make for trophy fish on many other fishing excursions.

They ended up landing 8 marlin in 6 days of fishing, but almost all of them were landed on days that I wasn't with them. One day they had 4 black marlin! Of course I wasn't with them that day. Arrgh!!

I also accompanied famous fly fishing angler and multiple world record holder Margo Vincent and her grandson Kyle Vincent.

Kyle set a (pending) new world record for mullet snapper at 24 lbs! You can bet his grandma was super proud of him! Everyone kept telling him, "You realize you have the coolest grandma in the world, don't you?"

He also landed a 375 pound blue marlin earlier in the same day. Here's him fighting the big blue as Margo looks on from the bridge:

Pretty amazing for a 12 year old, no?!

Both Richard and Kyle kept Dockmaster Albert Battoo busy recording their various achievements. With his first black marlin in day one, Richard his Royal Grand Slam: catching one of every type of billfish in the world!

The funny thing is that the most elusive billfish, the spearfish, was actually the first one that he landed like 30 years ago. I took particular interest in this because I wrote a 2500 word feature article about spearfish that will be featured in the February issue of Marlin Magazine, which should be on newsstands in about 3 weeks.

Here's Richard having his Royal Grand Slam recorded by Albert Battoo.

And here is Albert, one day later, making the sign for Kyle Vincent's pending world record 24 pound mullet snapper.

In addition to taking fishing related photos, I enjoy portrait, scenic, and architectural photography. I took a photo of the spa area and got this neat shot of Marisol the masseuse working with a client:

Finally I ended my week's stay with a visit to the nearby village of Pinas.

I wanted to check out the computer lab that is being set up and meet up with some of the folks I met last year there.

Jose ( pictured on the right) works with Tropic Star and also lives in the village. He introduced me to the teacher of the school (on the left) and they showed me the lab. It'll be cool when it's up and running in the next couple of months so I can communicate with my friends down there!

On the way out of Pinas I met up with one of the mates of the boats that I had been on over my week's stay. His name is Alexi. He is Margo Vincent's favorite mate and is probably going to end up as a captain at some point.

He also happens to be super friendly and he introduced me to his children when I walked by the house. It's funny to see these guys chase around monster fish all day, every day, and then see them relaxing at home. What seems like extreme angling to many is for them another day on the water. They've undoubtedly wired and released thousands of huge marlin, perhaps as much or more than anyone in the world. (FYI "wired" means grabbed onto the leader, brought the fish to the boat, and removed the hook). Thrill seeking anglers from all over the world travel to Pinas Bay to take part in a ritual that these fellows perform as a matter of course. Here's marlin whisperer Alexi with children:

Last year, I took a lot of scenic and architectural shots when I was at the lodge. It turns out that some of my photographs will be included in the soon to be released book by Guy Harvey called Panama Paradise: A Tribute to Tropic Star Lodge.

The book has 334 pages, and in it, Guy Chronicles the beginnings of the lodge in 1961 to the present day. Needless to say I am thrilled and flattered to have my work featured in Guy Harvey's book!

I am writing an article about Panama for the World Billfish Series Magazine. The editor of the publication Sam White suggested that I might like to get some scenic shots of Panama City, so I hired Panama's best guide, Luis Singh, to take me on a tour of the city. I went with him last year but needed to get more material. I desperately wanted to get good night shots taken from on high that showed the city's skyline, but after touring the city with Luis, I began to think I might strike out.
Most of the skyscrapers in the city- and there are a lot of them-are closed to the public. They are the homes of the ultra wealthy. Not sure if you know but Panama has a lot of new development and new buildings.

Trump Towers type of stuff, but even richer, and a new John's Hopkins Hospital branch, a bustling modern business sector, and tons of high-cotton shopping malls that feature stores like Rolex, Gucci, and all the rest.

After a series of unsuccessful attempts at getting a good vantage point for a shot, I decided to get crafty. Luis let me off in front of a popular tourist spot, and suggested I try to find the best spot I could on foot. I talked my way into the lobby of a posh 51 floor condo high rise, and the bellman let me onto the exercise room on the deck of the 15th floor. I was so excited! He left me there alone, though, and the room was so hot, I ventured out into the hallway to cool off.
A couple walked by and we started talking. The next thing I knew they were asking me if I wanted to go up and take pictures from the penthouse on the 51st floor!!! The bellman came back to keep an eye on me and sees me with my new friends, so I say, "These kind folks are gonna take me up to the penthouse!" All he could do was smile.

