David Smyth, captain of the Reel Doc, and his significant other the attractive Sherrie Crable said their wedding vows in a moving and romantic ceremony at Hope Town in the Bahamas. The rite took place at sunset before Whitney Reiter, Eric Johnson and a host of the couple’s friends. It was a poignant moment when the crowd, all dressed in their elegant tropic garb, waved goodbye to the happy couple as they flew off to a honeymoon in Bermuda. The Smyths interrupted their Bermuda idyll to do a little sport fishing. The newly weds fished aboard Miamian Carlos De La Cruz’’ 72 foot American Yacht Yellow Bird on a marlin expedition off the remote island and looked on as owner Carlos caught and released a 200 pound plus blue marlin and a white marlin well over one hundred pounds. Captain Cameron and crew had two more blues and a white marlin to the boat but alas they escaped. After the trip the lovers returned to Miami and lived happily ever after. As reported above as of now only one giant blue tuna was boated this season at Cat Cay. The fish was caught by the Celia P. the forty three foot Meritt boat owned and operated by the Paleologos brothers Nick and Coco. On the great day they had baited four schools and hooked and lost one forty minutes before the catch. They hooked the big fish and battled the beast for three hours before boating the giant. Nick ran the boat and Coco worked the pit and veteran angler Tony Belcher was in the chair and did a yeoman job in handling the reel. The unsung hero of the effort was Jeremiah Nachtigal a North Carolinian who has fished in Hawaii, the Florida Keys and Australia. Jeremiah wired the fish and held on for dear life as they boated the great trophy. Jimmy Badalamenti [pronounced Bag –O- Doughnuts] rounded out the crew. Nick and Coco [the neo Greeks] estimate the fish weighed in excess of eight hundred pounds. Captain Bill Harrison recorded the climax of the catch on film.  Team Sea Hunter caught the biggest fish in the twenty fourth annual Treasure Cay Billfish Tournament when they boated a 584 pound blue marlin. Captain Ralph Montalvo and his crew did a great job landing the fish which they muscled to the leader three times before getting a flying gaff into the beast.. The team worked as one during the entire battle. Chris Alverez was the angler, Chino Vidal the wire man, George Brehm ran the boat and last but not least eleven year old Nick Montalvo was the photographer. The big blue had no bill having lost it in his travels [no bill, you don’t have to pay for it]. Naturally they were fishing from Montalvos’ 35 foot fishing machine Sea Hunter. Captain Ralph is a man for all seasons who has done it all. In his youth he anchored one of Jimmy Johnson’s U of M lines where he was remembered as an intense undersized center who played much tougher than his frame. He has been a tournament angler and an aircraft parts executive and is now head honcho of the state of the art Sea Hunter Fishing Boat operation. Ralph and his company built the famous Jichi for the Ecuadorian National fishing team remembered for their exciting penultimate finish in the Mayor’s Cup. Robert Shelly’s Bill Back caught and released four blue marlin on the second day of the Boat Harbor leg of the Bahamas Billfish Challenge to lead in the event. After the third day they found themselves trailing Ed Harden’s Abracadabra by a few points. With the tournament in the balance Captain Steve Smithies and the Bill Back crew were in striking distance but could not catch a fish on the final day and fell to fifth place.. Abracadabra won the event with veteran Captain Ron Reibe [the elder] at the helm and his old buddy Captain Jerry Friesinger working the pit. Captain Jerry, who once chartered his Doc’s Out at Crandon Park, was taking a hiatus from his highly successful stock portfolio.  Big Al Schaeffer of South Fishing sent us his photo of a grander caught in Bermuda. The big blue was captured by the Big Game out of Charleston S.C. When the fish was brought to the boat he went under the props and got torn up losing about two hundred pounds of meat. Captain Charles Keresey put the fish on the scale and it still weighed a thousand pounds. While this was happening veteran Captain Alan Card, a Bermuda legend, caught a 550 pound trophy and then topped it with a 650 pounder a couple of days later.  Don Barnes and company had a great day catching yellowfin tunas recently fishing from his Jarrett Bay Clueless. The boat is run by tuna specialist, Captain Bart Sherwood of Coconut Grove. Captain Alan Starr is still hammering the striped marlin in the Galapagos Islands. Lately his catches have tailed off because he is concentrating on taking fly fishing mavens to the marlin grounds.. One light tackle angler released a 400 pound fish recently. Captain Starr recently guided the above mentioned Captain Bart Sherwood’s English teacher from Gulliver Academy to a bunch [sic]of marlin catches. The angler was using a “Jim Gallagher“ fly. Luis Isaias has added another vessel to his ever growing armada. Master angler Luis and Captain Rick Lindner just took possession of a sleek C&L sport fisherman The C&L is a hybrid Jarrett Bay custom built in North Carolina. Boat manager Jack Agramonte is planning a full spectrum of tournament action for the fishing machine during the fall and winter season zeroing in on the C&L – Weaver Shootout.  Katherine Hatch an anglerette from Oklahoma released a 750 pound blue marlin from Peter Bristow’s Katherine B. in Madeira. Peter also had catches of 900 and 1000 + pounds this season. Bark Garnsey and Stewart Campbell [the duo that roams the globe pursuing the elusive marlin] arrived on the Island and caught two fish in the six to seven hundred pound class. The larger fish was captured and released on thirty pound test line. Hall of famer Ron Hamlin [Captain Hook] came to Madeira from Venezuela and using his Latin American expertise immediately caught a fish the first day. A feisty twelve pound mahi mahi. That’s it for his month fans. As usual I close with the quote of the month: Crook and Cook recently hired Olga Tsoy a young Russian girl as cashier. The lithe attractive lass is here for the summer to experience the ambiance and the excitement of this tri-ethnic cosmopolitan gateway to Latin America [Miami]. One of Crook’s cashiers a provocative young lady leaving for college was told Olga was from the frozen tundra of Siberia. ”No she’s not, she is from Russia“, said the university bound beauty. Tight Lines. Dude Perkins |
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