our board of directors
Harold Davis, President of Davis Boats has been in the boat building business since 1986. He has changed and developed the boat as time went on with innovative ideas from both within and thru his customer’s needs, requirements and desires. In March of 2012 he decided to stop building boats and concentrate on the repowering, service and repair side of the business, as well as setting aside more time to work with the efforts in the continuation of the fishing industry.
Harold is motivated by fishing; he has a long fishing history that stems from his days in high school, where he fished early in the morning before school. He has emerged with experience in Bass competition, commercial fishing, being a deck hand and offshore fishing.
Doug was born in Fort Collins Colorado in 1958. At that time his parents managed a lake concession and boat rental operation in the Rocky Mountains. Kern was taken out fishing with his parents within a few days of being born. He has literally been fishing his entire life. His family moved to California when he was 8 years old. His Dad always had one or more boats and took Doug fishing on a regular basis. His Dad is affectionately called “The Admiral” due to the dozens of boats that he has owned and fished on in his lifetime. Due to the Admiral’s influence, Doug is now an avid saltwater fisherman. He fishes regularly on his 23 foot Parker center console as well as on San Diego based sportboats.
In 1980, Kern married his High School sweetheart Anne and they have 2 daughters, a grandson, and granddaughter. Both grandkids caught their first fish at the age of one. The tremendous support of Doug’s family has been instrumental in his success.
After graduating collage in 1981 with a degree in business (and a self inflicted minor in fishing), Doug Kern was hired as Co-Manager at Fisherman’s Supply Center in San Diego. A short time later, Doug made a move to Hook Line and Sinker in Point Loma where he managed the Hook Line and Sinker tackle shop for the next 5 years. In 1986, Fisherman’s Landing hired Kern to manage their newly expanded tackle shop. Six years later, a spin off corporation, Fisherman’s Landing Tackle was formed and Doug was added as a partner in the shop with Bill Poole, Frank Lo Preste, and Paul Morris. Fisherman’s Landing Tackle has grown steadily for 30 years under Kern’s management and is now considered one of the premier saltwater tackle retailers in the country. With the passing of Bill Poole in 2009, Ingrid Poole passed the torch in 2014 by selling her interest in Fisherman’s Landing to Frank LoPreste, Tim Ekstrom, and Doug Kern. This team proudly manages one of the top sportfishing operations in the world.
Looking forward, Doug is excited to participate in the management of Fisherman’s Landing and Fisherman’s Landing Tackle into the future.
Pete is founder and host of the west top rated fishing talk show- Let’s Talk Hook-up, heard every Saturday and Sunday 7am to 9am on The Mighty 1090 AM, as well as streaming live on the web, and on demand 7/24 as a Podcast on ITunes, and the Let’s Talk Hook-up web site: www.hookup1090.com. Pete started Let’s Talk Hook-up “as a fun thing to do” when he was sales manager at a popular San Diego radio station in 1991, and the program quickly became his lifetime career. Now in its 25th year of broadcasting, the show reaches more listeners than ever, and has become “Southern California’s Sportfishing Voice”. Let’s Talk Hook-up features expert guests and fishing reports primarily on saltwater fishing up and down the Pacific Ocean. . The nature of the show also gives Pete the opportunity to travel with groups of listeners to great fishing destinations like Alaska, East Cape of Cabo, Panama, Costa Rica, Hawaii, long range trips from San Diego and others.
Pete’s addiction to fishing started when he was 8 years old fishing with his father from their boat moored in San Diego. The family moved to Los Angeles so that his father- Marv Gray- could pursue his career as a talk show host on KABC in Los Angeles. The boat moved with them and Pete spent many years fishing and diving in the Santa Monica Bay. Moving back to his fishing roots in San Diego in the early 80’s, Pete has spent many days fishing for a variety of species on the waters of southern California. In addition, he shares an addiction to fly fishing with his wife Lolly for trout in the western streams and rivers.
