Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
Tournaments, tournaments, tournaments. Here we are, halfway through the season and at the height of the Ocean City tournament season. This issue is chock full of pictures from the Big Fish Classic and everyone is gearing up for the Heels and Reels, Capt. Steve Harman’s Poor Girls Open, and of course the biggest of them all, The White Marlin Open!
The first tournament I ever fished was the White Marlin Open in 1984. I was almost 11-years-old. It was the second season for our charter boat, “Last Call” in Ocean City. We were tied up in the old White Marlin Marina, back before the condos were built. My dad’s co-captain (and my second dad) was Jay Champlin. Jay’s son, Blaine, was my best fishing buddy. He was listed as an angler too. I think he was 8. My mom, Maddie, rounded out our trio of anglers. The mate on the boat was a fellow by the name of Rick Garrett. He was fairly new to the business then, but went on to become an accomplished captain himself. Anyway, that was our team, and it was my first time in “The Big One”!!!
Back in those days, tournaments followed the International Game Fish Association angling rules more closely than they do today. There was no such thing as “hook and hand.” What this means is that neither the captain nor the mate could hook the fish for the angler. When a fish came to the bait, it was the responsibility of the angler to hook the fish as well as crank it in. And as everyone knows, white marlin are one of the trickiest fish in the ocean to hook. I always liken them to a cat chasing a toy on a string. It may follow it for a while and then pounce, or maybe act indifferent to the chewy mouse, or in this case ballyhoo, and then attack with ferocity. Or maybe just come right up and grab it and take off with it.
If you have ever tried to hook a white marlin, you know exactly what I am talking about. You see the fish come up behind the bait. At least you hope you see it before it grabs the bait. At this point, the reel needs to be in freespool to allow whitey to take the bait in its yap and swim away with it. You need to have enough thumb pressure to keep the line from creating a backlash on the spool, but not so much that the fish feels you and spooks away from the bait. As the great Captain Chip Shaeffer once told me, “If you can feel him, he can feel you!” I think air pressure between your thumb and the line is all you need. After you judge the amount of time for the marlin to have turned and swallowed the bait, it is time to engage the drag and crank down tight on the fish. In today’s era of circle hooks, you now raise the rod tip and see if you have him. Back in the days of J-hooks (like we were using in the 80s) you had to jerk the rod a few times to drive the hook home and hopefully you didn’t miss the fish. If you did not come tight, and still had some bait on your hook, you tried again, as long as the fish gave you another chance.
So there I was, almost 11-years-old, fishing in the biggest tournament in the world. I wish I could have read the paragraph I just typed back then. I wish I would have met Capt. Chip Shaeffer earlier to hear his advice. Don’t get me wrong, Capt. Jay and Rick offered plenty of advice, but hindsight being what it is, I now know that the idea “if you can feel him, he can feel you” is probably the most important thing to know when hooking white marlin. So there I was with Blaine and my Mom, and fishing was pretty slow on the first day.
For everybody but us!
On the first day of the tournament we raised a bunch of white marlin. I forget the exact count, but I know the first number in the final tally of fish hooked was zero, 0 for a bunch. I cranked when I should have free spooled. Free spooled when I shouldn’t have, and backlashed most times I free spooled. I would be remiss if I did not give credit where it is due - Blaine was no better than me. At one point, he tried to feed a large Spanish mackerel to a not-so-large white marlin. The bait became fouled sideways and Blaine got into the fighting chair and thought he had the marlin hooked. All he wound in was a screwed up mackerel. After several hours of this circus show, Capt. Jay left the cockpit and went up to the bridge and pushed my dad out of the way at the helm. He put the boat in neutral and yelled at my father to, “Take every last $&#?ing dollar you have on this boat and throw it in the water! We are wasting our time! These kids can’t hook their own….” Well you get the picture. Blaine and I definitely got the picture. We went into the cabin and cried. Yup both of us.
After the first day, Blaine and I were no longer allowed to be in the cockpit. Thankfully, my mom, Maddie did better than we did. There were no winning marlin hauled on to the “Last Call” that week, but Maddie did catch a few. Capt. Jay eventually forgave Blaine and me, but not until after we learned to hook a white marlin! I am pretty sure that came a year or two later! Both the hooking and the forgiving.
I will always remember my first White Marlin Open, and the look on my Dad’s face when Jay told him to throw the money in the water. I will always remember crying with my buddy Blaine in the cabin. We laugh about it to this day. That was my first White Marlin Open and I haven’t missed one since - missed an Open that is. Lord knows I have missed plenty of marlin since then.
Good luck to everyone fishing the upcoming tournaments and congratulations to everyone that has had tournament success so far this year. Hopefully you don’t have to cry or throw any money overboard!
Oh yeah, speaking of money. I have been told that the “Little Franky in his Skivvies Fund” for the Ocean City Reef Foundation has over 200 smackeroos in it. We are getting closer to the goal, so pony-up some money people!!! For those of you that are unaware. At such a time as $500 (or more) is donated to the OC Reef Foundation, Larry said that he will run a picture of a much younger and less hairy me, in my skivvies, holding the first fish I ever caught. Just makes you want to grab your check book doesn’t it!!!
Capt. Franky Pettolina is Co-Captain of the charter boat, “Last Call” and President of the Ocean City Marlin Club.
