I,
Captain Kirk Howlett, have been fishing the Gulf
of Mexico since 1968. I have
been a charter captain for 6 years. We have some
of the roughest water around. 3 to 5
ft. seas with a lot of chop is no fun to go
out in.
I rode in a 35 ft. Marlin in November
1997 in Galveston when a Northern was blowing.
Seas were 5 ft. and building when we
went out. I expected to get wet and bounced around.
The boat was unbelievably smooth
and dry. When the boat would break through a
5 ft wave, you expected to hit hard but the
Marlin would cut the wave or it would hit and
keep going strong. I run boats hard, but
the more speed you get the better the ride. It
feels like you are on a racehorse and you
are holding it back. The Marlin wants more speed.
I left the jetties one day. Everyone likes the
new Catamaran Boat. A friend was in
his cat and I had a charter going out. It was
5 to 6 ft. seas and we both left at the same
time. I was nine miles out and we could not even
see the cat. I called him on the radio
and he said it was too rough and we never saw
him again.
On another fishing trip in May 1999, I did not
want to go out. The seas were 8-10 ft
but some people from Austin wanted to go. It
took about an hour for us to get out 18 miles.
We took it slow. We tied up on a rig and let
out about 40 ft of rope. I put out 2 tlat lines
and rigged the poles for snapper fishing. The
night before I had filled a 309 Penn Reel with
50 lb. line. It was hard to stand up in the 8-10
ft seas, but they wanted to fish. They were pretty
salty fishermen. We were catching snapper and
a fish hit one of the flat lines in back. I picked
the rod up anld gave it to a fisherman. He was
fighting the fish. I knew it was big but I wasn't
sure just how big. The fish pulled 3/4 of the
line off the reel. I tightened the drag as much
as possible. It stayed behind the boat and it
took all the line out.
The fisherman got on
back of the boat as far as he could and looked
down at the knot on the bottom of the reel. I
locked the drag down and told him to reel and
reel hard! He got about half of the line back
and I told him good luck. The flsh started going
to the right side of the boat but it was out
to the side. I told him reel hard because if
the fish went around to the front ofthe boat
we would lose it. The fish took another run almost
around to the front of the boat. It was just
too rough to get off the rig fast enough with
the help I had. I told him to work the fish hard,
he turned at the last minute and he brought
the fish up to the side of the boat. I got a
gaff and when the fish came up. I got another
gaff and we got the fish in. It was a 105 lb.
Wahoo on a Penn 309 tied off on a Rig with 40
ft. of rope in lO ft. seas.
I would not have gone out that day except I wanted
to see what the Marlin would
do and I can tell you, I will never own a different
boat. Joseph has been a very good man
to deal with. He stands behind his boats and
I, as a Charter Captain, am glad he built this
one. I can go whenever I want in this boat.
Kirk Howlett
Charter Boat Captain
