Captain Bubba Carter

The John Rybovich Lifetime Achievement Award honors a former TBF board member who distinguished himself as a member of the marine industry, not only being of a family that built top quality boats, but as a billfish conservation pioneer. Rybovich founded the Sailfish Conservation Club, the Masters Angling Tournament, the Tournament of Champions, and the Gold Cup, all to raise funds for conservation. He and his family developed the first offshore sportfishing boat equipped with a tower, outriggers, fighting chair, transom door and big engines, which set the standard for sportfishing boat designs for decades. 

This year’s winner of this award is Georgia native, Captain James Bubba Carter, who struck a deal with his Dad that allowed him to run his charter boat in the summer if he attended the University of South Carolina and majored in marine biology. The deal was executed, but it wasn’t long before Bubba was facilitating offshore fishing trips directly after collecting plankton in class. One of his professors, John Dean, asked him one day if he would prefer to remain in school for another 15 years or just start fishing. The answer was already apparent, and by the time Bubba was 18, he had earned his captain’s license, eventually heading off to Palm beach to run the Honey Cay on the weekends. 

Bubba wanted his own boat though, but at 22, and without a full-time job, that posed a challenge. Not deterred, he placed a successful $35,000 bid with the University of Miami for a 37-foot Rybovich. His Dad gave him the downpayment and Bubba paid 14, 90-day notes to clear the debt. Later, the boat sold for $75,000. 

From there, Bubba’s world-famous charter captain career took off, fishing in Australia, Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Virgin Island, Bahamas, Mexico, Aruba, Venezuela, (where he landed a rare Fantasy Slam in one day), Aruba, Dominican Republic, St. Thomas, Isla Mujeres, Panama, Cabo San Lucas, and back to Costa Rica permanently. Bubba holds 18 IGFA world records and in 2013 received IGFA’s Tommy Gifford Award. To date, Bubba has released 40,000 billfish during his career, with over 6,000 of them being blue marlin. 

Molly Fleming

The Winthrop P. Rockefeller Lifetime Achievement Award award is named in honor of TBF’s Founder, Win Rockefeller, a well-known angler and philanthropist who sought scientific advice to identify the most pressing billfish research needs. He was told stock assessments presented the greatest need, and in response, TBF’s first research commitment was $25,000 a year for international billfish stock assessments through the international treaty organization with authority to manage Atlantic highly migratory fish. With billfish research being a focal point of the organization’s mission, many other research projects would soon follow and continue today.

This year’s award winner is Molly Fleming. Since childhood, she has been an angler. She is a member of the International Women’s Fishing Association (IWFA), The Billfish Foundation, and IGFA. Since 1972, she has been a member of the West Palm Beach Fishing Club.

Her speciality, light line, having won numerous IWFA fishing tournaments. She fishes for virtually everything that swims, from black marlin to bluegill, to conventional and fly tackle. Molly has an encyclopedic knowledge of women’s fishing history, particularly the IWFA. In 2016, Molly, along with Karen Comstock (Ft. Lauderdale) and Laura Russell (Jupiter) fished the prestigious Masters International Angling Tournament, an experience previously off limits for females for decades. In 2022, the 50th Anniversary of the Invitational Gold Cup Team Tournament, hosted by the prestigious Sailfish Club of Florida, was won by an all-female team, a first, including Molly Fleming, Serena Wilson, and Tonya Love Cheatham.

Molly has supported The Billfish Foundation’s youth education program for years, which produces two great youth educational magazines, Spearfish and Sailfish, twice a year. Thanks to the support from Molly, these publications are distributed for free to teachers and schools all over the country. To date, more than 150 schools annually receive this resource each year.

Molly’s philanthropy is also not restricted to billfish, as she and her family have a long history of donating to the community police, fire departments, and to many animal rescue groups that benefit dogs, cats, wildlife, and horses.