I had with me my Nikon D700's and several of my favorite lenses, and I got some AWESOME shots that I will post and include in that article for the Would Billfish Series magazine. I was so happy to be up there by myself, I was simply ecstatic! I completely lost track of time, and when I returned to Luis's car two hours later he said in a panic, "What happened to you??"

I proudly pointed to the tallest building in the sky and said, "You see that one? I was on the penthouse taking pics of the city!!!!" We had a laugh about that and his eyes bugged out when I showed him the shots. Yahoo!!!

Albino Sailfish Caught by Angler Fishing in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!

2009-11-30T20:47:00.000-08:00

Article by Jon Schwartz, http://www.bluewaterjon.com/

Sailfish are one of about 9 species of fish known as "billfish". All billfish have long pointy bills at the tip of their nose. Sailfish aren't as big as some of their cousins, like the broadbill swordfish or blue and black marlins that can weigh over 1000 pounds, but they make up for it in looks and acrobatic leaps.

The Spanish term for them is Pez Vella: beautiful fish. Their fanlike dorsal fins make them instantly recognizable, and when they're excited, they flash iridescent mixes of magenta, red, yellow, and aqua hues.

At other times, they assume dark tones, allowing them to sneak up on prey.

That's what makes the one that Matt Dye just caught off Cabo San Lucas so incredible. On Saturday, Nov. 28, Dye landed a ghostly white albino sailfish, which may be truly one of the rarest billfish catches in the world. And yes, the eyes were reddish pink! This fish must have stuck out like a sore thumb in the ocean!How on earth a fish of this size, with no ability to blend in, managed to survive in the wild remains a mystery for the moment; marine scientists will no doubt start chiming in with theories and insight in the coming weeks.

Matt, who hails from Alexandria Virginia, came down to Cabo to visit with Bob Gist, his wife Sharon, and Linda Daniels. Though they've all known each other for over 20 years, they see each other only occasionally, and decided to vacation at a Cabo time share owned by one in the group.

They contacted Tracy Ehrenberg, owner of Pisces Sportfishing Fleet, and indicated that they'd like to charter a luxury yacht for fishing. Tracy put them on the Get Over It, a 54-foot Bertram captained by Jobe Villavicencio, with brother Javier working as the mate. Jobe has become one of Cabo's most sought after captains, known for such feats as catching and releasing 197 striped marlin in one day in 2008, and in fact, the two are current World Offshore Champions.

Though most of the boats had been heading north of Cabo's marina to load up on dorado (aka mahi-mahi), Bob suggested that they try for marlin and head straight out to the "6000 line", where the depth reaches, uh, 6000 feet. Evidently, that's about 15 miles out. Just before they reached the area, they saw what they thought was a marlin free jumping, so they ran the boat over to the fish and threw out a live bait to the fish on 30-pound tackle.

The fish took the bait, a battle between angler and fish ensued, and eventually Matt brought the fish to the boat. What began to appear from the depths shocked everyone aboard. Bob Gist watched the strange sea creature emerge with astonishment. "When it was coming up, it just looked...weird..and I was like, where the h-ll is the color?!... and it kept coming and then I thought it was a shark! And then I said, it's a billfish!...and it's a sailfish! and I was like, sH#@!"

"It almost looked skeletonly from a color, and it was just all white, the tail was more so than the bill, and it was incredible!"

I asked Bob what the crew’s reaction was like. "They were flipping out because they've never seen anything like that in their lives, and they started looking at the eyes, and the eyes were red and pink, and they started hollering out albino, albino, and then they called into the marina, and that's when we learned that it was a special thing.”

What actually happened was that Captain Jobe had called Tracy and told her that they had landed the bizarre fish, and they wanted Tracy's advice on what to do with it. Pisces has earned a reputation as one of the most conservation minded charter operations in the industry, and is a strong proponent of the catch and release of billfish. For her, the decision to release the fish would usually be a no-brainer, and they would have usually left the fish in the water, but since the fish was so unusual, the crew thought they had better ask Tracy and take some pictures.

Tracy Ehrenberg at her office overlooking the Cabo Marina

Tracy has even been training her crews to learn how to obtain scientific samples that are given to several trusted marine scientists she knows. She's one of many that feel that Cabo may in fact be a breeding ground for billfish. If this theory can be proven to the government- if enough billfish larvae are collected while skimming the surface for plankton- the area will be closed to commercial fishing, and billfish stocks will be safeguarded from longliners. This is her ultimate goal.

