BUZZBAIT
HEN “BLUEWATER” JON SCHWARTZ isn’t teaching grades two and three at
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After-School Special W
Santa Margarita Elementary School in Carls- bad, California, he’s hooking into marlin and yellowtail and reporting on it in articles and videos. We heard the guy was nuts so we called him to find out.
Is it true you went swimming with a marlin? At one point I played too long with this mar- lin and he was tired. He wasn’t going belly up but he wasn’t really swimming away either. So I jumped in and I just held him there upright and pushed him around a little bit. You can always push a fish down and go, “Oh yeah, he survived,” but how do you know? I want them to be healthy when I release them. I want them to be in kicking shape. So I jumped in.
Isn’t that dangerous? I’m not a marlinologist. But imagine there’s some crazy biker dude in a bar, sitting there downing shots, right? Well, you don’t go up to him when he’s flexing his muscles and trying to start a fight, but if later on you see him pass out, he’s not a threat. It’s like you’re looking
at the animal and you’re judging whether or not it’s a threat. You want to help the animal get away. You don’t want them to suffer just because you’re having fun.
Now you’re writing for fishing magazines. How did you get the media interested? I’m a total attention slut and I just bother ev- erybody until they respond. You know that movie with Jerry Lewis, Te King of Comedy? In the old days you used to have to go through the secretary on the bottom floor to talk to the boss upstairs, but with the Internet you can email the editor and if you’ve got some- thing interesting and you’re not a jerk about it they might actually read it.
What’s your ultimate fishing goal? Opah. Tey’re in the shape of a Frisbee and they can get up to three or four feet in diam- eter. Teir face looks like a parrot and the rest of their body looks like this luminous and pink moon with white dots. I’d love to sink a gaff into one of those! Oh, dude! You know what I want to do? Dogtooth tuna. Tey’re tuna except they have these wild teeth. Tey’re down somewhere near Australia. Tey’re a
BLUEWATER JON’S TIPS ON SWIMMING WITH BILLFISH, BEFRIENDING THE MEDIA, AND WHY HE’S NOT CRAZY BY TIM SHUFF
shallow-water, reef-dwelling tuna. I’d like to catch some of those things.
Got any marlin fishing tips? Tey wouldn’t be how-to tips. I’m not say- ing it takes a lot of skill but it’s really risky, so I wouldn’t say “Do what Jon does.” Hire a licensed professional guide.
What’s the risk? Oh, geez! Well, number one, you’re fishing, the fish takes off, you could take a wrap from the line and get dragged under. Go onto You- Tube and punch in “marlin attack.” Tey’re trying to get away so they just spaz out so they could just come straight at you. Marlins put their bills through transoms of boats so what do you think’s going to happen on a kayak?
So you are crazy. Tere’s a lot of things that I don’t do. I don’t ride bicycles. You won’t find me on a skate- board. Sure as hell won’t find me on a motor- cycle. I don’t shake my students’ hands ‘cause I don’t want to get sick. So it’s not like I’m some total nut. It might seem like that but actually I do a lot of thinking about what could happen beforehand. And so far it’s worked out.
www.kayakanglermag.com… 13
PHOTO: SCOTT MACGREGOR
PHOTO: DURANCE LOWENDICK, MARLIN MASTERS SPORT FISHING
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