Alaska and BC – www.alaskafishing.com ,

For many British boat anglers, there is no greater thrill than to go afloat on their own boats. To be master of your own destiny, to decide when and where to fish and to enjoy the sense of satisfaction and solitude that comes from being out on the ocean on a small vessel is, for some, the only way to fish. But, whereas most British anglers will rarely catch a fish over 30lbs, and almost certainly few will ever come across a fish off their local shoreline capable of spooling their trusty Penn 4/0 or TLD 25 in 30 seconds, there are opportunities all around the world for a UK angler to go and combine their love of small boats with the distinct possibility of having their arms pulled off.Before we discuss a list of destinations, some caveats should be considered. In all communities, the world over, there will be ‘cowboys’. They do not just exist in the UK. In any harbour watch carefully – there will be clean boats and there will be dirty boats. There will be those with happy faces and lots of fish, and some boats will be full of scowls. Amongst private boats, there will be anglers who arrive and launch a boat within seconds, compared to the amateur who clogs up the slip-way for three hours. There will be small craft gleaming with acres of tackle, antennas and polished surfaces, and there will always be a rust-bucket, covered in fish-scales and crewed by a one-legged bloke with a parrot on his shoulder. Always do the obvious thing – visit a tackle shop and ask questions. Then visit another. ALWAYS check that the boat you hire or charter has safety equipment on board. NEVER go to sea on a boat, no matter how good the captain or fishing may be, if there are no flares, life-jackets and other safety equipment. Remember the primary rule of fishing – NO FISH IS EVER WORTH A LIFE.Having said that, let’s talk destinations. Top of the league, taking into consideration the time/expense/difficulty in getting somewhere, the cost of boats compared to quality and the attractions/safety of onshore facilities, has to be Florida and the Keys. For the cost of a long weekend away from home you can enjoy some of the most exciting fishing in the world in extremely civilized surroundings. Take a cheap flight with Virgin or American to Miami, rent a car and head south. All you need to pack are sunglasses, a hat, a toothbrush, shorts and a tee-shirt, some non-skid foot-wear and a credit-card. Find a marina, find a boat in the 22 –26 foot range with a guide and what is normally excellent gear, and go afloat for a variety of excellent fishing which will set you back somewhere between $250 and $500 depending on the length of the charter. Common species will include bonefish, tarpon, barracudas, jacks, cobia, king mackerel, sharks, groupers, snapper and trout. Some guides will also catch you permit and sailfish. Tackle is normally modern, line is normally new and most good boats should have lots of live-bait. These ‘light tackle’ guides from the Keys are among some of the best fishermen in the world and their living depends on getting charters in a very competitive area, and so they catch fish, and lots of them. They combine efficient and well-maintained equipment with inquiring minds and some really innovative techniques. The vast majority of them are extremely conservation minded, and those fish you catch that you might want to eat will be gutted and put on ice before you can blink. One warning – do not be tempted to drink too much beer under a hot sun in a small open boat. Two tips – take some fluorocarbon leader with you (it is too expensive for most guides to use on a regular basis), and secondly, do what the man says. Do not forget that you are expected to tip; 5% of the charter rate is a good guide.From the sublime you can go to the ridiculous, such as fishing for blue-water pelagics off wind-surfers and jet-skis, as they do in Hawaii. But on the way, there are some other really tempting destinations out there. A long time favorite amongst British anglers is the ‘‘panga’ fishery off Mexico’s Pacific coast. The Baja peninsular has fishing both on its Pacific coast and on its eastern coast where the calm waters of the Sea of Cortez lap against a mainly hot and desert coastline. Pangas are traditional open launches powered with a single large outboard and are generally crewed by a single local skipper. Although some offer tackle, most do not and you must provide the necessary equipment. The rewards though, can be great, and if your panga is outfitted to carry livebait (often nothing more than a space between two bulkheads replenished by bucket) then good fishing can almost be guaranteed. As a rule of thumb, the more remote from civilization you fish, the cheaper the panga. At the largest resort of Cabo San Lucas at the southernmost tip of the peninsular, a day may run as much as $400, but swing round east and up into the Sea of Cortez and the price may drop to as little as $150. Species to expect include various species of tuna, wahoo, dorado, jacks and amberjacks, groupers, roosterfish, large mackerels, sharks, yellowtail, the odd billfish and in some areas, large inshore corvinas and white sea-bass. These boats are a fly-rodder’s dream, and since tackle rarely exceeds 50lb class, no chair is needed. The opportunities offered by these craft vary immensely, and a day starting with the collection of livebait may then progress variously through fishing along the surfline, moving onto some bottom fishing out in deep water, trolling offshore in the afternoon for some pelagic monsters and then end with a plug-casting session along a rugged coastline. Accommodation along this peninsular can range from fully-fledged five star hotels with all the American Express trimmings you want, to camps where YOU bring the sheets and you lie outside under the one of the biggest skies in the world, coyotes padding their way through the night alongside your sleeping-bag.One of the most pleasurable fishing experiences that I have had was the seven months when I was employed to set up and start running the now world-famous fishery at Midway, the most northwestern