Ehrenberg said that although she knew the scientists might be able to obtain valuable data from this one unusual fish, she also wanted to honor the client's wish. Matt knew that if he wanted to get a mount made of his amazing catch, he didn’t need to kill it. These days, taxidermists make replicas better than ever before, based only on a photo of the catch. Matt was committed to letting the fish go, but now they had a problem: after the fish was brought aboard for a photo, it was exhausted, and releasing it in good health proved to be difficult.

Matt Dye being interviewed by Jon Schwartz after Matt's incredible catch

The fish wasn't able to swim off by itself after placing it back in the water, and Matt and his friends became worried it might not make it. The anglers and crew got so caught up in the revival effort that they came up with a most unusual plan: mate Javier volunteered to be held over the transom by his feet so he could hold the fish’s head underwater, and his brother, captain Jobe, would slowly move the boat through the water to run fresh water over the fish’s gills. Incredibly, the plan worked! The fish regained it's strength and kicked off by itself, and everyone aboard cheered with relief.

Matt Dye should be given a big hand for making the decision to release the fish, and the crew of the Get Over It should be commended for their valiant efforts. Well done!!!

Interestingly, The Billfish Foundation (TBF), a nonprofit organization founded to promote the health of billfish stocks worldwide, has actually come up with a helpful set of guidelines that are geared towards educating us anglers on releasing fish in a manner that puts the least amount of stress on the fish. They recommend that the billfish be left in the water at all times. Several publications and websites have written articles on how to properly release billfish, and as I come across them I will post them here. In the meantime, if you know of one, please contact me throught my website, listed above.

Personally, I have seen several methods employed that seem to work really well. Different methods work for different sizes of fish, types of line, sizes and types of hook, and so on. There's the school of thought that it's better to leave the hook in the fish (this also depends on where the fish is hooked). Sometimes the anglers will use light line and when the fish gets close to the boat, the mate will simply yank the line tight very quickly, causing it to snap at the knot on the hook. The fish usually simply swims away without even ever touching the boat. This was used about 50% of the time that I accompanied Pisces fishing charters.

At other times, I have seen mates leader the fish to the side of the boat, grab the bill, and remove the hook. With larger fish the captain will often come over and remove the hook with an ARC Dehooker, a device made specifically for the safe and effective removal of hooks in fish. I spent a month in Kona watching some of the world's best captains like Marlin Parker and Gene Vanderhoek catch and release 600 pound blue marlin without barely blinking an eye, it seemed, and both fellows and their mates made used dehooker tools to great effect.

In Guatemala, they seem to have the greatest sailfish numbers on earth. When I was there last year in December, they were releasing 30 plus sails per day, per boat. No joke! Check my website for the article I wrote on it in the "Articles" section. There, what they do is they have a long stick with a line-cutting tool attached to the end of it. They use very thin wire circle hooks, similar to the ones the Pisces Fleet uses, and when the fish gets close to the boat, the mate grabs the leader and cuts it right at the knot where the hook is in one deft motion.

As a sport fishing photographer and writer who shoots above and below the water, my own observations have led me to conclude that there are a great many mthods that are successful in promoting healthy billfish releases. I actually took this next photo aboard the Rebecca, another member of the Pisces Sportfishing Fleet. It shows one of the clients, Dan Ryan, releasing one of the 4 striped marlin that was landed that day. When the fish are calm enough and the situation is right, sometimes the anglers can even join in the fun!

Of course, usually the mate is the one handling the fish at this point, but Dan has been coming back to Cabo for many years and befriended the captains and crews at Pisces to the point where he likes to take over as second mate. In fact, he had dinner for two nights in a row at Captain J.R's house, but that's another story..!

Fishing for Marlin and Dorado in Cabo

2009-11-28T16:46:00.000-08:00

Lots of tailing striped marlin! The first three days of my trip I accompanied a very experienced angler named Gerald Richmond, a member of the IGFA and TBF (Billfish Foundation). We were on he 31 foot Rebecca, one of many fishing boats in the Pisces Sportfishing Fleet.
He's been fishing with them for 15 years as a client, and has caught over 500 marlin in his 79 plus years! Gerry baited up 16 and caught two on our first day. We went about 18 miles north of Cabo, maybe a bit more than halfway to Golden Gate Bank where the striped marlin bite went crazy the past 4-5 years. The fish were no more than 3 miles from shore.

