Pictured above: A happy customer aboard Capt. Dan Wood’s Robalo with a fall false albacore.
When you’re a professional charter captain in the Northeast, you have to make the most of what Mother Nature provides. Between brutal winters, spring storms, and fall nor’easters, taking advantage of every weather window and every day on the water is the key to running a successful fishing-based business.
Captain Dan Wood of Niantic, Connecticut specializes in light-tackle and fly-fishing trips for stripers, bluefish, and bonito in Long Island Sound. He’s been guiding long enough to know that efficiency matters when time on the water is money, and he credits the twin Evinrude E-TEC G2 300s on the back of his 30-foot Robalo with helping his business stay above break-even.
“Reliability is the number-one reason I run Evinrudes,” says Capt. Wood. “I put over 600 hours on my G2 engines this season with zero maintenance. Obviously, that means lower cost of ownership, but it also means no missed trips due to engine issues. If I was running a typical 4-stroke, I would have had to haul my boat for maintenance and get oil changes every 100 hours.”
Depending on where the stripers and blues are, Capt. Wood runs anywhere from the Connecticut River east to Rhode Island and across the sound to Montauk, New York. When covering that much water, fuel costs eat up a big part of the budget.
“Running fuel efficient engines is essential for keeping costs down. I can cruise at 3800 RPMs and achieve 1.6 miles per gallon,” says Capt. Wood. “That’s really good for a big boat with five adults on board.”
Wood spends much of his season fishing major current rips like the Race and the Sluiceway, where stripers and blues feed heavily in water that rushes over underwater reefs. Leaving the engines running while fishing is a necessary part of rip-fishing strategy, allowing him to stem the tide when necessary and make quick runs up-current for repeated drifts.
“If I’m leaving my engines running all the time, it becomes really important that they are quiet and have super-low emissions,” says Capt. Wood. “The G2s allow my clients to carry on conversations and enjoy themselves while fishing. Ultimately, giving my clients a great experience is what makes their fishing trip enjoyable and what keeps me booked.”
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Captain Dan Wood
Niantic, Connecticut
www.captdanwood.com