- Chris and Katie Burt made a "spur-of-the-moment" decision to fly to Venezuela to go fishing instead of driving to Vermont to go skiing, but the fish gods did not cooperate with Chris' burning desire to release his first blue marlin on the 30th.
- Bill and Dabney Roversi (well, Dabney was a day "fashionably" late, but she did arrive after all), with their friends Bob and Ruth Stoky, fished 3 days between Christmas and New Year's aboard Courtesan, with a "pickup" crew since Alberto has been ill and Dave's not here and the Pilar is under repair, Capt. Hector is at the helm, Cesar and Juancho are working the pit, and your webmaster is driving the teasers... Anyway, Ruth and Bill released two blue marlin before noon Friday (a single and 1/3 of a tripleheader, we won't discuss what happened to the other 2/3rds in this "family" publication) and then we went fly fishing. Bob really wants to try to fill the vacant 12 lb. tippet blue marlin world record spot, and we had two of them on Friday afternoon, but they wouldn't quite stay stuck. Saturday we started off with a "bang": blue marlin double header 15 minutes after lines in, but we broke the line on one and Dabney released the other. Dabney also released a white, but the only sailfish we saw (on the teaser) woould not eat, so the slam was in the baits but did not happen. Sunday was even slower, unfortunately, with a sailfish release for Dabney but no blue marlin sightings by anyone in the fleet. Well, there's always next time, Bob!
- Andy Mill (the downhill skier) released his first three blue marlin on 12/7 (Pearl Harbor Day, don't forget!) during a filming session for John Glorieux's American Adventure Productions aboard Courtesan. The Olympian also released a sailfish and had a shot at a white marlin for the Grand Slam, but you can never trust whitey.... Despite lots of "backing and filling" in the next few days (in order to get all of the shots that the film crew wanted), Andy and company ended up releasing 8 blue marlin (and the sailfish) in about 2 1/2 days of fishing. The show will air sometime in January, 1997 on the Outdoor Life Network- stay tuned for further info. Nice going, Andy!
- At least Gary didn't leave his jinx behind (see below), because both Hiram Rodriguez and Eddie Gonzalez released their first white marlin aboard Courtesan on 12/5. Perhaps because they didn't get thrown in the pool that night, the following day was a slow one, but they recovered on Saturday and their friend Alberto Prego released his first blue marlin aboard Courtesan Too.
- Mike and Mark Wilder, Mike Stratton and William Reveron went 4 for 5 on the blues on Courtesan Too on December 6, despite an overheating problem which had them fishing on one engine all day. Mike Stratton's fish had been previously tagged (by a commercial longliner on March 26, 1996, approximately 380 miles north and west of the recapture position), and was retagged by the crew after a little over 8 months at large. This fish (which the crew estimated at 150 lbs) has obviously been very hungry, having eaten at leased two baits with hooks in them in an eight month period! And aboard Dorado on Saturday the "Wilder gang" went 5 for 14 on the blue ones.
- Gary and Rob Fonrath, with Jerry Lee and Capt. Jack Plachter, fished three days aboard Courtesan, hunting the difficult-to-find-these-days white marlin. Their search was complicated by the fact that Gary believes his wife "cursed" him when she gave him a miniature white some years ago and told him that "that's as close as you'll come to catching one." We tried to prove her wrong, and to remove the alleged curse, but 3 blue marlin and 2 sailfish were the only ones to cooperate, despite two (2) white marlin doubleheaders in the baits on Wednesday. Next year, for sure, Gary!
- Michael Stewart returned, with friend Leah Greenleaf in tow, and released 7 blue marlin in the first four days of December aboard Courtesan Too. Leah caught her first three blue marlin on this trip. Nice going, and we'll see you again in March....
- Jim Murray, Chip Constantini and Greg Edwards started off our new (TBF) year with 4 (for 6) blue marlin releases and 1 for 3 sailfish releases aboard Courtesan on 12/1. A pretty good way to inaugurate the new year, eh?
