This transcription is from the Fishonted Podcast.   Transcriptions can be a little hard to read because we tend to speak differently then we write.   

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Ted: Hello. This is Ted Johnson with the Fishonted podcast and it is our distinct pleasure to have Michael Potts of the BlueFin IV Charter Vessel from Montauk New York on the line with us today. Michael, are you there? 

 

Michael: Yes. How you doin’?

 

Ted: Good. How are you?

 

Michael: Great.

 

Ted: Terrific. We’re recording this just at the middle of May and it’s just kind of the beginning of your season. Are you ready to go or have you been taking people out already, Michael?

 

Michael: Yeah. We’ve had a few trips. Cod fishing was kinda slow so we were slowing down but we’re just trying to catch other species now.

 

Ted: Terrific, terrific. Well, Michael, when you and I first started talking a number of months ago, you mentioned that you were from Montauk, New York. I was scratching my head at that time. Now, I know where New York, New York is. I know where Albany is but I had no idea where Montauk is. Can you give us an idea of where you fish out of and how in the world you got into this business? I think that’s a great place to start.

 

Michael: Sure. Well, Montauk is at the eastern tip of Long Island, about a hundred and twenty miles of Long Island which sticks that far out of the city of New York, you know, calling it Manhattan. A lot of people and the rest of the country or the world don’t realize how far out into the ocean we are. You know, when they say New York, they visualize skyscrapers etcetera. And although there’s fishing around that area, we are very rural out here, a small town almost like you saw in the movie “Jaws”, you know our county is very much like that. Yeah, the nearest stoplight for me is, I don’t know, 50 miles. Yeah, although there is traffic but that’s how far the stoplight is. So actually, I was born into the business. Yeah, the sport fishing has been a commercial and a sport in this county for a long time. To whatever degree I say initially, we use to push boats off the beach and then there was whaling in the area and it branched off into everything else. And anyway, if you, you know, if you believe in the phrase it’s in your blood, then that’s how I got into it it’s in my blood. As I grew up, I was involved with my family’s business and it turned out to be, that’s what I wanted to do.

 

Ted: No kidding. Now was your family into commercial fishing business or also doing sports fishing?

 

Michael: Well, here it’s mostly a blend of the two. You have a boat and you either take people out for hire or you go out and take fish and sell them. You use your boat to make a living in whatever way you can.

 

Ted: Oh God, okay. Well, that makes sense. You’ve seen some changes there over the years, haven’t you?

 

Michael: Yeah we can talk about the changes for hours and they seem to be accelerating. Everything is accelerating with climate change. However you believe or don’t believe in it, things are changing and not all of them makes sense if you, you know, it’s the global warming but whatever it is, it’s definitely changed.

 

Ted: Yeah. Oh yeah, I’ll be darn. Now your fishing vessel the Bluefin IV, my understanding that’s a really special boat in the area where you fish. Is that right?

 

Michael: Yeah. It was built for another charter fishing family. Went into service in 1970. The captain that was running the boat in the family was aging and when he passed away, we were lucky enough to get it. It was designed by an engineer who knew the local waters. The waters are different in different parts of the world and there are different kinds of boats in different areas of the world. This one leads in the type of the sea that we have here very comfortably.

 

Ted: Now is the boat, metal or is it fiberglass? What’s it constructed of?

 

Michael: Well the original construction was just mahogany planking over old frames and since then I’ve glued but I don’t know what it was in the early 2000s, I glued marine plywood, cleaned the whole bottom, glued marine, epoxied marine plywood to the bottom and covered it with fiberglass and epoxy clay, epoxy and fiberglass clay rather, sorry.

 

Ted: Wow, sounds pretty sturdy.

 

Michael: Yeah, very strong. Yup.

 

Ted: Now what type of fishing do you do out of Montauk, Michael? I know today we’re gonna talk on and focus in on the shark fishing that you do but are there other types of fish that you catch out of Montauk?

