Finding The Perfect Sportfishing Mate: What to Look For

Seeking the Perfect Sportfishing Mate

WANTED: In search of the ideal mate. Past partnerships haven’t quite hit the mark. I’m on the lookout for someone not too young, not too seasoned, who won’t break the bank and is adept in the cockpit. Loyalty is key—someone who won’t be tempted to abandon ship for the next glossy Rybovich docked nearby.

Is this some kind of joke? you might wonder, double-checking to ensure you haven’t strayed onto a dating advice column by mistake. Rest assured, you’re still with InTheBite, and yes, we’re still talking about fishing. Whether it’s a private boat, a charter operation, or a globetrotting sportfishing venture, the challenge of finding a dependable, skilled mate is more daunting than ever, yet it remains a crucial element of the sportfishing world.

The Integral Role of a Mate

As a sportfishing professional’s career progresses, the role of the mate becomes crucial. Typically, it’s the initial position where they learn to fish. A mate’s duties differ from vessel to vessel, yet they fundamentally encompass fishing, bait rigging, cleaning, and mastering the maintenance of the boat along with the operation of its numerous systems. Not so long ago, mates were expected to dedicate five to six years, sometimes even more, on a boat, absorbing every aspect of a sportfishing operation—before they ever took the helm.

The position of captain was always viewed as the pinnacle of the sport and one to be attained only after one gained all the knowledge he would need to run the operation. This knowledge base is no small sum since it includes everything from trip logistics, the ability to socialize professionally with the boss guests, provisioning, maintenance and boat handling, among many others. Learning all of these skills takes time and mistakes can literally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Becoming a captain requires the investment of time and dedication. This makes a lot of sense: after all, NASA doesn’t allow astronauts to step foot aboard a space shuttle, let alone drive the thing, until they have trained for many years.

Evolution of the Mate’s Responsibilities

And yet with all of the information available on the Internet today, the lure of becoming an overnight captain can be captivating. Add boat Facebook pages and video blogs”with crews whooping it up like drunken Indians after catching a sailfish”to resources like sea surface temperature charts and satellite-driven navigation, and the role of captain appears to be much less daunting than it once did. This perception, to put it bluntly, is just not true.

Captain Jack Plachter, a sportfishing professional for some 40-plus years, puts it simply, I have been absolutely blessed to work with some of the finest people in the cockpit my entire career, including the likes of Andy Moyes, Craig Coke and Patrick OConnell. You can always get a kid to learn. Now guys work in the cockpit for a year or two and all of a sudden they know everything about a boat. You can’t learn everything in a year or two. He continues by saying, The owner [who hires a new captain prematurely] may save a few bucks up front, but he pays for it in the long run. Mates now are not patient. These days, seven days on the computer and you can become a captain. It really a shame.

For some perspective, Plachter grew up on the Haulover and Baker docks in Miami. He began his career working on headboats before mating on charter boats. His tenure running his own boat as captain did not begin until after he returned from a stint in U.S. Coast Guard.

Veteran Captains on Finding Reliable Mates

Captain Tony DiGiulian, a longtime sportfishing professional who has worked in just about every facet of the industry, tells a similar tale. There is definitely a problem finding good mates, and it industry wide. Some of this can be attributed to the change in what is expected from a mate. Some operations bring quite a bit of their basic rigging to tackle shops. From rigging kites, spooling reels, splicing wind-ons and rigging lures, some operations make room in the budget to have this done externally. In the 1980s when I got started, the crew and the mates did all of this, right down to servicing the reels, DiGiulian explains.

In the early days of sportfishing, crews were expected to be self-sufficient. In those days, there was no such thing as an on-call diesel mechanic, ready to fly across the ocean to get things up and running at the drop of a hat. On the Tyson Pride, all the mates had to have a captain license to be able to help with watches or in case of an emergency, DiGiulian says. These days, you can be an ambulance driver on Monday and a charter boat captain on Friday. Ideally, however, a mate should put in four or five years before even thinking about moving up. Job longevity, keeping with the same program for two or three years, is another good thing to consider, DiGiulian continues.

