December Flash (Updated 12/9/97 )Tim and Kathleen Aylward fished with the Courtesan crew aboard the PJ this past weekend, while the Courtesan's trusty "hummin' Cummins" are being rebuilt (after only 11,000 hours). They raised quite a good number of fish, and released a few, and are an their way home for the holidays with good memories. Thanks to Capt. Scott and Elias for their help.

Andy Chelini and friends "rang in the new (TBF) year" last Saturday aboard the Courtesan Too, releasing two blue marlin and a white marlin. Nice going!

St. Thomas Update

Although Courtesan will be staying here in Venezuelan waters next summer, we're pleased to report that the Dale Clavo will be making the journey to Red Hook next summer. Capt. Dave Noling will be in command for the first half of the summer season (we expect to be ready to fish on June 25th), and Capt. Dennis Steele will be at the helm for the month of August. So get your calendars out, and start booking your dates now. The full moons are July 9, August 7 and September 6. Depending on demand, the boat may stay in St. Thomas until after the September full moon....

Dennis will return!

Capt. Dennis Steele will be returning to Caraballeda next winter (approx. mid-February to the end of March) and next fall (depending on the St. Thomas schedule, from early September through November). We're delighted that he'll be able to spend more time with us. His fall calendar for the Dale Clavo is already filling up, so don't hold back if you'd like to fish with Dennis' crew.

By the way, Capt. Dennis informs us that his anglers released a total of 22 blue marlin, 59 white marlin, 45 sailfish and 3 sword dogs during his stay with us this fall. That's 129 billfish releases in just 27 days of fishing, or 4.7 releases per day. His groups also enjoyed 12 Grand Slams and 2 Super Grand Slams. Make your reservations for next winter and next fall now!

Anyone for Trinidad?

Mike Wilder is starting a rumor that the Dale Clavo may be going to Trinidad and Tobago near the end of January. He thinks he has a few days of charter lined up, and we're looking for more to make the trip worth while. Anyone interested?

Year-End Statistics (11/30)

As most of you know, the Billfish Foundation and the IGFA do their year-end statistical tabulations on a December 1 to November 30 basis. So today is New Year's Eve for us.

To cut to the chase, our Marina Portofino anglers (not counting the Dale Clavo anglers because we haven't gotten all of Dennis' statistics yet- are you reading this, Dennis?) released 282 blue marlin in the 12/1/96-11/30/97 "year". You (and you know who you are) also released 201 white marlin, 194 sailfish, and 8 spearfish, bringing our total billfish releases to 685 for the "TBF Year." In this same period, 203 blue marlin and a total of 498 billfish were tagged and released. We averaged 5.3 billfish bites per day over 303 fishing days, and released an average of 2.3 billfish per day.

By comparison, in the 12/1/96-11/30/96 period we released 660 billfish (more blues but fewer whites and sails and only 2 spearfish), and averaged 5.4 bites/day and 2.6 releases per day over 250 days of fishing. So no matter what anyone says about the effects of "El Nino," we haven't seen them here yet....

We're proud of our anglers, and of our crews, and thank everyone for helping Courtesan catch over 200 blue marlin for the third (or is it fourth?) year in a row. Stay tuned for the IGFA banquet in January, were we'll find out how well everyone else did (but we hope Dave won again....)

November Flash (updated 12/3/97)