 

Michael: Yeah. In order to run a successful business, you have to and I like the variety too. We catch everything from small flat fish like flounder and fluke which, I mean I have customers that enjoy all different kinds of fishing. Some like big ones, some like little ones. People who like big ones don’t like little ones etcetera etcetera. Anyway, smaller ones, fluke, flounder then you got porgies which we quite got mostly yesterday, seabass season opens up soon, blue fish, we caught a few of them, striped bass we caught a few of them, I’m going in terms of increasing size generally, cod and then soon, sharks and tuna will sell out/

 

Ted: Okay, okay. I’ll be darn. Now when you’re fishing during the season Michael, I would imagine or I am assuming here that when you’re fishing for shark and tuna you’re off shore, but are you involved in any of the inshore fisheries?

 

Michael: Right, well the generally the smaller fish are generally inshore and the larger fish are generally offshore. Right so, on some days we may do some of both. It usually is better to concentrate on one of the other. If the customer definitely wants something to take home to eat, we make a couple of, spend a little bit of time looking for a striped bass or a blue fish or something like that so they have, they are guaranteed to have something to take home to eat cause when we’re shark fishing, it’s mostly catch and release unless we were to get a good eating one

 

Ted: Okay, well that makes sense. Well, now…

 

Michael: Well, if you don’t mind me saying, we’re allowed one shark per boat per day and there’s a variety of size so it’s depending on the kind of shark. Only a few of them are really good eating.

 

Ted: Right, I was gonna ask you about if there were slot limits on that. With regard to sharks Michael, what species of sharks are you catching these days?

 

Michael: Well, no question about it, the most predominant shark in the northwestern Atlantic is the blue shark and we very rarely kill a blue shark. We catch them on as light as tackle as possible, enjoy the fight, get them up to the boat and release them. And ah, that’s the story. They are pretty, most of them fight pretty hard and get to be 250 lbs. Yeah, some are small, 50 to 100 or so, if we see them around the boat we get them on a spinning ride or light ride or something. But the bigger ones fall pretty hard and we let them go.

 

Ted: Wow, really. I envision, I’ve seen a lot of TV shows on shark fishing and that sort of thing. Of Montauk, is there a certain way that you fish for those? I mean do you chum for them? What are the techniques that you use?

 

Michael: Right well, without going into other methods, the most effective one is to drift and put out a chum slick. We can get into it later into what, and how I pick an area to fish but basically, you stop the boat and we have both fresh fish and frozen chum that when you put in the water and it dissolves and leaves a trail behind the boat as the boat drifts along and then you enhance that with pieces of fresh fish etcetera and, yup.

 

Ted: Wow that sounds exciting! In regards to the trips that you’ve taken and that sort of thing, what’s the typical trip or maybe an exciting one that you’ve taken recently?

 

Michael: Well, several, I have many exciting stories that come to my mind but I particularly like this one shark fishing story. I have a family charter me. It was a father and five sons. It’s rare enough to begin with. This happened to be that they were interested in a tournament so we’re fishing in a tournament setting which means that you cannot use any guns because generally if you’re gonna kill something to eat it, we shoot it because it’s by far the safest thing to do. We do very little shooting but if we’re gonna eat it, that’s by far the safest. However in a tournament, none of that stuff can come around and you have to gaff it. So I had the father and these five sons and we caught and released a couple of average sharks and then a good size mako came around the boat. And sometimes you see the fish you’re gonna hook and sometimes you don’t. In this case we did, we hooked this good-sized mako so one of the brothers is fighting it and it’s jumping around. It looks like about 400 lbs. So we decided, we talked about how we’re gonna land this thing. With a fish that size, it’s best if I stay at the wheel and maneuver the boat and the mate litters the fish, if nobody’s capable on the boat, he would get the leader up and I would come down and gaff  it but I had a bunch of capable sons on the boat. By the way, the family, they were in age of, I would have to say 15-25 years old something like that.

