Captain James Roberts

Captain James Roberts began his maritime career in Corpus Christi, Texas, at age 13, working aboard a private Chris-Craft Commander. He later joined an operation working with a fleet of 31’ Bertrams and Tollycrafts, gaining extensive hands-on experience in vessel maintenance and operations. The following summer, he lived aboard a Hatteras while fishing for kingfish, sailfish and other species, and later worked with the SubSea dive operation in both the shop and on charter boats. During this time, he also cared for a 34-foot Trojan.

After graduating from high school, Roberts joined the Clipper Fleet out of Panama City, Florida, where he performed oil-field work that eventually took him to Morgan City, Louisiana. During summers, he worked as a deckhand on sportfishing boats in Port Aransas, steadily upgrading his licenses and moving onto larger vessels where he began targeting sailfish and marlin.

A defining opportunity came when Tom O’Connell, the owner of the Renegade, arrived from Cozumel with Skip Libby, IGFA Fishing Hall of Famer Skip Smith and Kunta Smith. Roberts was asked to deliver a boat ahead of the Poco Bueno tournament and, after doing so, earned a position aboard the vessel. While docked in Port Isabel, O’Connell asked Roberts if he could run the boat for the tournament. “I said, ‘Yeah, I think I can,’” Roberts recalled. That moment marked the start of his career aboard the Renegade, where he competed at the highest levels throughout the Gulf, The Bahamas and South Florida.

Over the decades, Roberts earned a reputation as one of the sport’s most respected heavy-tackle captains. He has fished premier destinations worldwide, including Madeira, the Great Barrier Reef, Nova Scotia, the Canary Islands, the Ivory Coast, Brazil, Panama, and Costa Rica. He captained the French Look mothership operation, run globally by Jean Paul Richard, and is credited with catching five “grander” blue marlin and releasing six others in just 43 days of fishing in Madeira.

Roberts also played a key role in reestablishing the catch-and-release giant bluefin tuna fishery in Nova Scotia after years of collaboration with Canadian bluefin tuna fishermen. In recognition of his lifetime achievements, he also received the IGFA’s prestigious Gil Keech Heavy-Tackle Award in 2022.