Author: Capt. Scott Goodwin

Better Angler Top 3 Secrets To Catching More Fish Whether fishing for fun, for your child’s first fish, for your charter client’s trophy, for your dinner, or the big-money tournament win, each fishing trip has a lot riding on it. The level of effort put into each trip is often a pre-cursor to the level of success that is enjoyed. I’m in no way saying that they will always be biting if you’re prepared. My point is that if the fish are not biting, then we must have been prepared to make the most of the few bites we did…

They say time flies and we must be having fun, because the once distant Race To PEI, The Return, trip was upon us.  We found ourselves once again making the pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island off the East Coast of Canada.  Like many great fishing locations, it takes some doing to get there, but the chance to fish with Tony’s Tuna Fishing in PEI is worth every mile and each connecting flight. Our chosen winner, Andrew Sanford, was flying from San Diego with Ali Hussainy, the President of BD Outdoors.  Michael Torbisco, our camera guru, and I were converging from…

Tackle Organization It has been said that I am a bit particular in my ways, and I will not deny it. But there is always a reason! Much of what I do is to limit the effects of salt on our equipment, like rods and reels, the boat, etc. Often taken for granted is your tackle, which is not cheap either. If I expose tackle to the elements, then it can never be returned to the tackle box without being de-salted, dried and re-sharpened if appropriate. If you contaminate your tackle box with salt it will cause the rusting or…

Maybe everyone is tired of hearing me preach about tackle organization in fishing, but I’m going to keep on because the simple truth is that it works to help you maximize opportunities. (Translated – Catch More Fish!) I’m not selling it, it’s just something I believe in and practice myself. I will admit that I’ve come to realize it’s harder to keep all tackle organized when it is not your full-time job.  The many years I spent as a charter and private boat captain, I was able to focus on tackle and getting it as dialed in as I could…

Making a double-hook rig is an easy and effective way to troll for all pelagic game fish. Armed with a bonito or dolphin belly strip, the double-hook rig is durable and dorado, wahoo, billfish and tuna will find it too good to pass up.  It will also hold up to multiple shots from fish and its smaller size makes it easier for fish to eat. I love to pull this down deep or way out long on the shotgun because I am confident that the bait will hold up to the rigors of trolling better than ballyhoo and those are…

Here in Florida, we often catch Little Tunny (nicknamed “bonita”) when trolling for other species such as dolphin, wahoo and sailfish. A lot of guys cuss out the bonita for their vicious attacks on the trolling spread, but I welcome them into the cooler. Having a few bonita on hand is a great insurance policy.  These small tunas make excellent baits for a range of species from marlin to grouper, but it’s the bellies that really come in handy when trolling and jigging. Bonita bellies are very durable and naturally shiny. When cut into strip baits, they make an awesome…

To consistently land fish, you must be proficient in many different facets of tackle rigging. Of all that knowledge, perhaps the single-most important aspect is making sure you use a leader system that will offer you maximum benefits while minimizing any negatives. In this tip, I’ll describe the leader system that I’ve been using on all of my trolling, live-bait and spinning outfits for at least 25 years. I learned it from experienced captains who were using the set up long before that. This system works extremely well for all monofilament lines under the 80-pound class. When fishing line above…

ATL Fuel Bladders I recently had the opportunity to help run a boat from Port Canaveral, Florida across the Gulf Stream to Spanish Cay in the Abacos Chain of the Bahamas. I’ve always said that we are so lucky to have paradise in our backyards. Meaning that the Bahamas with its crystal clear tropical waters and incredible fishing is within our reach from Florida. Now this saying is true, but the term backyard is relative and the trip is not to be taken too lightly. The run to Spanish Cay is about 180 nautical miles of open ocean from our…

We here at BD love this contest too.  How fun it is it to call someone up and tell them they’ve won a fishing trip of a lifetime!  The response is always one of disbelief, quickly followed by extreme excitement. The call to Andrew Sanford was no different.  Upon being told he was the winner of the contest and the trip, he screamed, “You’re Lyin!” No Andrew, we are totally serious and so will your battle be with a giant bluefin tuna when it all comes together. BD is proud to introduce Andrew Sanford as the winner of the Race…

Fishing Costa Rica Contest Trip – Race To Costa Rica Contest Each year the BD crew and a core group of industry partners offers a free trip to one lucky angler.  A simple contest drawing on the BD Outdoors website that has no strings attached, just a chance at an all-expense paid bucket list trip for fishing Costa Rica.  The Race To Costa Rica was the fifth year of the most popular contest on BD and the entries came in by the thousands. We want to thank our partners who made it all possible:  Maverick Sportfishing, Los Sueños Resort and Marina, Okuma, AFTCO, Costa and Mustad.…

Woody Wax Your Boat When your boat takes a beating from the sun, salt, moist or dry elements, you have to give it some protection or your finish gets chalky, your rubber and vinyl gets cracked and dry and your metal begins to corrode, rust or pit.  Yet it is so hard to find the time for a traditional wax job. Woody Wax is the answer for giving your boat its badly needed protection in much less time than conventional waxes.  It also lets you wax your non-skid decks without making them slick.  You could never do that with normal wax.…