 

Ted:  Strapping 13:30 young kids huh?

 

Michael:  Yeah, they were all in good shape. So we decided that it would be best if two of the brothers man two gaffs . Here’s the story behind the two brothers, one brother was in one of the branches of the military and he also was a boxer in the military and he was a champion along the lines of golden gloves whatever they had in the military. And he was going to be in one of the gaffs. The other brother who was going to be on the side of the gaff looked virtually the same. He was in great shape as well but he was, he had an office job. He was on some sort of finance or management or something like that. So anyway he was on the other gaff. And I guess it was just outside of an hour that the mako came up on top and he was cruising along and I, one way to land them is to fool the shark into thinking everything’s okay and sneak up on him. So we had pressure on the shark and I’m maneuvering the boat towards him and he was on top so we’re going the same direction and we discussed what was gonna happen that if everything in this case worked out, I’d come up to the boat, the mate would grab the leader but he doesn’t pull hard he just kind of controls the leader and we just bring the fish alongside the boat before he knows what’s going on and one brother plants the gaff in the head and the other brother would plant the gaff wherever he could near the tail and we just hang on. Right, because they are called flying gaffs. Once the gaff goes into the shark and it will be head of the gaff releases from the handle and it’s on a line tied to the boat.

 

Ted: Oh got it, okay.

 

Michael: That’s what a flying gaff is. So we’re edging up on this shark. Everything went to plan perfectly. The mate grabbed the leader. The shark did not really, was not really concerned that the boat was close. The mate grabbed the litter, eased the shark within range and both brothers reached over and I gaffed them perfectly and we got it under control and everything. Hang on one second, we got it under control and everything and we ended up being, I think it was 396 lbs and we won that tournament.

 

Ted: Oh really?

 

Michael: Anyway, I didn’t get to the good part of the story actually. That was all background because it’s ah, alright.

 

Ted:  it’s like Paul Harvey Here’s the rest of the story, right?

 

Michael: Yeah, back at the dock, there’s an awards dinner and during a quiet time at the awards dinner, the family is there, the five sons, the father and the mother and I’m sitting and my wife is at the table and then we’re talking about how it went down. The two brothers described their experience so the one who was in the military and the boxer says he heard me tell him how I thought this was gonna happen and he was standing ready for the gaff and the shark was, you know, we were edging in to the shark and he said it seemed like it took forever. He was waiting and waiting and waiting and the shark, we edged the boat closer, the mate cut the line and he waited and waited and waited and then he got the gaff in it. The other brother who was the office guy said he heard the instructions from me, saw the shark and it happened so fast, the boat came up to which he was barely ready, barely got the gaff into it. These two brothers, the exact same experience because of their backgrounds seeing the exact same event totally differently.

 

Ted: No kidding.

 

Michael: Yup, the boxer because he’s used to things happening so fast, guys coming at you, tucking punches or whatever, for him it was in slow mo. For the other brother with almost the same genes but just a different lifestyle, it was in like fast forward.

 

Ted: That’s amazing.

 

Michael: That story resonates in my mind anytime I have families and brothers and stuff on the boat and I tell them that story.

 

Ted: Everybody has their own unique experience. That’s interesting. So you had this mate litter the boat what do you say, an hour before you got in the boat to gaff in?

 

Michael: Yeah, that’s quite common. Oh yeah with about an hour. It’s, depending on the size of the fish, when you go to gap it, land it rather, it’s preferable if a fish, a large fish is somewhat tied out before you try to land him for safety purposes.

 

Ted: Right, right. Wow, no kidding. So in most cases, when you’re not in a tournament, you’ll need to shoot them at that point and then bring them on board, is that what you do?

