May Flash (Updated 5/26/98)
- The Dale Clavo team had 9 swordfish bites on Sunday (catching 3), but Tim Maddock's group was not as lucky on the Courtesan Too, releasing 5 sails and a blue marlin over the Memorial Day weekend, but they couldn't connect with Mr. Swordie. Better luck next time, Tim!
- Richard Cunningham and Barry McCaldin beat their best-ever one day sailfish release score by going 10 for 14 on the 22nd. Their previous mark was set in Kenya! Their totals for 3 days were 1 blue marlin release and 17 sailfish releases.
- Joe Tortorice and his son Rob each released their first blue marlin last week, and 9 sailfish as well. Nice going!
- Christian Wurzinger came with friends from Moscow (!), and released 10 blue marlin and 4 sailfish in their 3 days. We think they'll be back as well.
- Larry Dahlberg finally got some good footage for his "Hunt for Big Fish" TV show early this month. We'll advise when we know the estimated airtime.
- Chip Constantini achieved his objective of releasing his first swordfish early in May, with the Courtesan Too. Congratulations!
- Mike Stewart and Mike Wilder fished the Courtesan for the Spring Tournament, but had three slow days. Their two practive days before the event were more productive, but whgen the money was on the line they weren't soo lucky this year. Capt. Hector had Brian Phelan and son for two days during the tournament, and although they weren't entered they released 6 blue amrlin and a sailfish which we think would have put them in 2nd place. Tad Blevins and SE Ellender won the top prize aboard Salitre, with Capt. Paul Ivey at the helm.
- Parenthetically, although we normally don't report on the releases of other boats, our friend Steven Smith fished this weekend with the Overkill, and here is his report:
"We had 19 bites and caught 5 blues we had 12 bites and caught 3 sails
Anglers: Stephen Smith, Dan Bulla, Lee Smith, Javier Escalante, Gary Gann
Lee Smith from Security DBS caught his first Blue and first Sail and
was dunked in the pool on Saturday.
We will all be back for the tournament in October and intend to do a lot of 'practicing' between now and then to improve our performance numbers. The fish are there. We just need to learn how to feed them.
Dan Bulla from Houston Industries commented after catching 1 Sail and 1 Blue that he could fish all season on the Texas Gulf Coast and not have 2 fish to show for his efforts. Further, with 5 & 3 for the Friday Saturday and Sunday dates, more fish came off of Overkill than an entire tournament would land in the Gulf. It would be wonderful to see something on your page to print and frame for Lee and Dan."
April Flash (Updated 4/30/98)
- Steve Levine's party fished 4 days with the Courtesan Too and the Dale Clavo, but we don't have the full statistics although we know they had lots of bites!
- John Carter's group released 9 blues, a white and 2 sails at the end of the month, slamming out on the 25th. Nice going!
- Russell Gann slid in for a couple of days, and released 2 blue marlin and a sailfish.
- Ed Lavelle and Tom and Frank Pitten and friends fished mid-month on the Courtesan and Courtesan Too, releasing 12 blue marlin and 4 sailfish. Janice Carter brought her husband Bob to catch a blue one on his 60th birthday Thursday and Saturday, but could only connect with 4 sailfish. They took an extra day Sunday with Overkill, but struck out again. They succeeded on Monday, at last. Happy birthday, Bob. You can't catch 'em if you're not out there!
- Dan Pearcy and Mike Lang each released their first blue marlin fishing with the Courtesan Too last Saturday, but failed to come up with a swordie on Sunday (although they did catch what Burt calls a "beaufish", which is really a pomfret). They also fished 4 days with the Courtesan, releasing a total of 13 blue marlin and 4 sailfish during their stay with us. They'll be back....
- Jim Murray, Sharon Aker and Burt Moss spent Easter weekend with us, and released 7 blue marlin and a sailfish during their stay. Javier Escalante and Dan Ray also fished the Dale Clavo Friday and Saturday, releasing a few nice blues and catching a mess of dorado as well.
- The Courtesan crew took a fun day on the 7th, and our own Tami Wise became the first angler we know of to successfully bait, hook and release a blue marlin using an Oscar Meyer weiner (with a small pink and white chugger) as a pitch bait. Capt. Paul Ivey was aboard with his video camera, so the whole story is documented properly. And the fish was tagged, so Jodi Rice is going to get a mighty suspicious looking tag card one of these days. Tami says she's thinking of coming out with a new line of T shirts, with a slogan something like "Hot Doggin' in Venezuela!"
- Laura Roden had 31 blue marlin bites in her 6 days with us, along with a scattering of white marlin and sailfish bites, and released 10 blue marlin, a white marlin and a sailfish.
March Flash (Updated 4/8/98)
- Near the end of the month the bite heated up again, and Glen Macfadden's group released 6 blues and a sailfish; Perry Hallmark's party released 6 blues on the 27th; and Larry McCarthy & Co. released 12 blue marlin the last 4 days of the month.
- George Voegele, Fred Shipman and George Bubrick's groups also did battle in the early part of the month, with some blue marlin success but nothing like the blue marlin blitz John Wilhide enjoyed. Mike Stewart, Don Leas, and Don Sciano also had some pretty good success at mid-month.
- John Wilhide and friends slammed out on the 6th, but the biggest news was that they raised 30 blue marlin that day, had 21 eaters and released 10 for Courtesan's 2nd best blue marlin one day release total ever. The following day they released 2 more blue marlin.
