Land of men in ties and short pants.

My internet connection at the marina is very slow so this is going to be short and sweet.  Things are coming together.  The boat is awesome.  Keith, Matt, and the crew are stoked to help with my shoot so we're off to give it a go today.  When we get back to the dock this afternoon I'll try to find a more reliable internet connection for a more in-depth update.  I'll fire up the SPOT soon to give you an idea of where we are.

Tomorrow the tournaments start with the Bermuda Blast and I'll be back to jump and release shots.

It's on...Bermuda in the morning!

The last two weeks have seen my Bermuda trip on again, postponed, off again, on again.  Due to business commitments in Raleigh, the Waste Knot crew had to cancel their Bermuda plans.  During the Big Rock I met the owners of the Click Through, a 68' Wanchese.  Keith and Josie English seemed very keen to help try and tease up a blue for me in Bermuda between tournaments.  I'll be joining them, captain Matt Mauldwin, and mate Courtney Stanley for what I hope will be an epic 10 days!

That epic 10 days starts tomorrow morning with a 6:00 AM flight out of New Bern to Atlanta where I'll meet the crew and then on to Hamilton to meet the boat.  That means I need to be leaving the house tomorrow morning by 3:45 AM at the latest.  As usual, I will be blogging daily, adding new pix and generally providing a behind the scenes look at what goes into a shoot like this.

First and foremost there are never any guarantees with this sort of thing.  A shot of a blue marlin three feet from my lens in crystal clear "burple" water is my holy grail.  It's not a shot I can get by calling up my local PADI dive shop and booking myself onto the 8:00 AM two tank.  It's going to take trial and error with a great crew to tease a fish up and then keeping her lit and in prey response mode around the boat while I get as close as I can.  Teasing entails raising her first with hookless natural baits trolled behind the boat.  Once raised and feeding, the mates pull the teaser strips away from her, then feed her again, pull the bait away and feed, and so on, until she's trying to climb into the cockpit of the boat after the bait.  At some stage during all of this, the plan is for me to slip into the water and get between her and her food.  Sounds simple enough, right?

The reality of the situation is that this shot could take me 10 years to get.  This is the shot that keeps me awake at night and that I've played over and over again in my head.  Every shot I chase I try to visualize beforehand.  It's like a lighting bolt of déja vu if it happens, the instant the picture in my head and what's going on in the viewfinder collide.  For every fished raised there is probably only a 5% chance that that's going to be my fish--the one who will behave as predicted, point her bill right at me, come storming at the camera doing 20 kts and, hopefully, turn at the last 100th of a second, mouth open, eye in focus, and CLICK.

Starting tomorrow you will be able to track me in real time on my SPOT each day I'm in Bermuda.  Right now I'm trying to load 200 pounds of camera and dive gear into two 50 pounds bags and then I'm going to try to get some sleep before I have to get up at 3 o'clock tomorrow morning.

Slow Days of Fishing, Big Big Rock Drama and Bermuda Delays

As the last week's events become Big Rock history, I sit here grateful that I made it through, sleep-deprived, stiff and aching, but done nevertheless.  The week was fantastic in terms of gallery traffic and sales.  It's so great to see our brand come to life right before our very eyes.  For us on the Waste Knot it was a slow week-- basically no fish.  For the Citation, it was seven days beyond belief.  Their week started with a Big Rock record fish on Monday and ended today with a possible disqualifying loss of $900,000 because one crew member didn't have a fishing license!!!  Check out this link http://www.jdnews.com/sports/rock-79581-city-rules.html.

My Bermudian departure has also been put back a few days until next Sunday.  A little disappointing, but practical in terms of catching up after this week's mayhem.  I will keep the blog updated as we go.

Big Rock Day 1

I'm back in my office with a river of people passing by to see the Big Rock scales next door.  Citation out of Hatteras Village has just weighed a Big Rock all-time record blue marlin at 883 lbs (more than 400 kgs).  Although not a "dead fish kind of guy" myself, it is an incredible experience to witness thousands of people flocking to see this one fish.  It's one of those Catch 22s.  A great fish is dead, but it now lives in the minds of so many people, especially children.  They can see and recognize its grandeur and, for the most part, realize the importance of its preservation.  It's ironic that thousands of fish like this are killed commercially every day around the world to feed our cats, dogs, and chickens, and die in the holds of steel meat factories where they end up as protein bulking agent white flakes to be fed to livestock.  The death of this great fish in the sportfishing context will ensure the protection of others of its species because of the nature of the sportsman's passion.  Congratulations to Citation and the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.  What an excellent use of a great and noble resource.