 

Michael: Yeah, it’s much safer. If we wanted to eat it, it’s pretty big, it’s around a size where, depending on the clients on board, they might consider it, actually it’s too big to eat. I mean it’s  a bull but they might say, ‘Yeah let’s just wait for a little smaller one, better eating. We really don’t need it, we will just release it unharmed. But if we wanted to eat it, we would’ve shot it, much safer than, I mean we would’ve shot it and then ‘gaffed it. And it would’ve been, usually, I shoot it once, hit the spine, and there’s a lot of blood. Then we ‘gaff it and then it hardly moves. That’s by far safer than being tied to a 400 pounds of thrashing muscle.

 

Ted: Oh, absolutely. And people don’t realize how dangerous that is. I brought in Halibut in the boat a number of times when we were in that 250 range. And although they do not have the teeth and the snarl if you may have a shark, they’ve got that great big old tail and it’ll break your leg faster than you can shake a stick. It’s quite an event when you bring a fish into the boat that size, isn’t it?

 

Michael: Right. Well, even if you don’t bring it in the boat, you know, when you keep it in the water that’s when we have it secured and it may not be dead, but it’s at least secured usually by the tail. It’s not so much the teeth as it is the muscle thrashing around and lots of people have gotten hurt, lost fingers, without getting bit. Those that have gotten bit by landing a shark stupidly put their hands in the mouth or around the mouth which is a total error and has nothing to do with really how dangerous landing a big shark should be. It’s the muscle involved, not so much the teeth.

 

Ted: You know one of the things that you mentioned in that story that is really interesting to me is that all the coordination of you and your mate and the guests on board, when you hook something that big, it sounds like you’re strategizing that whole hour before you even get into the boat, huh?

 

Michael: Oh yeah, that’s one reason. One reason I like shark fishing is, oh there’s two, one is having the boat engine is off, it’s quiet, we talk. Trolling  naturally the boat engine is on, there’s noise, and it’s not as easy to talk. Here we’re talking and you move about. Also, when a fish like that, almost everybody in the boat is involved. Somebody is shooting video, maybe a couple of people are shooting video. Others are getting stuff out of the way, moving the rods that were not used, getting them out of the way. Getting any of the bait that we were using to attract the sharks, getting that out of the way, etcetera. So everybody is, it’s a team effort. Really two people can do it, but if you have 3 or 4, I would have to say in this situation, not including anybody video-ing, 4 people is perfect. You know, one, myself running the boat, the guy fighting the fish, well actually 5, the mate to the leader, and then two ‘gaff people.

 

Ted: What a great experience for a group of fishing buddies or in the case you shared a family. They are gonna remember that for a lifetime, aren’t they?

 

Michael: I hope so.

 

Ted: Yeah, no kidding. So in regards to fishing for shark off Of Montauk, are there different seasons that you go out? When is the best time to go catch a shark 

 

Michael: Okay, well, they could start showing up any day now. They have been caught around memorial day weekend. If there’s a pocket of warm water offshore that has broken off from the gulf stream. And when I say warm, just warmer, because it can be too warm as well. But I haven’t heard of any yet. But generally I start fishing around the middle of June, that’s when I recommend a charter for them to start taking out. If somebody actually, for this weekend, I’d tell them ‘if you really wanna do it, we’ll try it but I really recommend a little later.”

 

Ted: You mentioned earlier in the conversation about some sharks being good to eat and some not being good to eat. Is that because of the seasons? Are they not good to eat as a certain type of shark during this certain time of the year or how does that play out?

 

Michael: Well, I would have to say that all sharks are edible. Around the world, different peoples who are, I don’t want to use the word desperate, but it’s part of their diet will eat sharks that we consider less desirable. They have ways of cooking them that might be complicated to make them more desirable. I can’t really think of a way to relate it to common food, but anyway, different species of sharks have different levels of eating qualities for the following reasons: first of all, there’s a huge misunderstanding, not by everybody on the face of the earth but a lot of people in the world, that sharks do not have a urinary system and they urinate out through their meat and skin. It couldn’t be any farther from the truth. What it is is, all living animals have salt in their cells. It’s a balance, it’s an important salt of a variety of types (sodium chloride, potassium chloride, etc) are all important for life’s function. Sharks happen to have a higher concentration of urea in their cells than a lot of other animals and different sharks have higher concentrations of it and less of other salt than other sharks do. That’s why when a shark is killed, some of that urea gets converted to ammonia, and that’s why that strong smell and taste envolves . The sharks that have less of that in their system are primarily in the mackerel, they’re called mackerel sharks and that is for being white sharks, thresher sharks, Porbeagle, Mako, and others related to them wherein they have lesser concentration of that in their body at any of time. Also, how you handle it when you catch one, decreases the amount that’s in their system. If you catch a shark and bleed it, immediately a lot of that gets bled out in the blood and out of the meat and they’re generally considered excellent eating.