November Flash (updated 11/30/96)
- Damon Chouest finished out The Billfish Foundation Tagging Year (which ends 11/30 at midnight, in case you didn't know how they do their annual statistics) with Capt. Hector Gonzalez aboard Courtesan Too, in an effort to increase his score after an already incredible success in St. Thomas this past summer. When he arrived here last Saturday he already had 143 blue marlin releases for the year (and 105 tags). As of tonight he's at 168 blue marlin releases (after going 25 for 42 in the last 9 days) and 129 tags. So far as we know, he has more than doubled the maximum number of blue marlin ever released by a single angler in a single year. We're pleased that at least someone took up our "Wanted: One Angler" challenge from last year, and that we had at least a small part to play in the story..... Congratulations, Damon, and keep 'em coming next year!
- Our friend Jim Murray helped Capt. Dave Noling finish out the (TBF) year, releasing 8 blue marlin (and 2 sailfish) in the last 4 days of November. He had help on the last day from Chip Constantini, who released two blues, and Greg Edwards, also members of the LHPSSA.
In the 12/1/95-11/30/96 TBF Year, Capt. Dave and his Courtesan team released 275 blue marlin and tagged 210 of them, so we're hoping Dave can repeat his Billfish Foundation Top Blue Marlin Release Captain Award from last year. Pretty work, gentlemen, and "mille gracias" to all of our successful anglers!
- Adrian Holler and Tom Bennett Jr. brought their sons Adrian Jr and Aaron (Holler) and Thomas (Bennett) to fish over the Thanksgiving holiday, and unfortunately we were fully booked so we could not accomodate them. But Brad Simonds and Darryl Brower showed them a good time aboard the Final Fantasy anyway: Adrian Jr. (age 14) released his first blue marlin; Aaron (age 11) released his first blue marlin; and Tom Jr. (age not available at the request of the angler) released his first blue marlin as well. And Thomas (Darryl says he's already got an "option" on him as a potential first mate some day) released his 3rd white marlin, as well. Oh, and the Holler/Bennett group asked me to add a warning to all of Darryl's friends in Morehead City- "don't believe a word he says about this trip!"
- Tim & Kathy Aylward brought their friend Charlie Jack for three days just before Thanksgiving, and despite a slow second day released a total of 5 blue marlin and a small sailfish. Charlie released his first blue marlin on Sunday, and his second today. Nice going!
- Doug Totura (another LHPSSA member) and Dave Thorpe are fishing aboard Courtesan, and went 4 for 6 on blues their first day, and 4 for 5 (plus a sailfish) on their second day. Yesterday's results (4 for 9) brought them to a 3 day total of 11 blue marlin and 1 sailfish. Not too shabby. And Happy Birthday to Doug tomorrow!
- John Harvey and his wife Susan brought their captain Tom Mechlin for a three day stint to celebrate Tom's 40th birthday. Fising aboard Courtesan on the 19th they went 4 for 6 on the blue marlin, with each member of the party releasing at least one fish. On the 20th and 21st they fished with Capt. Hector on the Courtesan Too, slamming out on the 20th! Their total score for the 3 days of fishing: 10 blue marlin, 1 white marlin, 3 sailfish, 1 Grand Slam. In just 3 days, Tom raised his lifetime blue marlin total from 28 to 33, John almost doubled his lifetime record (to 9 as of now), and Susan caught her first blue marlin. Happy Birthday, Tom, and "pretty work" to all of you!
- The "first wave" of several groups of Lighthouse Point Saltwater Sportsman's Association folks to visit us this month included Blair Glenn (who tagged and released a 280+ lb blue marlin), Ed "El Jefe" Tellier (who boated a 206 lb yellowfin tuna after a 4 1/2 hour battle, establishing a new Club record- sorry Louis Louis!), Tom Donahue (who tagged and released two blue marlin in the 200 lb. class), and Mike Leech, who tagged and released a 60# sailfish). Nice going, guys!
- Dr. Jose Bird and Dr. Miguel Vega fished 3 days in mid-month, releasing 3 blue marlin, 1 white marlin and 1 sailfish. And they apparently enjoyed their Sushi experience at Club Sancocho!
