August 3, 2025 • 17 mins
Doug's incredible interview with Cameron Plaag, for your listening pleasure. Originally aired on August 3rd, 2025.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
By Welcome Back, eight thirty four on Sports Talk seven
ninety has promised I got a guy on the phone
that I want to get on the phone right now
because we're on a short short lease today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Cameron Plug. How you doing man, Hey Doug, good morning man.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I'm doing great, running on running on coffee and breakfast
talking to those man, I'm doing fine. I Cameron Plogg,
for those of you who don't know, is probably the
only man on the planet who can lay claim to
what you what you've done, man, young guy too, so
no telling what's next for the son of an old
friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome Cam.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I heard lots of people over the past two days
talking about what happened to you and your crew out
there pre fishing for the tiff.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
But the Texas International Fishing Tournament.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
For those who don't know, why don't you walk us
through that day?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, we just we just wrapped up with the tournament,
and uh yeah, man, these these these Texas tournaments are
extremely competitive, Doug. There's there's thirty or forty of the
best fishing teams on the coast all of Texas, and
and uh and everybody is grinding, have great teams and
uh it's a very very competitive field. So to be
able to be in the mix and fishing against these
(01:10):
guys is like fishing against James Blog and a trout tournament.
You know, it's it's a it's a big competition. So, uh,
everybody goes out there. Everybody goes out there and practices.
You know, the more time you spend on the water,
the better you're, the more dialed in you are, the
better your crew operates, the more water you cover, and
(01:33):
the more things you see and and it helps to.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Stay on and pattern the fish.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
So uh, you know, the guy that we worked for,
mister Rodd, he's uh, he's all about go, go go.
And we were able to make it out there and
fish Tuesday and Wednesday before the tournament. We left on Thursday,
and uh, you know, you never know what you're gonna
see out there. And that's what I love about fishing
and ashore fishing so much, you know. And uh on Wednesday,
(02:01):
we h we started out in an area that we
all agreed on that would be you know, hopefully productive,
and uh man we uh we caught a blue marlin
you know, about eight thirty, which was great. Took us
a little while to catch it because it was a
you know, two hundred and fifty three hundred pound fish.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Nasty, yeah, just a teen, just a nasty teen.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
So we we landed a blue marlin. We put the
stuff back out. We landed a white marlin.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Pretty soon after that.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
We called a white marlin white right in the same spot.
And uh then we went for a long time and
didn't catch anything. The bike kind of slowed down, the
bait kind of went away, and we picked up and
made a little move and uh, we had had two
bites at once, what you know, trolling valley Who's and
you know, natural Bay with circle hooks, and uh, boom.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
We caught a sailfish. Sweet.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
So everybody's really everybody's excited because you know, when you
catch three different species of bill fish in the same days,
that's pretty cool. You've caught a grand slam. That's that's
pretty that's pretty grand. And and and then so that's
big time. And you know, as funny as it is,
we're trolling around same area and uh and we're joking
(03:14):
about like, hey man, they ever catching these spearfish out
here in the Gulf and it's and we're joking like, man,
you know they do. They're they're out here, you know,
they're they're pretty rare, but you know, spearfish are they're
out there, you know, especially this time of the year
when all these they all all the billfish kind of
moved together, you know, the seems like the marlin or
at the head of the school or the tale of
(03:35):
the school, and then the sales kind of straggle, you know,
in between the groups of marlin and.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Uh, unicorns.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
It's a it's a unicorn, it really is. And I've
never been so we're trolling. All of a sudden, boom,
we get a we get a bite.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And it was a very peculiar bite.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It hit it hit one line and then it it
We didn't have it hooked up, and then it darted
to the other side of the of the boat.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And I was looking back and I said, that's it.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
That's a billfish. And then boom, one of our anglers
gets gets the bite and he's tight and no, the
fish never jumped or anything. So now we're backing down
bur We're backing down and uh and and we get
close to it and it does a little headshake. While
I'm yelling down from the bridge. I'm like, man, I
think that's a spearfish. And and and and and you know,
(04:32):
people have been this season, there's been a lot of
juvenile white marlin.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, been caught ball, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah. And and this this fish, this unicorn, it just
looked different. It had very defined stripes and had a
very unique dorsal fin. The the the bill itself was
very short, and uh and I told my mate, I said,
don't break it off.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Don't break it off.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Let's get a good look at it. And we wired
it up to the boat. And uh, it was very
it was hard to tell, Doug, you know, you don't
really know. And I told my mate, I said, reach
you on there and pick it up and bring it
in the boat. And so leaned over, grabbed the little
bill and pulled the fish in the boat. And we
were all just kind of shocked because it looked like
(05:20):
nothing that we have ever caught.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And uh and and it was.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It was a long bill atlantic spearfish. And and we
got very good pictures and and documentation of all the
catches this day and the marlin.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
We got videos of everything.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And what was cool was is we we tagged the
little spearfish and we took some really really good pictures
and got all the angles, and we put it back
in the water and she's he swam, he swam off,
you know, which was which was a feat? You know?
