The bright, sunny day of Sept. 21, 1990, as the day of my first offshore excursion for tuna, is firmly ingrained in my memory and my detailed fishing log book.
At around 4 a.m. I climbed aboard the charter boat Blue Fin IV, which sailed out of the Viking Dock on Montauk’s West Lake Drive under the guidance of Capt. Michael Potts.
The 60-mile run to the south that morning was smooth and clean. There was barely a breath of wind as the sun came up above the horizon around 6:35. The sea was flat calm. The conditions were perfect.
The day before, I had fished aboard the Lazy Bones, the popular half-day boat for fluke. Capt. Michael Vegessi, the longtime owner, summoned me over to the stern deck where the Bones was berthed at what was then known as Tuma’s Dock after the afternoon trip.
“Wanna go for tuna tomorrow?” Vegessi asked me as I offloaded my tackle and gear. “Michael Potts is looking for another person.” I had never met Potts, but I was ready and eager to go, having already been acutely aware of the Potts family’s history of fishing. As a youngster in the early 1970s, I had once fished for stripers and mackerel with his uncle George. We caught plenty of both. His father, John, was equally adept in finding fish.
The trip with Michael Potts that day nearly 35 years ago was a great success. We landed eight bluefin tuna up to 160 pounds. The picture taken at the end of the outing still hangs in my tackle room at home. Most important, the trip cemented a great friendship that has lasted to this day.
It’s most appropriate that Potts will be honored on Sunday afternoon as the Montauk Fishing Legend of the Year at the Montauk Grand Slam fishing tournament that Henry Uihlein has hosted at his marina in Montauk for nearly three decades. The ever hard-working Uihlein runs it in coordination with the East Hampton Kiwanis Club and the Montauk Friends of Erin.
“Michael has made fishing his life and he was great at it, and he also taught many others here to become very proficient at it,” said Uihlein. “That’s why he is this year’s legend. It’s a very well-deserved honor for him.”
“It’s very nice and I’m very appreciative,” Potts said. “But all I wanted to do is my job and make my fares happy.”
As for the competition on the water with his fellow captains, Potts said, “Look, we are very competitive and very secretive. And I completely understand that. But what I admire most is that when anyone is in distress and needs help or assistance, everyone here on the water in Montauk is ready to help. We put all of our differences aside to help each other.”
“It’s a true brotherhood we have here in Montauk,” he added.