Sitting on the flybridge with Capt. Brad Philipps at the wheel, pulling baits and teasers across Guatemala’s offshore grounds — the most productive billfish waters in the world — I keep thinking about lions. “You don’t want to be a male lion,” the 53-year-old South African had said the night before as we ate fresh wahoo under a palapa at his Billfish Inn.
Young male lions are pushed out of the pride and forced to live and hunt alone or in small groups, Philipps explained. Half of them don’t reach adulthood. If they do survive, the males will seek out an alpha to battle in hopes of taking over a pride. Alpha males must fight for their standing day after day. Their time on top is brutal and brief. While the life of a charter captain is far more comfortable than that of a male lion, I see vague similarities, battling a constant onslaught of obstacles such as boat issues, weather days and fuel prices. It takes determination, passion and hard work to stay on top.
For more than two decades, Philipps has been an alpha lion of this fishery, amassing unthinkable billfish releases along with hardware and accolades — he has won The Billfish Foundation’s Top Over-all Release Captain award 16 times. In 2016, his best year, boats he captained released an astounding 4,057 billfish.
