Legend of the Month – Pirate of the Caribbean.

Captain Gerard “Frothy” De Silva, (Capt. Frothy, as he is known), started his love affair with the sea at the age of 6, and he would constantly plead with his mother to take him fishing in his tender years.

In his teens, Capt. Frothy was also an avid surfer. In his early twenties, he was a member of the Trinidad & Tobago National Team for 5 years and the National Champion at one time; he was also a semi-finalist in the Orchard International Classic in Barbados.

In his final year at school, he was asked by his teacher what he wanted to do when he left school, his response was – “I want to be a fisherman”. This, of course, caused the class to erupt with laughter as most of the answers coming for the other students were – Doctor, Lawyer, etc.

He has always known who he was and what he wanted to do – and that was to fish. After leaving school at 17, he worked for 8 years as a hook-and-line commercial fisherman off the coast of Trinidad.

In 1988, in his mid twenties, Capt. Frothy moved to the sister island – Tobago to set-up a charter fishing operation, Hard Play Fishing Charters.

Today, Hard Play Fishing Charters is a well established business in the sport fishing world, with clients from all corners of the globe coming to try their luck at Tobago’s game fishing grounds with Capt. Frothy.

He has been successfully competing on the Caribbean tournament circuit for many years in events in Tobago, Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada and Martinique.

Capt. Frothy and his team have won the Spice Island Billfish Tournament – 7 times, the Tobago International Game Fishing Tournament – 4 times, the Trinidad & Tobago Game Fishing Association Tournament – 5 times and the St. Lucia Billfish Tournament – once.

Furthermore, on many occasions, Capt. Frothy and his team have also placed 2^nd & 3^rd in these events.  It should be noted that all of these tournaments are conducted under IGFA rules. Capt. Frothy is probably the Caribbean’s most successful tournament fisherman.

Apart from these Caribbean circuit events, Capt. Frothy and his team have won the prestigious Ernest Hemmingway Tournament in Cuba.

In 2003, they won 2^nd place in the Rolex/IGFA Tournament of Champions in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He has also qualified to participate in these Rolex/IGFA Tournaments on several occasions.

In 1999, Capt. Frothy became an IGFA representative for Tobago. He can boast of over 1,000 billfish releases over the course of his career and is a true advocate of conservation in the Caribbean. He has been given a great talent and enjoys sharing his knowledge with anyone willing to learn about fishing.

Capt. Frothy is the founder and President of the 14 year old Tobago International Game Fishing Tournament which takes place in Charlotteville, Tobago in the month of March/April each year. www.tgft.com

Due to his knowledge of the sea, Capt. Frothy has saved more than a few divers who have gotten into trouble off the coast of Tobago. He has been called at all hours of the day and night to rescue divers, and is usually able to know exactly where to find the divers hours later, because of his knowledge of the ocean currents.

Gladys Knight and her infamous grouper!

Capt. Frothy met his wife – Teija, a Swedish national, when she came to work for a Scandinavian tour company in Tobago in 1991. She has been the driving force behind the Hard Play Fishing Charter operation and exposed Capt. Frothy to a whole new world of fishing in Europe. He has fished in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Madeira. He became particularly fond of Fly Fishing in the lakes and soon mastered it, while developing his own technique.

He worked on Charter boats in Madeira with some of the Big Game Fishing Legends for two summers. Here, he got a taste of the “grander” action that Madeira has to offer, when the fishing vessel, on which he was aboard, landed a 1008 lb. Blue Marlin in 1995. Capt. Frothy fulfilled a life long dream in 2008 when he and his wife purchased the fishing vessel Pesca Grossa in Madeira.

Over the years, Capt. Frothy and the Hard Play Charter operation have developed a well know reputation in the world of sport fishing. He has been featured in many fishing publications such as SaltWater Sportsman, Marlin, and several European magazines and fishing television fishing shows, including Mark Sossins ESPN in 1998 and Matt Hayes – Total Fishing. He was also featured on the Norweigan television show – Bedo in 2002; and in 2003, he was featured on the Swedish television show – Fiskedrag by Mikael Odell and Johan Broman.

He has clients who travel from Europe and America to fish with him annually. Over the years, his clients have included famous names such as Koffi Annan (the then Secretary-General for the United Nations), Queen Latifa, Gladys Knight and Basdeo Panday (the then Prime Minister of T&T).  Jimmy Buffet also wrote a small chapter “Looking for Captain Frothy” in his book – “A Pirate Looks At Fifty”, relating the lengths to which he went to try to fish with Capt. Frothy, who was out of the country at the time.

*** Minuites before publishing this article, we Caribbean Waterman recieved word that Capt. Frothy and his crew executed a dramatic victory at the Barbados Game Fishing Association International Tournament by fighting a fish after lines up, bringing it to scale and racking up enough points to take the main prize.  This is the type of performance that has become quite typical of this Pirate of the Caribbean, known for stealing away the first place prizeware in exciting fashion.  Frothy is a True Caribbean Waterman Legend, and with 2 solid victories in CW Challenge 2009 / Southern Caribbean Billfish Circuit Events, he is well on his way to pioneering victory in the CW Challenge and securing a second consecutive SCBC title!