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Belles
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BLUE
WATER
JOAN VERNON
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NOVEMBER 2014 MARLINMAG.COM
ELAINE “LAINEY” JONES
MARTHA MACNAB
(LEFT TO RIGHT) RICHARD GIBSON, RONNIE BURBAGE, COURTESY MARTHA MACNAB, LEONARD DURHAM BRYANT JR., COURTESY STEPHANIE CHOATE
BY JOHN BROWNLEE
ACROSS THE GLOBE, WOMEN
CONTINUE TO MAKE THEIR MARK
AS EXPERT OFFSHORE ANGLERS
I
n the male-dominated world of
offshore fishing, we sometimes
fail to acknowledge the skills
demonstrated again and again in
our beloved sport by members of the
opposite sex. While we can still claim
superiority — although I’d advise
against it — in a few areas of sport
where brute strength comes into
play, many women stand toe to toe
with us in the arena where our sport
takes place: the cockpit.
Captains tell us that women
make better anglers because they
actually listen to and heed instructions given by the captain and crew
under the duress of a bite and the
subsequent battle, whereas we males
tend to think we already know it all
and proceed to ignore said advice,
often at our own peril. I’ll leave that
contentious debate to others smarter
than myself but, for whatever reason,
many women who take the sport seriously undeniably make great anglers.
SANDRA MACMILLAN
STEPHANIE CHOATE
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Their accomplishments prove the
point. The women’s billfish records in
the IGFA World Record Game Fishes
Book drive that home. The line of great
lady billfish anglers likely began with
Helen Lerner but later included nowfamous names like Marsha Bierman, Liz
Hogan, Deborah Dunaway, Pam Basco
and Maudi Lopez, among many others.
Today, women continue to take up billfishing in a big way, and they’re good at
it, so we thought we’d check in with a few
of the current top female anglers in the
blue-water world and share their stories
with you. Those stories follow and, in
the interest of full disclosure, I should
point out that I am proud to serve on the
board of The Billfish Foundation with
three of them.
Stephanie
Choate
MIAMI, FLORIDA
GROWING UP as the daughter of renowned
blue-water pioneer Tim Choate gave
Stephanie an insider’s view of the world
of billfishing. Tim helped develop
groundbreaking fishing operations
in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Brazil, the
Galapagos Islands and more, and much
of what he learned along the way has
filtered down to the next generation.
Stephanie began fishing with her dad at
Choate fighting what would prove
to be the winning fish in this
year’s Blue Marlin World Cup.
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his Fins ’n Feathers lodge in Guatemala.
“I started so young, I somehow thought
that was a normal way to grow up,” she
says. “I was highly competitive, emotionally charged and good at overly
dramatic tantrums that led to throwing
the rod at my father after he yelled at me
for bird-nesting the hell out of his reels,
which I did often. That’s where Capt.
David Salazar stepped in and taught me
how to sailfish since, like most teenagers, I would listen to anyone who wasn’t
my dad.”
She later began fishing with two
of South Florida’s best: Capt. Ray
Rosher on Miss Britt out of Miami and
Capt. Alex Adler on Kalex in Islamorada.
“With their help, I started having
incredibly lucky fishing days,” Stephanie
says, “catching a 350-pound daytime
swordfish with Ray and having 10-plus
sailfish days with Alex on light line. I
saw what happens when you put in more
time on the water. I asked my dad to
teach me how to tournament fish, and
the ­floodgates opened.”
Tim took her to fish with all his
buddies, who happen to be some of the
best in the world at what they do. “We
started five years ago in Isla Mujeres
“I WAS HIGHLY
COMPETITIVE,
EMOTIONALLY CHARGED
AND GOOD AT OVERLY
DRAMATIC TANTRUMS
THAT LED TO THROWING
THE ROD AT MY FATHER
AFTER HE YELLED AT ME
FOR BIRD-NESTING THE
HELL OUT OF HIS REELS,
WHICH I DID OFTEN.”