• Cecilia Gibson (yes, the rumors of Richard's marriage are correct), fishing with Capt. Mike Derring on the Overkill on 11/30, released a 200+ lb blue marlin which had previously been tagged off Puerto Rico on 10/21/95. The fish was originally tagged by our friends aboard the Lady Lou. Congratulations to the bride!
• Bob Schnee and Kathy Serbin "finished out the Old" with Hector today, releasing 6 whites of 9 eaters. They had a couple of blues in the baits as well, but couldn't quite get the slam. Maybe "next year" (that is, tomorrow.)
• Chris Besser released his first two sailfish and Bev Poulin released her first white marlin (after we caught husband Mo's first white several years ago in St. Thomas) at the end of the month, fishing with Capt. Hector.
• Shannon Pitner and her friend Wally Davey (who commutes to Florida from Sydney, Australia) slammed out on their second day, but otherwise had a frustrating time with the Courtesan team, posting a total of 5 releases for 33 billfish bites in their three days.
• Mike Stewart and his Dad fished three days, releasing 2 blues, 3 whites and 10 sailfish, with Charles turning in a personal Grand Slam on their last day. We hope your Mom continues to improve, Mike, and repeat our congratulations for being named "Sportsman of the Year" in your rookie season of modified stock car racing. Nice going!
• Javier Escalante and friends fished 11/23 with Capt. Dave, releasing a blue, a white and 4 sailfish for their slam. Scott Zubin, looking a little the worse for wear, came through OK though....
• Chris Howe and friends fished 3 days with Hector, releasing 2 blue marlin, 4 white marlin and 1 sailfish (slammin' out on their second day), and put in two very early days peacock bass fishing at Lake Camatagua. They enjoyed both types of fishing, and plan to do it again next year.
• Gar Brown brought Nancy and Chris Ravenel, and their Captain Frank, for a taste of our great fishing, and they were not disappointed, fishing 1 day with Dennis and 2 days with Dave. Their last day was their best, with five (yes, 5) Grand Slams in the baits (not all at once, thank God). One of the three blue marlin they released on their last day put Courtesan over the magic 200 release mark for the (TBF) year. We hope they'll be back....
• Drs. Bird and Vega, with Miguel Bird along for his first Venezuelan adventure, scored big time their first day, releasing 4 blue marlin and scoring a Grand Slam as well. Things slowed down a touch after that, but their 3 day score was 6 blue marlin releases, 2 white marlin releases and 3 sailfish releases (and almost 9 bites per day). And thanks again for helping Miss Kay.
• Rick Tice's group shared a slow couple of days with the Yanover party, but came through in the clutch to release 3 blue marlin and a white aboard the Courtesan Too.
• Bob Yanover & Co. had three slow days aboard the Courtesan, but came alive at the end to release 4 blue marlin, and to slam out in the process. Nice going, guys.
• We also had a tag recovery reported by the NMFS this month, for a blue marlin tagged by Rodman Leas in May, 1995 and recovered by a long liner in June, 1997 after 770 days at large.
• We just got a tag return report from the Billfish Foundation, for a tag recovered on 10/21/97 by angler Jill Richardson aboard the Reel Tease with Capt. Jay Champlin. The blue marlin was originally tagged by angler Juancho Figueroa aboard the Courtesan Too with Capt. Hector Gonzalez. The fish was released by Juancho on 1/6/97, and when it was released a NMFS tag was recovered from the fish before it was retagged. We think this is the first documented tag/retag/re-release (unfortunately, Jay's crew was unable to retag the fish a third time.)
• Steve and Evan Hindman, with Drs. Aiello and Wallace, had a good four day trip on the Courtesan, releasing 4 blue marlin, 5 white marlin and 3 sailfish. And Evan caught his first blue marlin. Pretty work!
• John Sexton and group had three pretty slow days (by our, admittedly spoiled, Venezuelan standards) but released 2 blue marlin and a white marlin anyway. Todd Gail won the prize (?) for most sancochos.... And they had a good time, which is most important.
• Mac & Agnes Giraud (with Lola "Quisas" Giraud along for the ride) spanned the Halloween period, with 6 days of fishing aboard Courtesan. Although they had a few slow days, they ended up releasing 11 whites, 2 sailfish and 2 blue marlin, with a Grand Slam to cap off their stint with us.
• The Comer family (can you believe 4 Comers on one boat all at once?) started off a little slow, but finished off their trip with a good day, releasing 3 blue marlin and a white. The elusive sailfish spoiled their slam, but nice going anyway.
• Drs. Fred Fish & William Cornatzer were here for a "Dermatology Conference" (AKA a fishing boondoggle). They 'doggled pretty damn well, however: with Capt. Dennis at the wheel they slammed out on their first day (just missing a double slam), had three blues on their shortened second day (they had to give a lecture for their group early in the evening, so they had to quit early). Their next to last day they managed a Super Grand Slam (blue, white, sail and a small swordie, which they released), and just missed a double super. Their last day they Super slammed again, this time with a 90 lb. sword which they elected to boat. Now that's Dermatology!