- Mike Antolini brought his brothers Robert, Greg, and Jamie to celebrate their father Bob's 60th birthday with three days of fishing in mid-November. All five Antolinis are involved in various ways with the stock market, and the "inside information" they exchanged in the late afternoons cannot be reproduced in a family publication such as this. These guys are tough! They fished two days aboard Courtesan and one day aboard Dorado, and released a total of 8 blue marlin, 2 whites and 2 sailfish. Happy birthday, Bob!
- Tabby & Grady Thurman finished their month-long stint with us on the 15th, and although the fishing was a little bit slower than they would have liked, they came away with a pretty impressive tally for their 22 days on the water: 24 blue marlin releases, 7 white marlin releases, and 15 sailfish releases. Their friends Sam and Susan Weinstein joined them for a few days near the end, and Sam contributed 2 blue marlin and one sailfish release to the score above. Just think: they'll be back for 2 months with us next spring. Talk about determination!
- Dick Weber, brother Chuck, Dick's captain Mike Adkins and friends David Knoff and Guido DiAntonio joined the Courtesan crew for 2 days early this week and went 5 for 8 on the blue marlin.
- Vic Starling brought Wayne (the Jr.) and Fonda Huizenga for a three day "preview" of what's in store for them when they take delivery of their new Viking 53 early next year. Our old friend Capt. Bobby Brown was on hand as well, and he'll be at the helm of the new boat when she hits the water in New Gretna. Even though Fonda took one day off, she matched Wayne Jr's score with 4 blue marlin releases. Everybody had a good time, especially because the stock price kept going up (seemingly by a point for each blue marlin Wayne released). Perhaps he should plan to fish full time next year?
- Bob Yanover, Kirby Guidry, Dave Jennings and Jerry Young started November off with a bang, releasing 15 blue marlin, 2 white marlin and 2 sailfish in their 4 day stint. They recorded one Grand Slam too. These four days saw a total of 28 blue marlin bites (and 37 total billfish bites). Whitey still is not cooperating, but the boys in the blue suits are more than making up for his absence!
October Flash (Updated 10/31/96)
- Chet Stewart and Jim Kelly came for Halloween (and for the darts), and released 4 blue marlin and 2 sailfish during their three days with us. The Halloween party at Club Sancocho was apparently a big success, but the prizes in the "adult's" pinata were a bit off-color....
- Mike Calder, Tom Jackson, Ian Moffett & R.J. Uebersezig came back to fish 10/25-28 and slammed on their first day. In total they released 5 blue marlin, 3 whites and 3 sailfish.
- Our old friend Tabby Devine (now Tabby Thurman, and congratulations to you both) rejoined us on the 20th and promptly went 5 for 5 on the blues on her first day of fishing in 18 months. She hasn't lost her "touch", but she did get tired... In total Tabby & Grady fished 9 days in October, and released 10 blue marlin, 6 white marlin and 8 sailfish. They had 3 Grand Slams in this period, including double personal slams on the 29th.
- Marc Giraud, wife Agnes, daughter Lola (age 5), and friend Daniel came back from France to fish 4 days aboard Courtesan, and Agnes started them off today with a long fight with a blue marlin the crew (and photographer Richard Gibson, who was on board) estimated at well over 1,000 lbs. This fish would clearly have been a world record on 30 # line, but Agnes broke her off after 3 1/2 hours. The most frustrating thing about this, according to Capt. Dave Noling, is that "we had the wind-on on the reel for almost an hour, but we couldn't get close enough to stroke this fish because we were only using 125 lb. leader." Maybe she'll eat again tomorrow....
- Randall Ward, Al Cooper, Lupton Pittman and Jeff Burton fished Courtesan Too 10/17-19, releasing 4 blue marlin on their first day and slamming out on both Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately they had to go home on the 20th. Next year, 4 days?
- Tim Hamilton, Mike Cohen and Gene Kennedy fished Thursday with Alejandro Gonzalez aboard the Dorado, and then returned to Courtesan for Friday and Saturday, releasing 5 blue marlin and a single white in their two days with us.
- Gar Brown brought his Uncle Richard and Aunt Jane (Strauss) for one day blitz, releasing 4 blue marlin on the 17th. Capt. Dave reported "we had a total of 13 blue marlin bites today, but Murphy's Law took over and we only were able to release 4. You should have seen Jane, though, pumping and cranking like a pro!"