Albright Wire Mono When chasing toothy critters we have to use wire leaders, but sometimes a snap swivel has a negative visual impact in clear water or finicky fish. We slow troll live bait a lot and use a direct Albright wire to mono connection to reduce the visible presence of the connection point. We can get away with no swivel because the live baits don’t spin. First, put a bend in the wire and leave a 4 to 6-inch tag. Now pass the mono upward through the bend of the wire leaving a healthy tag. Next, twist the mono…

Haywire Twist Twisting single strand wire leader is simple, yet takes a little practice to get the feel.  Capt. Scott Goodwin of Offshore Academy offers his method of doing a haywire twist. (Click here for the video) There is some variation in how tight or loose the twist can be but there is also a right and wrong with each aspect. Too tight and you risk heating up and weakening the wire, but too loose and the twist can slide down under pressure causing failure. You must also match the weight of the wire with the pressure of the tackle…

Fishing Leader Storage with a Rubber Band Fishing leader storage can be a pain, especially when you have lots of loose coils of mono that snag on hooks and come undone. When rigging or storing trolling rigs with heavier mono leaders, I like to use black rubber bands (they don’t get gummy) to secure the coils and keep things organized. Regular bands will work for daily fishing, but I don’t recommend storing rigs with them as they get sticky with age, ruining the leader and making a mess. First I use the “round the hand” wrap to coil the leader…

On a recent trip to the Bahamas, I was amazed at how prevalent the lionfish had become. While the fish’s full impact will not be known for several years, the fish have really become a nuisance on coral reefs. So, anglers and divers have taken matters into their own hands to help remove this invasive species. Even though they are covered in dangerous spines, if you know how to fillet lionfish safely they are very tasty. Like most nonnative creatures, lionfish have no natural checks and balances to keep their numbers in control. The other negative is that lionfish eat anything…

Circle Hook Ballyhoo While the use of circle hooks is not new, a lot of anglers have been slow to come around and using circles is still a bit foreign to them. Many guys have used circle hooks for bottom fishing, but rigging them for trolling is not as common. However, if you plan on fishing any billfish tournaments in the Atlantic, you better get used to circle hooks. All natural baits must be rigged on a circle hook when tournament fishing as required by federal law. Once you get used to fishing with circle hooks offshore, you’ll find that…

How could any boat function without the 5-gallon bucket? We keep them onboard for thawing bait, spooling reels, washing the boat, collecting garbage, moving ice… The list of chores that calls for a bucket goes on and on but a rope handle will improve any bucket. The weak link to most buckets, however, is the handle. Bucket handles rust, scratch the finishes or bright-work on the boat and they can pull out at the most inopportune times, dumping valuable contents. The best solution is to remove the metal handle and install a rope handle. It’s really pretty easy and you…

There are almost as many ways to rig a ballyhoo as there are to skin a cat, and the “San Sal” rig is a great way to put a second hook in a ballyhoo when you are wahoo fishing.  The “San Sal” reference is because San Salvador Island in the Bahamas is famous for giant winter-time wahoo and this is a rig built for that.  The double hook rig will work for wahoo in any location and this method does not require a bead chain or flimsy connections to the second hook. The second hook is set back in the…

Captains For Clean Water needs your help to get the EAA Reservoir project back on track to save the Everglades and Florida’s waterways! Call and email Governor Rick Scott and tell him we need a lot more land for this project to make meaningful progress in the fight to stop Lake Okeechobee discharges and save Florida Bay. They’ve made it easy for you with this call to action tool! It literally takes seconds, but can make a big difference. Click HERE For A Simple Action Tool. You don’t have to live in Florida to care and your voice is just as important,…

BoatUS has a national network of expert captains who are always on call and trained to assist boaters in need in both minor breakdowns and major emergencies. Boating has some inherent possibility for needing assistance and BoatUS members can take comfort in knowing that someone is fully capable of assisting them should the need arise. The other big plus is the fact that this “boater’s safety net” is incredibly affordable and there is really no reason not to take advantage of it. We caught up with Capt. Paul Amaral, the president of TowBoatUS Ventura in California and asked him his perspective…

If you buy ballyhoo, as most of us do, some portion of your purchased bait is probably carrying a parasite. Removing ballyhoo parasites will make your rigging easier and help the bait to swim straight when trolling.

It’s happened to all of us… You finish drying off your boat after giving her a complete wash down from bow to stern when the guy in the slip next to you decides to wash his boat and lets loose with a ton of spray from his boat washdown hose that gets all over your clean hull. Water droplets leave hard water spots, so now you have to do it again. Don’t be “that guy” and build this simple attachment for your boat washdown hose. When I buy a new hose for the boat it usually comes with metal ends.…

Extreme Adventure Angler Matt Watson (Ultimate Extreme Fisherman) of New Zealand has The Ultimate Fishing Show! He has found a way to blend incredible and most unusual fishing encounters with humor and conservation-oriented ethics. This blend is great fun to watch and living in a place like New Zealand, the “above and below” footage they capture is epic. Matt took the time to talk to us at BD Outdoors and give us some insight into how this all came about. Q: How did you get started fishing and what was the evolutionary process to the creation of the Ultimate Fishing Show?…

Filling holes in your boat left after removing bolts or screws can be hard to do with epoxy without the epoxy bubbling up or running out of the hole. To combat this problem we mix up the epoxy and then add colloidal silica filler as a thickening agent. You can purchase these epoxy fillers online or at a boating store such as West Marine. Start by adding a little silica at a time until the mix reaches a thickness that doesn’t drip off of your stir stick. Once you have the mix at the right consistency, work it into an…