— S T E P H A N I E C H O AT E
[in Mexico] on Keen M with Anthony
Mendillo,” Stephanie says. “I got to swim
with sailfish around a baitball, which
was truly life changing. We went to Nova
Scotia to catch bluefins, the Marshall
Islands to catch my first blue marlin
with Chuck Handy, Costa Rica and
Puerto Rico to fish the ILTTA anglerbased ­tournaments, Cape Verde to see
the rougher side of seas, and even Fiji
Stephanie Choate travels the world seeking
angling adventure in her
uniquely free-spirited
style. Her fishing lineage
and passion for exploration have brought her
much early success.
BRYAN TONEY (OPPOSITE), COURTESY STEPHANIE CHOATE (3)
BLUE WATER
with Bill Boyce, who has since become
a major inspiration of mine. I joined
the International Women’s Fishing
Association to meet more women who
love to fish, and jumped on any opportunity to fish for anything, anywhere.”
Stephanie began posting awesome
catches wherever she went, like an 891pound bluefin tuna in Nova Scotia and a
1,018-pound black marlin (on 10/18 and
her first black) off Mozambique, both
with Capt. Andy Moyes; a 650-pound
blue marlin on 50-pound and her first
white marlin in the Azores with Capt.
Zack Conde; and her first sailfish on fly,
in Guatemala with Salazar. Her streak
culminated with her win in the Blue
Marlin World Cup when she landed
with a 656-pound blue marlin out of
Kona, Hawaii, with Capt. Steve Epstein
this past July. “To say it’s been a lucky
year is an understatement,” Stephanie
says. “When someone who doesn’t fish
asks me how I am able to catch a fish
seemingly 10 times my size, I go straight
for what I live by: It’s all in your head.
The people who have truly taught me
how to fish never questioned my size
or strength. If you want something bad
enough, you will find a way to do it, and
with the support of the people who love
you, it becomes that much easier.”
Like her father, Stephanie also has
developed a strong conservation ethic.
“In many of the places I have been lucky
enough to fish, I have seen firsthand
the disastrous effects of longlining
and overfishing,” she says. “This year,
I was welcomed to the board of Wild
Oceans, a conservation group that aims
to preserve fishing opportunities for
the future with a broad ecosystems
approach to fisheries management. Wild
Oceans goes for the jugular which, in
my opinion, is forage-fish populations
and the actions of Congress. We all want
to see the mysterious creatures of the
deep while on an adventure into the
unknown, but without leveling the playing field and making that opportunity a
possibility, there is no point in celebrating our achievements. I’ve donated the
majority of my winnings to the IGFA and
Wild Oceans, and I listen. I have listened
to those who have seen and done far
more than I could imagine doing, and
I am forever grateful for their words
and wisdom. Thank you to all of you I
have ever fished with, especially Colby
Mason, who never touched my rod.”
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Elaine
“Lainey” Jones
KILN, MISSISSIPPI
ELAINE JONES GREW UP in New Orleans and
started fishing in the Gulf of Mexico
out of Port Eads, Louisiana, where she
soon fell in love with big-game fishing.
“A friend of my dad introduced me to
it, John Peters, who was the president
of the New Orleans Big Game Fishing
Club,” she says. “I soon thereafter
joined the club. I fished with friends
and eventually bought my own boat,
an old 52-foot Hatteras that I named
Mama Who, after my mother. After
Hurricane Katrina, I bought a 60-foot
Hatteras because my boat had been
totaled in the storm.” Her relationship
with the NOBGFC included many years
when she took the lead in organizing
and producing the Ladies Tournament
for the club, getting the female anglers
into the action and ­winning great prizes.
