Catch of a Lifetime : Fly-Fishing Experts Tackle Game Fish in Mexican Waters and Return With 10 Possible World Records

Terry Gunn knew it wasn’t the usual kind of fly-fishing when the big wahoo came at him through the air like a missile.

“The attack wahoo,” is how Gunn described it. “Their teeth are razor sharp. We were fly-fishing for fish that can hurt you. You don’t normally think about that.”

Gunn, who runs a guide service at Lee’s Ferry on the Colorado River, was one of 16 expert fly anglers rounded up by sportsmen’s show promoter Ed Rice to target saltwater fly rod world records on a long-range tour of Mexican waters out of San Diego this month. They returned with 10, plus five lesser catches that also topped tippet (leader)-class records listed by the International Game Fish Assn.

Nick Curcione of Santa Monica called it the trip of a lifetime.

Between the bountiful El Nino fishing and the expertise on board, Rice said: “The worst day of fishing out there was probably better than most people ever see in their lifetimes.”

The records, including three each by reel maker Steve Abel of Camarillo and Ray Beadle of Los Gatos, were for wahoo, black and blue skipjack and yellowfin tuna taken on tippets testing from four to 20 pounds--the extreme light end of the usual saltwater tackle. They will be submitted to the IGFA for recognition. Rice thought it might have been the most records ever collected on a long-range trip, fly rod or otherwise, but it might be only the beginning.

Saltwater fly-fishing is a relatively young sport--most of the records were set in the 1980s--and until recently it was restricted to day trips from the East Coast or warm-water locales around the world. Abel tested the idea of taking it long range when he organized a similar trip on a smaller scale last year.

Both trips were aboard Frank LoPreste’s 92-foot Royal Star, which took the anglers 500 miles south of San Diego for 10 days. They fished from the boat as well as outboard-powered 14-foot Avon inflatable skiffs, sometimes ranging out as far as 10 miles from the mother ship into yellowfin tuna boils that Abel described as being “like a storm surf hitting a reef.”

True to their ethic, the fly anglers used nets instead of gaffs whenever possible and released 90% of their catches--except injured fish, potential records and “some the cook wanted for dinner,” Abel said.

“When the fly-fishing and light-tackle world understands what this is all about, it’s going to create an entire new fishery,” Rice said. “This is kind of the last frontier in fly-fishing.”

Besides that, Abel said: “It proved to some of the big names in fly-fishing that this is a real sport.”

Some of the records might have been “soft,” but none was vacant. Fly rod records for other saltwater species are even more attractive--most of the tippet-class records for California halibut, striped marlin and white sea bass and all the records for Pacific blue marlin and swordfish remain unclaimed.

Stu Apte holds four records for wahoo, sailfish and dorado, including the two oldest saltwater fly rod records dating to 1964 and ‘65, but he had never experienced fishing quite like it. “I didn’t even know what a long-range trip was,” said Apte, a retired Navy carrier and Pan-Am pilot who lives in Gallatin Gateway, Mont.

Retrieving his fly one day, Apte was startled to see a a wahoo pursue it clear over the boat.

“When that fish leaped, the line went flying out of my guides, took a big wrap around the first guide and broke off,” Apte said. “That is etched in my mind ‘till the day I die.”

Wendy Hanvold, who works with Gunn at Marble Canyon, Ariz., commanded the respect of her colleagues, especially for her 42.6-pound wahoo on 12-pound tippet that broke a record held by Apte.

“I’d much prefer to see her with that record than me,” Apte said. “It was an eye-opener to see a young lady that could cast like that and had the heart to fight these fish hard.”

Hanvold, the only female angler on the trip, is 5 feet 4 and 115 pounds. Her size wouldn’t matter if she were fishing freshwater for trout, but it could be a handicap at sea.

“The fish are real strong and you’re using big rods,” she said. “As far as stamina goes, the guys will land a lot more of those fish than I can. It’s not like being on a freshwater stream where you’re casting out whatever those fish are eating when (an insect) hatch is coming off.”

There were new techniques to learn. Fly reels are geared one-to-one, so line is retrieved by hand, a technique called stripping. The test of the reels was when the fish ran.

“With the wahoo, we thought we’d have to do a real fast strip because wahoo is the fastest fish in in the ocean,” Hanvold said.

Instead, she and the others soon realized what longtime saltwater fly anglers Apte and Curcione already knew: First, you must get the wahoo to the boat by trailing heavy boat lines with big lures.

