Dolphin Dreamboat
By Fritz Grell
What if you could build and outfit exactly the
kind of boat you wanted to catch your favorite species? This is the underlying concept of our longstanding One Man’s Dreamboat series. For reader Richard DeLizza of Pembroke Pines, the fish of choice is dolphin. When DeLizza sent a photo reply to our online inquiry in late 2007,
we knew right away, that’s the boat.
Everything about the Rock Boat IV is tailored for one purpose—finding and catching the biggest dolphin that swim the Gulf Stream. DeLizza has been so successful on his 2005 Intrepid 377, he was selected to help in a new dolphin satellite tagging program, run by Don Hammond in South Carolina. They’ve tagged three over 30 pounds so far (visit www.dolphintagging.com for interesting information).
Let’s take a close look at DeLizza’s boat. If you fish out of Islamorada, you might see her in person this month. DeLizza, a Broward County resident whose firm deals in electrical equipment sales, fishes the Florida Keys exclusively during prime dolphin season.
Intrepid Boats have a reputation as well-built sea boats and have earned a loyal following. The boats are semi-custom, so when DeLizza went to have his third Intrepid built, he was able to incorporate the special features he needed for his style of fishing.
The 377 is a walkaround that features on-deck U-shaped seating, nice accommodations for trips to The Bahamas and the sea-keeping abilities to get home again thanks to a 22.5-degree deadrise, stepped hull and triple 250 Yamaha four strokes.
As DeLizza designed his boat to hunt for quality dolphin, not just any dolphin, his first and foremost concern was the ability to locate flotsam, edges and birds. He explains that you are at a huge disadvantage without a tower and might “literally ride right past most of your best opportunities.” He ordered a custom tower through High Seas Fabrication in Stuart, Florida.
For details that might escape the naked eye, a Furuno RD30 Remote Digital Display sounds a temperature monitor alarm which alerts the crew to subtle temperature breaks. The RD30 displays the temperature graphically and the alarm can be set in tenths of a degree. DeLizza advises that during dolphin season when the water is warm, “temperature breaks as small as three-tenths are a good indicator of some current convergence that may be collecting flotsam and fish.”
Finding the birds which have already found the fish is also of utmost importance. DeLizza selected a very powerful open-array 12kW unit that enables the Rock Boat IV team to locate action well beyond the range of other vessels. Since large dolphin are often accompanied by only a few birds, the open array was needed to find two or three birds several miles away. A less powerful unit would be suitable for tuna birds, which are normally in large flocks, but to detect a frigatebird or two or just a couple of terns, high power is required.
The Furuno NavNet2 provides the allimportant radar function as well as the navigation information, chartplotter, satellite weather and 2kW depth/fish finder. There are two large displays at the helm station which allow for all information to be displayed at once via split screens or the most important information at the time to appear on a full screen. Also at the center console helm is the Furuno RD30 digital depthfinder and temperature monitor with graph and alarm; compass; Yamaha engine gauges; bow thruster, trim tab and windlass controls; stereo remote, VHF radio, Simrad autopilot, EPIRB, hydraulic steering and electronic engine controls. The NavNet2 display in the tower is compact due to space available but can display any of the information needed while operating from the upper station. Completing the upper station is a compass, autopilot control, engine gauges, electronic engine controls, bow thruster and trim tab controls, VHF and hydraulic steering.
The tower suits the boat well. The hardtop provides protection for the forward seating area, especially with the enclosure in place, and has an overhang aft to cover the lower helm area. Completely customized for DeLizza’s boat, the tower has Birdsall teaser reels built into the hard top, two rod holders at the upper station, eight rod holders around the aft portion of the hard top, a center rigger and 24-foot single spreader Rupp outriggers. The center rigger allows for one bait to be deployed down the center of the spread. The 24-footers are rigged with double halyards and release clips to fish short and long rigger baits from each side. The halyards are different colors so the short, long and teaser retriever lines can quickly and easily be identified in the triple sheave pulleys.
Once DeLizza has found conditions he wants to fish, a seven bait trolling spread is set out. The target is big dolphin, so the short, long and center rigger rods are roller guide rods with Penn International 30VSW reels. International 20s are on the flatlines and a host of other rods are ready, from pitch baits to 12-pound spinning reels. Twenty rod holders allow the crew to be prepared for any size dolphin with an appropriate rod and reel. Port and starboard teasers are controlled by the manual teaser reels in the hardtop and run from the outriggers. A squid daisy chain is run long from one outrigger and a large teaser that simulates a feeding predator is pulled short from the other rigger. DeLizza feels the spread of seven baits and two teasers creates a “bait school illusion” to the fish, thus enticing the strike. Enough hooks and rigging material for any situation are also stored aboard in the two tackle stations. Small items are stored in the helm seat tackle locker; large gear fits in the custom forward tackle locker.
DeLizza’s favored dolphin bait is a pin-rigged ballyhoo/lure combination with a bullet or concave nose Iland-style lure. He rigs these with 8/0 2X strong O’Shaughnessy J hooks with 130-poundtest fluorocarbon leader. The J hook is placed almost halfway back in the medium or large ballyhoo. On calm days when scattered grass is not a problem, a naked split-bill ballyhoo is rigged with a 1⁄4-ounce chin weight and added to the spread. Although geared up for trolling, the boat is also set up with 30-gallon and 15-gallon livewells to keep plenty of pitch baits kicking and ready.
Running the boat from the tower provides an excellent view of the baits and how they are swimming. Seeing a fish come into the spread and alerting the crew gives the team a much better chance of a successful hookup. Constantly on the lookout for fish and conditions from this vantage point keeps them in the hunt the entire day. When fishing floating debris or weeds, large fish can be spotted and targeted from the tower, and the smaller fish avoided. While all of this is important, DeLizza advises that, “Perhaps the most important accessory on any tower boat is a topflight mate to run the pit.” On the Intrepid, Richard’s brother Bob runs the cockpit flawlessly, allowing Richard to stay in the tower and concentrate on finding fish.
Given their success at catching dolphin, one of the custom features on the Intrepid seemed a bit odd at first: a custom smaller fishbox. The standard box is so big, Richard reduced the size so he could be sure his catch would be iced properly. The box is still plenty big and may well be the first thing to wear out on the boat.
Florida Sportsman (May 2008)
www.floridasportsman.com