- Rick Tice, son Jeff and friends Joe Candella, Russ Schmidt and Tom Grubisha fished Courtesan 10/13-15, slamming on the 14th and releasing a total of 2 blues, 5 whites and 8 sailfish in their three days. Everybody slams here in Venezuela!
- Diego Arboleda, Ignacio Pardo and Catalina Bayona fished last weekend with Capt. Hector and Juancho aboard the Courtesan Too, and released 7 blue marlin, 1 white marlin and 3 sailfish in their three days with us. Catalina caught her first blue on the 13th, and "Team Arboleda" slammed out the same day. Nice work!
- Meanwhile, Mike Wilder brought friends Rick Ortiz and Fred Lamas to fish on Courtesan on the 11th, and they slammed out as well. The 4 Escalante brothers (Al, Bill, Carlos and Javier- we're tempted to call them the Flying Escalante Brothers) had their first family reunion/fishing trip together on the 12th, and all 4 of them fought the same tough blue marlin before finally getting the release on the stubborn fish. Now that's teamwork!
- Tom and Gwen Hahn fished aboard Courtesan Monday-Thursday, with their friend Susan Murphy joining them on Monday and Thursday, between flights to New York on United Airlines. Although the wild fall blue marlin bite has slowed a little bit they did very well, with a Grand Slam on Monday and a repeat Slam on Tuesday. Their third day was a little bit slower with only (where else in the world would you say "only"?) three blue marlin releases, but their friend Susan Murphy rejoined them on their last day and they slammed out again, with a total of 3 blue marlin, a white and a sail today. Actually, all three anglers scored personal Grand Slams with us in their 4 days (well, actually only 2 days for Susan, so her "average" is a little bit better)- Gwen got her first slam on Monday, Tom got his on Tuesday, and Susan got hers on Thursday (after catching her first two blue marlin on Monday!) Nice going to all of you. Final score for the four days: 11 blue marlin releases, 3 white marlin releases, 3 sailfish releases, and a total of 40 billfish bites. Wow!
And, Susan, are you finally happy to have your name where a "web crawler" will find it?
- The Stewart family (Michael and Charles, not Chet or Roger) fished at the same time aboard Courtesan Too and they also slammed out on Monday, but broke off the blue marlin Tuesday to spoil their repeat performance. Wednesday was a bit slower for them, with only 2 sailfish releases, but they bounced back on Thurdsay with 2 blue marlin releases and 2 sailfish releases. The 2 whites they saw today would not eat, so the double Grand Slam didn't work out. We hate it when that happens! Final score: 4 blue marlin releases, 4 white marlin releases, 12 sailfish releases.
- Coley McDaniel and Clinton Casey were our first customers aboard Courtesan Too this month, and they started us off with a bang. Friday 10/4 they each caught their first personal Grand Slam, mastering 4 blue marlin, 3 white marlin and two sailfish. A triple slam almost came to pass, because we had a tripleheader sailfish at the end of the day, only to jump one off at the last minute. Saturday they released three more blues and a sail, but we couldn't locate the white. Total score for the 2 days: 7 blue marlin, 3 white marlin and 3 sailfish. And Clinton even got his siesta(s), in the bargain!
- Frank Wicker, Glenn Mcfadden and Charles Milam also fished last weekend aboard Courtesan. They reported 32 billfish hookups during their three days with us (14 blue marlin bites, 8 white marlin bites, 9 sailfish bites and 1 spearfish bite), but not too many successful releases. Final score for the weekend: 5 blue marlin releases, 1 white marlin release and 1 sailfish release. Frank asked me last night if we could put a fourth "ringer" angler on the boat next year, to improve the success ratio ....