Jones left the Gulf for the first time
in 2006 to fish the Bertram-Hatteras
Shootout in the Bahamas. “I fell in
love with fishing in the Bahamas,”
she says, “and have fished the Bahamas
Billfish Championship ever since. In
2007, I decided to venture to Bermuda
to participate in the Bermuda Triple
Crown. Over the years, I have had the
pleasure of fishing in places like the
Turks and Caicos, Madeira, and Cat
Island [in the Bahamas].”
Numerous tournament accolades
followed as Jones expanded her fishing
horizons. She racked up winnings as
the top female billfish angler and other
categories on a regular basis. In 2007,
she won Top Lady Angler honors in the
Bermuda Billfish Blast; in 2009, she was
the high point lady angler in the same
event. In 2010, she was well into the
money in Bermuda, though she didn’t
“MY GOAL FOR THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS HAS
BEEN TO GET THE BIG GIRL — A GRANDER. I’VE
BEEN PAYING MY DUES, AND HOPEFULLY IT WILL
EVENTUALLY HAPPEN.” — L A I N E Y J O N E S
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Aboard Mama Who, a 66-foot Viking,
Lainey Jones seeks a grander in the Gulf
of Mexico, Bermuda and the Bahamas.
Sandra
MacMillan
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA
RONNIE BURBAGE (2), RICHARD GIBSON (OPPOSITE, BOTTOM), LEONARD DURHAM BRYANT JR (OPPOSITE, TOP)
Lainey Jones
cut her angling
teeth in the
Gulf of Mexico
but has since
branched out to
fish the Bahamas,
Bermuda
and beyond.
take home the top trophy. In 2011, she
won Top Lady Angler in the Classic, and
in 2012, she won the Top Lady Angler
award in the Sea Horse Anglers Club
Billfish Tournament. “I won one of the
BBC’s legs in Treasure Cay one year, and
one year, we had the biggest fish on the
dock in Bermuda,” Jones says.
As the 2013 Bermuda season began,
Jones had ordered a new 66-foot Viking
that had not yet arrived, so she chartered the famous Capt. Alan Card and
his boat Challenger for the summer.
With Card at the helm, the Mama Who
team won the Sea Horse Anglers Club
Billfish Tournament. Then, in 2014, she
took second-place lady angler in the
Bermuda Billfish Blast, and her godson, Sales De La Barre, from Jackson,
Mississippi, won the top junior award in
the Bermuda Billfish Release Cup.
Like many of the women in this group,
Jones is an active conservationist. She
serves on the board of directors of The
Billfish Foundation and works to assist
in raising funds to support billfish
conservation, and she also works to
get more junior anglers into the sport.
As for her own fishing efforts, she isn’t
slowing down. “My goal for the past
couple of years has been to get the big
girl — a grander,” she says. “I’ve been
paying my dues, and hopefully it will
e­ ventually happen.”
SANDRA MACMILLAN IS A PAST chairman of
the board of The Billfish Foundation
who grew up fishing in Minnesota and
South Florida with her father. “Cat Cay,
Bahamas, was always a second home for
us, and we spent many days inshore and
offshore fishing the waters surrounding
the island,” she says. “But in the past
10 years, I have taken my fishing to a
more competitive level. I am the owner
of a 63-foot Spencer, Sandman, and I
really enjoy tournament fishing and the
many challenges it brings to my life. I
have met so many incredible people in
this industry and made bonds with some
that will last a lifetime.”
MacMillan and crew mainly fish
live-bait sailfish tournaments in South
Florida, but they also fish a few marlin tournaments every year in the
Caribbean. “We have done very well
on the tournament circuit, and I give all
the credit to my crew,” she says. “I have
been very fortunate to fish with some
of the best fishermen in the world, and
their hard work and dedication show up
in our tournament results. No matter
where we place in a tournament, I know
they gave it their best effort every time.”
