Sometimes you have to start at the end and work backward in time, jumping back and forth, in order to make sense of a good story. We'll start, not at the end, because the story isn't over, just at the latest adventure in one captain's saga.
A world-class and world-ranging fisherman, John Batterton is best known, when away from his home in New Zealand, as "Kiwi." He and his crew, Bradley Fergus and Rowan White, recently helped angler Guy Jacobsen catch a striped marlin in New Zealand waters that set the "coconut wireless" buzzing.
Records Fall
On March 9, 2008, the 48-foot G&S Hookin' Bull, with Batterton at the helm and Jacobsen on the rod, caught a striped marlin weighing 231.5 pounds on 2-pound line. The fish weighed more than 100 times the line's rated breaking strength, making Jacobsen the third person to ever record a 100:1 catch with this potential world-record fish.
But that wasn't the first record-size fish Jacobsen and Batterton teamed up for on the newly purchased Hookin' Bull. On March 6, Jacobsen's wife, Eryn, caught two striped marlin on 8-pound line. The first fish weighed 181.5 pounds, setting the New Zealand record but just missing the world record by a pound. Later that same day, after a three-hour fight, Eryn finally got her 8-pound record with a 206.5-pound stripey. Batterton's wife, Megan, e-mailed me with the news and referred to the Jacobsens as "the Dunaways of the South Pacific," in reference to Jerry and Debra Dunaway's tear through the billfish record books on their own G&S, The Hooker, in the late '80s and '90s.
A Team Affair
Like most truly expert skippers, Batterton learned from the top professionals. He credits the late Harvey Franks, skipper of Lady Margaret out of Tutukaka, New Zealand, as being one of the most influential mentors in his career.
In 1985, Batterton journeyed to Cairns, Australia, and quickly became one of the highest regarded deckhands on the reef, with a reputation for speed, agility and keeping a cool head in tight situations. Nigel "Basher" Semaine worked with Batterton for many years under Capt. Bobby Jones and saw firsthand how Batterton handled himself in the pit. "When the shit hits the fan, he's the bloke up front and taking it on as cool as a cucumber," says Semaine. "I've seen him wire 800-pounders that were going off, and there's Kiwi with fists full of .040 wire laying them over with style. It was like he would do it every day, like buttering a piece of toast. It was great to watch. Then, we'd cut her off; Kiwi would slap me on the back, shake the angler's hand and go back to rigging baits. Bloody classic.
"The only time I saw him lose it was when Kiwi and I were side by side rigging baits and I couldn't get this one scad to swim. No matter what I did to it, the thing just wouldn't bloody swim. So I ended up cracking the shits and started punching the scad — mushy flesh flying everywhere. Well, Kiwi just let it fly. He looked at me like I'd just run over his cat with a lawn mower and then proceeded to bark at me that every scad is sacred and that if I couldn't make it swim, then I should be looking for another job. (All my scad swim now.) But that was it — he's always cool and calm on the boat," says Semaine.
Batterton got his first chance to captain a boat in 1987, working on the 38-foot Lady Clare out of the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. He met his wife, Megan, that year since she was running the sport-fishing charter booking office in Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Soon after, John and Megan went to work with Bob Jones on the reef — they stayed with him for six years.
"I could go on and on about John and Megan — the time a 130 fell on Megan's head; the time I stabbed Kiwi and gave him nine stitches; the time Kiwi ran over 14 mailboxes in his truck; the time Bob and I took a photo of Kiwi and Megan going at it like rabbits in the front cabin — the stories are endless. And I really got a kick this year, seeing John, Megan and the kids catching a 500-pounder off Jenny Louise, because that's what the Battertons do — they fish. I can't speak highly enough of John and Megan. I love 'em," says Semaine.
One of Australia's best-known and most respected marlin skippers, Bobby Jones says that he initially had misgivings about hiring a couple. "When they started with me, one of the ground rules was that there were to be no domestic problems between them when we had charters on the boat. When we finished up that first year, I mentioned how well they had done together. They told me they used to save the arguments for the streets of Cooktown, where each one would get on their own side of the street and yell back and forth at each other!" Jones says. "Altogether they did six years with me. One instance I remember was when we nearly lost Snafu. The bilge pumps failed and we were full of water. As I ran for calm water behind the reef, Megs comes out with the saucepans and started bailing like a mad woman."