So now we've done caught a super slam what they
(05:59):
call all that. So a super slam you get forced
speaces bill fish in the same day, and really and
truly there's only a handful of places in the world
that have that the capability of having a super slam.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, not everywhere. And then you know, a black marlin.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Would be considered, but but there's only a few places
where you can get a blue black sale stripe. A
few places. So now we're all scratching our head, going, well,
what do we do now, you know, do we keep
fishing here in the same area, or do we go
try to fish for a sword fish, the other one,
(06:39):
the last unicorn.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Hey, do me a favor. Let's leave them hanging right
here right now, and we'll come back and we'll let
them know what happened. Okay, stand by, Yes, let me
hold got that. Cam's on hold. We'll finish the story
when we get back. Don't get ahead of us, Okay, Hey, Cam,
we're back.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Man, Hey Doug, thanks for having me on here.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, Cameron plog here with us.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So we left him wondering whether or not you were
going to catch a swordfish with the cats out of
the bag.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Talk about that, man, Well yeah, we left them biting.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Man. Well so we we we so now and you know,
people are fishing for swordfish in the daytime now, it's
not just the nighttime thing. So you can you can
drop a bait down all the way to the bottom
and fifteen hundred and sixteen hundred foot and and and
have a chance at catching.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
A sword fish, buddy.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
And so so we had our we had our Grand Slam,
and then we caught a spearfish and we had our
our Super Slam. And the last thing to do was
go try for a swordfish. And uh, it's just kind
of crazy, you know, So why not do some judge?
Why not?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Right, So we had to We had to unspool one
of our reels and respool it with.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
A braided line, because that's how you get down. You
don't have that stretch when you're when you're down dropping
down deep. So we we we top shoted one of
our Talica fifties with a braided line from our our
deep drop reel, right, and because to make it all
like kind of official, you got to catch it on
a on a rod reel. You can't use an electric
(08:14):
so man, you know, it took us about twenty minutes
to get all rigged up, and we we ran over
to another spot where there's you know, been known to
have swordfish, and all right, boom, we put our bait
down and we made a big, huge long drift and
nothing we got, we got we got, we didn't get one,
and and it's kind of like, oh, everybody's kind of
biting their biting their nails, like oh man, And so
(08:37):
we reeled up. You know, we had to reel the
reel up from fifteen hundred feet by hand with no fish,
reel it on up and then and then re set
up and get you know, make another drift, and we
set back up, put the bait down, and we drifted
for about five minutes. And at this time, I'm biting
my nails, you know, I don't know, I'm just thinking, okay, well,
you know, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be,
(08:59):
you know, said a little prayer to up there on
the bridge. And about that time my mate said, there
he is, and the and the rod shook and he
dropped back and he started to crank really fast to
try to get tight.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And everybody's saying, pull ahead, pull ahead, because that kind of.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Helps set the hook. When you go forward, that gets
the slack out of the line. And we're tight to
a swordfish.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Now, wow, we got him. We got him on the
talic of fifteen. And my boss's son he he's on.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
The rod and he's cranking, cranking, cranking, and we we're tight.
We stay on and here here we fought it for
about fifteen minutes and we're reeling, cranking, cranking, cranking, and okay,
here comes the cannonball led l attack to the line.