For me the day was fantastic even with out a hook up.  The Waste Knot is an incredible environment from which to fish.  It's not just the molded teak, fine finishes, and almost 4000 HP.  Jarrett Bay has combined muscle and beauty into a single, organic fishing entity.  We left the dock just after 5:00 AM and two hours later were almost 100 miles out across the Gulf Stream, a river within the ocean, in water as warm and azure blue as the center of the Caribbean.  Big blue marlin fishing is a big risk/big reward kind of deal.  It's stuff you see on t-shirts like "go big or go home" and "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen".  Today we went big into the hottest kitchen you could imagine, a hundred miles from home, in another time zone, in search of a 883 lb+ fish.  We missed, but after the last nine weeks of construction debris and paint, it felt FANTASTIC!  I shot some fun video with the new Canon 1D Mark IV which is blowing my mind and generally got salty and sunburned which was a remedy for my soul.

Although 883 lbs is a tough number to beat we will be at it again tomorrow.

Occhio Gallery and Big Rock

There’s an old saying that sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the light of an oncoming train.  That’s about where I find myself right now, sitting squarely on the tracks facing the biggest weekend of  the year barreling toward me in the form of the 52^nd annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.

First I need to back up to about 9 weeks ago.  My partners and I found a quaint old waterfront store here in Morehead City.  It was perfectly located between the world famous Sanitary Restaurant and Fish Market and the headquarters and weigh station for the equally famous Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.  The building hadn’t been occupied in years and could only being described as a “fixer upper”.  A few days later we signed a lease and took on what we thought would just be a bit of spit and polish to get the building in shape as the new Occhio Gallery and headquarters.  We worked out a budget and set to work, inviting qualified friends and family down to the beach for the weekend, where we then cleverly Shanghaied them into putting in intense hours of hard, physical labor on the new building.

The budget was blown in the first few days and I’m now on a first name basis with staff at the city dump as well as the local mega home improvement store.  City officials here in Morehead were great, helping us meet impossible deadlines.  We were literally unpacking our stock minutes before the first customers entered the gallery and some of the paint was still drying.  It was a very long, hard, and tiring process.  One that defines the phrase, “If I only knew then what I know now…”  Click here here to see the whole process in pictures.

But it’s done and I’m happy to say it turned out better than we could have ever imagined.  It’s a cool space to come and talk about fish and fishing—a great place to hang out and, of course, buy stuff.  In our gallery space we have amazing underwater DVDs playing on the big screen TV surrounded by massive aluminum prints of underwater life from around the world, especially sailfish and marlin.  Luke Pearson just did a fantastic job of editing my raw footage from my last Isla Mujeres trip, Click here to see it on Youtube.  Along with the gallery and prints we also have a large selection of posters, greeting cards, postcards, decals, and t-shirts featuring prints from the Occhio gallery.  In addition to Occhio’s branded merchandise we also offer a few products that we felt blended well in the great new space.  Some are fun, like our SweeTea t-shirts and BoHo handcrafted long boards.  Other items are more practical for your life on the water, like OluKai footwear, Kaenon Polarized sunglasses, and Fishworks Proven Products technical clothing.  We are also the exclusive retailer for Vitek Sail products.  North Carolina-based designer Lauren Vitek has provided us with a great selection of her fashionable bags and totes made from recycled sails.

Both the gallery and store are now open and in the capable hands of the dynamic Donna McNeely, who is managing the store and gallery, as well as online sales.  Please check out our website over the next week to see our new products as they are listed. 

My work here on the gallery is done for now.  After postponing trips to Guatemala and Malta to finish the store, I need my blue water camera fix.  I’m writing this blog entry at my new desk in my office located in the back of the store.  From my 6’x6’ picture window I’m looking directly over the sterns of a few sport-fishing boats moored at our dock, and I can see Sugar Loaf island 100 yards across the channel, as well as the Intra-coastal Waterway and Core Banks Island.  At my feet are my camera bags—the Isla Mujeres tags from the March trip pitifully scrunched up around the handles.  I need to get back in the water!

Big Rock kicks off with the Keli Wagner Big Rock Lady Angler Tournament—a charitable event to raise money for the fight against breast cancer, and which serves as the precursor for the main event.  In the words of Jimmy Buffet “Come Monday…” it’s full steam ahead for one of the largest blue marlin tournaments on the U.S. continent with a purse that could be as high as the 7 figures!  The Big Rock!  This means a lot of big boats fishing hard and, if conditions are right, a lot of blue marlin action.  By far the majority of the fish will be tagged and released.  A few large fish will be weighed.  State, federal and, most importantly, high tournament minimum weights for a fish to be killed make the Big Rock an excellent use of the incredible summer blue marlin resource along this part of the Atlantic coast.

