Darrin Isaacs

A 3RD GENERATION PROFESSIONAL MARLIN FISHERMAN.

Darrin has been fortunate enough to captain boats to world records and tournament wins. He has been going offshore before he can remember and took his first trip as paid crew at the age of 12. His father, world famous Captain Norm Isaacs, relocated the family charter boat operation to Kona, Hawaii in 1982. The Kona Coast has long been recognized as one of the world’s most prolific blue marlin fisheries and home to some of the greatest fishermen in the sport. This day-in and day-out access to giant blue marlin and great captains and crews allowed Darrin to gain the experience and reputation to start traveling the world as a hired gun at a very young age.

After five seasons fishing Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Darrin was fortunate enough to be part of eight 1,000+ lb black marlin releases and the release of 60 fish over 700 lbs. This rounded out his experience as a crewman and he felt that he was now ready to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, father and uncle to become an owner/operator of his own charter boat and go into business for himself. In 1992, at the age of 23, Darrin purchased the Spellbound, a 41’ Hatteras, and went on to catch a 1,356 lb. blue marlin-the 5th largest marlin caught in Kona’s history and possibly the largest blue marlin ever weighed on a Hatteras. After 3 years of owning and operating his own business, he could not resist the offers to travel and sold the Spellbound in 1994 to become a “hired gun” again which led him to amazing experiences in the South Pacific and Mexico. On a short break back home in Kona Darrin met his future wife Sylvia and at the same time, his father Norm had started to travel the world producing his hugely popular and ground-breaking television shows on ESPN. This meant he did not have the time to operate his famous charter boat, the Sundowner. At this time Darrin went into business with his father and started operating the Sundowner full time and co-hosting and field producing their offshore fishing shows on ESPN.

A marlin fisherman’s life revolves around traveling and it was not long before Darrin was back on the road. This time flying around the world to fish tournaments, which meant he did not have to spend as much time away from the business. During this period, he fished Mexico and the Caribbean along with operating the Sundowner and fishing Kona’s highly competitive tournament circuit. He was able to help his father develop the Billfishing Xtreme Release League and fished the first 3 BXRL seasons with 2 wins and two 2nd place finishes. When Darrin’s wife Sylvia became pregnant with the first of their two boys (Max and Zane), he began staying closer to home and started to develop his own television show called AWOL (Adventures Without Land) and concentrated on family and fishing aboard the Sundowner. Now his family calls Bradenton, Florida home. After a stint with IMG Academies developing the curriculum for a captain’s school, adult offshore fishing program and junior back country fishing programs, he left to become the Sportfishing Specialist for Galati Yacht Sales.

The call of the offshore fishing lifestyle and the opportunity to once again co-host with his father, Capt. Norm Isaacs, has lured Darrin back into traveling in search of great fishing and making great television.