Captain Ralph Wilkins started fishing at age seven in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay, when his father would leave him at the pier to fish while the elder Wilkins went to work. At age 11, he started going out on fishing boats and catching the same 20-pounders that the grownups were after. Years later, Wilkins read about the Bluefin Tuna fishing off the New England coast, and his future was sealed, hook, line, and sinker.

Captain Ralph’s accomplishments in fishing and hunting are many. He was one of the better wreck fisherman out of the New York/New Jersey area and took one of the largest Tautog (Blackfish) ever taken on rod and reel on the East Coast. Weighing 18.2 pounds (the average being 3 to 5 pounds), it was featured in Long Island Fisherman magazine.

Captain Ralph also has many solo giant Bluefin catches to his record, most notably a 980 pounder he caught in 2008 and a 1,048 pounder in 2009. Both fish were highlighted on the ESPN website.

His hunting expeditions for Whitetail deer led him to a personal best 16 point, 170.3 score rack, the largest Whitetail ever taken in Otsego County, New York, gaining him a spot in the U.S. National Big Buck Club.