September Flash (updated 9/30/96)
- "S.E." Ellender returned for the weekend of September 27, with his fishing buddies Tad Blevins and Dr. Vic Tedesco. Regular readers of our newsletter will remember that SE won the video prize last year, so he was here, in part, to "cash in" on his free day of fishing. He was well rewarded on Friday, with 5 blue marlin releases and a white marlin release. Saturday was spent in pursuit of a small blue marlin on 12 lb tippet for Dr. Tedesco- since the record is vacant (and he has had such amazing luck with his fly rod with us before), he thought he'd like to try to set a World Record. Score- no shots on the fly, but one blue marlin and 1 sailfish release. Sunday Dr. Vic broke off his sailfish on the fly (shucks!). With all of the fly fishing going on the final release score for the weekend was a little lower than it might otherwise have been, but the group went away happy anyway.
- Our old friend Jim Toabe usually comes to fish with us around Halloween time (we think he likes the parties Kay gives, and we know he has a sweet tooth). Last year, and the year before, we got covered up with blue marlin in late October, so this year he was determined to come earlier in the season in order to try to intercept the big white marlin migration. So Capt. Hector set out yesterday to try to avoid the blue marlin (what a horrible thought!) and explore down to the west, in order to find "whitey". With his friends Stanley and Sandy Simon and Doug DeOrchis, Jim ended up going 4 for 4 on small blue marlin yesterday, and 1 for 1 on white marlin. They also jumped off a sailfish, which would have completed their Grand Slam. Wednesday was even more frustrating, going 0 for 6 on "whitey" after a long day of exploring in an effort to find the concentration of white marlin which should be here by now. Thursday was a little better in the scoring department, as Dr. Stanley released his first personal Grand Slam. Nice going! Friday would close out their trip with another two blue marlin releases and a sailfish release.
So now we believe we understand why all of these pesky blue marlin are still here- they knew Jim Toabe was coming!
- Edson Gomez de Santos and Jim Jarvis fished with Capt Hector aboard Courtesan Too for four days this past weekend. Their first day was a little frustrating, with 5 pulled hooks (or sancochos) on blue marlin, but they did release two white marlin (which have been very hard to come by recently) and 3 sails. Their second day produced a Grand Slam, with a total of 4 blue marlin, 1 white marlin and 1 sailfish. The third day was very frustrating, with a few fish seen but no hookups. But they came out of their little "slump" very well, releasing 5 blue marlin and 2 sailfish on Sunday, when Courtesan Too was the high boat for the day! Nice going, gentlemen!
- What does the crew of the Courtesan do when a charter cancels, and the fish are biting? Well, they go fishing, of course! Mike Lloyd and his Dad were supposed to be here this weekend, but they couldn't make it, so Tami took two days off from the tackle store and was well rewarded for "playing hookey," recording a personal best of 5 blue marlin releases on Friday. For the day the crew went 11 for 15 on blue marlin (they pulled the hook on # 12 right at the boat) and 1 for 1 on white marlin. Oh, and they missed a few sailfish too. Pretty work, gentlemen (and lady)! To the best of our knowledge, Luis Suarez is the only Captain to have ever released more than 11 blue marlin in one day. His score was 12, so we still have something to shoot for. And we're definitely buying a few more flags (for both boats!)
For the three day weekend, Courtesan released 21 blue marlin and 3 white marlin. And we missed 5 slam chances too. Your Webmaster even got in on some of the action on Sunday....
- Nicholas Varney and Allison Holcomb fished 9/17 and 18 aboard Courtesan, and got to participate in some of the current fantastic blue marlin bite, releasing 5 on Tuesday. Their total score for the two days? 7 blue marlin, 1 white marlin, 4 sailfish, 1 Grand Slam (Nick's first personal slam). He says he's going to try to write something up for Marlin magazine, so watch for it in a few months.
- Laura Roden and Charlie Buchen were our first anglers this fall fishing season, and they started us off with a bang. Saturday's score (9/7): 3 blues, 1 white, 1 sail = Grand Slam! Sunday's totals: 3/6 on blue marlin, missed 2 whites and jumped off the sailfish. Another slam in the baits, but couldn't quite connect. Monday 9/9: 5 blues (for 7 eaters). Tuesday 9/10: double Grand Slam. Had a "Quad Slam" in the baits! Wednesday another blue and a sail. Thursday another Slam. Laura originally came down to try to intercept the early season white marlin bite, but she seemed quite happy when she left with 15 blue marlin and 4 Grand Slams.
