Andy Moyes

Captain Andy Moyes is the founder of Moyes Big Game Lures and one of the most respected lure craftsmen in big game fishing. Starting as a teenage lure maker in Fort Lauderdale, he built a brand whose keel-weighted heads and teasers have caught marlin over 1,000 pounds worldwide, earning the 2023 IGFA Gilbert Keech Heavy Tackle Award. He is also a world-traveling big game captain. In his In The Spread video, Moyes breaks down marlin lure head shapes, action, and spread positioning.

Instructor's videos

Andy Moyes was building marlin lures before he had ever caught a marlin, or even fished one. He was a teenager in Fort Lauderdale, pouring resin into amber pill bottles in his father's home machine shop and cutting the shapes on a lathe. One of those early lures, a black-and-green design he called the VI Express, got into the hands of Capt. Paul Ivey in St. Thomas and started catching blue marlin. That was the beginning of one of the most respected names in big game fishing.

Today Moyes is the founder of Moyes Big Game Lures, and his handcrafted heads and teasers have accounted for handfuls of marlin over the coveted thousand-pound mark, including the grander that gave the 1305 its name. In 2023 the IGFA awarded him the Gilbert Keech Heavy Tackle Award for the impact his custom trolling lures and teasers have had on the sport. They are among the first lures Seth Horne reaches for when setting a marlin spread.

What separates a Moyes lure is the thinking underneath it. He keel-weights his designs so every lure has a bottom and tracks true instead of spinning, which also fixes hook position so you know exactly where the point sits when a fish eats. He understands how a cup face builds a bubble trail, how skirt drag changes the swim, and how head shape has to match sea state and spread position, from short corner to shotgun. His standard is exacting: a lure has to look like it is on the verge of disaster, not tumbling, but fleeing.

Moyes is not only a craftsman. He is an accomplished big game captain who chases the ocean's largest predators around the world, from giant bluefin in Nova Scotia to blue marlin in Cape Verde, grander black marlin in Mozambique, and sailfish off his home waters in South Florida. He is also one of a handful of anglers to catch more than 1,500 giant bluefin tuna in a lifetime.

In his In The Spread video, Moyes breaks down big marlin lure design head shape by head shape, explaining what each one does, when to fish it, and where it belongs in the spread. Learn lure design from the man whose lures catch granders, and you will not look at your spread the same way again.