Frank Lo Preste is a captain and owner of the Royal Polaris. Born in 1943, he began working as a deckhand at the age of eight years old, earning three dollars per day. He worked as a deckhand on the Clemente, San Mateo, Frontier and Sea Raider. He earned his captain’s license at the age of 21, and ran his first vessel in 1965. In all, he has run ten vessels, including the Sport (1965-66), Sea Horse (1967), Fury (1967), Patrician (1968-70), Webfoot (1971), Prowler (1971), Searcher 1 (1971-74), Nova (1975-76), Cape Polaris (1974-77), and Royal Polaris (1978-present).
Frank is the proud father of three children, Danielle, Gina, and Tony, and grandfather to five wonderful grandchildren. He is married to Kathy Rounds LoPreste. He enjoys fishing and relaxing with his wife and kids. He has a degree from St. Mary’s College, where he graduated in 1965.
President, Tandem Media LLC
Steve Pinard owns and operates Dana Landing in San Diego and East County Bait and Tackle in Lakeside, CA He grew up boating in Massachusetts and graduated from Maine Maritime Academy with a degree in Yacht Operations/Marina Management and obtained his 100 Ton Master license in 1990. After moving to San Diego in 1991 Steve opened Dana Landing in 1994 and opened ECBT in 2012 . The company has expanded with eight locations, to include watersport rentals and marina management services. Steve has a young son that shares his passion for fishing and is reminder of why he is part of Captain Rollos Kids at Sea.
Frank Ursitti is the managing partner of United Sportfishers/H&M Landing in Point Loma. Ursitti handles the day-to-day operations of the West Coast’s largest and most diversified sportfishing fleet. Ursitti has been working in the sportfishing industry since he was a teenager. In the summer of 1977, he began working on sportfishing boats from Channel Islands Harbor and continued to work as a crewman on boats from the CISCO fleet until earning his masters license in 1981, becoming the youngest licensed master at the time. He then began operating boats for Channel Islands Sportfishing until February of 1990, when he purchased his first charter boat, the “Coral Sea,” and began spending five months each summer season fishing out of H&M Landing with the balance of the year from Channel Islands Sportfishing in Oxnard. Ursitti has worked to improve and expand his own passenger boat business. In 1999, he purchased the first boat he ever worked on, the “Ranger 85,” to expand and diversify his charter business and his business portfolio to include whale watching and eco-tourism adventures in the waters throughout the Channel Islands National Park and Marine Sanctuary. In 2000, Ursitti formed Channel Islands Whale Watching, offering whale watching and wildlife cruises into the waters surrounding Channel Islands National Park and National Marine Sanctuary. In 1997, Ursitti founded Channel Islands Marine Floating Lab, a tactile marine-science field-trip opportunity for students. This program fosters stewardships of the world’s ocean and provides an in-depth look at the diversity of life in the ocean, from its very basic forms all the way up the food chain to the largest animals on the planet.
Jim Hughes has over 35 years of experience fishing in the San Diego sport fishing industry and holds a well-earned reputation for catching fish. Hughes is the owner and operator of the Cortez, a 65 foot sport fishing vessel specializing in both open party and private sport fishing charters from Southern California to Baja Mexico. The Cortez comfortably accommodates groups of up to 23 passengers on overnight and multi-day fishing trips, and up to 43 passengers on local 1/2 day, 3/4 day, and full day trips. On offshore fishing trips, the Cortez targets fish species such as yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, albacore tuna, bigeye tuna, yellowtail, dorado, and more. On the local day trips, the Cortez targets a variety of San Diego’s local fish species such as bass, white sea bass, barracuda, yellowtail, bonito, rockfish, and more. Jim Hughes and the crew of the Cortez dedicate themselves to providing exceptional customer service and comfortable accommodations while working hard to ensure that each fishing trip is both enjoyable and productive.
General Manager at Seaforth Sportfishing Corporation
