A Lifetime of Winning

Winning tournaments is nothing new for Capt. Rob Mahoney. For the last six years, he has helmed the 60-foot Bayliss, Mama C, homeported in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the 51-foot Ricky Scarborough, Miss AC, in Los Sueños, for Chris Perry. The New Jersey native caught his first sailfish at age six with his uncle, Capt. Dave Graham. “That’s what gave me the fire and passion for this career,” says Mahoney, who now calls Manteo, North Carolina, home with his wife and two children. “The knowledge I gained from my uncle on boats and fishing over the years helped me get to where I am today.”

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Tournament Achievements: – Miss AC // 1,550 pts.

• Los Sueños Signature Triple Crown, Leg 1: 2nd Place – 300 pts.
• Los Sueños Signature Triple Crown, Leg 2: 1st Place – 500 pts.
• Los Sueños Signature Triple Crown, Leg 3: 1st Place – 500 pts.
• Los Sueños Signature Triple Crown Billfish Series: Champion – 250 pts.

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Early Achievements

Mahoney won his first tournament as a captain in 2010 aboard the 68-foot Hatteras, Blue Moon, releasing 85 sailfish in the two-day Island Time Fishing Festival in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. It’s a tally that still stands as a tournament record. He won it again in 2017, driving the 72-foot Viking, Sea I Sea, with 11 releases, ironically with the fewest-ever catches to take first place. In between, in 2014, Mahoney drove the Dream Time, an 80-foot Bayliss with John Bayliss in the angler’s chair, to clinch victory in the 2014 White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Maryland.

“That was a game-changer for me,” says Mahoney, who paid off his student loans from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in one keystroke. Since he got his boat captain’s license at age 18 and ran sportfishing boats during college, Mahoney thought, “If I was up in the sky and looking down at the ocean all the time, I knew I would ultimately be happier down there fishing than flying.”

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The Road to the Triple Crown

His top-of-the-leaderboard tournament placings continued. Mahoney won the Los Sueños Triple Crown Series Championship title in 2015 and 2018 while mating on John Bayliss’s 47-foot Scarborough, Tarheel. “I look at the Series as the nine days overall,” he says. “Of course, you want to fish well every day. You want to win each tournament. But I wanted to win that Series as a captain. I wanted to be on top at the end of the nine days.” He succeeded in 2024, despite such close fishing that the Miss AC moved up and down the scoreboard from first to third and back to first again on the last day of Leg 3. This championship title also earned Mahoney the Captain of the Year in the 2024 Release Marine International Division.

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Tournament Highlights

In Leg 1, Mahoney had his core group of anglers and mates on board the Miss AC: Anglers Chris Perry, Sean O’Donnell, Bubba Brizendine, and Wells Hula, with mates Tommy Farella, Andrey Lopez, William Howell, and Dave Dalfo on sonar. The team won one daily in each Series tournament, and on Leg 1, that came on day one with 32 sails. Day two added 25 sails and a blue marlin to keep Miss AC in the lead. On the third day, the Grand Slam led with 84 sails to Miss AC‘s 76 sails and a blue marlin for second place.

For Legs 2 and 3, Perry, Sean O’Donnell, Joe Dieffenbach, and Dan Pimental were the anglers with Mahoney’s same crew. The first day’s fishing was gangbusters, with over a dozen boats releasing 30 or more sails, including the Miss AC with 34, and on day two, another 37 sails released early. “We were on pace to potentially beat our 47 fish record on the Tarheel, but our fishing slowed up dramatically in the afternoon,” he says. However, the day’s catch was enough to hand Miss AC the daily. On day three, Mahoney headed west, found a few fish, and did an about-face to the east where the Fish Tank was fishing. The move scored Miss AC 86 tournament releases, with Fish Tank in second with 84. More importantly, Fish Tank was only seven releases behind Miss AC in the Series going into Leg 3.

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Sealing the Victory

Fish Tank closed the point gap on the first day, while Miss AC gained her points back on day two and pocketed the daily. After lunch on Day 3, the Fish Tank took off and steamed inshore. Mahoney followed and found such a good bite that Miss AC won the tournament and Series by a lead of 17 fish.

“I don’t keep my group in the loop on the score while fishing because I don’t want them to be nervous,” Mahoney said. “They can tell when we really need a fish, though, because my boat handling changes. It becomes more aggressive. But, about 2:30 p.m., I said, ‘Hey guys, we’ll be OK on the Series. Now I’m trying to win the tournament.’ Normally, we hook a fish, circle it, and try to hook more. But, because of the chance of losing or missing fish that way, we’d hook one, and I’d go back through the entire spread, and we’d get the release. Just picking them off one by one. Winning the Triple Crown Series as a captain is one of the biggest highlights of my career.”

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Looking Ahead

Mahoney and the Miss AC team will be back for the 2025 and 2026 Costa Rica seasons before taking a year off in 2027 to take delivery of a new 73-foot Duffie.

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