Jake Worthington ● Pelican Sportfishing ● Outer Banks of North Carolina
Jake Worthington is entering his third year of full-time offshore sportfishing in the Outer Banks in Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. Jake has worked one year on the Seaducer with Captain David Daniels and is entering his second year with Captain Arch Bracher on the Pelican. Only a couple years in, Jake has certainly made a name for himself in Oregon Inlet fishing and he shares his story along with a few secrets below.
How did you get your start fishing?
Like most fishermen, it started with humble beginnings. I started fishing in the canal behind our neighbor’s house in Camden County, NC on the Pasquotank River. Along the same timeline, I was introduced to surf fishing by my father and grandfather on the Outer Banks catching fish like sea mullets (whiting), pompano and puppy drums. When I got older I was invited on trips offshore on boats like the Swordfish when Jim Rickman ran that boat as well as Tony Tillett’s Carolinian. I also had the opportunity to fish with a good friend of my Grandfather, Pat McCotter on the Sea Spud skippered by Pete Rae.
Who would you say was your biggest mentor?
I honestly can’t narrow it down to one. I’ve had the opportunity to be around a lot of fishy people who I look up to and love like family. Among these are, of course, my current Captain, Arch Bracher. I’ve known him since I was a young lad and met him and his twin brother Pat (also on the list) on the Avalon Fishing pier in the Fall of 2008. Another person I can’t leave out from mentioning is Spurgeon Stowe. He was very influential in showing me the finer parts of running a boat at a young age.
The Oregon Inlet Fishing Center has quite the reputation for camaraderie, is that still the case, what is it like to be a part of the Fishing Center community?
Being a part of not only the fishing center, but the Oregon Inlet community is truly a beautiful thing. If you show effort and an eagerness to learn the guys around you will help you. In my first season with Double D I know that Billon on the [Fishin'] Frenzy, Mick on the Al’s Gal, and Gunner on the Skirt Chaser were tired of me. However, they were always willing to answer any questions I had from tackle to boat upkeep tips. The same goes for my dock partners on the East side of the creek although there is a slight age discrepancy. Having that experience around you is definitely first class.
You are pretty new to the Oregon Inlet fleet. Tell me a little about fishing with David Daniels on the Seaducer and what your first year fishing in the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center was like?
My first year fishing out of the fishing center was honestly a dream come true. I was thankful to be a part of the world renowned fleet. What a lot of people don’t know is that David Daniels is a hell of a fisherman and I found that out quickly. He taught me a lot in my first season as a full time charter mate and it definitely made an impact. We made a really good team and I will remember that season the rest of my career.
Describe your ideal spread fishing for tunas.
On the Pelican, we value catching a marlin as much as we value catching a tuna. If you put out a dink bait spread over the 100 fathom curve, the tunas will find you. In all seriousness, here it is:
Standard operating procedure we like to keep a good mixture of light and dark baits.
On our flatlines, we fish two seawitches with pink heads. One is purple with a strip of purple hair and the other is black and purple hair.
For our short riggers, we like to use one pink chain and one green chain to match the teaser chains. I have noticed I get a lot more bites when we mimic our teaser chains with our short rigger chains. Sometimes in the true blue water, I'll sneak in the green chain and switch it with a black chain with a blue and black seawitch. It seems like the bigeyes hunt that thing down!
On my long short riggers, we use seawitches. For one of them, I like purple and blue with a blue head and one straight crystal hair with blue or purple heads. If I had to bet on one position and one color to save my day; give me a straight crystal with a blue head in my right downstairs long rigger every day that ends in Y.
Our short shotgun bait is SEA STAR, SEA STAR, SEA STAR. I love a sea star on 220 Momoi extra hard. I can't tell you how many times we are fishing WFB's (Way F'ing Back long riggers) and that thing gets crushed. It really leaves you scratching your head. Plus bigeyes and blue marlins love it. We caught a 273lb bigeye this past year on a purple and black one. It's not my favorite color sea star, but it was that day!
Give me a supreme (blue, white, and a touch of pink) seawitch on my long shotgun with 100lb flurocarbon
For the long riggers, give me a blue and crystal or blue and paper towel white all day long and for the other, I'll jump around between a pink skirt with all purple hair or a black and blue with 100lb flurocarbon leader here as well.
The Pelican has always been a successful fishing boat, what do you think you guys do differently than other boats to give you more success?
I attribute the vast majority of this success to the man in the bridge. Arch is an absolute animal out there, there’s no other way to describe it. He is always looking for some sort of sign of a fish. Every day that boat leaves the dock in the spring, Arch's goal is to find a tuna, or 18. His focus and level of intensity keeps me on my toes, and in turn, allows me to put out a good product because I’m going to try and give 10% more effort than he is. Just to give readers an idea, our bottom machine (fish finder) crapped out on us about two weeks (May 12th-ish) into our 2022 campaign. We did not have it back in commission until late July. Arch kept us in ‘em with a chart plotter and visuals the entire spring. That’s something I will remember the rest of my life. This day and age that’s pretty unheard of.
What do you think has made you successful tuna fishing?
Knowing what to pull and where to pull it. Never underestimate the power of a #8 planer and a drone spoon. Definitely don’t be afraid to change a bait out. I also have been known to jig a downstairs long rigger on a mark. Don’t be afraid to jig a bait. It’s satisfying when you feel it pull back. Finally, I will tell anyone that all fishing, especially charter fishing is about recovery more often than not. Having extra rigs, chains, etc. ready to rock and roll can be a difference maker. When the fishing is really good I’ll have a copy of each chain in my bait box rigged and ready to snap on. Also I’ll have a 100lb flouro and 130lb wind-on rigged with a ballyhoo without a seawitch and without a crimped business end. This way you can immediately replace your seawitch, crimp one piece to your swivel, and you’re back in the game.