Expert marlin wrangler and general sage Capt. Wade Richardson puts it another way: If you dont know how to fix it, you have no business running it.

Characteristics of a Good Mate

There are places where good mates tend to come from and there are also certain characteristics that define them. Knowing this can help in locating where a prospect might be and determining the likelihood of success before you commit the time and resources into training a new prospect for the cockpit.

Captain JoJo Joachmowski says, We talk about the lack of young mates every day. I think a lot of it has to do with the decreased number of charter boats caused by the economy. In many places the inshore charter is becoming a thing of the past. JoJo, who started on the back of a boat at age 15, says, Inshore charter boats teach a good baseline of skills and used to be a great starting place for someone wanting to become a mate. It can be hard find and train a young guy because owners want results now.

Plachter relates his experience about finding and training young mates. To get a start in the industry, everyone needs a foot in the door. And when youre first getting started, appearances matter, he reports. A young kid covered in piercings and tattoos with dyed hair might not sit well with owners and their guests. Once you get your break, it important to put your head down and work hard.

In Plachter mind, what separates a very good mate from an average guy are the following items. Desire is really important. To be a professional, you really have to want it. Youre never going to be rich or famous from fishing, you need the love for it and have the desire to work hard, he wisely explains. Drugs and alcohol are not as big a problem in the industry now as they may have been in the 70s or 80s but it important to keep the partying in moderation. The third pillar of Plachter recipe for a successful career as a mate is honesty. There are no shortcuts and no free rides. Some guys try to get ahead by padding bills or getting kickbacks from the boatyard. I dont believe in this, he concludes.

Tony DiGiulian offers a similar perspective. If a young guy is thinking about starting a career in sportfishing, it is important that they get as much education as possible. Learning skills such as writing and effective communication will be important to your career moving forward, he says. Once on board with a program, a mate should show the captain and crew that he willing to take the initiative to learn the electronics, the navigation systems and the engine room. DiGiulian concludes with, A good mate should be the first one on the boat in the morning and the last one off the boat at night.

So where can you go to find a good prospect for your next vacancy? Some of the best mates I have ever seen have come out of tackle shops, Plachter reports. This makes quite a bit of sense, as young guys working at tackle shops obviously enjoy fishing and have a direct avenue for learning the latest in rigging and fishing techniques. The skinny kid you see growing up on the dock today could be a world-traveling, fish-slaying beast tomorrow. Training a young mate from a distant location, when done correctly, can increase the talent in your cockpit and also make your nightly fishing stories more interesting (see the sidebar on Fishing Universities).

Creative Solutions in Mate Recruitment

Captain Anthony Lopez has operated the Lone Star Fishing Company out of Surfside, Texas, run charters on the Uno Mas, a 33-foot Americat, and maintained a vintage Bertram. As Lopez operation has had quite a few moving parts, a competent and devoted mate has been a must.

Enter Alyssa Lopez: five feet, six inches of red-haired, blue-eyed fishing machine. Alyssa is not only Anthony’s wife but has been his partner in business and fishing. But make no mistake, Alyssa is a highly skilled mate: maintaining the spread, rigging baits and not known to miss a gaff shot on a yellowfin or wahoo. Alyssa hadn’t fished offshore before we started dating, Lopez says. About the time we got married, I had the opportunity to start the charter business. Alyssa got exposed to the lifestyle and all that goes into it and having her willing to help out is a tremendous benefit.

Captain JoJo approach is equally inventive. Many of the good mates in our area have been scooped up by the traveling boats. Everybody wants to marlin fish, JoJo says. Our mate, Derryl ˜Sparky Scuse, is a farmer. He’s great. When the crops are in the ground, Sparky takes off to go fishing. In the fall and the spring, Sparky’s unavailable to fish. In these times of the year, we have a network of guys who run boats up here who can crew for a day or two when their own boats are not fishing. We all pitch in.

The Bottom Line

A skilled mate can be the difference between going 0-7 and 6-7 on blue marlin transforming what could be the worst day on the water into one of the best. Although searching for the perfect mate might seem like a script from a dating show, in the world of sportfishing, the right mate is synonymous with success.

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