Meet Capt. Gerard “Frothy” De Silva

Anyone who has released nearly 2,000 billfish and counting in their professional sportfishing career, must know what a prized catch likes to eat. Capt. Gerard “Frothy” De Silva certainly does. A native of the Caribbean Island of Trinidad, De Silva has operated his Pesca Grossa charter business in Madeira, Portugal, since 2008. He has tallied double-digit grander releases while fishing the globe from the Southern Caribbean and Venezuela, north in the Bahamas and Florida, and west to Costa Rica and Hawaii.

The Journey to Madeira, Portugal

In 2022, he entered the world of lure making on a path a bit different than most in his craft. His main concentration is creating bait-like designs for lure skirts. So far, his “A La Vive” line of skirts and lures has been catching fish and followers.

A Unique Approach to Lure Making

“My story is a little bit different because my first design was a skirt for marlin lures, not the lure itself,” De Silva said. “I’ve been using vinyl skirts for many years. They are a favorite among the Hawaiians, who are the best lure fishermen in the world. If you look at the top Hawaiian captains like Marlin Parker, Kevin Nakamura, Chip Van Mols, and Bomboy Llanes, for example, they all use vinyl. You jump on any proper charter boat in Kona, and they all opt to use vinyl skirts over the traditional rubber skirts. There are many reasons why, but the first and foremost is that the hookup with the vinyl skirts is quite a lot better.”

Why Vinyl Skirts for Sportfishing Lures?

Frothy set to work designing his new vinyl skirts. The name translates to “live bait,” a common term for live bait fishing in Trinidad. His goal was to create skirts that imitate real baitfish as much as possible. If you visit Frothy where his 30-foot custom-built Dorado, Pesca Grossa, is moored in the Calheta Marina in Madeira, you can see his first A La Vive skirt framed and dated January, 2023. It’s a skirt that replicates a golden mahi.

The Creation of A La Vive Skirts

“I worked with a graphic designer to come up with a pattern that would look realistic and would fit around the lures,” he said. “We printed eight skirts on vinyl, then worked in my garage to paint the back side and seal both sides with a waterproof sealer after the paint dried. Then I cut the legs and installed it on a lure. We made the prototype skirts in October, 2022. These were the first batch I tested. I only ran them for three days, then we hauled the boat until May 2023. That was when the real testing began. I fished with them for about 100 days in our 2023 Madeira season. The skirts proved to be exceptionally durable, and the colors did not fade.”

International Recognition and Impact

Frothy’s innovative skirts started getting international recognition right out of the gate.

In March 2023, the IGFA featured the A La Vive vinyl skirts in its new products. Frothy has long been an IGFA member, becoming the rep for Tobago, Trinidad’s sister island, in 1999, an IGFA certified captain and observer in 2017, and to this day serves as a member of the IGFA Rules Advisory Panel.

From Skirts to Lures: The Bacchanal

“A few lure makers like Andy Moyes, Marlin Magic, and Black Pete’s Billmark Platinum lure series have been using the A La Vive skirts,” said De Silva. “Also, tackle suppliers and retail stores such as Meltons Tackle, GZ Lures, EJW Outdoors, Captain Harry’s, and Salt H2O in the U.S., Pacific Rim in Kona, and Black Pete Quality Tackle in Australia have been using the skirts on many of the world’s top lure maker’s lures, such as Koya, Joe Yee, Marlin Magic, Coggin’s, Moyes and many other top brands.”

Testing and Success in the Field

With novel fish-catching skirts, it was only natural that Frothy looked next to creating a lure. “To be honest, I’m not skillful with my hands in terms of making lures,” he said. “My friend Ryan Williamson at Pulsator Lures, said many years ago to me, ‘Frothy, if you design a lure, if you come up with a design that you really like, we can manufacture it for you here in South Africa.’ Last year I called Ryan, and he introduced me to Matt Swemmer. He and I spent quite a few hours on the phone, sending photos back and forth, until we got it right. That’s how I developed and designed the heads for the new A La Vive series lures to match the skirts, and Pulsator makes them.”

Expanding the Lure Line: Pothound and Soucouyant

Frothy named his first lure the “Bacchanal,” which means “to behave unruly during a fete or mas (party)” in Trinidad. It’s a huge lure and looks twice its size in the water when pulled behind a boat. Frothy first started with the XL Bacchanal since Madeira, is a big fish area. The XL Bacchanal is definitely a big-fish lure.

“Believe it or not, the very first fish we hooked on it, I think it could have been a 1,000-pounder,” he said. “Unfortunately, the line broke. Since then, and in the last season, we picked up and I caught five blue marlin on the XL Bacchanal ranging from about 450- to 800-plus pounds. So, we had some very good results.”

He sent a few of the XL Bacchanal lures to fellow captains to test, including Capt. Carlos Linhares and his son Luis, who helms the Hi-Star 42, Scorpion, and 33-foot Pacemaker, Rabão, out of the Ponta Delgada, Azores. “They both had quite a bit of success in the Azores using the lures,” De Silva said. “They caught several marlin on them. Luis told me he was convinced one of them was 850 pounds or more.”

Frothy has since made a smaller size, the Large Bacchanal. He says this is the best to pull in places where the marlin run from 150 to 600 pounds. The two other lures in his line are the Pothound and Soucouyant. The Pothound is named from the Trinidadian word for stray dogs that comes running when cooking pots are banged together in hopes of a meal. The XL Pothound is the largest of the three lures. Frothy uses it mainly as a bridge teaser, but it can also be run with hooks in it on the short riggers. A Large Pothound can be run out on the long riggers as well.

The Soucouyant (“woman who changes into a ball of fire and flies at night to suck her victim’s blood” in Trinidadian), is Frothy’s adaptation of the popular Plunger Lure. His most noticeable changes are the shorter length and bigger face. The Soucouyant runs well in most sea conditions and can be pulled in any position from a flat line straight off the rod tip, to the long riggers or shotgun position. “They’re all quite new,” De Silva said. “I got my first sizable order of 200 lures in August and that’s 200 total of all three lures.”

The Future of A La Vive Skirts and Lures

Next up, it’s back to skirt work. Frothy is now working on a new mackerel pattern that has a lot more detail. If you look closely, you can see the scales, the fins, and the gills in the design. There’s more detail in the color too, all geared to ensuring the skirts look like baitfish. He makes mackerel skirts in green, blue, and purple. Each skirt is hand-painted and sealed on either side with a waterproof coat. They are all handmade by Frothy and one helper.

“It is good to have a variety of colors so you can match the lure heads,” he said. “More importantly, a school of mackerel usually has fish with different colors. Most tend to be green, but you will see shades of green, blue, and even purple. The contrast of the printed outside and the hand-painted inside creates a more lifelike look as they create light refractions that are normal when fish moves through the water and the sunlight hits it from different angles. My biggest mission is to make the skirts a lot better and more lifelike. This is just the first and second generation. Future generations will look and catch fish even better.”