Offshore fishing with pro is wise

Fishing offshore in the Gulf of Mexico with a professional captain for ling, wahoo, king and Spanish mackerel, billfish, tarpon and jackfish is priceless.

OK, half of one day fishing offshore with a charter captain will run around $450 to $500, with full days at $1,000, but it is worth pausing to consider the economics of any sort of fishing in a boat when the price of gas is sure to pass $4 per gallon this summer.

It is beginning to look like a good time to consider putting off the purchase of a new boat in favor of simply booking a charter. While the up-front cost may look off-putting, consider that to maintain a boat to handle the demands of the Gulf is going to cost big-time.

Instead, pack some sandwiches and chips, put sunscreen in your shirt pocket, throw an empty ice chest into the trunk of your car and drive to South Padre Island, where one of a number of highly experienced charter captains live, poised to put clients on fish.

For example, it's hard to find a fisherman between South Padre Island and Port Mansfield with a better reputation for finding fish than Port Isabel native Levi Woolverton, a charter boat captain who has driven sport boats after billfish and other gamefish throughout the Caribbean, and guided in Panama and the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

After serving on recreational sport boats and commercial snapper boats for the last 15 years, Woolverton has finally gone solo, guiding charters through Levi's Sport Fishing Service aboard his 27-foot Pursuit, Knot Tellin, which packs twin turbo-charged Yanmar diesel engines.

"If you get right down to it, folks are spending a lot of money to go fishing," he said. "A guy might buy a $100,000 boat and think he's found himself a good deal, but he doesn't know it takes $50,000 to maintain it every year. The cheapest boat docks down  here average $300 a month, plus there's fuel, maintenance, just a lot of things to consider.

"When I take clients fishing, I'm responsible for all the bait and ice and the boat, and all they have to bring is their favorite drinks, food and their own sunblock."

With diesel fuel more than $4 per gallon, he said his career choice is more about lifestyle than raking in bucks. Having been in the business for half of his life, he has very realistic expectations.

"Fishing is just what I do. Period," he said. "We go after kingfish, wahoo, tuna, billfish, ling, dorado, tarpon - everything except snapper and amberjack."

Most of the fishing Woolverton does aboard his boat is trolling, with half-day trips out to 15 miles off the beach in pursuit of kingfish and Spanish mackerel, as well as bonito and ling. For full-day charters, he ranges out to 50 miles in pursuit of billfish, wahoo, big dorado and tuna.

Another of Woolverton's specialties is trophy tarpon. He caught his first tarpon at age 13, from a 13-foot Shallow Sport scooter he ran on his own, and which he purchased on money he earned catching and selling bait to charter captains.

"When the fish are thick, they're thick and hooking 'em is the easy part," Woolverton said. "Once you get them up to the boat to gaff, though, that's when most fish are lost. Fish will run under the boat, they'll cut off the leader on the prop or they just pull really hard, and it's a real test of a person's tackle.

"That's the thing about charter captains. They've mastered not only the hooking but boating the fish."

Also, clients never have to fillet the fish they've caught.

Ben Christensen can be reached at bc@riograndeoutdoors.com.