Offshore Sport Fishing, A Rich Mans Sport?

So if you look up gear for offshore fishing your first reaction is going to be sticker shock. Anything with the word "offshore" in front of it conjures up images of million dollar boats and fisherman strapped into fighting chairs with fish the size of a car on the end of the line. So it seems the tackle manufacturers with this kind of image in the background charge a little or a lot extra for gear. Is it warranted? Rods an reels capable of fighting 400 pound tuna or 1000 pound marlin or sharks need to be a cut above the rest and must perform flawlessly. Lures, hooks and line must be up to the task of hours long battles. So several hundred for a rod or a thousand or more for a reel does not seem out of place. It just seems a bit much for a typical working man weekend warrior sportsman like myself.

For the guy who spends a few million on a boat, tens of thousands on gear is nothing. Guys like myself only dream about what it would be like to look at the forecast of 6 foot swells and 3 foot wind waves and than just go anyway. The swells aren't so bad as long as they are far apart, but 3 foot wind waves are a beating in any boat under 30 feet. Us small boat guys have to pick our days to venture out to sea carefully.

One way a regular guy can get a taste of this fishing is to book a charter. It might be Costa Rica or Cabo or maybe long range charters out of San Diego. The cost will be in the thousands when you add up air fare and motel expenses but it is a trip of a lifetime. Not totally out of range for the average sport fisherman.

In our local fishery off the coast of Washington and Oregon we have albacore tuna averaging around 20-25 pounds and the occasional fish over 30. Not huge, but a lot of fun. We can reach them with smaller boats, (under 30 feet) when they come within 50 miles and when the pacific ocean cooperates enough to lay down a bit. Weather and ocean conditions are the biggest issue in smaller boats. We have several charter outfits and for a reasonable price you can take a one or two day trip and load the boat till your arms hurt. Not a bad plan if you don't have any experience offshore with your own boat.

I buy a lottery ticket every week because I am sure I will win someday. I have researched and bookmarked several boats but I think my dream boat is a 60 foot Viking, (Bad Company Edition).List price is about 3.5 million. I would likely have to hire a professional crew to operate it.

 It would be large enough to conquer just about any conditions we get here in the summer months and big enough to take a dozen or so of my friends along for the ride. I figure moorage, maintenance and fuel costs would easily be more than my salary, but if I won a few hundred million, who cares. My plan would be to put some video cameras around the boat and film people on the fishing trip of their lifetimes and make them copies to take home. Maybe we could get a TV series showing rookies fighting big fish. That is always more fun that watching pro's anyway. Imagine a ten year old kid strapped into a fighting chair playing an albacore tuna. Just think of show and tell day when he shows the dvd.