 

Ted: Oh, really? Okay. So in your case, in your area, what are the sharks that are good to eat, we mentioned Mako and I think catch thresher sharks there, don’t you?

 

Michael: Right. Mako and thresher are the two commonly caught  ones here. We don’t get so many Porbeagles, those will be good eating too. Small sandbar sharks or commonly called brown sharks. I would have to go, let’s call that B quality. They’re utilized up and down the coast for food as well. And somewhat, hammerheads. And once again they have to be taken care of, not too big, kept fresh iced and all that. And the rest of them are more difficult to make them taste good but they are edible.

 

Ted: Got it. Now, one of the things that your circle of friends noted you as is an amateur chef and I’ve seen some of the dishes you’ve prepared. What species of shark do you enjoy cooking more than the others.

 

Michael: The Mako, for sure. Mako and small threshers. And how we, my circle of family, actually prefer rather than grilling up the Mako which is fine, we like it ceviche. Mako makes an excellent ceviche and just the right consistency. It doesn’t disintegrate with a citric acid that is used, it doesn’t disintegrate and it’s not too tough.

 

Ted: Now for those listeners that don’t quite understand what ceviche is, and I’m assuming it’s the same type of ceviche that you get quite down in Mexico and South America where you cure the fish basically with lime, and tomatoes, and onions and that sort of thing, is that the way you prepare it?

 

Michael: Yeah. The citric acid in the fruits that you use, actually is a chemical cooking process. Let’s make it extremely simple: you squeeze a lemon and you put dish in it, it actually chemically cooks. It breaks down the toughest cells or the toughest membranes in it and it’s not like heat cooking and actually you can overcook it even. If you leave it in too long, it actually can be overcooked and it can get mushy and its not good for eating as what’s in it in there for the appropriate amount of time. And there’s a zillion different recipes for ceviche and how they would say cook grouper, I’m gonna use the phrase cook, make ceviche with grouper down south is not exactly the same as how we would handle say Mako up here but it’s very, very similar. The basic principles are similar. 

 

Ted: Right. Right. Interesting. I’m gonna have to try that. I’ve had shark steaks a couple of times and I’ve really enjoyed that and I would imagine, we eat a lot of Marlin where I live and it probably has the same texture of it and it did, at least the steaks that I had. So, Michael, that story about the family on the boat was fascinating and you’ve been fishing for many, many years through sharks out of Montauk, are there any other stories that come to mind that you can share with us?

 

Michael: Yeah, I have bunch of them but here’s another interesting shark story. We had, a group of guys that fished with me many times, they since have moved away to different parts of the country and I haven’t seen them in a couple of years. Their favorite was sharks because they like to pet something big and some of them had their own light tackle. And they like to catch a bigger shark on the lightest tackle as they possibly can. And on one trip, we were actually chumming for sharks, it was a couple of tuna around. We had caught at least 1 ‘50 pound tuna  I believe, so we had something for dinner for them. One of the guys in the group had hooked about 300-pound blue shark on, I think it was around 12-pounds.

 

Ted: Wow! 12-pound, really?

