Read about our angling adventures and the interesting people the staff at Tournament Angler have met along the way.

It was the first minutes of the tournament, and the moment I set the hook, the line started screaming. This fish was for real, and he'd eventually lead me into a give-and-take, stand-up battle that would last three hours. Find out how it ended, click here.

Patrick sits down with BXRL founder and billfish guru Capt.Norm Isaacs. Angler. Competitor. Adventurer. These words come to mind as I listen to Capt. Norm Isaacs talk about his life on and off the water, and it's been quite the journey for this big-game top gun. But unlike most great stories of blue water and behemoth fish, this one starts out in Kansas. Read the whole story

Do you like fishing one the ragged edge? Hear about our experiences in the canyons. Something special happens between early summer and late fall off the East Coast of the United States. My friends and I call it "canyon season.†It's a time for many tuna- and billfish-chasing anglers to spool up the Momoi, check drags, sharpen hooks, rig baits, break out the spreader bars, run the boat a hundred miles plus to far-flung waypoints, and prepare for greatness. That is, if you consider greatness catching a really big fish or 12. Click here to learn more


Life is different at 9 degrees latitude. Check out one of Patrick's trips in the paradise known as Costa Rica. When I was a kid my father would show my brother, sister, and me 8mm movies of his fishing trips. There was no sound except that of the film scrolling through the projector as high-seas adventures played out on our living room's white wall.   Read the whole story



Patrick's back in Costa Rica and it's tourney time at Los Suenos. It was 7 a.m. when the call for the Bimini start came over the VHF. The competitive blood ran through me as the boat I was on, After You, a customized 45 Cabo Express, shot out of Herradura Bay, Costa Rica, to lead the pack of 21 sprinting battlewagons towards the placid Pacific. The First Annual Los Sueños-HMY Signature Billfish Series had started, and while it was late February, the billfish season was just heating up. Before this tournament was finished, the billfish action would erupt like Mount Vesuvius.  Get the results now


We spend some time with the catchingest crew on the East Coast of the United States, the guys onboard Canyon Runner. When New Jersey native Adam LaRosa was a kid, he'd get one day a week to fish with his father. It was usually on a Sunday, and for those precious eight or so hours on the water, all LaRosa wanted to do was catch some bluefish. However, when the enthusiastic kid angler would inquire with captains and locals as to where the fish were biting, no one would give up the 411. Since LaRosa's father was busy working all week, the duo didn't have time to do on-the-water recon. The youngster was frustrated that no one would help out. He promised himself that if he ever figured out where the fish were, he'd share the information with anyone who asked.  Read the full interview


Meet top lady WBS and BXRL angler, and lure creator, Louisiana's own Kerri Burrus. Kerri Burrus (a.k.a. Billfish girl) has been a regular on ESPN2's Billfishing Xtreme Release League (BXRL)tournament and same-named TV show for the last two seasons, as well as a featured angler on Capt. Norm Isaacs' TV show Big Game Fishing the World. The New Orleans native holds numerous billfishing titles and has several tournament wins, including being named the World Billfish Series (WBS) top lady angler for three straight years. In addition to becoming a TV personality, Burrus has a Web site (www.billfishgirl.com) that profiles her angling accomplishments and has gained a legion of fans that email her regularly for fishing advice, thank you's, and just to say hi. However, if the bite's on, she may be a little late getting back to those emails, because fishing is her passion. Burrus' enthusiasm for the sport can be seen in her serendipitous road to the top of the big-game leader board.  Get the rest of the story and photos


From Alaska to Golfito, the Go Fisch guys catch big and often. Read Patrick's interview with owner, Chris Fischer. Chris Fischer and his crew make Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn look like couch potatoes. Fischer, his wife Melissa, and the two-man crew of the 72-foot Elliott yacht fisherman Go Fisch have spent the last few years finding out-of-the-way angling paradises from Alaska to Central America. I'm sorry, did I forget to mention it's also their job?   Read the whole interview


Can you catch a 400-pound swordfish from a RIB? Big-game fishing can offer its participants surreal and magical moments that can also make instant legends out of fish and anglers. Long Island, New York native and avid big-game angler John P. Picone had his moment last summer as he traded blows with an almost-12-foot-long, 405-pound swordfish, a fish that would've made Zane Grey jealous. However, Picone didn't engage this beastly billfish from the comfort of a fighting chair aboard his 65-foot Viking On The Edge. Oh no. Picone fought this fish from his 13-foot RIB, Little Edge.  Read the full story


Everyone has something to say about the legendary Capt. Tred Barta. See what he says about himself. Is he genuine or a jackass?  Depending on whom you ask, either, both, or some more colorful phraseologymay be elicited from the mouths of anglers when the name of Long Island, New York, native Tred Barta is brought up in cockpit conversation. Read the full story here...When anglers head offshore to fish for sharks, the target is most often the mako, a.k.a. Mr. Snaggletooth. The cobalt-blue body and pointy nose of this apex predator are unmistakable, as are the gnarly teeth that assure whatever enters its mouth does not leave.  Read about the whole adventure here.