of the Hawaiian islands and some 1200 miles from the nearest civilization. This is high on my list of favorite small-boat fisheries, the resort having two 22’ and one 26’ Glacier Bay catamarans to offer clients arm-wrenching fishing in what is a virgin fishery, including a fishing hut filled with the best tackle money can buy. Although the island also has two 38’ Bertrams for offshore-fishing, an angler can spend a week fishing from the small boats and never heed the antics of the larger ones. The fishing inside and outside the reef, and indeed offshore, is phenomenal and although the island has made its name with the giant trevally fishery, there is much more to catch as well. There are several other species of jack, green jobfish, grouper, African pompano, rainbow runner, amberjack, lots of sharks including some of the largest tigers on the planet, a host of smaller denizens of the reef that all pull string, the occasional Japanese yellowtail and the possibility of a bonefish from the lagoon’s deeps. Throw in the surreal surroundings of a remarkable wildlife refuge that plays host to over a million pairs of seabirds including the world’s largest population of Laysan albatross, beaches where one can see members of the last remaining population of Hawaiian monk seal, a waterside restaurant with a world-class chef, luxurious accommodation in renovated officers’ barracks, and a chance to dive in one of the most fish-filled locations in the world and you are as close to fishing heaven as you probably ever be. And, at any one time, there is only a maximum of twelve anglers allowed in this paradise. Oh, I might just have forgotten to mention that the small boats are just as capable as the big ones of catching all those yellowfins, wahoo, blue and striped marlin, sailfish, swordfish and bluefins offshore. Do it, just once. Sell the wife or the kids in Morocco. Go. Of course, having sold your family, you might have some cash left over. A fourth location that beckons to me is Papua New Guinea and its endemic black bass, a fish that grows to more than 50lbs, bites lures in half whilst leaping over skiffs and reduces world-class anglers to gibbering wrecks. Live-aboard houseboats with small boats plunge deep upstream from immense river-mouths into heart-stopping scenery where new species of fish are being discovered at a prodigious rate. As well as black bass, other species of bass and barramundi also inhabit the same isolated rate. This is a relatively new fishery, comparatively unknown outside of Australasia which is where most of the anglers come to fish from at present, but it is rapidly becoming the stuff of legends fishing grounds. Stout plugging-rods (think snooker cues), reels with big guts, and 30kg braided line is the order of the day. Those in the latter stages of insanity take fly-rods and 6 dozen fly-lines. One outfit even does a trip to an area where there are not only black bass, but also sailfish with fly-casting distance of the shore…………………a few more fly-lines needed here, methinks.A quick list of other destinations to empty your pockets of all that loose change would probably have to include the following: – Alaska and British Columbia, where the word is salmon, halibut and lingcod from a variety of small boats based in differing types of accommodation, in stunning scenery complete with bears to steal your salmon and lunch, and where the flatties are so big the skipper will probably shoot them at boatside with an enormous firearm. – the Gambia, hot and dark and a rivermouth so wide and a sea so unexplored that in all probability the next world-record for tarpon will come from here and it may well weigh over 350lbs. Friendly people, good hotels, a variety of reel-emptying fish and relatively cheap and close to the UK.- South Africa and its legendary fleet of ski-boats (small twin-engined surf-launched craft) which range as far as 60 miles out from the coastline, for tunas in the south off Cape Point, to sailfish and black marlin up in the north-east at Sodwana Bay. They also fish the surf-line and estuaries all along the coast for kob, leerfish, grunter, sharks and all manner of fish. A beautiful country where angling is a way of life and anglers are regarded as normal people. A huge range of accommodation and fine foods and wines. – a final place to fish would the north coast of Australia, from Broome in the west to Cairns in the east, a coastline along which Australian anglers go to sea in all manner of boats, but especially ‘tinnies’ – small aluminium skiffs with which they chase barramundi, queenfish, longtail tuna, various species of bream, threadfin-herring (their version of tarpon), flathead and several species of trevally, including the giant. The city of Darwin and the ‘Top End’ arguably have the finest fishing in the world for the barramundi and as an added bonus you may be fortunate enough to be eaten by a saltwater crocodile. Some of these estuaries in the Northern Territory are so prolific with these huge reptiles that you can actually buy crocodile insurance. Thankfully, the barramundi are huge too. Stay in luxurious thatched lodges, or sleep rough under canvas with a guide………well away from the water’s edge. -Contacts:Florida Keys – UK based guides include John Rawle of Cox&Rawle, and Roger Baker who can be reached on e-mail at Roger.Baker@btinternet.com.

Baja peninsular – www.worldwidefishing.com/b189.htm , www.fishinginbaja.com/baja.htm , www.eastcape.org , www.bajaflycasters.com/ ,www.bajaexpo.com/service/brec.htm#anchor844990Midway – www.midwaysf.com (site seems to be down all the time), or e-mail Capt. Rick Gaffney at captrick@kona.net , or visit www.fishdive.com/fish/home.html Papua New Guinea – e-mail Steve Starling starfish@shoalhaven.net.au , or contact any of the following : MV Heduru Charters on (675) 472 1370 or fax (675)472 3953, or Brett Middleton who operates the MV Talio, PO Box 521, Madang, Papua New Guinea, tel (675) 853 7496 or fax on (675) 853 7468, or Azura PNG Bass Adventures on (675) 475 7121 or fax (675) 475 7106.Gambia – ,http://www.serenity.co.uk/gambia/fishing.htm

Alaska and BC – www.alaskafishing.com ,