Conservation efforts match angler’s pursuit of billfish
Billfish have left an impression on John P. “Jack” Duvall. And he on them.
The fit 69-year-old, who lives on the edge of Galveston Bay, is one of a relative handful of recreational anglers, worldwide, who have caught and released more than 2,000 billfish, a collection of species — striped marlin, black marlin, blue marlin, white marlin, Pacific and Atlantic sailfish. One advocate of these pelagic powerhouses describes them as “the falcons of the sea … the biggest, baddest, fastest, strongest, most beautiful fish in the ocean … fish that defiantly leave an impression.”
If things go as planned — and Duvall is a stickler for planning, just as he is on every facet of his fishing — he soon will fight, land and release his 1,000th striped marlin. He’s at 982.
He has landed more than 1,000 sailfish — 1,037, to be precise.
And 85 blue marlin, 25 white marlin and two black marlin.
The accomplishment is stunning to anyone who understands the time, physical effort, mental determination, fishing skill, teamwork, travel and financial cost involved.
Billfish are not bluegills. Seriously pursuing them is akin to mounting an aquatic safari — com- plete with a vessel capable of handling open ocean and outfitted with tens of thousands of dollars of rigging and tackle and run by an experienced captain and crew — on waters off such far-flung locales as the Galapagos Islands, Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Bahamas, Hawaii and others.
“It’s hard to explain, but there is nothing like
billfishing,” Duvall said. “There’s nothing that compares with these fish. They are incredible. When you see one come after a bait, they can move so fast they’re just blurs. They hit like a freight train, the drag screams and with big ones you’re standing there holding a rod and watching 300400 yards of line peel off the reel on that first run.
“It’s like big-game hunting, except at the end you get to release the fish and watch it swim away.” Select group
Few experience that sensation.
“Jack is a member of a very small, elite group of anglers,” said Ellen Peel, executive director of The Billfish Foundation, a 40,000-member international organization focused on conservation, research and advocacy for the marine game fish and on whose board of directors Duvall sits. “How many are in that club?
“Probably not more than a thousand, worldwide. There just aren’t that many people who have what it takes to reach that level. You don’t catch that many billfish unless you devote a big chunk of your life and fortune to it.” Duvall has done both. “It’s something that is obviously very important to me, and I’ve been lucky enough to have made a few bucks and am able to afford to do it,” Duvall said.
Duvall’s path to a place among the world’s most successful billfishers began on a bicycle. As a youngster in Jacksonville, Fla., he gathered fishing tackle and biked to the nearby St. Johns River, where he fished from the bank.
He graduated to fishing from beachfront piers, then to the Florida Keys, where he and friends targeted king mackerel.
His fishing world changed in November 1973 when he made a trip to Bimini, the Bahamian islands on the lip of the fish-rich Gulf Stream just east of Florida.
“We went out and I hooked and landed a blue marlin — 453 pounds,” Duvall said. “That was it.”
Since that first marlin, Duvall has focused almost solely on billfish, and only on the best billfish waters. He doesn’t fish for any other species.
After that first blue marlin, Duvall became a fixture in Bimini and its billfishing community while building a chemical manufacturing business.
“I was working full time, but fishing every opportunity I had,” he said. “I learned a lot.” Widespread search
One thing he learned was there were places with more billfish than the Bahamas. One was the waters off the tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
He abandoned Bimini in the 1980s when drug trafficking made the area “a little too testy,” and he began traveling to Cabo San Lucas and other billfishing hot spots.
By the early 1980s, Duvall, like all billfishers, could see billfish populations were declining, mostly from increased commercial fishing pressure.
He began releasing every billfish he landed.
“I haven’t killed a billfish since 1984,” he said.
In 1994, he sold his business and moved to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
He stayed four years, racking up hundreds of striped marlin, sailfish and the occasional marlin from the deck of the Listo, the 35-foot Cabo sportfishing boat he still owns, based in the Cabo San Lucas area.
In 1998, Duvall moved to the Houston area, where he works as a financial services consultant but regularly makes extended trips to the Baja and the Listo as well as a few trips each year to other top billfishing destinations.
He has tagged and released, as part of Billfish Foundation research project, more than 600 striped marlin.
Some days, he’s landed 15 or more.
Duvall usually fishes with 20- or 30-poundclass tackle, considered extremely light for most billfishing.
Also, he doesn’t use a fighting chair, preferring to stand and fight. This stand-up fishing method allows an angler more flexibility but is more physically demanding.
And the ability to take the physical punishment associated with billfishing has been a key to Duvall’s success.
“For a man of his age, he’s in excellent physical shape,” said top-ranked billfishing pro Capt. Brad Philipps. “Many younger men could look at his physical capability and learn from him.” No slowing down
Duvall plans to pursue billfish as long as he physically can.
And he has plans for at least three extended trips this year.
“It’s satisfying to reach those numbers, and I’m looking forward to that 1,000th striped marlin,” he said. “But that’s not the reason I do it.
“I do it because there’s nothing else like it when you see one of those fish come up and hit a bait. They are amazing fish.”
He would know.