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

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

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



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

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

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?

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

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!

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:

To see more stories about Jon fishing with kids click here and here. Also, believe it or not one time I was able to arrange a free fishing trip for a family of a returning Iraq War Vet. His son was my student and you can read about that trip here.