198lb. yellowfin tuna caught with friend and client, Steve Weitzen. Key West, Florida

Large tarpon caught in Key West Harbor by Marshal Leeds. This fish had, one hour prior to the photo, swam under several docks near the seawall at Key West. There was no way to follow him so I had to strip down to my undies, grab the rod and follow him under the dock. Unfortunately, the camera captured all this, fortunately though, we ended up catching the fish.

Wahoo caught while trolling with Rapala's new X-Rap Magnum Minnows. Those lures have a pretty big lip and got bit almost exclusively in the spread, maybe it's because they were diving down below every other lure, but whatever, out of six lures trolled behind the boat the two X Rap Magnums were consistently the ones that got bit. We were trolling about 9 knots and these things held the water and did not pop out or need tweaking to get them to ride correctly. I was impressed anyway.

This is a world record permit that angler Bill Riesendfeld caught with me in Key West. Bill fished many days a year with the sole purpose of catching world records on 4lbs test line.

We fished as a team for about 10 years, sometimes devoting as many as five years for just one of the species record. We spent about five years for the Tarpon record, which has currently been broken, and we spent about four years for the permit record. I can't remember exactly, but I believe Bill also had a Blackfin Tuna and African Pompano world record on 4 with me. I believe the Tuna record still stands but the African has been beat.

An interesting story that led up to 44 lb 12oz Permit record: For full story click here

Capt. Steve "Creature" Coulter and Dave Chambers hold up a nice yellowfin tuna caught on fly tackle in Hatteras, NC. Most of the fish we caught on fly that trip bit literally within 30' of the boat. We were chunking with butterfish pieces and could see the fish eating right next to the boat. It was soon after this fish that I got in the water to film some of this crazy stuff and the fish were absolutely fearless eating bait three feet away. You can see some of that footage on VDM "Hatteras Yellowfins".