So my mate reaches out there and bloom, he unclips
the line. The swordfish does some head shaking. He comes
(09:55):
and he jumps right by the boat and then all
of a sudden, whoo, takes a bunch of line and
he takes us back down to four five hundred feet.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
He's not dragging that cannonball anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Now, he's just trod, no no extra way. And I'm going, man,
why didn't you guys gaff it like we couldn't gaff
it it?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Was jumping in the air.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I said, I know, I know, I know, and uh
and okay, so battle was back on and uh my
our angler fought the fish, got him back up, did
a real good job.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Of staying tight.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And they're they're really pretty fish, Doug. And really the
sword fish is you know, you can go like target
them like, okay, I want to go sword fishing. And
that was I guess we saved the most targetable for last,
and which was not not intentional, but it just happened
to be that way, which is why I think it
(10:51):
worked out the way that it did. And here comes
the fish. He's fall purple and lit up and boom.
We stick a couple of gafs in him and slide
him on in the boat. And before we can even
get the transom door closed, I'm on plane heading back
to Porto Rica. Yeah, buddy, And to make it even
you know, it was a flat, calm ride home and
(11:13):
we made it in at eight point thirty, right before
the sun went down, to complete a documented fantasy slam.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Okay, I got a better name for it than that.
I'm telling you. I've been thinking about this.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Are you ready? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Henceforth, throughout the land, and somebody's gonna pick this up
and we're gonna run with it.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
It's gonna be the cam Slam. Are you kidding me?
The cam Slam?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, the ca Who else would get one but the
guy who was also on the boat for the blue
fin tuna rech state record.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Who else would get one?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Also on the boat for the previous but nonetheless blue
marlin record in the state of Texas. Man, you are
you got a basket full of rabbits feed and four
leaf clovers in your pocket?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Or what? Man? They said, I am pretty superstitious when
it comes to fish. You know, I wear I wear
my lucky shorts during tournament. Sure got all kind of little.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Voodoo and and who.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Doo that we pull out throughout the day on a
on a slow day to try to bring the luck.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Man, you know, let me let me.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I don't mean to interrupt you, but I gotta tell
you this. I don't want to run out of time here.
There's a lot of luck, a little luck involved in
this stuff, but it takes a lot of skill to
be in the right spot at the right time and
pull off stuff like this. And it's it's no coincidence
really that that you were on all three of those boats.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
That parts all you.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Man, you you wouldn't have been there if you weren't
one of the top guys in the business. And that's
testament to your hard work, to your dedication, and probably
a lot of listening to your dad when you were
a kid.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I would bet too, huh.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Man, it's the the work ethic, Doug that my dad
instilled in me as a young man. And and passion
for fishing. Uh, that's what drives me, is is I
love to fish, and I like to be successful, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And it's not it's not.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Always a guarantee and and and sport fishing, it's a
team effort. Man. This is not, you know, wade fishing.
You're out there, you're kind of by yourself, you're casting.
But I have to give a lot of credit to
the boss and the team because everybody played a major
role in in this particular day. Everybody caught fish. Uh,
(13:27):
everybody was on their their best game. My crew did
everything right. We didn't lose any fish. We caught one
of everything. It's not like we have a lot of
extra bites and and and and and I think that's
that's that's the biggest thing. You can be lucky. I mean,
a little luck goes a long way, but your preparation
(13:48):
and and the effort that you put into every day,
each and every single day is what.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Drives the results. You know, who's lucky. You know who's
lucky is the people who were able to get you
on their boats. My friend lucky.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I'm lucky to be uh, it's lucky to be lucky,
and I'm blessed to be uh uh desirable crew. You know. Uh,
We're all gonna work hard and try our best every
given day. And I wish we could have got a
win in this tournament, but you know we kind of
it just cam us, that's for sure. You know. But
(14:30):
in decision making, you know, there's a lot of decisions
that have to be made throughout the day, and you know,
do you zig when you should have zagged? And I
think this this tournament, I I I made a run
and I should have.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Ran the other way. And that's that's on me.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
You know, that was.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Second guess yourself, man, No, you you you made the
right choice at the right time, and in hindsight, you
learn something.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
That's right, and we're gonna keep going and we're not
gonna stop until we get this stuff really really.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Die in and and you know, we're.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Looking for a big podium finish hopefully and then in
one of the tournaments, the last couple of tournaments here
in the summer.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
So what's next, summer, what's next?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Uh? This this following weekend coming up in Port Ransas
is the Texas Legends Bill.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
It's another another good one.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
It brings a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
To Port Rams and all the a lot of the
same teams will be fishing and it's gonna be a
battle baby. All right, Well, god knows what you're gonna
do next two weeks from now, who knows. Camp We're
gonna keep fishing and try to say on them do.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Something cool, man, let me know we will.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
We will. Hey, I got to talk to you this morning,
this morning.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That's pretty cool to me. Well, thank you, I appreciate that.