 

Michael: Yeah, and he’d been fighting it for 5 or 10 minutes and he had a bunch of line out there and a huge Mako came around the boat and we hooked that one on what we consider our most standard shark tackle which is all stand up equipment, meaning you don’t sit in the chair. It’s a soft tip rod that bends at the tip, and it’s meant to be fought in a belly gimbal and a shoulder harness if necessary which if you’re gonna be fighting. So, anyway, one guy is fighting this shark and this huge Mako swims up, comes around the boat. We ended up catching it, they wanted to kill it, and they brought it home to eat it. It ended ubeing 613 pounds.

 

Ted: Good Lord!

 

Michael: Yeah, it’s not the largest one I ever caught, it’s up there though. I have two over 700. Anyhow, it comes around the boat, we hook it on what I consider standard shark tackle which the reelers call a 50, it’s the size of the reel. And I have 80-pound test  on my 50 . And it’s still a good fight, and we hook this thing and it runs off, and it’s jumping around, and I tell them ‘we really should cut the other shark off and fight this big fish!’ And the guy that’s fighting it on a light tackle says ‘I don’t wanna cut! I don’t wanna cut this one off’ And I’m like ‘well we have to concentrate!’ Everybody else on the boat wants to concentrate on the big one, on the big shark, I guess there were 4 of them on the boat, something like that. So, we’re backing up chasing this 600-pounder around and the guy fighting the blue shark ends up or his shark goes out the other way so he’s up on the bow, fighting his blue shark which was pretty big but it’s going the other direction. He has very good tackle. He had very, very advanced tackle, a lot of brand new line on the reel, a lot of line. So, I’m like I really can’t worry about it. And the 600-pounder was especially tough one and I believe it took about an hour and 20 minutes. And we got him up to the boat, about an hour and 20 minutes and we got him and we tied him up. And the guy up on the bow is going, ‘I’m still fighting mine!’ And this is after we had chased the one at the back of the boat for, I don’t know, probably half a mile to a mile of maneuvering around, and ignoring the guy on the boat fighting another large shark on light tackle. Then, anyway, he was still fighting his fish, never saw the fight of the really big one because this was going off in the other direction. So, he finally got his shark up to the boat and then we took some pictures and released that one. That was pretty interesting that I said, ‘let’s cut it off.’

 

Ted: Wow! Double on. That’s incredible!

 

Michael: Yeah. That’s quite common. Normally, if we have Mako and two blue sharks out at the same time, we just fight them both and deal with it and more than likely we release them both. But when we have one that’s a higher priority than the other, we know we’re gonna release the blue shark anyhow, and a big Mako on the other line, you generally don’t want them interfering and you would just cut the line of the less important shark. And concentrate on the more important shark.

 

Ted: Wow. Wow, that’s amazing! So the question Bares there is, I mean, you got this 600 pound Mako in the boat, how many pounds of fillets do they get on for steaks? Do they get off of a 600 pound Mako? Sounds like you’re filling freezers at that point.

 

Michael: Yeah. Probably, nearly 500 pounds.

 

Ted: My god!

 

Michael: Let me put it this way. Over 400. Because the fish is almost all muscle. Almost no bones. They’re just a jaw bone. The whole rest of a shark is just cartilage. And a fish that size, it’s just the meat consistency gets grainy. It’s akin to, let’s say, going out in the field and harvesting a I-don’t-know-how-old cattle live. But if they live to 30 years old, harvesting a 25 year old bull and having that for dinner. It still might taste okay but it’s very tough and it’s gonna require a specialized handling to make it palatable.

 

Ted: Right, right.

 

Michael: But people insists and now I’m taking big ones home. Like, okay. I explain it to them before we kill it. As of late, we’ve been releasing more of the largest ones. And killing less of the largest ones. And hoping for medium sized that are better eating.

 

Ted: Right, right.

 

Michael: I know, for the last year, we released a thressure . I’m estimating around 600. The family was shooting videos on their phone but they never really got it. So I don;t have any video documentation of that. It’s just memories. To the father and mother, and 2 sons. One of them fought it and it was a great battle but they have lousy phones. So everything that they shoot is a blurry mess.