The bait was goggle eyes/caballitos and Jerry used spinning tackle to sight cast to them as they swam around in full view, so it was quite exciting. Once they saw the bait, they either sank down or lit up like a Christmas tree and bit.
On board was his fiance Claire who is 73, another experienced angler. Both hail from Islamorada, Florida.
The dorado bit is close to wide open, with bulls averaging 15-20 pounds, caught on jig strikes and bait. Of course all marlin are being released! When you see a red flag with a white "T" on it that means the fish was released, so on this particular set of flags you see two marlin flags ( blue), two release flags, and a dorado flag. Jerry actually released most of his dorado too, but kept a couple for us to eat back at the Marine.
There are many restaurants like"Captain Tony's" right next to Pisces Sportfishing on the marina that will cook your catch. Quick fact- did you know that the marina here in Cabo is one of the most expensive and luxurious in the world?

Here's a shot of Land's End that I took on the way back. This is the spot at the very tip of Baja where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez. A most beautiful spot, this pic actually doesn't do it justice, it was taken on the fly..

I have been staying at some wonderful hotels. After 3 nights at Casa Dorada (see previous post) I found myself at the luxurious Marquis Los Cabos Hotel and Resort

The place is amazing! Here are a couple of quick pictures I took. As soon as I was taken to my room overlooking the Pacific I whipped out my camera because the from my balcony was equisite. Hopefully I captured some of the beauty in this photo (click to enlarge)

I took some other ones, and have plenty more I will be sharing. As much as I love fishing and underwater photography, I love photographing architecture and scenery. Resorts like this give one plenty of opportunities to take nice photos. Below is one of their restaurants. If you can believe it, it's the least fancy of the two they have!!

And then a few shots I took by the pool:

Cabo San Lucas

2009-11-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

I just got into Cabo San Lucas yesterday, and checked into the Casa Dorada Hotel. It's all new and quite beautiful. The weather here is about 78 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze. I'm overlooking Los Arcos, where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez, and I feel like I could swim there I'm so close!
After taking a nap, I enjoyed some delicious gourmet Mexican cuisine and then took some night shots by the hotel pool that sits right on top of Medano beach. Here's one of my photos (click on photo to see the whole image):

New Cover Shot: Bluewater Boats and Sportfishing Magazine

2009-11-13T15:58:00.000-08:00

Bluewater Boats and Sportfishing Magazine is a highly acclaimed publication based in Australia that focuses exclusively on big game fishing. The magazine has garnered much praise from top anglers, readers, sport fishing professionals, and fishing enthusiasts. I feel very fortunate that editor Tim Simpson chose a photo I took for the November 2009 issue. Here is the shot:

I took it while I was doing a travel story on fishing for sailfish in Guatemala. The fishing was incredible, and the resort that I stayed at, Casa Vieja Lodge , was top notch in every way. These types of shots require that I put my camera in a custom underwater housing, go for a swim, and shoot up at the angler and fish. The fish was released in good shape, as evidenced by the incredible colors.

Many anglers and captains wisely strive to bring billfish to the side of the boat rapidly for a quick release, which reduces stress on the fish. If they've been played to exhaustion- something anglers should avoid-their colors fade to a dark, somber hue. Judging by the colors on this one, it must have been pretty darn healthy! When I get in the water I try not to take pictures at the expense of the fish. To that end I only get in when the fish is calm, but still healthy. If these conditions are not met, I don't do it.

Over the years I've learned that billfish should not be brought aboard for the sake of a picture. The Billfish Foundation has done a great job of educating anglers about this important fact and a visit to their website might explain the how's and why's of proper billfish release techniques. If I am not mistaken, it's illegal in some countries to bring billfish aboard for a photo, as may already be the case with other fish like tarpon in Florida. Don't quote me here though, that's not my field of expertise!

Back to the photo: I remember getting back on board, toweling off, checking this image in the viewfinder, and then almost hitting the roof because I was so happy. Getting a good photo of a billfish release is hard enough, but getting one while treading water in the ocean increases the factor of difficulty many times over. If even one drop gets on the housing's exterior surface, the shot can be ruined. Even worse, housings can leak and flood, turning a $6000 camera and lens setup and the accompanying $3500 housing into an expensive doorstop in a matter of seconds!!

Amazing Fishing News: Marlin Travels 2225 Miles in 94 Days!

