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| Ferrell |
After spending 10 minutes talking withlight-tackle expert Enrico Capozzi, I wanted to step back and punchhim square in the mouth. No, he didn't say anything bad about mymama or cast dispersions about my masculinity. The fact is Capozzihas to be one of the nicest guys I've ever met, and that's probablywhat irritated the hell out of me. Here I was talking to a tall,good-looking, retired Italian guy in his mid-40s, who spends almostevery day fishing for blue marlin with his incredibly gorgeousgirlfriend. The least he could do is to try to be a jerk to make mefeel better.
But no, every time I travel down to Guanamar,Costa Rica, there's Capozzi, soaking up the sunset on the pool deckand greeting fellow anglers with a sincere smile and a keeninterest in what they saw or did that day out on the water. Yousoon get the idea that this guy truly loves the sport of big-gamefishing, and I doubt that any Italian since Christopher Columbushas spent as much time on the water pursuing his dream.
Fishing as a Passion
Since you don't see a whole lot of nativeItalians on the big-game circuit, I was interested to find out howCapozzi made the transition from fashion mogul to one of theworld's premier light-tackle experts. "Many years ago as alittle boy, I went along on a trip to Kenya with my father and afriend of his who was a famous hunter. We took a side trip to gofishing one day, and my father's friend caught a marlin. Needlessto say, I was most impressed. Since my father owned some propertyin Mauritius, I began to fish out of there pretty regularly andended up catching my first blue marlin there," Capozzi says."To this day, my father still regrets that he ever introducedme to sportfishing!"
In his early 20s and already an avid fisherman,Capozzi struck out on his own and wound up partnering with theGucci family in a venture to open Gucci outlets in duty-free shopsthroughout the Caribbean and South America. This allowed Capozzi tomove to the island of St. Maarten, a perfect jumping-off point tosample all the bill-fishing opportunities that the Caribbeanoffers.
"I was working, so I didn't have much timeto dedicate to fishing. But whenever I got the chance, I'd try toget away someplace to either try for a record or just experience anew destination," Capozzi says. "I went to many placeslike Cabo, Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica and St. Thomas for bluemarlin, and Venezuela quite a bit. I caught my first super grandslam in Venezuela in 1987. I love Venezuela, except for the partwhere you get your butt kicked everyday.
"I made my bones in Venezuela, fishing eightmonths in one year there. Those guys are excellent fishermen. Youget great experience fishing down there due to the incrediblenumbers and variety. And all those finicky white marlin bitesreally teach you a lot. If you get good at fishing whites, yourreaction time will get better, and you should be able to hookanything. I saw 21 blues in the spread down there in one day andhave caught as many as nine blues in a single day. The whole seasonwas like that. But when you wake up in the morning and see all thecoconuts on the ground and hear the wind howling through the trees,you wonder what the hell you are doing."
While he was getting his butt kicked out on theNorth Drop or the La Guaira Bank, Capozzi quietly picked up hisworld-class angling skills by fishing with some of the bestcaptains and mates in the business. "I never really had anyfishing buddies to learn from and travel with. I always kind oftaught myself how to fish by watching and spending a lot of timewith mates. A lot of the captains I have fished with have said thatI fish like a mate," he says.
The list of captains Capozzi has fished withreads like a who's who in the sport of big-game fishing, includinggreat ones like O.B. O'Brian, John LaGrone, Kelly Wade and RonHamlin.
"As far as the light-tackle stuff goes, itwas just something that I started on my own, and I never had anyoneto teach me or show me how to do any of that. I just went out andstudied a lot of the gear. I developed a lot of my own rods andtechniques with the help of Scott Boyd, who has been building myrods for about 20 years now," he says.
"Light rods for 2- to 8-pound used to bevery whippy," Capozzi says. "But over the years we sawthe need for stiffer rods so we could get more leverage when tryingto lift the heavy leader out of the water without breaking the line- the most critical time in the fight."
