June Flash (updated 6/24/96)
- Mike Wilder and Javier Escalante were our final Spring Season customers in Caraballeda this year, releasing 4 blue marlin and (not) releasing 14 dorado over the weekend of 6/22-23. Now we're off to St. Thomas!
- Dr. Henry Nelson and son Lars joined us for the weekend of 6/15 in search of swordfish. Although we slammed out on the 14th, we pulled the hook on both swordy bites, and missed the Super by a whisker. The sword dogs did not cooperate the next two days, so Hank and Lars ended up with 4 blue marlin releases, 4 sailfish releases and one white marlin release, but no swordfish this time.
The Amazing Exploits of Capt. Hector Gonzalez (Continued)
In January, our very own Hector caught a 250 lb yellowfin tuna while fishing solo in our little tender, a 15 ft. Hobie power skiff (see January Flash below). On May 26th, again fishing solo in the little Hobie, he caught a 93 kilo (205 lb.) swordfish!
May Flash (updated 5/27/96)
- Our old friend Mo Poulin from St. John and our new friend Steve Wright from Texas shared a couple of fishing days over the Memorial Day weekend, with excellent results. Regular readers of our newsletter will recall that Mo caught his first white marlin aboard Courtesan in St. Thomas several years ago. On May 25th he caught his first sailfish aboard Courtesan in Venezuela. The final two day score was 1 blue marlin release, 2 sailfish releases, 4 small yellowfin and 5 dorado. Nice going, guys!
- Chad Damron fished the weekend of May 11-12 in a solo effort and did very well with the dorado, despite the fact that the warm blue water was 30+ miles offshore. On Saturday he released a nice sailfish, and practised for the late August Boy Scout Tournament by catching 5 dorado. Sunday the billfish proved even more elusive, but 19 dorado went to the market, so I guess Chad had perfected his technique by then!
- Carey Chen brought his friends Bob, Bill & Gene for a brief visit, and experienced the same slow fishing we've been having for a while. Bob did catch is first blue marlin and his first sailfish, however, so the trip was worth it after all. And we think they had a good time, 'cause they told us they'll be back.
- Bernard Johnson brought his St. Lucia fishing team (including Cliff, Francis & Howard) to fish two days with us and two days with our friend Billy Borer on the El Zorro. Their first day produced three blue marlin bites (and 1 release), and gave these gentlemen a chance to practice dead bait dropback for the first time (they're apparently all lure fishermen in St. Lucia). The second day produced the same number of sightings, including one fish over 500 lbs. who ate everything we had out there and then went away, but no more releases, unfortunately. The water looks pretty offshore of the bank, and several other boats are seeing fish, so we'll hope for a better fishing report today.
- Marc Giraud brought his friend Agnes and crack video man (and finger smasher) Gerard Aulong' all the way from Paris to fish three days aboard Courtesan (and 4 days beforehand with Guarimba). We were able to help Marc catch his first big yellowfin tuna (a 165 pounder) on Friday, and Anges wrested a 220 pound specimen to the wire after a two hour battle on Sunday, but the billfish didn't cooperate all weekend. Agnes' yellowfin missed the world record on 30 lb. line by only 22 lbs! They'll be back in the fall (with their 8 lb. gear), so we hope we can help them set some billfish records at that time.
- The water temperature, which reached 80 degrees F during the Tournament, has fallen back into the 77-78 degree range, and the blue marlin are hard to find and seem reluctant to eat agressively when we can find them. The swordfishing is very good right now, however, so we'll probably try that with our next group. Check in again in a few days for an update (weather permitting, of course!)
(First) Second Annual La Guaira Billfish Shootout- Tournament Report (Filed 5/2/96)
The "second coming" of the first La Guaira Billfish Shootout was held over the weekend of April 25-27 here in Caraballeda. The tournament was organized by Rick Alvarez of Coral Way Tours and Herb Rosell of South Fishing, with additional asssistance from the GiGi fleet. Phyllis and Ron Schatman also provided a lot of the energy to get this tournament going.
A total of 16 boats entered the tournament, and- to cut straight to the chase -the winning angler was David Laurence aboard the GiGi II with 4 blue marlin releases and 1 sailfish release. Second place angler was Marcos Morjain aboard Spadon (3 blue marlin, 1 sailfish); third place angler was Sam Jennings aboard Revenge (2 blue marlin, 4 sailfish).
The winning boat was the Spadon with 5 blue marlin releases and one sailfish. The best news about this (since Courtesan did not win) is that our very own Hector Gonzalez was the winning Captain (which just goes to show that moonlighting sometimes does pay off)! Gigi II was second, and Revenge third in the boat standings. Kent and Cathy Hamill, with Peter Miller and Kit Toomey, were the Courtesan team, and did a very respectable job, finishing fourth in the boat standings (and Kit was fourth individual angler with 3 blue marlin releases). In their 4 days with us the Hamill party released a total of 6 blues, so things are picking up!
April Flash (updated 4/30/96)
- Steve Hindman, son Evan and friends were victims of the slow fishing in late April as well, releasing 1 white marlin and 5 sailfish in their 4 days with us.
