Back in the early 1990s, famed sportfishing photographer Richard Gibson decided he wanted to add another dimension to his photography, an underwater one. “I thought I’d try my luck with underwater offshore photography, and the Yucatan Peninsula and its gin-clear waters seemed a natural place to begin,” says Gibson, who founded Hi-Seas Photography in 1980, kicking off a four-decade-plus career as a professional billfish shooter.

Gibson had become good friends with Captain Tony Davis, who annually ran a beautiful 54-foot G&S, the Anastasia, down in Cozumel. “While trolling across the channel to the mainland on a particularly calm morning, we hooked four blackfins, and I asked if I could jump in and shoot some images of these tuna,” Gibson tells. “In neutral, as I held the leader on one of these fish, camera pressed hard against my mask, I experienced a powerful swipe on the back of my right leg. Thinking I had drifted into the side of the boat, I came up to loud shouts from all aboard…SHARK! They quickly pulled me aboard, while a 500-plus-pound mako proceeded to eat the blackfin in seconds. I stood there bleeding on the deck, with all the hair and most of the skin on my back leg sanded off by that damn mako’s massive body. To this day, I’m still not sure why it didn’t bite me.”

Later that month, also underwater off Cozumel, a 350-plus-pound blue marlin attacked Gibson after the mate, for some reason, let go of the leader. The fish missed him by mere inches, its massive tail striking Gibson squarely in the chest with tremendous force. “In my final close underwater encounter, I was holding the leader onto what I thought was a worn-out sailfish,” he said. “That fish came back to life and speared me in the face, down into my skull, putting a hole the size of a dime in my upper lip, just under my facemask. I sure got the message then, and that was my last undersea photographic adventure!”

Growing Up Fishing

Gibson grew up in Pompano Beach, Florida, and started fishing at the age of 10. His family lived on a canal, and he spent nearly every day with a line in the water. His next-door neighbor owned a 28-foot Chris-Craft, the Dixie-Doodle, and together they fished out of Hillsboro Inlet. They went meat fishing, often bringing in tuna or dolphin. Gibson’s parents didn’t fish; it was entirely his own pursuit. It wasn’t long before fishing started to win out over studying, a sure sign of a budding passion. That early “nibble” would eventually grow into a lifelong love for the sport.

Photography soon followed as another calling. Gibson says he’s been taking still photos for as long as he can remember, and that’s saying something. While studying journalism at Morehead State University in Kentucky in the late 1970s, he worked as the photographer for the student newspaper, earning his first paid assignments behind the lens. The pay wasn’t much, but the experience sealed the deal on his future direction. Hard news and sports photography, he realized, was exactly where he wanted to be. After graduating in 1979, he started looking for a job.

“I went to every newspaper in the state of Florida looking for work,” Gibson said. “Unfortunately, positions were hard to come by, and I struck out every single time. That’s when a friend of mine in St. Thomas recommended that I come down there and try my luck with their newspaper. I called my mom to send me some resumes, instantly landed an interview, and got a full-time job working as a staff photographer at the Virgin Islands Daily News.“

The U.S. Virgin Islands Era

He worked for the newspaper for eight years, covering the annual blue marlin tournaments as part of his beat with an ever-growing love of the sport. It was a heady time for sportfishing in St. Thomas. Three years before, Larry Martin, also from Pompano Beach, caught a 1,282-pound blue marlin and set the all-tackle world record. That wasn’t the last of the granders from Virgin Islands waters.

“One of my favorite memories happened back in July 1982,” Gibson says. “While in the darkroom at the Daily News, I got a call to get down to Red Hook ASAP because a potential world record blue marlin was being brought in. So, I jumped into my VW Thing and zoomed to the island’s East End. Once there, I found Capt. Joe Lopez’s 43′ Merritt Prowess backing into the dock with what turned out to be Annette ‘Maudi’ Dallimore’s women’s 130-pound tackle world record blue marlin of 1,073 pounds. The only problem was that she had the 12-0 J-hook completely through her ankle. So, I followed her ambulance to the old St. Thomas hospital and then followed her back to the dock where they weighed her giant fish. That IGFA record stood for over three decades.”