I appreciate your time. Man, catch them.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Up, We'll see you. Thanks, thank you very much, Doug.
Thanks pleasure. Yes, sir, I bless everybody.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, that's a good dude, right there. Raise well work
ethic you heard him mention that, and I can see
I can see James getting on Cameron when he was
young and making sure he was doing things the right
way the first time. And that's why James Podd has
been as successful as he has in this business.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It's not easy. Charter fishing of any kind is not easy.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
And what Cam's doing when you've got an entire crew
of guys underneath you working, everybody has a job.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
And I'll tell you a little secret.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
If you ever get invited to go on and do
an offshore tournament and you're not twenty five or twenty
eight years old and been working out all your life,
if somebody turns around and kind of looks around says
who wants to be the official designated angler for this tournament?
Which means basically, if you spend five or six hours
in a chair, maybe you see your name written on
(16:47):
a chalkboard next to the way to the fish when
you come in, just say no, I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I'll do something else. I'll work the chair. Say I'll
work the chair.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And then you get to stand behind the guy who's
huffing and puffing in his his arms don't even work anymore.
He could barely turn the handle. I've been in both
spots and as a as a senior. Now the chair
is way easier that grinding on big fish is a
young man's game. I promise you it's a young man's game.
By Welcome Back, eight thirty four on Sports Talk seven
ninety has promised I got a guy on the phone
that I want to get on the phone right now
because we're on a short short lease today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Cameron Plug. How you doing man, Hey Doug, good morning man.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I'm doing great, running on running on coffee and breakfast
talking to those man, I'm doing fine. I Cameron Plogg,
for those of you who don't know, is probably the
only man on the planet who can lay claim to
what you what you've done, man, young guy too, so
no telling what's next for the son of an old
friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome Cam.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I heard lots of people over the past two days
talking about what happened to you and your crew out
there pre fishing for the tiff.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
But the Texas International Fishing Tournament.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
For those who don't know, why don't you walk us
through that day?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, we just we just wrapped up with the tournament,
and uh yeah, man, these these these Texas tournaments are
extremely competitive, Doug. There's there's thirty or forty of the
best fishing teams on the coast all of Texas, and
and uh and everybody is grinding, have great teams and
uh it's a very very competitive field. So to be
able to be in the mix and fishing against these
(01:10):
guys is like fishing against James Blog and a trout tournament.
You know, it's it's a it's a big competition. So, uh,
everybody goes out there. Everybody goes out there and practices.
You know, the more time you spend on the water,
the better you're, the more dialed in you are, the
better your crew operates, the more water you cover, and
(01:33):
the more things you see and and it helps to.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Stay on and pattern the fish.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
So uh, you know, the guy that we worked for,
mister Rodd, he's uh, he's all about go, go go.
And we were able to make it out there and
fish Tuesday and Wednesday before the tournament. We left on Thursday,
and uh, you know, you never know what you're gonna
see out there. And that's what I love about fishing
and ashore fishing so much, you know. And uh on Wednesday,
(02:01):
we h we started out in an area that we
all agreed on that would be you know, hopefully productive,
and uh man we uh we caught a blue marlin
you know, about eight thirty, which was great. Took us
a little while to catch it because it was a
you know, two hundred and fifty three hundred pound fish.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Nasty, yeah, just a teen, just a nasty teen.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
So we we landed a blue marlin. We put the
stuff back out. We landed a white marlin.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Pretty soon after that.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
We called a white marlin white right in the same spot.