In 2011, Team Sandman fished the
Buccaneer Cup Tournament in Palm
Beach, Florida. In that specific tournament, you can fish either live or dead
bait for sailfish, but you get more points
for fish caught on dead bait. “Right
before the tournament started, the
fishing conditions were setting up to be
more favorable for the dead-baiters,”
MacMillan says. “The day before the
tournament, we decided to fish dead
bait instead of live bait and had to
switch everything over in one day. Not
only did the crew do it, but we won the
tournament. We also went on to win
that ­tournament again the next year,
but that time we won it with live bait.
My crew and I enjoy the challenges of
fishing, and are always open to trying
new ideas and techniques. There are not
many other sports where a team owner
can be one of the players. Sometimes it
can be challenging to compete in this
sport as a woman owner in a predominantly male field. I wish more women
would get into this sport because I
believe women make great anglers.”
MacMillan’s favorite tournament
win was at the Boy Scout Tournament
in St. Thomas, USVI, in 2010. “We
won the tournament, and I won Top
Angler,” she says. “I had never won a
Top Angler award before that tournament. I have won Top Lady Angler, but
never top overall angler. I didn’t know
I had won the award until we were on
our way in from fishing on the last day,
and my captain at the time told me I had
won. It had been 20 years since a woman
had won that top award.
“I am proud to say that I have never
taken a billfish,” MacMillan adds. “I
have released every billfish I have ever
caught, and hopefully I can keep that
tradition alive. For now, my three kids
keep me closer to home with my fishing.
In the winter, I fish South Florida and
the Dominican Republic, and St. Thomas
in the summer months. Blue marlin
fishing is my favorite. I like fishing the
Dominican Republic for marlin because,
on average, the fish are smaller, and we
can use lighter tackle, which makes it so
much more fun for me.”
Sandra MacMillan and her crew
aboard her 63-foot Spencer
Sandman have become serious
billfish-tournament contenders
with an impressive track record.
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Martha Macnab has reportedly won more
money on the billfish-tournament circuit
than any female angler in history, due to
major catches like the one below.
BUENA VISTA, MEXICO/
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA
“I STARTED FISHING in Buena Vista, Mexico,
a small fishing village 70 miles north of
Cabo on the Sea of Cortez, in 1974,”
Martha Macnab says. “I caught my first
striped marlin standing up in a Mexican
panga owned by a gringo friend. In those
days, we had to ‘make bait’ before
fishing. I caught my mackerel baits and
two nice dorado, then the marlin. I was
exhausted but hooked.”
Macnab has won many tag-and-release
awards through TBF, some more than
once, including Top Lady Tagging Angler
HONORABLE MENTION
No discussion of women who love offshore fishing would be complete without the inclusion of
Ellen Peel, president of The Billfish Foundation. Peel earned a law degree from the University
of Mississippi and an advanced law degree from the University of Washington in Seattle before
getting into marine conservation work with the Center for Marine Conservation in 1993.
She became the obvious choice for the leadership of TBF when that position became
vacant in 1996, and since that time she has led the nonprofit science-based organization
specializing in billfish science and economics, advocacy for responsible fishing, nonpunitive
fishery management, and education of the need for billfish conservation to an unprecedented
level of respect and influence.
Peel’s expertise caught the eye of the White House along the way, and in 2012, President
Obama formally appointed her the commissioner for recreational fishing to the International
Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (she served in an acting capacity for three
years prior), making her our delegate for highly migratory fish in the Atlantic Ocean and all
adjacent waters, and the most powerful female recreational-fishing representative in America.
But in addition to this impressive list of accomplishments, she remains first and foremost a
passionate billfish angler. The story that best illustrates this passion concerns Peel’s divorce from her first husband. In the
amicable split, she asked for only two things: custody of the dog, and the collection of Penn Internationals.
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KEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA/
CARRILLO, COSTA RICA
Bank north of Cabo with 23 releases.