  October Flash (updated 11/3/97)

  To summarize the month of October, we've been incredibly busy (and thus the tardy Flash Report updates). Whitey has been here, and may still be here. The best white marlin action was at mid month, just before the full moon (which is atypical here, as usually the dark side is better for whites). And blue marlin are still plentiful, so the "slam chances" have been pretty good all month. Our two boats, fishing 51 days, had over 90 blue marlin bites, over 200 white marlin bites and over 150 sailfish bites this month. Now that's pretty good fishing!

• Marc, Agnes & Lola Giraud finished out the month aboard Courtesan, but the fishing seemed to slow down for them, for some reason. They're fishing as this is being written, so hopefully they will end up their trip with a "bang" today.
• John Knight's group slammed on both of their days with Capt Dave as well. Doug Johnson's group had a "spearfish slam" on their first day and a double (conventional) slam on their second with Team Courtesan.
• Aleicia and Rob Woodrick did the "mother-son thing" for 3 days aboard Courtesan, slamming out on their first two days and missing a double slam on the third. Let's hear it for family activities (and thanks, Mom!)
• Gene Kennedy and Diane Shepard fished the Courtesan during the "LHPSSA weekend", and had 25 billfish bites but couldn't quite get the slam together. The Repetski team double slammed aboard the Courtesan Too on Friday, however.
• Glen Macfadden and Frank Wicker had about the best of the white marlin so far in mid-month, with 31 bites in theior two days with the Courtesan. The releasing wasn't as good as the biting, however....
• The "T. Paul Group" split their efforts amonng the GiGi fleet and the Courtesan, with different people on each boat every day (so we couldn't keep all of the names straight), but the fellows who fished with us released 5 blues, 5 whites and 3 sailfish.
• Willis Milner, Lance Walker, Luddy Goetz and Terry Woltz fished two days aboard the Georgia Girl and two days aboard the Summer Girl with Dennis Steele as Guest Captain. They released a total of 32 billfish during their stint: 2 blue marlin, 4 sailfish and 26 white marlin. Yes, whitey is back, and all the Girls love him...
• Bimini Gill was flyfishing with Hector aboard the Courtesan Too at mid-month. They had 11 fish in the teasers Friday, but only one solid hookup. Solid, because the fight lasted almost 2 hours. At the last minute, Juancho couldn't get the second gaff in the fish, and the potential world record 210 lb blue marlin (on 16 lb. tippet) went away. We hate it when that happens....
• Clint Casey rejoined us this year aboard the C Too, slamming out on their second day.
• Andy Hollis, Randy Smith and Joe Paul had a great three days aboard the Courtesan, releasing 10 blue marlin, 10 white marlin and 5 sailfish. They slammed out on their last day to cap it off. Nice going, gentlemen!
• To cut to the chase, Rookie won the Tournament with an astonishing quadruple (yes, 4X) Grand Slam on the final day of fishing. Salitre finished in second place, and Spadon was third. A total of 247 billfish were released by the 18 teams participating, and 33 Grand Slams were released. In addition, two spearfish were released, and Courtesan had a Super Grand Slam (which did not count for extra points- shame on the Tournament Committee). The release total included 63 blue marlin, 99 white marlin and 85 sailfish. The Top Angler was Ivan Cadiz (on the Salitre); second place angler was Doug Totura; Burt Moss was third place angler (both on the Rookie). The dreaded Hard Luck Trophy went to the GiGi III because they had three disqualified fish (two of them because a single fish ate more than one bait).
• The second day of the "Grand Slam" Tournament was a little slower than the first, with a total of 61 billfish releases (9 blue marlin, 24 white marlin and 28 sailfish) and 6 Grands Slam Releases reported. Blank Check is the leader going into the final day, with Summer Girl in Second and Spadon in Third. Courtesan Too is in Fifth Place, and Courtesan in Ninth.
• Over 120 billfish flags were flying when the First Annual Venezuelan International "Grand Slam" Billfish Tournament's first day of fishing came to a close yesterday. Most of the 18 boats entered in the event reported double digit bites of both white marlin and sailfish, and a total of 127 billfish (33 blue marlin, 54 white marlin, 39 sailfish and 1 spearfish) and 16 Grand Slams were released by the fleet. Summer Girl is in first place in points at the end of the first day of fishing; Tim Maddock and friends are in second place in points aboard the Spadon, with a triple slam to their credit yesterday; Blank Check is in third place, after losing the blue marlin which would have completed their triple slam (cut off on some long line gear, of all things) after a heroic 4 hour battle. Both Courtesans slammed out as well, with Jim Murray and crew turning in a (no bonus points) Super Grand Slam (including yet another spearfish release) and Team Dale Clavo (fishing aboard the Courtesan Too) narrowly missing a triple slam. Courtesan Too lies 4th in the standings and Courtesan is 6th at the end of Day 1. Good luck to all of the competitors today!.
• Sharon Aker caught her first blue marlin, her first white marlin and her first Grand Slam aboard Courtesan on the 1st. Nice going! For some reason, Jim Murray did not throw her in the pool.... Perhaps he has enough luck stored away for the upcoming Grand Slam Tournament?