And uh then we went for a long time and
didn't catch anything. The bike kind of slowed down, the
bait kind of went away, and we picked up and
made a little move and uh, we had had two
bites at once, what you know, trolling valley Who's and
you know, natural Bay with circle hooks, and uh, boom.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
We caught a sailfish. Sweet.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
So everybody's really everybody's excited because you know, when you
catch three different species of bill fish in the same days,
that's pretty cool. You've caught a grand slam. That's that's
pretty that's pretty grand. And and and then so that's
big time. And you know, as funny as it is,
we're trolling around same area and uh and we're joking
(03:14):
about like, hey man, they ever catching these spearfish out
here in the Gulf and it's and we're joking like, man,
you know they do. They're they're out here, you know,
they're they're pretty rare, but you know, spearfish are they're
out there, you know, especially this time of the year
when all these they all all the billfish kind of
moved together, you know, the seems like the marlin or
at the head of the school or the tale of
(03:35):
the school, and then the sales kind of straggle, you know,
in between the groups of marlin and.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Uh, unicorns.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
It's a it's a unicorn, it really is. And I've
never been so we're trolling. All of a sudden, boom,
we get a we get a bite.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And it was a very peculiar bite.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It hit it hit one line and then it it
We didn't have it hooked up, and then it darted
to the other side of the of the boat.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And I was looking back and I said, that's it.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
That's a billfish. And then boom, one of our anglers
gets gets the bite and he's tight and no, the
fish never jumped or anything. So now we're backing down
bur We're backing down and uh and and we get
close to it and it does a little headshake. While
I'm yelling down from the bridge. I'm like, man, I
think that's a spearfish. And and and and and you know,
(04:32):
people have been this season, there's been a lot of
juvenile white marlin.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, been caught ball, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah. And and this this fish, this unicorn, it just
looked different. It had very defined stripes and had a
very unique dorsal fin. The the the bill itself was
very short, and uh and I told my mate, I said,
don't break it off.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Don't break it off.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Let's get a good look at it. And we wired
it up to the boat. And uh, it was very
it was hard to tell, Doug, you know, you don't
really know. And I told my mate, I said, reach
you on there and pick it up and bring it
in the boat. And so leaned over, grabbed the little
bill and pulled the fish in the boat. And we
were all just kind of shocked because it looked like
(05:20):
nothing that we have ever caught.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And uh and and it was.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It was a long bill atlantic spearfish. And and we
got very good pictures and and documentation of all the
catches this day and the marlin.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
We got videos of everything.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And what was cool was is we we tagged the
little spearfish and we took some really really good pictures
and got all the angles, and we put it back
in the water and she's he swam, he swam off,
you know, which was which was a feat? You know?
So now we've done caught a super slam what they
(05:59):
call all that. So a super slam you get forced
speaces bill fish in the same day, and really and
truly there's only a handful of places in the world
that have that the capability of having a super slam.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, not everywhere. And then you know, a black marlin.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Would be considered, but but there's only a few places
where you can get a blue black sale stripe. A
few places. So now we're all scratching our head, going, well,
what do we do now, you know, do we keep
fishing here in the same area, or do we go
try to fish for a sword fish, the other one,
(06:39):
the last unicorn.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Hey, do me a favor. Let's leave them hanging right
here right now, and we'll come back and we'll let
them know what happened. Okay, stand by, Yes, let me
hold got that. Cam's on hold. We'll finish the story
when we get back. Don't get ahead of us, Okay, Hey, Cam,
we're back.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Man, Hey Doug, thanks for having me on here.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, Cameron plog here with us.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So we left him wondering whether or not you were
going to catch a swordfish with the cats out of
the bag.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Talk about that, man, Well yeah, we left them biting.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Man. Well so we we we so now and you know,
people are fishing for swordfish in the daytime now, it's
not just the nighttime thing. So you can you can
drop a bait down all the way to the bottom
and fifteen hundred and sixteen hundred foot and and and
have a chance at catching.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
A sword fish, buddy.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
And so so we had our we had our Grand Slam,
and then we caught a spearfish and we had our
our Super Slam. And the last thing to do was
go try for a swordfish. And uh, it's just kind
of crazy, you know, So why not do some judge?