“My favorite fish to catch are marlin, but
I scored a nice 308-pound yellowfin tuna
in Puerto Vallarta in 2003, narrowly
missing the world record of 314 pounds
because the fish wasn’t weighed for
48 hours,” she says. “I accomplished an
IGFA Billfish Grand Slam in 2010.” In
the Bisbee Black and Blue tournaments,
Team Retriever has been in the money
many times, but in the 2013 tournament, Macnab caught a 525-pound
blue marlin, earning $1,185,862. “This
is the largest amount of cash won by a
lady angler ever, in any fishing event
anywhere, according to Wayne Bisbee,”
Macnab says.
JOAN VERNON MIGHT BE the best-known
female billfish angler in the world. She
came to prominence through her tireless
advocacy of circle hooks and through her
highly successful tournament series, the
Presidential Challenge of Central
America. “I began billfishing at an early
age and have been going nonstop ever
since,” Vernon says. “Most of my fishing
has been with light tackle and in
tournaments where I have been allowed
only one rod. That is why I am proud
that I have released over 2,000 billfish
since the year 2000, all caught on circle
hooks. One of my most memorable days
was in 2006, fishing with Capt. Ron
Hamlin in Guatemala. Using 8- and
12-pound-test line, I released 40 out of
57 sailfish. The next day, using
12-pound-test, I released another 30.”
She also released a slam consisting
of a blue marlin, striped marlin and
sailfish while fishing on Gamefisher II
with Capt. Richard Chellemi. “That was
­special because it was in my backyard,
fishing out of Carrillo, Costa Rica,”
Joan Vernon has been a tireless promoter
of both the sport of offshore fishing itself,
and of conservation to protect that sport.
fundraising through my Presidential
Challenge tournaments,” she says.
“Working with TBF in Central America
has been very rewarding, and we are
seeing the results of our efforts come to
reality. I am a strong believer in giving
back to the ocean that gives us such
enjoyment as a sport.”
“AS A PAST CHAIRMAN OF THE BILLFISH
FOUNDATION, I CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR THE FISH
BY FUNDRAISING THROUGH MY PRESIDENTIAL
CHALLENGE TOURNAMENTS.” — J O A N V E R N O N
Vernon’s Presidential Challenge
­tournament series has raised well
over $500,000 for various conservation groups. For more info, log on to
­preschallenge.com.
GARY GRAHAM (TOP), COURTESY MARTHA MACNAB (CENTER), RICHARD GIBSON (3)
Martha Macnab
in the Pacific Ocean for blue marlin and
striped marlin, as well as Top Overall
Lady Tagging Angler in 2013. Those are
impressive accomplishments. Macnab
and her husband, Larry Warlaumont,
have owned many boats named Retriever
over the years, the latest version being
a 2005 61-foot Viking. “We have fished
on Retriever throughout Mexico,” she
says, “including Cabo, Puerto Vallarta,
Mazatlan, and on to Costa Rica,
Guatemala and Panama. Piñas Bay in
Panama and the Revillagigedo Islands
(Benedicto and Socorro) are two of my
most memorable fishing locations. I have
fished in Australia, the Virgin Islands,
Isla Mujeres, Hawaii, and Madeira in
­tournaments and with friends.”
Macnab has caught and released well
over 1,000 striped marlin, with her best
single day taking place on the Finger
Joan Vernon
Vernon says. “My t­ ournament ­fishing
has taken me to Kenya, Venezuela,
Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic,
Isla Mujeres, Cabo San Lucas, Panama,
Hawaii, Costa Rica, El Salvador and
Guatemala. I was a member of the
International Women’s Fishing
Association fishing team that was the
first women’s team to be accepted to
fish the ILTTA Tournament, which that
year was held in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
I was fishing against men and, in most
cases, was the only woman angler. My
proudest accomplishment in tournament fishing was winning the Club
Amateur de Pesca Sailfish Tournament
in Costa Rica, twice!”
For the past 25 years, Vernon has
worked for and raised funds for conservation organizations to help conserve
the species she loves to catch. “As a past
chairman of The Billfish Foundation,
I continue to fight for the fish by
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