 

Ted: Yeah. So how far offshore are you typically fishing for shark?

 

Michael: They keep coming relatively as we talked about were not on the air but sharks have been tracked swimming up rivers and things like that. Most effective fishing is where the deep water starts. It’s off of Montauk. It’s about 7 miles to the first drop off from a hundred, to a  hundred and eighty feet. Out of that area also there’s a water change generally between the what is centrally called the inshore water and offshore water. Where the inshore water is colder and greener and offshore water is a little warmer and bluer. So anyway, although that line generally speaking, 7 to 10 miles out, you could run east and west and that’ll put you further from land. We can run say, down east for a variety of reasons. And we might be 25 miles out or 15 or 12. But often we stay around that inshore, offshore line.

 

Ted: Yeah. So you, at that distance, you’re still within what, maybe an hour? Of our run time to get to where you’re gonna fish?

 

Michael: Sometimes that close, yes.

 

Ted: Yeah, wow. So what’s a typical day in the water? How many hours do you take people out for Michael and what time of the day do you take off and come back? Just give us an idea of a shark fishing trip.

 

Michael: Well, we have many different kinds of trip when we’re going for say, smaller species like stray bass and bluefish. We’re out there for about 5 hours. But shark fishing you’re gonna be out for a day for a variety of reasons. When we’re going for smaller ones, smaller fish, we can often stop and catch them right away, whereas, shark fishing is a time investment thing when you’rechumming, you might not catch something right away. They have to wait a couple of hours before they get something going. That’s why they need the day. So for an average shark, they have to do something of the following: leave the dock at about 5:30 in the morning, stop around the lighthouse and catch some fresh fish to enhance our frozen fish stock of bait and chum, generally speaking, we’re looking for some bluefish. Possibly Mackerel, porgies, could be a variety of things, it would be nice to get a striped bass or two good eating fish that the customers used to take home and eat. Anyhow, we would do that and then we head off anywhere from , like I said, sometimes as close as 7 miles to more commonly 12-20 and set up a chum slick, and fish tell depends on how far are we in, what kind of result we’ve had. I’ve fished from anywhere to 1:30 to 2:30 or so and head her home. And generally head back around 4:30.

 

Ted: Wow. That’s a full day then. And it sounds as though, if people want to set up a trip with you, they’d probably spent the night before or maybe the night afterwards. They get out of Montauk, they’re coming from, let’s say, New York or places there about.

 

Michael: Yep. People do it both ways. Some either leave really early and drive out. Some leave like the night before. They take a nap waiting at the dock and take a nap in the car. Others grab a place to stay for a couple nights.

 

Ted: Uh-huh. The BluefinIV from what I’ve seen, you know, the vessel. I mean, it’s a comfortable boat. You’re not like sitting on a cooler in the back of the boat getting sprayed. You’re under a nice, warm cabin and relaxed. And as you’re motoring out or motoring back in, right?

 

Michael: Yeah. We have a couple of chairs outside. I’m lucky enough that one reason we bought the boat, the entire gunnel area around the outside is basically, is a perfect fit for a chair. Not too rough to sit on the side of the boat as well. It’s flat, there’s no lift. I like that design. I don’t know why there aren’t more like it. 

 

Ted: Yeah. Now..

 

Michael: Besides the plenty of room inside.

 

Ted: How many people can you fish on a typical charter day?

 

Michael: Well, there’s a licensing. The Department of Transportation which the coast guard is underneath. We’re in the six passenger category. That’s the dividing line. To carry a 7th person is an entire different set of regulations. They’re complicated. Some people like to do that ‘cause naturally they get more money. And so, we carry 6. And how many are actually fishing depends on what we’re doing. Shark fishing, there’s a lot of standing around and waiting. We try to involve people in attracting the fish process, so I really can’t say how many are actually doing something in that given time.