Why not?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Right, So we had to We had to unspool one
of our reels and respool it with.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
A braided line, because that's how you get down. You
don't have that stretch when you're when you're down dropping
down deep. So we we we top shoted one of
our Talica fifties with a braided line from our our
deep drop reel, right, and because to make it all
like kind of official, you got to catch it on
a on a rod reel. You can't use an electric
(08:14):
so man, you know, it took us about twenty minutes
to get all rigged up, and we we ran over
to another spot where there's you know, been known to
have swordfish, and all right, boom, we put our bait
down and we made a big, huge long drift and
nothing we got, we got we got, we didn't get one,
and and it's kind of like, oh, everybody's kind of
biting their biting their nails, like oh man, And so
(08:37):
we reeled up. You know, we had to reel the
reel up from fifteen hundred feet by hand with no fish,
reel it on up and then and then re set
up and get you know, make another drift, and we
set back up, put the bait down, and we drifted
for about five minutes. And at this time, I'm biting
my nails, you know, I don't know, I'm just thinking, okay, well,
you know, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be,
(08:59):
you know, said a little prayer to up there on
the bridge. And about that time my mate said, there
he is, and the and the rod shook and he
dropped back and he started to crank really fast to
try to get tight.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And everybody's saying, pull ahead, pull ahead, because that kind of.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Helps set the hook. When you go forward, that gets
the slack out of the line. And we're tight to
a swordfish.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Now, wow, we got him. We got him on the
talic of fifteen. And my boss's son he he's on.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
The rod and he's cranking, cranking, cranking, and we we're tight.
We stay on and here here we fought it for
about fifteen minutes and we're reeling, cranking, cranking, cranking, and okay,
here comes the cannonball led l attack to the line.
So my mate reaches out there and bloom, he unclips
the line. The swordfish does some head shaking. He comes
(09:55):
and he jumps right by the boat and then all
of a sudden, whoo, takes a bunch of line and
he takes us back down to four five hundred feet.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
He's not dragging that cannonball anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Now, he's just trod, no no extra way. And I'm going, man,
why didn't you guys gaff it like we couldn't gaff
it it?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Was jumping in the air.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I said, I know, I know, I know, and uh
and okay, so battle was back on and uh my
our angler fought the fish, got him back up, did
a real good job.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Of staying tight.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And they're they're really pretty fish, Doug. And really the
sword fish is you know, you can go like target
them like, okay, I want to go sword fishing. And
that was I guess we saved the most targetable for last,
and which was not not intentional, but it just happened
to be that way, which is why I think it
(10:51):
worked out the way that it did. And here comes
the fish. He's fall purple and lit up and boom.
We stick a couple of gafs in him and slide
him on in the boat. And before we can even
get the transom door closed, I'm on plane heading back
to Porto Rica. Yeah, buddy, And to make it even
you know, it was a flat, calm ride home and
(11:13):
we made it in at eight point thirty, right before
the sun went down, to complete a documented fantasy slam.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Okay, I got a better name for it than that.
I'm telling you. I've been thinking about this.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Are you ready? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Henceforth, throughout the land, and somebody's gonna pick this up
and we're gonna run with it.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
It's gonna be the cam Slam. Are you kidding me?
The cam Slam?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, the ca Who else would get one but the
guy who was also on the boat for the blue
fin tuna rech state record.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Who else would get one?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Also on the boat for the previous but nonetheless blue
marlin record in the state of Texas. Man, you are
you got a basket full of rabbits feed and four
leaf clovers in your pocket?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Or what? Man? They said, I am pretty superstitious when
it comes to fish. You know, I wear I wear
my lucky shorts during tournament. Sure got all kind of little.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Voodoo and and who.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Doo that we pull out throughout the day on a
on a slow day to try to bring the luck.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Man, you know, let me let me.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I don't mean to interrupt you, but I gotta tell
you this. I don't want to run out of time here.
