When/Where/Who started your Offshore Fishing Addiction

[Cowboy]

I have fished and hunted most of my life but my first Bluefin Tuna off VA with a buddy Rick Tshudy (current mate on the Marli in OC) on his 20 foot starcraft was the start of my salt water addiction. I have spent the last 28 years since that day fishing offshore for anything and everything on any vessel that would do the job (sometimes they would not do the job but we went anyway guess that was the young and dumb days) I can't remember a bad day out there, some where alot better than others but no bad days, lets here your stories.

[homewrecker]

I started about 20 some years ago out of OC with an older friend of mine Ernie Sullivan.He started out with a 20' Sea Ox with a 150 Johnson and a kicker motor laying on a blanket in the bow,cant say I have done things that crazy in a while.He eventually bought a 32' center console that the current owner has been a factor in the Shark tourny's out of OC for the last few years"JEZEBEL".I met Ken Antkowiak through Ernie and we fished out of Wachapreague for a few years,Ken helped us alot more than we helped him,but an awesome friendship was formed between all of us.At the time Ken had a 23' mako walkaround and then a 26' Mako center console both with twins.I had a 23' Robalo center console and then a 25' Mako center console with twins.Ernie has since retired from offshore boat ownership[Wise Man]and Ken and I have moved up to twin diesel sportfishers that we play the game on.OOOHHH the memories!!!

[Randy Stinchcomb]

...it was 1968 wth my Dad (Stew) at Ships Cafe Marina, OCMD the boat was a 1960(?) @32' Chris Craft named Ramoa.....then Dad bought a 1972 31' Bertram and we moved up to the White Marlin Marina.....when Dad wasn't around, my mentor back then was Captian Dave Hazard of the "High Hopes" another 31' Bertram which was docked right next to us.....

[ocnslr]

A friend took us offshore from VaBch in his 28 Carolina Classic in June 2003.

Cathy caught her first tuna (a 25# YFT) and the rest is history...

[Caveman Sportfishing]

I saw two giant bluefin tuna come back to the dock over 1000 lbs in Pt. Judith, RI in the early 70's and that was it for me. My dad and I had a 22 Mako and with friends started going out to the Butterfish Hole with fresh Whiting supplied to us by the commerical fleet and was hooked on it every since. We were using old Penn big Black Reels with dacron line and chasing them down from the front of the Mako but never got one. This was before I knew about stand-up fishing and it was a killer on the old broomstick rods but we had no rod holders in front of the boat. All the guys that caught them back then fought the GBT out of chairs on much bigger boats than our 22 Mako. We should have stuck to what we did well and that was striper fish.
I used to go to Cabo in the late fall in the ealry 80's to fishf or Wahoo- Dolphin from the Gorda Banks on Pango's and that really got be into offshore fishing. We also had a few great days on Black Marlin fishing from downtown Cabo when it had dirt streets and $.10 bottles of Corona Beer and real cheap shots of 15I proof tequila and other very inexpensive goodies. It was 3000 Pesos to the American Dollar and a few dollars went a long way down there back then. Fished Rancho Bena Vista also back when it was a real isolated fishing village. All this led to my interest in offshore fishing and when I married my wife who lived in Philly at the time but we ended up moving to the NJ shore and got our first boat and we hooked on offshore fishing within a few years.

[Canyon Runner]

From Day 1 - or should I say from prior to birth. I was conceived on a boat.

Started fishing as soon as I could hold a rod in my hand for snappers behind my grandfathers house in Bay Head. Fished every Sunday on my Dad's boats from age 4 on for fluke. First tuna by age 7 - trolling bluefin at Little Italy with Capt. Clint Dunham of the Barb Gail II.

[Trojan Joe]

Grandfather would take me flounder fishing in the Indian River Bay as a kid. Some of the greatest memories still. After he passed away, and a few years later purchased a brand new 20 ft W/A with a 175 Merc. to take my kids flounder fishing. Then a friend (who had offshore equipment but no boat) asked if I would take him out sharking. Got a 160 # Mako on the first offshore (25 nm)trip. Than went out and got a nice Bluefin on the 2nd trip and have been hooked ever since. Bought the 32 Trojan to make the trips more comfortable for the family.

[clt_capt]

My addiction started with a 20" trout at 3 years old, But my first pelagic was a wahoo off of Marathon - It don't get much better than that.

[gottaflylee]

Wow, I think the first time I thought about off shore fishing must have been 5 or 6 about 1958 ...sitting in the back of my neighbors boat, Clark James, in Masonboro Inlet, falling tide and we were catching 5 to 6 pound Bluefish, looking out toward the "Big Pond" thinking about what must be out there. I know I must have driven him crazy with questions but he kept take in me even though I would get sick off and on. Next couple of years found me in Bruce Cameron's dads boat or Chris Stones dads boat in the surf chasing Blues or catching Spanish Mackerel. After that it was Kings and Dolphin and then I saw my first Sailfish...scared the crap out of me at the time, it was so big, or at least I thought it was at the time, I was maybe 10 I think.
Funny how when we were young things looked big, I swear my grandfather was 8 feet tall...he is mainly reasonable for my fishing addiction but not the offshore part.
After that I got into deep sea diving, by now I was into collage, and worked for Under Water Sales and Engineering, working as a mate, diver's tender, dive master and captain. Back then we would run out to WR4, about 26 miles from Masonboro Inlet, in about 90' of water. Their was a 90 minuet interval between dives with nothing to do, so I started fishing off the bow, catching Barracuda, Sails and much more...that was it, I was ruined for life and been chasseing it all since then...

[SAXIS ISLANDER]

Never forget my first exposure to the offshore world. Working for a local paper, hopped aboard Paige Linton's 20 foot Parker sporting a 150 Yami for our first offshore trip. We were loaded with those old red and white Penn "drum" rods with wooden handles and an odd assortment of the biggest Penn reels we could find. Made our way to 26 mile hill in late June. Handles were popping off in the rod holders as tuna after tuna bit our feathered offerings. Our wooden handled gaff broke on what looked like a 100 # BFT. Returned to the dock at 12:30 with four nice mahi, three fat YFT's, a 22 pound king mack and a new offshore addiction. After growing up crabbing on the Bay the oceanic world was wild and untamed as compared to the years spent on the Pocomoke Sound. Each time we poke her nose past the inlet that feeling of not knowing what lies ahead is very enticing.

Look at those old black and whites I took that day and laugh about how unprepared we were and think about what a good time we had that day.