Blue Marlin action means I want to get wet.  I’m going to be using the Canon 1D Mark IV camera body for the first time and hope to capture a blue release underwater, not only on stills but also with this camera’s incredible HD video option.  That is if we can hook up.  I’ll be riding along with my business partners on the incredible Waste Knot, a 68’ sport-fishing machine.  The Waste Knot was built just up the road in Beaufort, NC, by Jarrett Bay and represents the pinnacle of sport fishing yachts.  So stay tuned for regular updates and track me in real time… come Monday.

Done Deal

I'm sitting in the Margaritaville Cafe at the Cancun airport waiting for my flight.  My previous blog didn't happen due in no small part to an intermittent internet connection.  Yesterday was my last day.  Doug Wall, my host, joined us just in time for the wind to switch to the Southeast and start to blow like hell.  We decided to give it the old college try regardless.  To use the correct maritime terminology, we got the snot slapped out of us for 4 hours in 4 to 6 foot seas, very short wave periods, and winds gusting at 25 knots plus.  I enjoyed the ride watching everyone get soaked from the air-conditioned comfort of the leather couch in the well-appointed salon.  George, the mate, raked up some really nice bonitos.  Things like weather become a lot less stressful when you've already got what you came for.

This last week has been amazing, I hope the photos do the experience some justice.  The sailfish is one of the most elegant of all the game fish and one of the fastest.  The sail has the grace of a flamenco dancer with her flowing skirt and fine foot work and the timing of a matador.  The bigger bill fish have their raw power and brawn but the sail is a true master swordsman, an artist with the bill and cape.  To see them en masse and lit up like the Vegas strip was incredible.  Life is good!

It's now back to Morehead City to get these images working and start setting up for the next trip.  Guatemala in April at Casa Vieja is looking good and then in late May it's off to the Med for big bluefin tuna (yes, there are still a few left there).  As the spring turns to summer I will be working off the North Carolina coast with some of my favorite boats and captains.  I'm looking forward to getting some shots of the great Carolina marlin fishery.  Thank you again for all the emails, comments, and Facebook messages from those of you enjoying the blog. As of this morning we are just short of 1000 visitors this week.  A big thank you to Doug Wall for the invite on his great boat, Captain Larry "The Switch" Toma and mate George for their patience this week.  There are not many fishing captains that will literally park their boat over a bait ball for more than three hours and watch while a hundred sailfish circle the boat eating bait inches from the transom and not have a single line out.  Larry, you are a strong man.

Cheers from Mexico.

Marc

In the "Can"

El Milagro Marina, Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Another great day!  Captain Larry had us in the birds before we even got to the starting waypoint.  I was in the water with a bait ball within 20 minutes of leaving the dock.  We started with low, early morning light so I decided to go with video to begin.  Here is a link to todays VIDEO.  Sorry about the sound track; it's all I could get royalty-free from YouTube.  Stay tuned for the high quality DVD version.  One shot in particular stands out, another near miss from a sail's bill. Speaking of which, I saw a sailfish today with another sail's bill broken off at the base of its tail.  This I've seen in marlin before but the first time in a sail.

Today Larry and the crew had getting into the water with the bait down to a science.  The fact that the dolphins were gone was a BIG help.  So much so that I was able to shoot 15 minutes of video, swim back the boat to swap cameras, get back in the water with the same bait ball, shoot 300 images to fill my 8 gig card, swim back to the boat, dry off, enjoy a snack, download and view my images, change lenses, and get back in the water just in time to see the last 5 sardines get eaten.  The last one took refuge around my neck.  I had 4 or 5 sails circling me, eyeing the stowaway.  Finally one sail made a move and snatched the sardine from literally under my nose.  As he passed, for a split second we were eye to eye, a few inches apart. WOW!

I have one day left with the chance of a big blow tomorrow from the southeast.  As it stands, this trip has produced images way above those I wanted. I'm stoked with what I have in the "can".  From the around 1500 images I have shot I will choose probably three for prep and printing into limited edition fine art prints which will be added to the fine art collection on my website.  I will also produce a range of sailfish posters and note cards which will be available from the online store in the coming weeks.  The video side of things is new to Occhio, but with some post-production editing I am going to try and produce a 15 minute DVD of a sailfish bait ball.  Keep coming back to the website for updates.

Thanks to the almost 700 people who have read my blog over the last few days and for all your Facebook messages and emails.  It has really been great to share this trip with you.  I've had several requests for more information on the island of Isla Mujeres itself.  Once I'm done with tomorrow's trip I will take a drive through town and try to get some local interest shots.  Today I've added a shot of the El Milagro Marina where we've been based.  Click here to follow a link to their website.