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.

I recently had the opportunity to shoot the newest boat to leave the shed at Weaver Boatworks – 80′ Islamar.  This boat was going to be stopping in Palm Beach for a few days during it’s delivery to Puerto Rico for it’s new owner.  I caught up with it one day in the boat yard for some interior work.  And then the next morning offshore while Jim Weaver and the new owners took her out for a Marlin Magazine boat review.  What an amazing boat.  Weaver has again raised the bar for state of the art custom boatbuilding with this hull.  Here is a boat review piece I put together.  Thanks to Andy at Ocean Helicopters for the ride.

To see more still images of this incredible sport fisherman on my AquaPaparazzi.com photo web site, type “Weaver” in the keyword search box.

Some fish just are just destined for great things. All I have to do is find them in the viewfinder and let her eat. Take this White Marlin for example. I shot this fish while riding along with Capt. Butch on the boat Prime Time in the calm waters of the Mona Passage. We were based out of Cap Cana Resort in the Dominican Republic. His angler was only after one thing, White Marlin on the fly. Conditions were very pretty, just not many target species showed up in the spread. We raised a handful of Whites that week and got a few to bite. Even less stayed on the hook. Seemed dismal at the time. However, looking back this one fish made it all worthwhile. Teased well, ate the fly like a champ, and then stayed on top and jumped all over the ocean. I got a bunch of shots of this fish in the air, and a few of them looked like they would have a future. Now several years later, the demand meets the supply.

This July/August 2011 Sport Fishing Magazine cover was shot early in the battle while the fish was still a rigger length away – F8 1/1000th iso 160 in bright sun.

Then about three minutes later in the battle, when the distance closed, the jumps were still going on. This August/September 2011 Marlin Magazine cover was shot just under the rigger – f8 1/1200th iso 200.

The April/May issue of Marlin Mag has hit the street. This issue features an Atlantic Sailfish flipping around in the wash behind the charter boat Pelican in the waters off Isla Mujeres. This cover photo is cropped pretty heavy to isolate just the fish and it’s flared dorsal fin. What you don’t see is mate Josh on the wire and Capt. Arch at the wheel on that breezy February day. The fish were on top that morning and Arch put his anglers in some great action until the bait disappeared and we switched back to trolling.

This is one of those rare moments when I find myself on the other side of the view finder. While shooting Giant Bluefin in the cool waters of the North Atlantic recently, I was offered the chance to jump in the chair and dust off my angling skills. Let me tell you, all these years of chasing billfish and thinking that 30lbs of drag was heavy … well that gets put in a new perspective in this fishery. Thanks to Brad Simonds for picking up my camera and catching this on film.

Marlin mag’s latest issue hit the news stands this week. Their choice for a cover photo always interest me and this issue is no exception. They chose the first frame in a sequence I captured last summer while riding along with Capt. Butch aboard the Prime Time in St. Thomas. Clearly this first frame is the best choice, since the composition goes south as the fish flattens out during the second half of the jump. To see the entire motor drive sequence, click the image above to start the movie. This shows that you don’t need all the bells and whistles in a fancy digital camera motor drive, you could shoot this sport with a single shot. What do you think?

The North Drop in the British Virgin Islands gives up another cover photo. This months shot came while I was riding along on a familiar platform, the 58′ Revenge Custom Yacht. It’s kinda rare that I get to film a lure caught fish any more with most every team pitch baiting every opportunity. So I really welcomed this bite and was delighted that it stayed on and then jumped in range of my camera. Many thanks to Sam and Jon for the ride, and always grateful to Mike, Dean, and Ryan for letting me run around their office and do my thing. The only bad part of this cover photo is that when this magazine issue was going to print, someone dropped the ball and put the wrong photo credit on the title page. So this lovely creature is misidentified as a Black Marlin and the photo is credited to some other chap.

The fishing this Fall along the Mid Atlantic coast proved to be some of the best White Marlin fishing the area has seen in many years. Just when many indications showed the White Marlin population was in dire straights, they bite like crazy in incredible numbers. I sure hope it doesn’t cause anyone or any group to give up on the need for continued efforts to conserve or protect these animals. If you’ve been fortunate enough to fish a good White Marlin bite when it’s going down, I think you’ll agree that it is truly something special. When the boys at Marlin Magazine called to tell me about a whitey piece that Charles Perry sent in, I didn’t hesitate to bounce a few keepers off their screens. Lucky for me they were hoping to make this the main feature of the issue and even selected one of my shots to lead it off. This cover capture was from a seven day shoot I spent aboard the Prime Time with Capt. Butch Cox. If there is a nicer, talented, or more accommodating host to fish with, I have yet to meet that person. My thanks to Butch and his crew, along with angler Joe Zimmer, for the opportunity to bring it home. Image 1471-023 shot at 1/1000 @ f5.6.

The November issue of Marlin Mag is out and it’s a nice one. This small St. Thomas fish ate a circle hook pitch Bonita behind the Revenge and jumped all over the ocean. This was the last day of a long stretch for Sam, Jon, and the boys during the August moon. And what a stretch it was, having just won the Boy Scout Tournament for best boat and best angler days before. Thank you for another great day on the North Drop.