February Flash (Updated 2/28/98)
- Oh, and we forgot to metion Klaus Boehling's one day stand on the Courtesan Too on March 6. He released 7 blue marlin himself. Very sorry about that, Klaus!
- Michael Zimney's group released 8 blue marlin and a white at the end of the month, and caught a 200# tyellowfin as well.
- The day before the total solar eclipse, Exile was 8 for 15 on blue marlin, and released a white marlin as well. Tyson's Pride, with Billfish Foundation President Mel Immergut behind the rod, went 6 for 7 on blue marlin at the same time. The two boats (ours weren't fishing, unfortunately) raised almost 40 blue marlin in a single day. A pre-eclipse phenomenon? No, just the normal good winter and spring bite in Venezuela!
- Since the yellowfin have arrived in the waters off the La Guaira Bank once again, it's safe to assume that Joe Neuber is back in town. Joe, mate "little Joe" (no relation) and Mike Keating released 12 blue marlin, 9 white marlin and 2 sailfish in their 6 days of fishing, ending up with 4 blues, 2 whites and a sail for a Grand Slam (a personal Slam for Big Joe) on their last day. Proving the superstitions wrong about Friday the 13th, Joe and Joe caught a double header of 300+ lb blue marlin on the "unlucky" day. They didn't "crush" the tuna this year, but they sure saw a lot of billfish (48 bites in 6 days)! Nice going, gentlemen.
- Team Dale Clavo caught their first Grand Slam aboard their newly refurbished 53 Hatteras last Sunday. Nice going, Mike and Javier! Tami Wise got into the act aboard the Tyson's Pride as well, going 4 for 5 on blue marlin and 4 for 5 on white marlin one day last week.
- Bill Roversi just finished up a three day weekend with three "blue marlin virgins" from Royal Marine Underwriters. BJ, Graham and Bob all were successful, as the group slammed out twice in a row: releasing a blue, four whites and two sails on their first day, and a blue, 4 whites and 2 sails on their second day. Their last day was pretty slow, but perhaps that's because their "lucky angler" (Bob) took the day off to make 'phone calls from the Club Sancocho.
- Ken Braud brought a group of Halliburton buddies for a single day of fishing on their way to a series of meetings in Caracas, and scored with releases of a blue marlin and a white marlin. Not bad for an "in transit" experience!
- Javier Escalante brought some friends and his father Alfonso to fish with the Courtesan last weekend, and turned in a great performance with three blue marlin releases and two sailfish releases. Mike Wilder and friends were fishing on the Dale Clavo the same day, but broke off too many fish to win their mini "tournament."
- John Bowen started off the month with a 1/2 day "sea trial," and a Grand Slam, on the 5th. More sea trialing was obviously necessary, and John released another blue on the 6th. The things these mechanics will do to keep a boat running right....
January Flash (Updated 1/29/98)
- Courtesan was fishing with Lance Glaser and Larry Dahlberg last weekend, trying to put some "film in the can" for an upcoming episode of Larry's "Hunt for Big Fish" TV show. Saturday's activities, when the fish were biting like champs, were curtailed by rough weather (something about saving the cameras?) The seas calmed down steadily for their last three days, but the fish would not cooperate. Hopefully they'll be back to try again.
- Javier Escalante and Scott Zublin fished Saturday aboard PJ, releasing 2 blue marlin and missing a couple of slam chances. It was ROUGH, but both Javier and Scott came through unscathed.
- Mike Williams group fished the previous weekend aboard the Courtesan Too and the PJ. (Please don't ask about the problems we've had with the Courtesan and Dale Clavo rebuilds.) Capt. Hector's group released 3 blue marlin and a white marlin, and Capt. Scott's group released a single blue marlin. Happy New Year!
William Van Buren Triumphant!
William Van Buren, owner of the Anna Lee III and a regular Marina Portofino customer for the last three years, was recognized as the winner of the Angler's Award for the most blue marlin and white marlin released by a single angler in 1997 at the John Rybovich Lifetime Achievement Awards dinner in Miami on February 12.
A little bit of background for those of you who don't know Mr. Van Buren he's 83 years young. Congratulations to Mr. Van B, and to Capt. Tommy Powell and mate Megan Denning, as well. We're very proud of you all.
A side note we cannot resist (perhaps this will encourage more of you to visit us in the winter and spring): almost all of Mr. Van Buren's fish were caught between December, 1996 and March 15, 1997, right here at Marina Portofino. Only in Venezuela...
Dave Noling Wins Again!
Capt. Dave Noling was honored at the annual IGFA Banquet for the third year in a row as the Billfish Foundation's Top Release Captain for Blue Marlin and White Marlin. He missed the sailfish title this year, which went to our friend Capt. Brad Simonds. Frank Pettisani (another Marina Portofino regular) was the Angler of the Year, and won for Sailfish and White Marlin.
Tag Returns
We just received notice from the NMFS that a blue marlin tagged by Lee Kirkpatrick in St. Thomas in August, 1992 was recovered in October, 1997 by our old friend Capt. Bernard Johnson from St. Lucia. I'm not quite sure I believe the recapture data, because according to our chart the fish was recovered about 100 miles east of Trinidad, but we're happy that this fish survived over 5 years at any rate...
One of the white marlin recovered by Joe Neuber in mid February was previously tagged here in Venezuela by Gary Gifford in October, 1995. The original tag was placed by the crew of the Courtesan... As Capt. Dave put it: "that fish has seen Cesar before!"
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