Old Salts: Whether native or transplant, these folks found their place and passions on North Carolina’s coast, becoming as integral to life here as the sand and sea. Read more about the folks that make the coast thrive.

It could be said he was born into a cradle of a bunt net, swaddled by the salt air of Core Sound. A child of islanders, he grew up guided by channel markers — his playground a boatyard, his classroom a shrimp trawler. It is a life spun out of monofilament and an existence propelled by the current, where an invisible trail of fish scales led him offshore to the inky indigo of the Gulf Stream.

Brent Gaskill is a product of his destiny. He’s a commercial fisherman at his core and has grown into one of the East Coast’s most acclaimed sportfishing captains. A destination charted by love and loss, family and community.

There is no part of his life that fishing hasn’t touched. It was two foggy days after his 11th Christmas when his father, Manley, never returned from a commercial fishing trip off Beaufort Inlet. Left alone to raise two children on her own, his mother, Joyce Ann — the first management-level employee hired by world-class sportfish yacht builder Jarrett Bay — hauled Brent to work, where he entertained himself in a land of fiber-glass and epoxy.

“I started going on boat deliveries, and one thing just led to the next,” says Brent, his soft blue eyes a contrast to his deeply tanned skin.

A young adulthood spent working on the water prepared Brent for the sportfishing world.

“You look at some of the people who are really good in this business; some of them came from commercial fishing, and many still commercial fish. They have a different understanding of how to read the water, how the conditions work, and that plays a big role in it,” he says.

Captaining Builder’s Choice has taken Brent offshore to Bermuda, as well as the southernmost waters of North America. photograph by Charles Harris

Early on, Brent was called to follow in his father’s footsteps, despite protests from his mother, who sold his father’s boat after the fatal accident. “She didn’t want me making a living anywhere near the water,” he says. But in 2006, when Brent was barely 19 years old, he made up his mind it was time for his father’s boat to return to the family. “I didn’t have any money, so I went to my grandma, and she gave me the money to buy it back. Mama wasn’t happy with either of us,” he says. Aboard his father’s old boat, he took up shrimping, studying the currents and tides, and laying the groundwork for a career that he couldn’t imagine for himself.

In 2008, a knock at the door ushered in a moment that would upend Brent’s world. The 21-year-old discovered a state trooper standing on his steps. His mother had been killed by a drunk driver. His aunts and uncles, especially his uncle Walter “Brother” Gaskill; the Harkers Island community; and his mother’s coworkers embraced him. In the years that followed, he poured himself into the water that carried both his grief and his purpose, setting nets, delivering boats to buyers and boat shows, and occasionally captaining boats in nearby fishing tournaments.

A fated opportunity came when Harris Huddle, owner of the 64-foot sportfish Builder’s Choice docked in Morehead City, asked him to captain his boat in a billfish tournament in Virginia Beach. They didn’t win any prize money, but Brent, who Huddle knew as the teenager from the boatyard, left his mark.

In 2016, Huddle asked Brent if he’d run his boat from Morehead City to the Dominican Republic for a tournament. “I had never been out of the country; I was really nervous about that,” Brent says, chuckling.

From there, the course was set. In 2018, Brent became the full-time captain of Builder’s Choice, fulfilling a dream that had seemed more like a mirage. “I always wanted to do this, honestly,” he says. “I just didn’t think it was possible.”

It’s a career that has taken him to the southernmost waters of North America, throughout the Bahamas, across the Eastern Seaboard, and offshore to Bermuda. Racking up wins along the way, Brent has earned a long list of accomplishments and a reputation as a first-class captain, a title that comes with mounting pressure.

“I always wanted to do this, honestly. I just didn’t think it was possible.”

Tournament entry fees climb well into the tens of thousands, and purses often stretch north of $5 million, so there’s a lot more on the line than fish. “It sounds crazy, but one bite can be the difference in a million dollars,” he says. As every tournament win is engraved on a bronze plaque, the stakes climb higher, parallel to the stress. It’s not the wins, big checks, or trophies that Brent remembers. It’s the losses — the pulled hooks, the broken leader lines, and the marlins a few pounds shy of another boat’s.

When judgment calls are worth tournament titles, Brent and Huddle lean on a time-tested, tried-and-true method of decision-making. “Paper-rock-scissors has won us some money,” Brent says with a grin. “I don’t like to camp out in one spot. I want to cover some ground. Paper-rock-scissors has helped us decide whether to move more than once.”

Standing in the galley of Builder’s Choice, off the boat’s salon, Brent is as comfortable here, surrounded by granite and inlaid teak, as he is aboard his own workboats. Despite all his wins as part of the Builder’s Choice team, commercial fishing isn’t something he can let go of — or perhaps it won’t let go of him.

“I found a trawler in Atlantic that was built on Harkers Island. It had caught on fire, and it was just the hull of it, but it was still floating,” he says, laughing. He enlisted help from his uncle Brother, a skilled craftsman, and a three-year, over-budget restoration ensued.

For a man whose major life moments are tied to the fishing industry, it’s fitting that this shrimp trawler, named Manley’s Joy after his late parents, is the means by which he marks his latest chapter. He ended up putting it in the water a week before his daughter was born.

If tradition holds fast, this daughter of a storied captain will also find a home along the docks, the wind her friend, the tides her teacher. Perhaps, like her dad, she too will fulfill a dream she doesn’t yet know is possible.