Charter Boat Captain Maine

About Captain Barry Gibson

Capt. Barry Gibson has been charter fishing and guiding out of Boothbay Harbor since 1971, when he bought his first passenger boat, the Sasanoa. Since then he has owned a succession of boats all named Shark, a tribute to Joe Russell, a Key West charter captain who guided Ernest Hemingway (and whose boat was named Shark) that Barry fished with in 1967.

Barry spent much of his chartering career catching groundfish, sharks, and giant bluefin tuna offshore, and built a cutting-edge, 36-foot Downeast sportfisherman, the Shark IV, in 1993. He sold it in 2005 and bought a 24-foot Boston Whaler named Shark Five, which he replaced with the 28-foot Shark Six in 2008. He enthusiastically chases striped bass, bluefish, and bluefin tuna in Maine’s beautiful Sheepscot/Kennebc River systems and the adjacent bays and offshore waters from June through mid-October.

Along with chartering, Barry spent 27 years with Salt Water Sportsman magazine, supervising 25 home staffers, art directors, and field editors, and working closely with nearly 100 contributors. Responsible for the editorial content and direction of SWS for 22 of those years as Editor (1982-2004), he also contributed hundreds of feature articles, photos and editorials to the magazine during his tenure. A long-time proponent of responsible fishery management, he has served on numerous state, federal, and international boards, including the New England Fishery Management Council (three 3-year terms, Chairman 1992), the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) Advisory Committee, and he co-founded the Northeast Charterboat Captains Association in 1988. Currently he serves as Chairman of the NEFMC Recreational Advisory Panel, as a member of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Committee, and is the New England Regional Director for the nationally-acclaimed Recreational Fishing Alliance.

Barry has fished in major venues, big-game and inshore in North, Central, and South America for 30 years, and has contributed features to many outdoor magazines including Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Yachting, MotorBoating, Offshore, Tide, New England Fisherman, Striped Bass Magazine, Fishing Facts, Striper, and Sports Illustrated. He has served as Editor of Center Console Angler magazine as well as Associate Publisher of Fish Boats Registry, and has been the Saltwater Columnist for Maine Sportsman since 1985. Barry has appeared as Guest Pro on numerous TV fishing shows including "Fishing New England" (NESN), "Mark Sosin’s Saltwater Journal" (TNN) and "George Poveromo’s World of Saltwater Fishing" (ESPN2), and for many years has been the New England co-host for the Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series. He continues to give slide shows and talks to various outdoor clubs and groups in the off-season, often hosts the salt water fishing seminar for L.L. Bean in the spring, and serves as an NRA-Certified Pistol Instructor. In addition Barry maintains an afficionado's collection of rods, reels, lures and fishing photos dating back to the 1930s.

Ernest Hemingway and Capt. Joe Russell
(center) with a blue marlin taken off Bimini in the 1930s.

Maine's most experienced saltwater charter and guide

service-- our 39th year right here in Boothbay Harbor!