Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
As a Marine Surveyor I get to crawl around boats on pretty much a daily basis. For those of you that are not familiar with what a Marine Surveyor does, I will sum it up as simply as I can. Think of a Home Inspector, only on a boat. What I do is a little more in-depth, as boats have more systems than houses do and the structural portion of the inspection is much more detailed (after all, you don’t pick your house up and drop it five-feet, hundreds of times every time you use it). But for all intent and purposes I am an aquatic home inspector. I evaluate boats for prospective buyers, banks, insurance companies or any other interested party.
This past week, I was performing a survey for a client from the West Coast on a local Ocean City boat. The boat in question was a 31 Bertram. Any sport fish enthusiast will instantly recognize the 31 as one of, if not THE most iconic make and model boats ever made. The 31 was in production from 1961 to 1983, and then again for a limited “Silver Anniversary” in 1986. All told there were over two thousand built. The 31 is credited as the original “Deep V” hull configuration. The boat has a huge cockpit and is well known for its sea keeping abilities. They are a little wet riding and sometimes the engine box design makes for a somewhat noisy conversation when at cruising speed, but these two drawbacks are far outweighed by the positive attributes of these classics.
The 31s are always in demand and they enjoy an almost cult like following. The most famous fleet of 31s is located in the world renowned Tropic Star Lodge in Pinas Bay, Panama, but the 31 can be found just about anywhere there are pelagic fish to be pestered. In case you can’t tell, I am a bit of a fan of the 31. Needless to say, I was enjoying my day at work poking about such a legendary boat.
Jimmy Swagler, local fiberglass repairman extraordinaire, is also a 31 afishionado (yes I meant to spell it that way!!). He owns a beautifully restored 31 called “Swagger”. Jimmy and I often “talk 31s” when we are together so I gave him a call to let him know which boat I was surveying. Being the student of the game that he is, Jimmy gave me the history of this particular 31. I was surprised to learn that the boat has a strong Ocean City history dating back at least to the early 80s (maybe even earlier). I had known the boat for years under her current identity, but as it turns out I have known her all along. When I first met her she was called “Wet Whiskers” and was one of the prominent members of the charter fleet at the Talbot Street Pier. A captain by the name of Billy Lutch ran her back then. Billy moved away from Ocean City sometime in the 1990s. I always admired his sense of humor and held him in high regard as a captain. A true professional. One of the good things about technology and social media these days is that it keeps the world a very small place and Billy and I have stayed in touch on Facebook. I made sure to post a message on his wall and let him know that I had spent some time on his old ride.
By the following morning there were several posts from many generations of Ocean City fishing folk. Captain Jon Yost of the charterboat “Game On” talked about catching his first white marlin on the “Wet Whiskers” as a charter client of Billy’s. Jon went on to blame his lifelong bluewater addiction on that particular fish. Men that were larger than life to me as a little kid on the docks were sharing memories and ribbing each other about long forgotten shenanigans on that boat. And with guys like Capt. Coconut and Capt. Joey Miller involved I can guarantee they were epic shenanigans! Even Capt. Bob Kirwan chimed in with some old memories. It was fun to read.
My favorite memory of the “Wet Whiskers” came during the summer of 1986. Fishing was a little tough that season when it came to marlins. Especially by today’s standards. It was just an off year. I had only seen a few blue marlin up to that point in my life and I had yet to catch one as an angler or hook or land one as a mate. There was a group of us trolling down in the Washington Canyon and Billy hooked up to a BIG blue marlin. I forget how big the estimates were, but I remember seeing the fish jump and it was huge. The fish was hooked on a lure called a Brumby. A red and yellow Brumby to be exact. The battle was long and I think the marlin ultimately won the war, but I will always remember seeing that fish jump next to that 31 Bertram.
You might ask how I remember what lure that fish was hooked on over 30 years ago and why it would be so etched in my mind. Back in those days our trolling patterns were not as ballyhoo centric as they are these days. Most boats would fish a spread with a variety of natural baits such as eels, mullet, squid, mackerel, flying fish and of course ballyhoo. Also there would almost always be a lure or two mixed in. The old faithful lures like Green Machines or Cedar Plugs were the most popular, but other lures like Moldcraft Hookers or Bagley’s Headknockers were also widely used. Some guys even had top secret lures from Hawaii made by some guy named Bart…. And that summer there was the red and yellow Brumby. It wasn’t a very good looking lure. Just a yellow skirt inside of a red skirt with a small yellow chugger head in front of it. It had an okay action, but nothing special. That summer though, for whatever reason, there were a bunch of blue marlin hooked on it. The first one on the “Wet Whiskers”.
A few months later, eight of them to be exact, a certain kid put a red and yellow Brumby out on the left short rigger of the “Last Call” while trolling off of Islamorada, Florida on Easter Sunday. The mahi fishing had been good that day. I would imagine the captain was trolling towards home as it was late in the day. Then the left short rigger came down. That same kid picked up the rod and gave three or four fast cranks and came tight on a fish that made a blistering run on the surface. Twenty minutes later the fish came up greyhounding across the waves. A blue marlin! Not nearly as big as the one that came up jumping next to the “Wet Whiskers” eight months earlier, but it was a blue marlin nonetheless. A short while later a flying gaff was placed in the shoulder of the fish and it made the trip back to Holiday Isle Marina and the taxidermy shop. It also permanently earned the spot as my first blue marlin as a mate. I was 13.
I don’t know that I ever caught another billfish of any kind on a red and yellow Brumby. I can’t remember the last time I trolled one. To be honest, I just found it on the boat over the weekend, so at some point this summer, in honor of the memory of the old “Wet Whiskers”, I will put it out on the left short rigger and just forget about it for a while…
Capt Franky Pettolina is Co-Captain of the charter boat, “Last Call” which is docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center, owner of Pettolina Marine Surveying, Inc. and multi-term President of the Ocean City Marlin Club.
