Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Bacon, Peter Bacon, Shamus Mara.
Brian, Peter, Shamus, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The plan for us was never to run a charter business, it just kind of happened… Pete, Shamus and I were old fishing buddies that met down at Ocean House Marina in Charlestown RI. Our boats were a few slips away from each other and we used to Partner up and fish together a few times a week either running on Shamus and his dad’s boat or running Pete and I Hydra-Sports that we shared with my father. We wanted to be a little more comfortable on the water when we went offshore so we unloaded our center console and Pete Shamus and I partnered up together and bought a 32 Topaz Express in the fall of 2007. Immediately, friends came down and asked us to take them fishing.
The first couple years, that’s all we did was just bring friends and family out have them chip in for fuel and bait to cover the cost of the trips. We started to get calls from people referred to by friends, and their friends, and it got to the point where we were starting to get pretty busy. We all had full time day jobs so most of the trips we did were on weekends or night trips out to Block Island Targeting Striped Bass, At the time, we were the only charter boat that was doing those night trips, so we were able to build our customer base in a market where we had no competition, at night. We didn’t care because the night bite was always awesome, and it was a great way for us to pay for the boat and our expenses.
As time went on, many of our customers wanted to expand into different types of fishing, which meant taking a vacation and sick days to go fish during the week. In the Spring of 2010, we started participating in the local fishing and hunting shows to get our name out, built our website and the business exploded from there. We had been running a fishing tournament a few years prior to the start of our charter business called “Fluke Til Ya Puke” which has grown to be the biggest Fluke Tournament in the world with over 1500 anglers in this one-day tournament.
By channeling all on the tournament entries through the charter website, we were able to build on top of what we had with our charter clients and get exposure to a whole new group of people going through our charter website to get the tournament information. Our business has grown substantially the past few years. Adding another boat (36 Carman) in 2016, replacing the Topaz in 2017 with our 36 Dawson, as well as the addition of our 50’Post and 33 Hydra Sports Center Console. Here we are 10 years later with 4 boats running 7 days a week and we’ve become Rhode Islands Premier Charter boat service. It all started as a couple of friends that just wanted to go fishing.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Being a Charter Boat Captain sounds awesome, but it’s non stop hard work. You get paid only when you fish, if you lose a day to weather or mechanical issues, you lose a days pay. Even if you get blown out due to weather, it doesn’t mean you have a day off. A day off from fishing means oil changes, boat maintenance re-rigging tackle, fixing gear, broken boats and getting ready for the next trip. Not to mention the business aspect of paying bills, marketing, and office work. And it’s expensive!
The first 10 years we were running charters with our Topaz we blew 2 engines and had multiple rebuilds on both port and starboard engines. We rewired and basically rebuilt 99% of everything on that boat. Setbacks like these when they happen in the middle of the season, not only hit you hard in the wallet but all of those charters you had booked while the boat is laid up are now gone. Being booked 7 days a week is a good thing, but when you don’t have day’s to reschedule people. those are trips you’ll never get back until the following summer. Mechanical problems have plagued us for many years when we first started and have prevented us, at the time from taking the next step into a newer boat and expanding our business.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Big Game Sport Fishing – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Big Game Sports Fishing is Rhode Islands Premier Charter Boat Service offering our clients 4 boats to choose from. Fishing Inshore to Offshore and the Canyons, we do it all! I think one of the things that really sets up apart from other Charter captains or Charter boats is that we view our business as an entertainment business and fishing is just part of the package. We want all of our clients to have a memorable experience on the water and the most important of all, to have fun. We pride ourselves in having clean, well-maintained boats, brand new rods and reels, the best tackle and personable Captains and mates.
Our captains will spend time with the clients instead of being stuck up in the bridge all day. Being part of the fishing experience by answering questions and helping the mates’ rig tackle and get the lines in the water which means more fishing time and less downtime. Another thing that sets Big Game apart from other charter businesses, is the fact that we do target and fish for all of the species Southern New England has to offer. Many of the other boats are just targeting inshore species, or target just tuna fish or just groundfish. We do it all! We fish with a lot of live bait for many of the species we target.
We target multiple species on all of our trips and we fish for them a bunch of different ways to keep our clients busy, happy and entertained. One day we’ll be cod fishing, the next we’ll be tuna fishing, followed up by a Striped Bass trip and the next day we’ll be targeting sharks. We have a boat at Brewers marina up in Warwick May-June for the Spring Striped Bass bite. We have boats available to pick up clients in Newport RI. as well as Point Judith.
We also have packages that no other charter boat offers such as half day fish/half day spent on Block Island, Shoot/Fish/Drink package – Spend the morning at the Peace Dale Shooting Preserve shooting sporting clays and the afternoon on the water fishing with the Big Game crew and the Evening Spent at Whalers Brewery for a free flight of beer on us. We also offer the only “Cook your catch” offer in Rhode Island.
Big Game Clients and guests who stay at the Hotel Viking in Newport can bring their catch to Bellevue One restaurant and have there catch prepared and cooked by one of the area’s best chefs and dine at their 5 start restaurant Bellevue One. Not to mention, we offer lighthouse tours, bird watching trips, and Kayak mother ship trips. I think one of the things I’m most proud of is the fact that we’ve been able to grow our business and offer such diverse packages with our partners and keep expanding every season. That fact that Pete Shamus and I haven’t killed each other yet is a miracle too. lol
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Looking to the future, we want to keep expanding our business and continue to offer different packages to entertain our clients. Whether adding additional boats or partnering up with other businesses to expand our offerings we want to be the business people look to, not only for fishing but to have fun, because at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about.
Contact Info:
- Address: 11 Sherman Road Wakefield RI. 02879
- Website: www.BigGameFishingRI.com
- Phone: 401-243-7046
- Email: brian@biggamefishingri.com
- Instagram: biggamefishingri
- Facebook: BigGameFishingRI
- Other: www.FlukeTilYaPuke.com
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