2009-10-31T13:19:00.000-07:00

Tagged Marlin's Incredible Journey Wows Scientists and Fishermen
Text and Photos © Jon Schwartz http://www.bluewaterjon.com/

Sport fishing for marlin has changed in big ways over the past 50 years. In the old days, many anglers brought their catch back to the dock, simply to pose with it for a photo. These days, thankfully, most sporting anglers let their marlin go. Some take it a step further: they invite scientists to study the fish they release through advanced remote satellite technology. The studies are leading to some incredible findings- like this week’s discovery that one marlin caught in Hawaii traveled 2,225 nautical miles in only 94 days!

How do we know this? Marine biologists affiliated with Stanford University recently teamed up with anglers from the 50th annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT) that took place on the Big Island of Hawaii in July.

I covered the HIBT this year as a writer and photographer and witnessed some of the finest fishing the Kona Coast has seen in years. Over a 5-day period, tournament anglers caught 105 marlin, releasing 97. Eight of these 97 were outfitted with special satellite tags, and were thus entered into The Great Marlin Race.

When a marlin was brought to the boat, Stanford’s Dr. Randy Kochevar told me, “A surgical steel dart was inserted into fish. A mono leader comes out and wraps around a metal pin on the tag, and that pin is made of a corrosive metal. Then the fish is released. Exactly 180 days later, an electric current passes through the pin, which corrodes within minutes, weakened by a chemical reaction with the sea.” Then the bulbous tag pops off the fish, floats to the surface, and sends a signal to an orbiting satellite relaying its location, accurate to within 10 meters!

Although I spent all 5 days on the press boat and photographed multiple instances of anglers tagging fish, it wasn’t until I interviewed Kochevar over the phone that I realized I personally had witnessed these special sat tags being inserted. I scoured through my photos, and sure enough, found that I got some great pics of a marlin jumping at the transom of the Long Ranger, which was then brought alongside the boat for a special tag! (see above photo)

Once I found that I had these shots, the whole process intrigued me that much more. By a great stroke of luck, these weren’t the only rare photos I got during the tournament. During the first ten minutes, I managed to get some great photos of a marlin jumping behind a boat as I hovered overhead in a helicopter!

Kochevar told me that the tag records data every 30 seconds for the 180-day period, including information on available light, depth, and temperature. This data tells him where the fish has been, how far it’s been diving, and how long it stays at these depths; exactly the type of information on marlin that is lacking in our current knowledge base.

Angling teams that purchased and sponsored the tags stay in touch with The Great Marlin Race scientists through their website, http://www.greatmarlinrace.org/ . Kochevar notifies the anglers when their tag pops up. Once all of the tags have surfaced, the one that has traveled the farthest distance from the point of insertion (in this case, the HIBT’s Kona Coast) wins the competition and a free entry into next year’s tournament.

Anyway, I was talking again with Kochevar this week, and he said, “Jon, you heard the incredible news, right?”
“Uh, no, Randy, but tell me!”
“A sat tag that we deployed on a marlin at the HIBT 94 days ago just popped up and started sending data to us via satellite. It traveled all the way down by the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, a distance of 2,225 nautical miles from where we tagged it!” My self-centered response was “Was it the one I got photos of?”

Kochevar laughed. “No Jon, I’m afraid it wasn’t!” He then proceeded to fill me in on the details, which will continue to unfold as the tag relays data to the team over the next ten-day period. Below is a picture of the people who sponsored the sat tag, Sally and Bob Kurz, with Ph. D student George Shillinger (left) and Dr. Kochevar ( right).

You can see the tag and the special poles it came with. Bob was the one who actually tagged the fish after it was caught by Tan Chin on board the Au'Kalani on Day 3 of the HIBT. Bob and Tan's efforts, and the incredible journey of their marlin, puts their Laguna Billfish Club in first place. Given that the other marlin still have 80 days to keep on trucking, I wonder if another tagged marlin will travel even farther?

Since Kochevar is the expert on the project, I’m going to pass the ball back over to him and encourage the curious to visit http://www.greatmarlinrace.org/. He can answer detailed questions, and the site has lots more info on the Great Marlin Race. I’ll be checking in regularly to see all that the tag can tell us about the fish’s journey.

My big question is, why did it pop off early? Could the marlin have been eaten by a shark?

My second question is, am I the only person who wants to charter a plane to the Marquesas and see if we can’t locate the tag floating on the surface? I hear there’s a reward for recovering the device, and if the marlin was in such a hurry to get there, it must be pretty good fishing, too! I'm all up for going to the Marquesas in French Polynesia for my next adventure! Anyone else in?

I'm picturing that at some point the psat tag will wash ashore on a deserted island with one sole survivor and the poor soul will start screaming into it, expecting a rescue team to show up!

