November was not the month of the turkey, it was the month of the swordfish and it is now common knowledge that the large fish can be caught in deep water in the daylight hours. The local anglers rose to the occasion and began dropping their squids down in the 1600 foot area. The results were outstanding. More and bigger fish were caught and even a couple of blue marlin were captured deeper than usual. I’m sure there will be many daytime swordfish tournaments in the near future. Though exciting this was not the only good news. Kingfish and mackerel were plentiful in the area and wahoo were being caught in the Bahamas. The sailfish season started with two highly successful events. This certainly was a memorable month and December promises to be another winner.  The prolific Captain Bart Sherwood has done it again. Sherwood and his crew of Captain Gary Stuve and Captain Dave Jones guided Don Barnes and his friend Lee Hitow to a double header of blue fin tuna. They caught the two large fish within minutes of each other yesterday morning. The were fishing from Don Barnes' Clueless in North Carolina. The first sailfish tournament of the year was the Sailfish Cup a new event in the area sponsored by the group that does the Key West mega sailfish extravaganza. Catch One, a Palm Beach boat won the event, Jim Lambert’s Really Tight took second place and third place went to Eddie [the Steeler] Lopez‘ Midnight Blue with Captain Jason Jennings at the helm. Team A-Fin-ity wins the 2007 Presidential Challenge Guatemala hosted by Joan Vernon. Anglers Greg Voell, Henry Riggs-Miller, and Mick Aixala caught and released 24 sailfish and 1 blue marlin giving them 2900 points. The Captains name is Juanga Lopez. The 2 mates were Brandon and "Conejo" (rabbit in spanish). There where 14 Teams, 42 Anglers, 234 Sailfish, 11 Blue Marlin, 1 Black Marlin. The top 3 boats were tied with 2900 but A-Fin-Ity won by time. The K-Rock [formerly the Kevin Llorente Memorial] event took place right on the heels of the Sailfish Cup and was captured by the Sandman skippered by Captain Neal Orange, finishing second was unemployed mortgage broker Terry Klaus and his son Trey fishing from their Qualifier and showing [race track jargon] was Kit Toomey’s Get Lit with Peter Miller as an angler and the double play combination of Dieterle, Cooper and Hinckley running the boat and working the pit. The next sailfish contest will be the Florida Yachts International - Riviera Sailfish Kickoff in Coconut Grove scheduled for December 6th thru the 9th. This colorful event is run by Tony Albello’s Ocean Promotions a group which really knows how to run a tournament. As usual there will be libations, fierce competition, music and lots of fun and prizes. Tony’s contest also features instant results on the website. You can follow the action on your computer as it unfolds. Log on to www.sailfishkickoff.com, it’s more fun than watching the Dolphins. All the usual heavy hitters are entered in Tony’ event: Get Lit, Wound Up, Midnight Blue, the Miss Britts, Sandman, Jichi et al. This year competing for the first time will be K.C. Crook’s C@C and his crew , the new gunslingers in town. The C@c will represent Crook and Crook and will feature K.C at the Helm and fishing guru Elias Rodriguez and Jack Agramonte formerly of the famous Jichi crew will be the core of the team. We wish them luck. An interesting side bar to the tournament will be the friendly competition between Jack and his old team mates on the Jichi.  Captain Bill Harrison just received this note from international fishing Captain Ross “Flash” Clark chartering a 54 custom built fishing machine the Relentless out of Rum Cay in the Bahamas: “the wahoo season started off great with daily catches including wahoo’s in excess of 80 lbs. and dolphin and yellow fin tunas as an added bonus.  The bottom fishing deep dropping is virtually untouched and produces spectacular catches of snappers and grouper ”Captain Flash goes on to tell of fishing four days with Tim Choate and releasing 7 blue marlin, one in the 600 pound range. Captain Clark who has fished all over the globe has several dates available some on the moons. Captain Fash sent us this photo of his boss’ daughter Ashley and her friend with their catches. For charter information check out Herb Rosell’s South Fishing website. http://www.southfishing.com Captain Harrison who has more connections than Southern Bell recently received these pictures from his old friend Tubby Brown manager of Breezers Tackle Store in Knwsna [sic], Republic of South Africa. Brown a former construction kingpin decided to opt for the simple life and currently is managing the tackle store in the Dark Continent.  The first a dramatic photo of a beached marlin and a man or vice versa. The man next to the washed up blue marlin is Louis Theron who stands 5 foot 10 inches tall. Tubby said two one thousand pound blues washed ashore in the last two years.  The second picture is of Tubby with a king mackerel caught on an Island in Mozambique. Harry Tellam, the legendary veteran Key Biscayne angler, sent us the final run down of the year for the blue marlin action in St Thomas. Jim Lambert’s Reel Tight with Captain Eddie Herbert running the Merritt finished first with 116 releases. Sam Jennings’ and Captain Jim Lemon took second place honors [probably because Sam’s son Jon stayed in Miami pursuing the wily swordfish]. Third place went to the Black Gold.  Captain David Smyth had another successful fishing day aboard the 60 foot Hatteras Ruckus. Owners Mr. and Mrs. Torcise are shown with one of the two twenty pound African pompano caught on the outing, the second was brought in by the attractive Meredith Cox a student at the UM [go canes, go Meredith]. The group also captured 4 mutton snappers, Mrs. T caught an eighteen pounder two pounds larger than Mr. T’s. They also caught a host of snappers in the 8 to 10 pound class on the memorable day. In the words of Captain Smyth, “seems there are more than sailfish in these waters“. Morgan Lawson a former captain and mate in our area checked in to tell us he is doing well in North Carolina in the insurance business. Morgan left the marine business and went straight after he graduated from Florida State University. Morgan has been fishing in the SKFA tournaments in the Tarheel State and finished third and fourth in two events. He and his crew went down to Mississippi and fished in one of the big ones and finished in sixth place. Morgan’s dad is the head honcho of Boat Center [the Contender people] and his brother Hunter is a well known P.A [?] in the Miami area. Captain Jose Alverez charter boat captain and America’s unofficial ambassador to Bimini, had another outstanding day in the gulf stream recently. Fishing from his 31 foot SeaVee Alicat the veteran fisherman guided father and son team of Jorge and Alberto Perez and Jorge’s better half Clara Ibarra to two sailfish releases and six kingfish. Mate Lazaro Hechearra worked the cockpit.  The Bristow’s of Madeira sent us this picture of the Clueless boating a black marlin.. Very impressive! BREAKING NEWS: Motown’s big Don Barnes caught his first blue fin tuna of the North Carolina season less than a day after he arrived on the scene. Barnes was fishing from his 57 foot Jarrett Bay fishing machine Clueless. Don’s captain Bart Sherwood a prolific tuna fisherman ran the boat. That’s it for this month fans. As usual I close with the quote of the month. Crook and Crook’s J-Lo clone the charming Keil advised one of her clients who was about to give up his marine career for a job in finance to be careful. “It is better to test the waters first“ she wisely counseled. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas. And a special thanks to Olga Tsoy of the Siberia Tsoys. Dude Perkins |
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