“What happens,” Abel said, “is that wahoo come into a school of bait and rip and tear and stun a bunch of fish, then come back around and pick ‘em up. So you tease ‘em to the boat. You’re trolling, but when a wahoo hits, you yell and they shut the engines off and you can legally cast with fly rods. Then you pull these wahoo in and the other wahoo come with ‘em. Then we throw chum, and that keeps ‘em around for a while.”

Hanvold’s record was the first wahoo she hooked.

“Unreal,” she said. “When I hooked into that fish, it was gone. Frank LoPreste looked at me and looked at my reel and yelled at one of the skiffs. I had to jump off the big boat onto the skiff (to pursue the fish). There were a couple of times when I almost got pulled overboard.”

Fly anglers, unlike bass fishermen, generally disdain competition.

Apte said: “I think it was somewhat competitive among some of the anglers, and that was unfortunate. When we got into species with a lot of (record) categories open, a few wanted to jump in there and fish.”

Abel: “It does get a little competitive when you’re shoulder to shoulder like that. On this trip were some of the most famous fly-fishermen in the world. Most of us couldn’t care less about world records, but it gets you notoriety. That’s important if you plan on making money out of this business.”

Curcione: “There is competition for records, believe me. The public gauges a person’s credibility by the records he has.”

Hanvold: “I don’t want this ever to be a competitive sport, but women have as much a place in it as men do.”

It can also be a handful for the most experienced men, such as Gunn.

“When you’re lifting your fly out of the water, you never want to lift it toward you,” he said. “Steve (Abel) and I were standing next to each other. I was starting to strip my fly back and I’m going to lift it up to make sure my leader isn’t damaged. Just then this wahoo comes out of the water about 10 feet away, straight at me like a rocket. He’s after my fly. I jump back but Steve doesn’t realize what’s happening yet. He looks around just in time to see the wahoo hit the gunwale two inches below the rail.”

Abel said, “(I thought) he was coming right through the rail at my thigh.”

“And it still grabbed my fly,” Gunn said. “I would almost swear it was the same one Steve caught 15 seconds later that weighed 64.1 (pounds)--his new world record. I had him on for about two seconds.”

Gunn said this kind of fly-fishing doesn’t require much skill.

“By utilizing the chum, you don’t need to cast very far or accurately,” he said. “Saltwater fly-fishing has never really caught on the West Coast, but this is opening a whole new door.”

Possible World Records

THE FOLLOWING CATCHES ARE PENDING APPROVAL BY INTERNATIONAL GAME FISH ASSN.

Angler (Hometown) Catch Steve Abel (Camarillo) 64.1-pound wahoo 54.7-pound wahoo 14.8-pound black skipjack tuna *Stu Apte (Gallatin 38.0-pound wahoo Gateway, Mont.) Ray Beadle (Los Gatos) 13.4-pound black skipjack 12.3-pound black skipjack 12.6-pound blue skipjack tuna *Dan Byford (Bakersfield) 37.2-pound wahoo 33.4-pound yellowfin tuna Trey Combs (Seattle) 12.4-pound black skipjack Wendy Hanvold (Marble 42.6-pound wahoo Canyon, Ariz.) *Tony Oswald (Pine, 53.1-pound wahoo Colo.) *Ralph Parker 13.2-pound black skipjack (Denver, Colo.) *Ed Rice 51-pound wahoo (Vancouver, Wash.) Mike Wolverton 13.6-pound black skipjack (Silver Creek, Ida.)

Angler (Hometown) Caught With Steve Abel (Camarillo) 20-pound tippet 16-pound tippet 16-pound tippet *Stu Apte (Gallatin 12-pound tippet Gateway, Mont.) Ray Beadle (Los Gatos) 20-pound tippet 4-pound tippet 20-pound tippet *Dan Byford (Bakersfield) 12-pound tippet 12-pound tippet Trey Combs (Seattle) 8-pound tippet Wendy Hanvold (Marble 12-pound tippet Canyon, Ariz.) *Tony Oswald (Pine, 20-pound tippet Colo.) *Ralph Parker 16-pound tippet (Denver, Colo.) *Ed Rice 16-pound tippet (Vancouver, Wash.) Mike Wolverton 12-pound tippet (Silver Creek, Ida.)

* Betters existing record but exceeded by other catch.