What do you think most people overlook while tuna fishing?
Sometimes to me it’s hard to say I’m a firm believer in the KISS principle until it’s time not to. One thing I like to do it peek in the fish box and see what my quarry has puked up. That’s what I like to call an “in game adjustment”, if needed. Another thing is your baits. I squeeze everything out of them, especially the little bubbles of the air bladder, that allows water to pass through and keeps them from washing out quite so fast in the hot water. They really swim good after all that gunk is out of them too. On your long riggers however, just change them out. Every hour at the minimum. One more thing I like to do in the heat of WFB fishing is wiping down my 3 flouro leaders with an alcohol wipe every morning before I set out. Flouro collects a lot of neat stuff during the course of the day especially exhaust smut. You’d be amazed what that little wipe takes off.
What’s your favorite color to pull?
Give me a straight crystal with a blue head seawitch in the blue water and I want an orange head with purple hair in the green water.
What has been your best day on tunas?
I’ve had a couple on three species of tunas and all 3 were on different boats
Catching 17 bluefins in 36 hours with Jimmie Horning on the Hog Wild is up here. With Arch, I had a pretty good day in early June where you’d get cracked by the 40lb yellowfins and 1 out of every 5 yellowfins would turn into a 60-80lb eyeball (bigeye tuna). With Double D I had a day where we found a flat spot of 80-100lb bigeyes all to ourselves in the middle of the summer doldrums and caught 7 out of 8. A day maker.
Describe one of the craziest days for you fishing?
Honestly after 2022 I’ve had about two straight weeks of insane days including a day where I almost lost a finger. In lieu of that, I’ll give y’all a day that was special to me.
June 21st 2020. It was slick calm and Father’s Day. My dad wanted to take our Parker tuna fishing with a couple of his friends. We’ve gone plenty of times but this day was special. We killed 8 buff yellowfin tunas that morning and caught two blue marlins. I had lost both of my grandfathers the year prior in 2019. I felt like each of them had sent me a blue one that day. We caught a handful of 20-30lb yellowfins that afternoon inside the 100 on poppers where we saw them chasing flyers (flying fish). We’d run up on them at 20 knots, throw poppers from the tower, and come tight about the time the boat came to a stop. It was a cool day to say the very least.
Oregon Inlet has the reputation for fishing many days in a row, what's the most you've fished in a row and what's it like fishing that much? What keeps you excited for the next day?
37 days in a row has been the most I’ve ever done. At that point I wanted to get to 40, but to fish 30 straight days in itself is an accomplishment. Fishing that many days in a row kind of puts you in zombie mode and you can get in an unhealthy routine. One thing I like to do is talk to my people, like a lot. More often than not that takes the monotony out of the morning. Don’t discount having your stuff together and squeezing in a 30 minute nap on the way out. Knowing that every day is different out there keeps me going. You never know when it’s going to be your day to get cracked by the bigeyes, jumped by the gaffers, or you get your shot at a blue marlin that will put you in the grander club.
This past year was year one on the Pelican, what are you going to do differently this year to make your life easier as a mate?
Preparation. Having more done than what I need. I’ve always been a big proponent of the two-is-one and one-is-none principle. I’ve learned a lot about the boat and I’ve learned a lot more about what I need less of and that will allow me to focus on things that are more prevalent in every day’s fishing.
At the beginning of the season, talk me through your process of what you do. (tackle, tying seawitches, which colors you want to make sure you have, etc.)
I have a fortunate situation in that my captain enjoys doing some of the things a mate does. I do not have to tie any seawitches if I don’t want to. I tie miscellaneous colors, but Arch handles the vast majority of the basic colors. Especially in the heat of the season. I’ll just reiterate my two-is-one principle again here with just about everything. The sharks took it easy on us last year, but you never know when the tax man is coming for an audit. I’m going to prepare like that will be the first day we fish.
What's next for Jake Worthington? What can we look forward to out you for this coming season?
Hopefully our Marlin fishing gets better and you’ll see us on a leaderboard [in a tournament] or two this year. We had a really good showing the day before the Pirate’s Cove tournament this year catching two blue ones and 5 sails. That day alone would’ve won the tournament. During the tournament we only saw one blue one and laid a fat goose egg. I still haven’t got the sour taste out of my mouth over that one. I feel like our fishery is changing, it’s going to become important in the future to evolve to what’s available for us.
If you could go fishing one place in the world, where would you want to go and why?
Fraser Island, Hervey Bay Australia. Sightfishing baby black marlins on the flats. The why? Because it sounds absolutely badass. Essentially cobia fishing on steroids, and I love my little brown sea turds.
What are some other brands that you like to work with in this industry? (And for what supplies?)
I’m blind as a bat, so eyewear has always been extremely important to me. I would equate a lot of my success is my ability to see stuff happening that could make or break your day. In the last year I found the Hook Optics crowd out of Ocean City. They have been extremely easy to work with. Chris’ dad also owns this small company called Squidnation, you might have heard of them. The boat has a relationship with Pure Fishing with encompasses companies like Penn and Berkely. That has been very helpful getting supplies that can be harder to acquire through traditional methods. I would also tell anyone in charter fishing to support your local tackle shops and I mean all of them. You may have one in particular that you frequent but don’t overlook the others. There may be a time where they can help you out so don’t burn any bridges. We’re always open to new products so feel free to reach out to us.
Reach out to Jake at pelagicslayer@gmail.com, follow his adventures on Instagram, or follow the Pelican on Instagram. Book a trip for 2023 through the Pelican's website.
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