 

Ted: And you run a true charter? It isn’t like a walk on boat where you’re fishing with other people you don’t know. People charter the entire vessel for the day, right?

 

Michael. Right. Especially for shark fishing. I do bottom fishing trips where we put together what’s called split with this 2 or 3 people with me, 2 or 3 other people to put a trip together and they might not know each other but that’s generally for smaller to medium-sized fish. Sea bass, cod, blackfish, things like that. It’s not a predominant part of my business, but it is one of the slices of the pie. But for the trophy size fish, generally a group that comes out of anywhere, 2-6 people, well actually 4 or 5 being the common number, and they bring whoever they want and everybody on the boat knows everybody else on the boat. I mean their friends and family or like that.

 

Ted: Right, very good. And it looked like you shared some photos with me that you enjoy fishing families and kids also. Maybe not all on the shark trips, but on some of the other shorter trips that you do.

 

Michael: Yeah. Well, even on the sharks I’ve had 5 or 6 year olds catch a hundred pounder. It’s not easy but we used tackle and we help them hold the rod. It’s not strictly IGFA rules or anything but it really doesn’t matter. Or if we really get a big one, the adults fight the fish but the youngsters enjoy being part of the experience. Now we have plenty of youngsters down to, I don’t know what the youngest is. Anyway, 3, 4, 5 year olds. I have pictures of them. We help them catch a striped bass. Not that easy but we work it out. Some of them like bottom fishing where, virtually on their own they catch 2, 3, 4 pound porgies sea bass.

 

Ted: That’s awesome. I share the story a lot. That in your profession being a charter boat captain, when it comes down to creating memories and what people think about in their life as they go back and reflect. They may think about some of the business fields that they’ve done. Or some other things that they’ve done in life. You know, You put somebody on a 600 pound Mako or even a hundred pound blue shark when their 6 years old and that’s a memory that you, as the  captain that that person for a lifetime. They probably will never forget your name. So I must commend you for really providing a great service for people in this kinda crazy world that we live in.

 

Michael: Yeah. A great experience is part of a younger person’s life experiences.

 

Ted: You bet. You bet. Somebody wants to contact you, Michael and talk about a shark fishing trip or another type of charter that they would like to go on and how to arrange it and come out and fish with you. How do they do that?

 

Michael: Well, I can be contacted by phone or text in the following number, 6316804800. My website, the name of my boat is BluefinIV, which is B-l-u-e-f-i-n-I-V. We used roman numerals on the number boats. BluefinIV is the website nicely design by Ted. And now you can click on the email address if you want to contact me by email.

 

Ted: Very good. And in regards to your calendar coming up for the 2019 season, 2020 season after that, I know you run a very popular boat. So people need to get a hold of you probably sooner than later they know what you’re schedule is, right?

 

Michael. Yeah. I have a bunch of days booked. But there’s still some opening.

 

Ted: Very good. How does the 2019 season look so far in your eyes

 

Michael: I have an average amount of bookings. It;’s really hard to say. Either you have some openings in your calendar at this time of the year and they fill up as time goes on. Yeah, you really can’t say how the year’s gonna pan out until it’s over. I’ve always had enough charters. We just hope for no breakdowns or any major expenses. That’s all. That’s the difference between a good year and a bad year rather than the number of charters. 

 

Ted: Yeah. How does the fishing forecast look in the year?

 

Michael: I’ll tell you after the year’s over. It’s hard to say. There’s fish swimming around out there. We don’t know what species is gonna be more of, and what species is gonna be less of. They vary in sizes in the year. And there’ll be something to catch.

 

Ted: Well, very good. Well, Michael I wanna thank you so much for your time. I know that you’re a busy guy, especially this time of the year and again, if our listener wanna come out and visit you at Montauk fishing charter, I would highly recommend they contact you and provide them of a trip of a lifetime. It sounds like you’re a fun guy to fish for.

 

Michael: It was a pleasure to take my time to talk with you.

 

Ted: Okay. Thanks again, Michael.