The July moon is ramping up and so is the fishing.  With 10-15 boats fishing the North Drop each day, the number of marlin bites has been increasing each day for the fleet.  One or two bites per boat turned into 2 releases per boat yesterday.  A mild tropical wave is rolling thru today ahead of the start of 50th annual July Open Billfish Tournament this weekend.  Stay tuned for a fishing report.

I might have a little spray on the lens after this catch.

A calm jumper on the leader.

The bite.  What can I say, the bite on the pitch bait is what it’s all about.

Some rainy day time spent in front of the computer this morning and I came up with this. This sequence comes from the Venezuela archive and was always a favorite of mine. It was taken just after sunset on a very gray and cloudy day. This late in the day the ISO gets cranked up and the shutter speed rolls down and I usually cross my fingers too. Everything came together with this fish as I prefocused on the distance I thought we had to go and hoped the flash batteries could keep up if I got lucky. It all came together with this sequence and I was reminded to never give up when the light fades and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Marlin Mag just leaked this photo on FaceBook.  The next cover has been selected and is off to the printer.  I shot this jumper while covering the USVI July Open earlier this summer.  This fish is one caught by Sarge aboard the Black Gold that helped his team win the tournament again this year.  Also pretty cool sepia treatment to the background splash.

Just back from a shoot in the Virgin Islands for the custom lure company Canyon Gear.  We chartered the Paul Mann boat  “Alina” with Capt. Butch Cox at the helm.  The weather was great,but the fishing was slow.  This 2012 summer has been an off season for the North Drop and this trend continued this week.  Nobody fishing this week saw many fish.  However, every fish we raised to our spread of Canyon Gear lures and teasers, ended up down and tight.  100% hookup ratio!  Check out these incredible lures and have Canyon Gear build you a few just the way you want.

Here we are on the North Drop, in the waters off the British Virgin Islands.  This 90″ clip is the final moments of a catch and release.  It’s performed by a team who have caught plenty of fish, and do it as well as anyone on the drop.

If you are unable to view this video by clicking on the photo below, try this link to Vimeo.

It’s that time of year already.  Summer time in the caribbean and The Virgin Islands Game Fish Club is gearing up for their annual event – The 49th annual July Open Billfish Tournament.  This world class event is always a blast and the fishing on the North Drop on the July moon can be fantastic.  I’m flying down early to do some pre fishing and then will be covering the event start to finish.  Hope to see you there.

UPDATE:  I’m back from another great event!  Nine boats signed up to fish and the weather was calm.  The bite could have been better, but a good time was had by all.  In the end, Black Gold won with five blue marlin releases and one white marlin.  To see all of the photos from this event, click on the tournament logo below.

Here’s to being in the right spot at the right time. Thank you Capt. Mike.

I finally had another opportunity to ride along with my friends on the Mojito, and I even brought some luck this time. The mini movie below shows a glimpse of the North Drop action that Pico, Tito, and Aileen showed me. Thanks for the ride!

The F/V Revenge does it again. Captain Mike, Dean, and Ryan along with Sam and Jon angling have once again shown the fleet that they rule the drop with an eleven fish boat win in the Boy Scout Tournament.  Sam released six fish and Jon had five.  This gave Sam enough points for second place angler behind Chach angler Damon Chouest.  They had some very good competition this time with the Gulf Rascal finishing second with ten, and the Chach in third with ten also based on time.  Reports are that it was a real close finishing day with several lead swaps in the final few hours.  Congrats boys!

The July Moon is rising and I’m headed down island. I’ve been hired to shoot the Virgin Islands Game Fishing Club’s 48th annual July Open Billfish Tournament. This should be a blast. The July Open is always a great event with plenty of Blue Marlin bites for all the boats. The July moon in St. Thomas can produce some spectacular fishing and if it’s anything like last year, some very big fish. If you can’t make it down there in person, I’ll be posting updates here for all to see.