EP 994 | Carey Chen | Legendary Marine Artist

Carey Chen is a legendary marine artist known worldwide for his vivid, lifelike paintings of gamefish and ocean life. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Jamaica, Chen transitioned from video store entrepreneur to self-taught painter without a single lesson—discovering his talent only after catching his first sailfish off Miami in the 1980s. In this conversation, Chen reveals how he broke the world record by catching and releasing 360 striped marlin in a single day off Magdalena Bay, why he's now chasing grander blue marlin with Bad Company across remote equatorial waters from West Africa to the Seychelles, and what new sonar technology is doing to big-game fishing competitions. If you've ever wondered what it takes to paint fish you've actually fought, or how the top tier of offshore fishing operates today, this episode pulls back the curtain on a world most anglers will never see.

From Video Stores to World-Class Marine Art

Most artists spend years in formal training. Carey Chen never took a single lesson. After running a successful chain of video stores in Miami for fifteen years, Chen found himself at a crossroads when Blockbuster entered the market. Instead of fighting the inevitable, he chose a different path—one that combined his newfound passion for fishing with a talent he didn't even know he possessed. His first sailfish, caught on a kite off Miami with Elias Rodriguez from Captain Harry's in the 1980s, sparked an obsession that would change everything. He started doodling, then painting, and the images were stuck in his head from actual encounters on the water. George Poveromo discovered Chen's art at a boat show and immediately recognized something special: here was an artist who was first and foremost a fisherman, someone who knew how marlins lit up because he'd seen it himself hundreds of times. Carey explains how his fishing career became his art career starting at timestamp 00:04:00.

Sixty Tournaments a Year Across the Caribbean

Once the fishing world knew Chen could paint, the invitations started flooding in. Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Belize, Ecuador—Chen fished them all, sometimes attending sixty tournaments in a single year. Tournament organizers would pay for his travel, accommodation, and fishing, then auction his paintings at the end of the week. For Chen, it was the perfect arrangement: make a living while doing what he loved most. His island background and accent opened doors throughout the Caribbean, and he became a fixture at international billfish tournaments for decades. But there was a cost—living out of a suitcase, constantly on the move, accumulating thousands of images in his mind that would later become the paintings collectors sought worldwide. The full story of his tournament circuit days unfolds at timestamp 00:08:00.

Breaking the Striped Marlin World Record at Magdalena Bay

The day started as a fun trip, nothing more. Chen and the Bad Company crew were fishing from the bow with live bait, nine anglers ready when Captain Steve Lars spotted frigatebirds working. What happened next defied everything Chen had experienced in decades of fishing: 360 striped marlin caught and released in a single day, with 900 total over four days. The key was efficiency—live bait from a mother ship, fast hookups, quick releases with the leader running through the rocket launcher. If you hesitated or let the fish run to the back of the boat, it didn't count. IGFA's Jack Vitek was onboard to verify every release, disqualifying any questionable catches. Chen admits the California anglers fishing conventional reels were far superior to his Florida spinning-reel technique, throwing iron with a speed and precision that left him amazed. When the live bait ran out, they started catching bait under the boat and immediately pitching it back to more marlin. The full breakdown of how they broke the record starts at timestamp 00:22:00.

Chasing Granders and the Future of Sonar Technology

After catching tens of thousands of sailfish and white marlin over his career, Chen has shifted his focus to the apex: grander blue marlin over 1,000 pounds. The world record—1,402 pounds caught in Brazil over thirty years ago—remains unbeaten, and Chen believes it's like chasing a unicorn in today's heavily fished oceans. He's been fishing with Bad Company from West Africa to the Seychelles to Cape Verde, targeting the equatorial migration routes where the biggest females return to breed. In West Africa, he caught what the captain confirmed was his first grander, though Chen chose not to kill it for official verification. The new sonar technology is changing the game entirely—Chen describes watching a captain track a single marlin for twenty minutes, calling out its depth as it rose from 1,000 feet to 50 feet before striking the lure. Some call it cheating; Chen sees it as the inevitable evolution of the sport, just like depth finders were once controversial. Tournaments now have separate divisions for sonar and non-sonar boats. The debate about sonar and what it means for big-game fishing starts at timestamp 00:36:00.

Final Thoughts from Tom

I've been a fan of Carey's work for years, but I had no idea about the depth of his fishing background until we sat down for this conversation. The fact that he's self-taught as both an artist and an angler makes his story even more compelling. What really struck me was his pure passion for the pursuit—he could have been a multi-millionaire if he'd focused purely on business, but he chose fishing and art because that's what made him come alive.

The world record striped marlin story is almost unbelievable until you hear him explain the setup and efficiency required to make it happen. Nine anglers, live bait, perfect boat handling, and a crew that knew exactly what they were doing. That's the kind of operation that rewrites what we think is possible in fishing. And the fact that Carey is now chasing grander blue marlin in places most people have never heard of—that's the frontier of big-game fishing right now.

The sonar debate is fascinating too, and I appreciate Carey's perspective that it's just the next evolution of technology, like depth finders were decades ago. Whether you agree or not, it's changing the game, and this conversation gives you a front-row seat to what's happening at the highest levels of offshore fishing. This one's absolutely worth your time—listen to the whole thing.