Today, a replica of this fish is mounted on a specially built frame at the head of A dock at IGY’s American Yacht Harbor Marina. It was Gibson who initiated the project by asking Bill Dobbelaer, general manager of Gray Taxidermy at the time, to build Dallimore’s fish. The Pompano-based taxidermist took on the challenge and spent four months constructing a lifelike, life-size replica. Dallimore flew in from Australia on the eve of the 2011 USVI Open/Atlantic Blue Marlin Tournament for the unveiling, ankle scar still visible.

“The blue marlin fishing off St. Thomas in the 1980s and early ’90s was nothing short of spectacular,” recalls Gibson. In those days, only a handful of traveling boats made the summer journey from the mainland, tying up in Red Hook to fish around the full moons of July, August, and September. On the best days, the action was so steady that crews ran out of outrigger space to hang release flags.

Gibson quickly struck up friendships with local captains like Johnny Harms and Spike Herbert, many of whom fished the legendary North Drop year-round. Captain “Red” Bailey of the Abigail III often invited him to ride along, an opportunity Gibson never turned down, no matter how rough the seas. Out there, he learned two enduring lessons: “Saltwater always wins,” and “If it can fall, it will.” Fortunately, SLR (single lens reflex) cameras were relatively inexpensive on St. Thomas at the time. It was a good thing, since Gibson went through more than a few.

Focusing on a Moving Target

In those early days, what separated Gibson from other photographers was that he could, quite simply, focus. “Early professional SLR cameras, like my Canon F-1, were 100% manual everything, but my experience as a daily shooter for the Daily News sharpened my skills in so many ways,” he said. “This included being able to produce tack-sharp images of jumping blue marlin. The North Drop didn’t disappoint, offering ample jumping opportunities, which is also crucial. Tri-X ASA 400 (film speed value) black-and-white film was all I ever used, and man, did I abuse that film. But magazines required color images, so slide film was an absolute must. The problem was that all transparency film speeds had very slow ASA values. Kodak’s Kodachrome was it for me. But it, too, had a very slow speed, just 64, which made it challenging.

“Sharp focusing on hot and unpredictable fish like marlin was difficult enough, but you had to freeze that acrobatic fish,” Gibson continued. “That meant high shutter speeds, which were near impossible with the film speeds that slow. Luckily, Kodachrome 200 was soon released, which enabled shutter speeds of up to 1,000th of a second in bright light conditions. Today, if I can get it, using my digital ESO 1-D X, I shoot at 8,000th of a second.”

When the first auto-focus cameras came out in the mid-1980s, Gibson chose to continue to focus manually, as his right eye was faster and more reliable than the camera’s internal mechanisms. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that he started using auto-focus, and now says he can’t imagine not using this incredible feature. “It’s so accurate, it’s hard not to capture near-perfect billfish imagery,” he said. “And now mirrorless body cameras are here…. Wow.”

Shooting the Sportfishing World

Gibson left the Virgin Islands in 1985 to become managing editor of Tournament Digest magazine, a new publication devoted to covering billfish tournaments around the world. The role proved to be a turning point in his career. Demanding as it was, he thrived amid the fast-paced world of high-stakes sportfishing. The job opened doors to a globe-trotting adventure, taking him around the world twice, to nearly every destination where major offshore tournaments were held.

During this time, he caught his first blue marlin off Walkers’ Cay during the 1986 Bertram-Hatteras Shootout. Plus, he witnessed the virgin fishing off Flamingo, Costa Rica, before any American boats ever traveled there. Panama, Guatemala, Venezuela, Isla Mujeres and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, Belize, Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Mauritius, Ghana, West Africa, Hawaii, the entire Caribbean, the entire Gulf of Mexico, and up and down the U.S. east and west coasts from Ocean City, Maryland, to Catalina Island, California. If they had a tournament, Gibson was probably there.

