Gil Keech Heavy-Tackle Award – Captain James Roberts

Captain James Roberts is a well-known and well-respected captain and guide with decades of big-game and heavy tackle experience and accolades. Roberts has fished the top big-game destinations in the world including Madeira, the Great Barrier Reef, Nova Scotia, Canary Islands, Ivory Coast, Brazil, and more. Most notably, he was the captain for the French Look mothership operation that was operated around the world by Jean Paul Richard.

Roberts is also credited with catching five “grander” blue marlin during 43 days of fishing Madeira, something that has never been replicated. Roberts also fished competitively for many years aboard the Renegade which fished and competed at the highest level in tournaments throughout the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the Bahamas and South Florida.

In addition to his extremely impressive resume as a captain, Roberts is also credited with helping to put the catch-and-release fishery for giant bluefin tuna back on the map in Nova Scotia. After years of working with the Canadian government, Roberts was influential in re-establishing this premier heavy tackle fishery there.