Besides fishing the striped marlin seasons in New Zealand and working the black marlin run on the Great Barrier Reef, Batterton flew north to Kona, Hawaii, where he fished several years with Freddy and McGrew Rice on Ihu Nui. Here, he became proficient with using both lures and live baits in the Hawaiian blue marlin fishery.
Capt. Jones credits Batterton's experience in Hawaii with one of their biggest tournament wins. "John's knowledge from fishing in Kona was instrumental in getting me to fish more artificial lures in Cairns," he says. "This paid off big time when we won the Lexus tournament on a Lumo Sprocket — one of Peter Pukula's lures. With all the records he's gotten lately, Kiwi has really come of age as a skipper. He's always been very underestimated in my book. Overall, we have ended up friends for life."
Batterton spent a season on Balek III with the legendary Capt. Laurie Wright and also worked the 1996 season in Madeira on Tom and Janet Hammond's Hatteras, Counter Attack — catching a number of blues over 1,000 pounds.
In 1997, Batterton met Auckland businessman Clive Reed, who had just purchased the 48-foot Riviera, Harlequin. The Harlequin team went on to do some pretty impressive fishing in the 12 years that Batterton drove her, claiming a number of world and New Zealand records.
"Kids slowed the fishing travel side down a bit for John — the arrival of Katie B and Bradley — but he still managed to do some exploratory trips to Tonga and the Cook Islands over the past couple of years," says Megan. "In 2004, Harlequin was sold and John met up with light-tackle fishing enthusiasts Guy and Eryn Jacobsen from Auckland. The Jacobsens owned Amokura, a 57-foot Assegai, and John spent a season on her, fishing up in Vanuatu chasing blue marlin."
Batterton and Jacobsen eventually decided to buy another, smaller and more agile boat that they could use to chase record fish on light line. A quick look at the record books convinced the pair that they needed to find a G&S. Since Buddy Gentry and Steve Sauer had already built several famous boats that achieved enduring fame by setting billfish world records, Batterton and Jacobsen headed for Florida.
G&S Boats
On their trip to America in search of a G&S, Batterton and Jacobsen first looked at the 40-foot Raptor built in 1983 while she was in a yard for a refit (See sidebar "Other G&S Boats"). They passed her over for Hookin' Bull in part because the larger boat's accommodations are better suited for long trips, often in rough conditions, with several nights spent offshore. Although the accommodations were important, they wanted a G&S for its handling and fish-fighting ability.
Buddy Gentry holds some pretty strong opinions on what it takes to make the ultimate game boat. "It needs to be a boat that can accelerate quickly, turn on a dime and give a nickel's change. It has to back up fast enough to finish the fight when a fish comes to the top, and still provide a comfortable and stable platform for a day's fishing. And you have to have good vision of the fighting chair from both the bridge and tower helm stations."
And surprisingly, Gentry doesn't think that means overloading a boat with horsepower. To get the ultimate maneuverability, Gentry recommends what he calls "work boat" engines, with more reduction in the gear boxes than most sport-fishing boats use today in an effort to get faster top-end speeds.
Gentry also prefers tunnels since they decrease shaft angle, which is good for backing up, and help the rudder assist in turning the boat in a tight spin with one engine ahead and one in reverse.
"If you practice trying different rpms and get it just right, you can actually lift the chine at the corner and really scoot around in a turn. Wiremen, captains and anglers all love it when I show them that trick!" says Gentry. "If a boat can spin, you don't need to back down much." Not if you know how to drive a boat like the man who makes them.
But G&S boats actually built much of their reputation for being some of the best in the world when going in reverse. By moving most of the fluids forward to lessen the weight in the stern, some G&S boats reach speeds in excess of 10 knots going backward.
For a team intent on chasing big fish with ridiculously light line, Batterton and Jacobsen couldn't do better than a G&S, so when they finally found Hookin' Bull in May 2007, they made the purchase; the rest, as they say, is history. And at the same time, it's just the beginning for this team. Hookin' Bull and Jacobsen's new 90-foot mothership, Marlin HQ, will soon head off for more adventures with hopes of setting some new light-tackle world records. They certainly have all the right tools to make it happen.