Patience Is Key
Oddly enough, Capozzi's first record came on130-pound tackle. "I was fishing in Venezuela on my birthday,and I thought it would be fun to try for the record. The whitemarlin on 130 was wide open, so we gave it a shot. Believe it ornot, it was pretty hard to drop back properly with that heavy line- white marlin are finicky enough with the light stuff,"Capozzi says. "The fish weighed 77 pounds or so, and it got mestarted on my passions for world-record fishing. Now, it looks likeI ended up going from one extreme to the other."
While a lot of light-tackle anglers catch grieffor trying to catch huge fish on extremely light lines, most ofthat criticism comes from the uninformed. There's nothing easyabout light-tackle billfishing, and both the angler and crew haveto be made of the right stuff to keep at it day afterday.
"The hardest part about record fishing isputting together the right team and keeping it together,"Capozzi says. "This is a team sport, and everybody has to begood. But finding good people isn't the real problem; it's keepingthem focused and interested in what you are trying to do. This gamereally takes a tremendous amount of patience. There are usually alot of other boats fishing around you, racking up the numbers whileyou probably won't catch any. Day after day that begins to wear onthe crew. But I know that, so every once in a while we have to goout and do some fun fishing. We don't get to do a lot of braggingon a daily basis, but once we catch a record everybody back at thedock will know it."
Using a line that's as fine as a frog's hair tocatch a billfish takes attention to detail to a whole new level.Capozzi takes a little of the pressure off of the crew by doing alot of the detail work himself. Everyday I fished with him he gotto the boat early to reset all his drags and retie all his knots."When you are fishing for records, you can't take anything forgranted. I take care of all the equipment and gear. I choose allthe hooks, make my own leaders, tie my own knots and sharpen my ownhooks. I don't give any of these tasks to the crew. And it's notthat I don't trust them to do it right; I just don't want them tofeel responsible if something fails. I feel a lot more comfortableknowing that everything in my hands is 100percent."
Another hard part about world-record fishinginvolves finding a place to get shots at the right-sized fish.Capozzi moved to Costa Rica two years ago to pursue the 2-poundPacific sailfish record, along with the 2-, 4- and 8-pound bluemarlin records. "You get a lot of variety here in Costa Ricaand some very calm seas - I like to think of Costa Rica as theVenezuela of the Pacific but without the rough water. You have tobe in a place that offers up the opportunities. For example, we'vebeen trying to get the 2-pound sail record for years, but aftercatching dozens on 2-pound, the biggest problem is trying to runover a sail big enough to break the existing record. It seems likeall the big ones are gone. During our last season, we raised 1,502sails ... but only two were large enough for me to pitch the2-pound outfit to. But for blue marlin, since I have three targets- 2-, 4- and 8-pound - any blue that comes up is a potentialrecord."
Since you can't troll baits of any size onextremely light lines, record-chasing anglers turn to thebait-and-switch. By pulling teasers, you spare your light line fromthe strain of trolling, and you can match your line strength to thesize of the fish that pops up. Getting to see the best bite in thebusiness is just gravy. "I still get a great deal ofexcitement from feeding a bait to a fish," Capozzi says."However, over the years, I've been able to become completelydetached emotionally while the fight is going on. I'm afraid if Iget too excited, I might do something wrong and lose the fish. Sopart of my job is trying to stay cool and keep everybodyfocused."
But in the light-tackle arena, you're going tolose most of the fish you hook. "That's the way it goes,"Capozzi says. "Sometimes the fight is long and tough, andsometimes the fish comes fast - we have to be ready to take whatcomes. And after you wait 280 days - like I have for this 4-poundrecord - if it comes easy, I'll take it."
Few anglers have the energy and patience forlight-tackle world-record fishing, but Capozzi has found a smallniche in our sport that brings him great joy. You can see it in hisface as soon as he steps aboard his boat.
"Fishing should be fun. For me, recordfishing is fun," Capozzi says. "Once I start to getfrustrated, it will be time for me to move on to somethingelse."