  September Flash (updated 9/28/97)

• Courtesan had Super Grand Slam yesterday for Burt and Susan Moss and their friend John Clarke: blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish and spearfish! Pretty work, I'd say....
• Rafael Bru and friends slammed out on the 25th, and released 11 whites (for 19 bites) and 2 sails on the 26th. Their "first encounter" Friday was with a nice blue marlin who jumped off, spoiling their second slam.
• Hot off the presses: Laura Roden, of Palm City, FL released a personal Double Grand Slam 9/22 aboard the Courtesan. We're checking with the IGFA and The Billfish Foundation, but we think Laura may be the first woman (and one of very few people of either sex) to ever have done this. Congratulations to Laura, and to the crew!
• Capt. Jack Plachter brought a group of Gary Fronrath's top salesmen on a junket to reward their sales successes, and "slammed out" two out of the three days. Gary himself still has not caught a white marlin. There's still time, Gary, but you have to go fishing to do it!
• Bill Hadley and friends had one slow day and one good day in mid month. Hopefully they'll be back for more soon.
• Bimini Gill started us off in early September with 4 more days of (unfortunately frustrating) fly fishing. He connected quite a few times, but the record fish is still out there, somewhere...

  St. Thomas Wrap Up

• George Bubrick's group and Rick Tice's party released 7 blue marlin in June (going 7 for 11, which means something in the game of Craps, doesn't it?)
• Dr. Jose Bird and Tami Wise were our successful anglers in July, but Vic Starling and Dave Thorpe had lots of chances in the mid-month AYH Tournament, and contributed (horribly, I must add) to our 2 for 17 score for the month of July.
• Richard Cunningham, Pierce Marks, Frank Wicker, Mike Wilder, Javier Escalante, Mike Stewart and Dr. Bird (again!) were all successful on the North Drop in August, and improved our scoring to 21 for 48 for the month. The wilder/Escalante/Stewart trio wend 8 for 8 the day after the Boy Scout Tournament ended, and 4 for 6 the day after that. NIce going, guys!
• So our final tally for the summer was 30 blue marlin releases, quite a few more lost to the sharks, and lots of good times were had by all.

  Fleet Expansion

  There is good news and bad news in this particular report. The good news is that we are expanding our "fleet" with the addition of a second 53 Hatteras to our "stable" of fully equipped and professionally crewed charter boats. The bad news is that we are simultaneously losing some charter customers.

  Javier Escalante and Mike Wilder bought the old "La Brava" in June. Renamed the "Dale Clavo" (what did you expect?), she has had a complete mechanical overhaul this summer and a paint job, and she'll have an interior cosmetic redo next winter. This boat is a fish raising son-of-a-gun, and the new owners are recruiting an excellent crew for her, including an english-speaking mate to make our American customers feel more comfortable in the cockpit.

  The other good news is that our friend Dennis Steele will be returning to Caraballeda this fall to run some of the Dale Clavo trips (and to entertain some of his own customers, we hope!) This should be an excellent combination.

  While the Dale Clavo is owned by a separate corporation (Turismo Dale Clavo S.A., of course), Javier and Mike have asked us to help them manage the reconstruction process, and to handle their charter bookings and administrative activities. So you'll now find the Dale Clavo availabilities on our calendar pages on this web site.

• Old Flash Reports Index
• An overview of Marina Portofino
• Important information for visiting vessels and crews is now available at Port Entry Procedures
• A brief "How-To" for Owners and Captains regarding Legal Charters in Venezuela
• Read or Download our Dockage Contract and Yacht Registration Form
• QCA (Questions Captains Ask) (A list of FAQs by and for Captains)
• FAQs of General Interest about fishing conditions, accommodations, travel, etc.