“I shot color slide film,” he says. “I used Kodak Kodachrome and sometimes would travel to Target stores all over South Florida, especially in Deerfield Beach, which sold it. I waited until the day after the film expired and bought it for 75 percent of the original cost. I would often sit on bags of undeveloped film for six months at a time, waiting until I got home to have them developed. Then, sent them off to the publication via FedEx.”

A big advantage Gibson had while working at Tournament Digest was access to a new 54 Bertram, the Free Enterprise. The boat’s exceptional annual touring schedule, for which Gibson was fishing about 200 days a year during this circuit, included all the great billfish destinations of that time. The year started with the winter sailfish season off Palm Beach, Florida, then down to Cozumel, Mexico, in the spring, followed by the blue marlin full moon summer months in St. Thomas, and ending off the year in Venezuela each fall.

“In Venezuela, on the magnificent La Guairá Bank off Caraballeda, jumping billfish photo opportunities seemed endless,” Gibson says. “You could catch a Grand Slam more easily than in most locations. Several boats even caught a Fantasy Slam – blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish, spearfish, and swordfish in one day. Diesel fuel was five cents a gallon. You could fish all day for $100.”

Gibson and Free Enterprise Captain Randy Jendersee became buddies. Their friendship continues to this day. “Captain Randy would tolerate me,” Gibson said. “Fishing in St. Thomas and in Venezuela was rough most of the time. I often had to fish at the bridge to avoid salt water in the cockpit when backing down on fish. I would sometimes get in his way, but he allowed me to be there more than most captains. Also, Randy never believed that cameras were unlucky, which was a superstition in those days.”

Fishing alongside legendary captains, each with their own distinctive boats, crews, techniques, and hard-earned knowledge, has been a great honor, Gibson says. The list is an impressive Who’s Who: Captains Johnny Harms, Chip Shafer, Alex Adler, Dave Noling, Mike Benitez, Alan Card, Ross “Flash” Clark, Terry Robinson, Danny Hearn, Miguel Tirado, Mike Lemon, Laurie Woodbridge, Robert “Butch” Cox, Jimbo Thomas, “Champagne James” Roberts, Bubba Carter, Travis Butters, Ron Hamlin, Brad Philipps, Wink Doerzbacher, Jimmy Grant, Chris Sheeder, Laurie Wright, Ray Rosher, Mike “The Beak” Hurt, Skip Nielsen, Johnny LaGrone, Hayden Bell, Bouncer Smith, Brad Simonds, Peter Wright, and Dennis “Brazakka” Wallace, just to name a few.

Magazines and More

By this time, Gibson was selling his photographs to several magazines, including InTheBite. “I knew Dale Wills early on when InTheBite first began, so we became good friends,” he said. “We saw each other frequently in tournaments, boat shows, and ICAST. He sold ads, did the layout, and wrote stories. That’s what I did at Tournament Digest, which is why I understood how hard he worked. Dale’s a good guy in the business. InTheBite relates to the crews more than any other publication, and the crew members love it because of that.”

Gibson shot for many other publications as well, most notably, Marlin and Salt Water Sportsman. He became the most prolific cover photo contributor for Marlin by far, with his 50^th photo gracing the publication’s cover in early 2015. He says he’s closing in on 60 covers now.

Illustrating fishing magazines hasn’t always covered all of Gibson’s expenses, let alone the cost of cameras, lenses, and film, but the work has opened valuable doors within the sport. When attending major events such as the International Boat Shows and the annual ICAST Tackle Show, the magazines have introduced him to clients seeking high-quality visual works of their own.

“I’ve also produced hundreds of photos for all kinds of fishing tackle and boat catalogs, and had the pleasure to meet owners of great companies, including Mr. Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops and his Offshore Anglers brand and AFTCO’s energetic leader, Mr. Bill Shedd,” Gibson said. “Both men, whom I’m also very proud to call great friends, have helped and financed a big part of my life and still do.”

What’s next for Gibson, who calls Homestead, Florida, home? “I’ve been retired for a few years now, but I still keep up with the fishing scene through social media and communication with the friends I’ve made over the years,” he says. “But to be honest, I don’t know what the future holds. Hopefully, though, I’ll get to see the Miami Dolphins win another Super Bowl.”

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