Patrick gets schooled by one monster sword, but does Mr. broadbill have the last laugh? The fish is peeling line off my heavy-duty Penn International 70VS like a Japanese bullet train hell-bent to make one station stopâ€"freedom. Fighting 22 pounds of drag at strike, the unseen and unknown fish has to slow down. It has to! I've stopped giant tuna on gear like this. I lean back, and the 5'6†stand-up rod makes an inverted U as my Braid belt and harness support me. The fish is sprinting straight downâ€"800 feet, 1,000 feet, 1,250 feet. There's 2,000-plus feet of line out and about 50 pounds of drag as well, but the spool keeps going like it's in freespool. I'm losing. The train is finally stopping, but it's too late. It is reaching its destinationâ€"freedom. The line breaks, and my monster mystery fish is gone. Fish one, angler zero. But this day isn't over.  Find out what happens next.


He's not just the IGFA past-president, he's an advocate for the competitive angler, three cheers for Mike Leech. Mike Leech has come a long way from trolling for weakfish from a rowboat off Kennebunk, Maine. Over the course of 46 years, Leech has caught all nine billfish species (talk about perseverance). He also nailed a personal-best swordfish of 365 pounds, which was taken on 50-pound tackle from a 20-foot boat in a battle that lasted more than five hours. In addition, he has an estimated 600-pound Guatemalan blue marlin to his credit. See how he went from angler to acquiring IGFA's top spot.



One tournament revises its weather cancellation policy when four fisherman go down with their vessel. It was June 14, 2002, and I stood at the Hudson Anglers Shark Tournament captain's meeting in Freeport, New York, my foul-weather gear soaked like a sea sponge. The northeasterly 15- to 20-knot winds made the cold, early evening rain even more painful. I called my crew and said, "We're not sailing tomorrow even if the tournament's a go.†I didn't like what Mother Nature was dishing out. It had been blowing the entire day and appeared there was no immediate prospect of it lying down. I told my guys there would be other trips, and they readily agreed. The next morningâ€"under a Small Craft Advisoryâ€"the $25,000 tournament went on after the assigned weather boat reported conditions to be rough but fishable. Four experienced Long Island offshore anglers, Robert Wright, Robert Hammond Sr., Robert Hammond Jr., and Peter Quinn, broke the inlet in Eleni II, a 25-footer, looking for a winning fish. The four never came home. A brief and garbled Mayday is all that gave any indication that the vessel and crew were in distress. The bodies of some of the fishermen were found a couple of weeks later.  See what happened


Capt. Oscar Amoroso has spent 50 years chasing giant tuna. Capt. Oscar Amoroso ventures to New England each year to catch mammoth-size, 130-pound-reel class, turbocharged "footballs" (a.k.a. giant bluefin tuna). He says he's bagged numerous "giant fish" that have topped 1,000 pounds; these are fish that can make grown men cry for their mommies after they've spent some quality time on the grunt-and-groan end of the rod. A guy who does this type of fishing with just one mate onboard a majority of the time, Amoroso could've made Hemingway flinch in a staring contest. And on top that, he's 73 years old.
Read Oscar's fish tale


Like chasing sharks?
Are shark populations too damaged to return to sustainable levels? In 1980 I was ten years old and my family went on vacation to Orlando, Florida, to visit Sea World. While we were there, a new exhibit called the Shark Encounter opened. The attraction consisted of a 60-foot, acrylic-windowed tank through which ran a moving sidewalk, with sharks swimming all around. I loved it. I repeatedly put my finger to the spankin' new and nearly streak-free acrylic hoping a shark would approach my hand. The interactivity was great, but the glass between us made the sharks too removed for me. I'd always been fascinated by these predators and wanted to know more about them (especially when they're on the other end of a rod and reel). Within a couple of months of my visit to Sea World, I got the chance to fish for sharks. I was hooked from the get-go, and I still fish for them several weeks each year.  Read the full story