-Jon Schwartz: Fishing Articles, Photography, & Travel: http://www.bluewaterjon.com/

My new article in Marlin Magazine: Fishing Nicaragua

2009-09-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

I wrote a 2500 word travel destination feature for the October issue of Marlin Magazine called Nicaragua in High Style. It's about my trip to Nicaragua, one of the last great unexplored fishing frontiers in the Americas. You can view the whole article by clicking here for the pdf:
Fishing Nicaragua in High Style by Jon Schwartz, Marlin Magazine

I fished aboard the famous 67 Viking owned by Carlos Pellas, IGFA rep and owner of Flor de Cana Rum Company, stayed at a luxury marina, covered a tournament in San Juan Del Sur, and finished up the trip at Captain Lance Moss' Surfari Fishing Charters Lodge.
The October issue also has some great articles on the benefits of tagging marlin, how to pick the correct rods, and fishing Kenya.

My New Article in Sport Fishing Mag: Panama's Tropic Star Lodge

2009-09-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

I contribute to Sport Fishing Magazine, and they have a new article I wrote about fishing for monster black marlin at Panama's Tropic Star Lodge. Here it is: http://www.sportfishingmag.com/travel/destinations/tropic-stars-black-marlin--1000076333-page-1.html

They made an extensive gallery of my photos too, which you can view here: http://www.sportfishingmag.com/gallery/A-Few-Days-at-Tropic-Star-Lodge

That's the same epic location where I took the classic jumping shot of a black marlin that ended up on cover of Marlin Magazine's August issue. You can see that cover in a previous blog post and also in the gallery of my website.

I like the article and the extended gallery format because it showcases my writing and photography. As you know, in the print articles, they can only show a limited amount of photos, but these online galleries provide a forum for showcasing the diverse types of photography that I do- action, portrait, wildlife, scenic, and architectural shots.

September cover of Pacific Coast Sportfishing

2009-09-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

I took the above cover shot in Kona, Hawaii during the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament(HIBT). I had planned to stay there for two weeks, but the fishing just kept getting better so I extended my stay again, and again, and again! The full feature on the HIBT that I wrote will come out in next month's issue of Pacific Coast Sportfishing. I write a monthly column in there and also do travel destination articles for them, such as the one here I wrote about Guatemala's Casa Vieja Lodge http://www.bluewaterjon.com/article/article11.html

In any case, the action for blue marlin in Kona was so hot it was ridiculous! I was out on the water with different boats for about 20 of the 30 days I was there. Most days, we scored multiple blue marlin. I was able to accompany some well known Kona captains there and interview them for future articles, including Marlin Parker, Gene Vanderhoek, and Guy Terwilliger.

I also managed to score a bunch of super rare high quality underwater shots of spearfish, the rarest billfish in the world. The images led to another article that will appear in the future in Marlin Magazine. After that I hopped on the Kila Kila, captained by Teddy Hoogs, and we went out night fishing for big albacore and yellowfun tuna. "Albies" get over 70 pounds there. We got some great content that will appear in a night fishing feature I'm writing for Bluewater Boats and Sportfishing Magazine.

Right now I am really excited to pick up the new Marlin Mag issue. It should have a feature I wrote about fishing in Nicaragua (see below posts).

My shot made the cover of Marlin Magazine!!

2009-07-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

A shot I took is on the cover of Marlin Magazine. It's a photo of a black marlin that I took in Panama at the world famous Tropic Star Lodge. YAHOO!

Actually I am getting lucky with a lot of covers recently. If you want to see all of them, and also peek at some of my recent shots from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Cabo, and Kona, check out my gallery here: http://www.bluewaterjon.com/gallerybyjon.htm

If you see something you like, and you'd like to order original prints, please contact me through my website. I am also doing private shoots now for resorts, yacht owners, and anglers.

New article about my trip to Costa Rica's Crocodile Bay Lodge

2009-07-19T01:47:00.001-07:00

This winter I had the pleasure of visiting Costa Rica's famous Crocodile Bay Lodge. It's really an incredible resort, and home to some of the world's best fishing and ecotourism. I wrote a 2500 word article about my visit there in the latest issue of Destination Fish Magazine and you can read it here: Fishing in Costa Rica for Exotics: Crocodile Bay Lodge by Jon Schwartz It's the only place I know of where you can pull on sailfish, marlin, roosterfish, and dorado in the morning and get face time with exotic rainforest animals in the afternoon. I hope to bring my wife and kids there someday.