Bermuda – If you want one of the most passionate billfish captains in the game, look no further than Capt. James Robinson on the Wound Up. This was not our first time fishing with James, having fished with him a few year back. After all the salt and the sun, he is still at it and as strong as ever. Like all good captains we know, he never settles and thrives on the competition within Bermuda (which if you know the captains that fish these waters, it is intense).Capt. Robinson and mate Gethin Adderley were true professional fishermen, focusing on all the details that we should all do, but often don’t. Strike Drag, Hook Angle, Lure Position and we can go on an on. If the fish was going to strike, we were in the best position to get it, and we got her.

Only 10 minutes into setting our spread, our right long went into “rapid reverse” putting us to into a bit of cockpit craziness as we cleared lines. The only problem was our left long decided to go in reverse as well, leaving us with a double header. It was immediately clear from the initial jump, we had a big girl on our right long and a little one on our left. Perfect! We got the small fish in first, a White Marlin, knowing we needed to focus on the big girl who was now continuing to take drag. In fact, she ripped off a three quarters of the spool in her initial run. I was lucky enough to have my father in law out for his first Blue Marlin adventure and needless to say, he is now hooked. We had the typical back and forth with the fish, but within 45-Minutes, Gethin grabbed the leader for the release. We got her boatside to have a good look and we realized we had a fat one. Fat enough for Capt. James to call it 700 lbs. I will not put in the exact words we all used, but needless to say, this was a start to remember. First fish for my father in law, 10-Minutes into our troll and it was a 700 lbs. Bermudian Blue Marlin off a Double Header. Just does not get better than that!

We can’t promise you will get the big girl in Bermuda, but we can promise you that if she pops up into the spread Capt. James Robison on the Wound Up will be ready.

* I wanted to send a very special thanks to him indeed for taking a half day to get my two year old daughter her first fish, a Watford Bridge Barracuda.