- Don and Rock Leas, and Laddy Merck, got so disgusted with the slow pace in mid-April (which was red hot last year) that they only fished 2 days and went home early. They're standing by for a better fishing report, and plan to come back in May or June.
- Larry Press and company fished the 2 days after the Lloyd party, releasing 1 blue marlin, but the fishing was still pretty slow.
- Mike Lloyd, Rhonda Temple and Pete and Allison Cristaudo fished the weekend of April 12-13, and the fish seemed to have developed a better appetite as our Tax deadline approaches. Both Rhonda and Allison released their first blue marlin on the 12th: Rhonda's was a nice scrappy 150 lbs or so, but Allison's was a "monster" (at least for Venezuelan waters) of over 600 lbs. In all, the group released 4 blue marlin and a sailfish, and enjoyed 12 billfish bites, so things are looking up!
- David Stutz brought a group of his customers to fish three days over the week ending 4/12. The group released 2 blue marlin, 1 white and 1 sailfish (including 1 Grand Slam on the 10th), and caught over 25 dorado and a few nice wahoo during their stay. Nice going, guys!
- From our Aruba correspondent: a blue marlin of 1063 lbs. was caught last weekend in Aruba. Hopefully the big mamas will lead their consorts into Venezuelan waters soon!
- Wayne Huizenga's group fished three days aboard Courtesan early in April, and released 1 blue marlin and 2 sailfish, as the fishing remained slow. They did a number on the dorado, however, bringing 9 nice ones to the dock on their second day.
- Tom Hamilton brought his son Zack, Mike Cohen and his son Zach and Les Campbell to fish the same weekend. After some confusion about what boats would be available (due to the Semana Santa holiday here), Capt. Alejandro and Capt. Hector took over and provided them with three good days aboard the Redbird. In total they released 3 blue marlin, and caught a few dorado. And Zack #1 caught his first blue marlin- nice going!
March Flash (filed 3/31/96)
- Bill Roversi brought his daughter Dabney and Chris and Ray Burdsall for a three day stint in early March. After 5 years of we-had-a-good-time-but-didn't-exactly-clobber-the-fish trips with her Dad, Dabney finally connected with her first billfish on the 3rd, and then turned that accomplishment into her first Grand Slam on the same day. Both Dabney and Ray went swimming to celebrate.
- The fishing slowed right down after Bill and Dabney left, as green, cold water came inshore and the bait seemed to go elsewhere. The Jackson/Calder, McMahon and Detrani parties paid the price for this seasonal event, with some pretty slow fishing in mid-month. But all three groups had a good time, and they all vowed to come back, so we hope they'll give us another chance.
- Chet Stewart and Jim Kelly fared a little better over March 20-22, releasing 3 blues their first day, and Mike Glefke's group had a good two days at the end of the month, but all-in-all March was not as "hot" as we had expected after the last few years.
- Curacao had an excellent tournament the last week of the month, with a total of over 300 blue marlin bites for the 3 days. Hopefully these fish will be here soon!
February Flash (filed 2/20/96)
- Joe Neuber and Jim Hollenbach were our first charter guests this year, fishing 5 days early in February (just before and after the full moon). We had a terriffic bite while they were here (54 billfish bites in total), and they ended up with a total of 21 releases (9 blues, 4 whites and 7 sailfish), plus a good number of dorado and a nice 55 lb wahoo. They had a total of 7 Grand Slams in the baits (including a triple), and succeeded in releasing one on their last day. Joe also had the good fortune of our fastest-ever blue marlin release: fifteen seconds (counted off from the video) between hookup and tag. They'll be back in the fall for a two day blitz, and we hope next winter as well.
- Megumi Konamaru and Neil Reierson joined us in mid month for 4 days in Venezuelan waters, after sampling Panama and on their way to Costa Rica. What a trip for these Canadians! They had some good fishing with us, releasing a total of 8 blue marlin, 3 whites and 5 sailfish. We'll be interested to see how their final score came out for the whole trip!
- Carey Chen spent a week with us at the end of February, and painted a beautiful Grand Slam mural in the bottle of the pool at Marina Portofino (and another one on the walls of Portofino Tackle). Unfortunately the real, live fish didn't cooperate as well as the painted ones, but Carey managed to release a white and a sailfish while he was here. Thanks for all of your hard work, Carey!
January Flash (filed 1/28/96)
- We only fished 4 days this month, due to our normally scheduled maintenance in January. But we had 18 blue marlin bites, and released 7 blues, 3 whites and 2 sails. We also had Grand Slams in the baits on all 4 days, but never managed to connect with all three species on a single day.
- One of the highlights of our "fun fishing" this month was watching Capt. Hector wrestling with a 250 lb yellowfin tuna on the 26th. What made this so spectacular is that he was fishing by himself, just north of the edge of the Bank, aboard the little Hobie 15 we normally use as a tender. Juancho had to jump aboard to help him bring the big fish into the boat, but Hector caught and gaffed the fish solo (in an hour and 20 minutes). He caught a total of two blue marlin, 4 tuna and three dorado that day. Pretty work, Hector!
Copyright © 1996-2002 Marina Portofino c.a. All Rights Reserved
Revised 20 February, 2002
For more information send mail to Marina Portofino