There's a lot of luck, a little luck involved in
this stuff, but it takes a lot of skill to
be in the right spot at the right time and
pull off stuff like this. And it's it's no coincidence
really that that you were on all three of those boats.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
That parts all you.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Man, you you wouldn't have been there if you weren't
one of the top guys in the business. And that's
testament to your hard work, to your dedication, and probably
a lot of listening to your dad when you were
a kid.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I would bet too, huh.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Man, it's the the work ethic, Doug that my dad
instilled in me as a young man. And and passion
for fishing. Uh, that's what drives me, is is I
love to fish, and I like to be successful, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And it's not it's not.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Always a guarantee and and and sport fishing, it's a
team effort. Man. This is not, you know, wade fishing.
You're out there, you're kind of by yourself, you're casting.
But I have to give a lot of credit to
the boss and the team because everybody played a major
role in in this particular day. Everybody caught fish. Uh,
(13:27):
everybody was on their their best game. My crew did
everything right. We didn't lose any fish. We caught one
of everything. It's not like we have a lot of
extra bites and and and and and I think that's
that's that's the biggest thing. You can be lucky. I mean,
a little luck goes a long way, but your preparation
(13:48):
and and the effort that you put into every day,
each and every single day is what.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Drives the results. You know, who's lucky. You know who's
lucky is the people who were able to get you
on their boats. My friend lucky.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I'm lucky to be uh, it's lucky to be lucky,
and I'm blessed to be uh uh desirable crew. You know. Uh,
We're all gonna work hard and try our best every
given day. And I wish we could have got a
win in this tournament, but you know we kind of
it just cam us, that's for sure. You know. But
(14:30):
in decision making, you know, there's a lot of decisions
that have to be made throughout the day, and you know,
do you zig when you should have zagged? And I
think this this tournament, I I I made a run
and I should have.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Ran the other way. And that's that's on me.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
You know, that was.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Second guess yourself, man, No, you you you made the
right choice at the right time, and in hindsight, you
learn something.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
That's right, and we're gonna keep going and we're not
gonna stop until we get this stuff really really.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Die in and and you know, we're.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Looking for a big podium finish hopefully and then in
one of the tournaments, the last couple of tournaments here
in the summer.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
So what's next, summer, what's next?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Uh? This this following weekend coming up in Port Ransas
is the Texas Legends Bill.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
It's another another good one.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
It brings a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
To Port Rams and all the a lot of the
same teams will be fishing and it's gonna be a
battle baby. All right, Well, god knows what you're gonna
do next two weeks from now, who knows. Camp We're
gonna keep fishing and try to say on them do.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Something cool, man, let me know we will.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
We will. Hey, I got to talk to you this morning,
this morning.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That's pretty cool to me. Well, thank you, I appreciate that.
I appreciate your time. Man, catch them.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Up, We'll see you. Thanks, thank you very much, Doug.
Thanks pleasure. Yes, sir, I bless everybody.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, that's a good dude, right there. Raise well work
ethic you heard him mention that, and I can see
I can see James getting on Cameron when he was
young and making sure he was doing things the right
way the first time. And that's why James Podd has
been as successful as he has in this business.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It's not easy. Charter fishing of any kind is not easy.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
And what Cam's doing when you've got an entire crew
of guys underneath you working, everybody has a job.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
And I'll tell you a little secret.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
If you ever get invited to go on and do
an offshore tournament and you're not twenty five or twenty
eight years old and been working out all your life,
if somebody turns around and kind of looks around says
who wants to be the official designated angler for this tournament?
Which means basically, if you spend five or six hours
in a chair, maybe you see your name written on
(16:47):
a chalkboard next to the way to the fish when
you come in, just say no, I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I'll do something else. I'll work the chair. Say I'll
work the chair.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And then you get to stand behind the guy who's
huffing and puffing in his his arms don't even work anymore.
He could barely turn the handle. I've been in both
spots and as a as a senior. Now the chair
is way easier that grinding on big fish is a
young man's game. I promise you it's a young man's game.
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