May Fishing Report
April stormed out of South Florida with a vengeance preventing the weekend warriors from trying their luck and forcing the Key West tournament teams entered in the World Sailfish Championship to hang on for dear life. The fourth month’s parting gift was almost a week of high winds and rain most unusual for this time of year. These hostile conditions wreaked havoc with the biggest and last sailfish tournament of the year and turned the “playoffs “into a test of survival as well as fishing skill. Fishing as a whole for the period was red hot , plenty of large dolphin aka mahi mahi , the wahoo still cruised Bimini waters , sail-fishing was smoking hot and it was blue marlin time in the Bahamas . All in all it was a good fishing month with a dramatic finish .
The big daddy of the sailfish contests the World Sailfish Championship in America’s southernmost city a three day event entered by all the top gunslingers in the area started off with record action , everybody was catching fish . On Saturday the third and final day the tempest broke. After about an hour of angling in heavy weather the committee boat was hit by lightning ending the action for the day . At that time Captain John Dudas on the Four Aces was on one of his streaks and had released five fish in first hour . The committee met and decided they would finish the last four hours on Sunday . After many protests ,objections and even the threat of legal action it was decided that the event was over when the lightning struck . The final standings were :
Sandra Mac Millian and Captain Scott Leon’s Sandman with 34 releases winning on time over Advanced Roofing also with 34 .Four Aces took third with 32 fish . The four Aces took the third day daily and received a prorated payout . Sandra Mc Millian was the top lady angler . 51 boats released 652 sails mostly on the first two days . Captain Luis isais’ Jichi overcame a lightning strike and once again captured the international division for his 91st straight victory . There is a dark cloud on the horizon for the Ecuadorians , it is rumored the sovereign nation of Poland is training a sailfish team in the Baltic and will participate in next years tourneys in an effort to halt the Latin American sportsman’s Jichi and it’s all star crew’s record win streak . .
The W.S. C. Management team then moved the venue to Miami and brought us the Pro Championship series to determine the 2012 sailfish champion . Using some sort of arcane method they chose six boats and a wild card to vie for the title . { the wild card is a network gimmick to add an extra game on TV . This event was not televised .] . After a series of mano Y mano confrontations the Advanced Roofing team won the “title” . The rambling roofers from Martin County bested Kit Toomey’s Get Lit and the howling weather to take all the marbles and were declared “champions “ Captain John Louie Dudas and Warren Sands Wound up did not participate .
Hal Boyer a fan from Pennsylvania sent me the following prediction of the next electronic miracle. The witty Keystone [State] kartoonist and fresh water expert depicts the new device which will revolutionize angling and then fade away into the dust bin of obsolescence in one brief season by something picked off an apple tree .
Kudos to Alex Vasquez ‘ Fish Tales for capturing the first leg of the Bahamas Bill Fish Championship . The Miami based fishing machine caught and released four blue marlin and one white marlin for the victory . Captain Chris “Zigger “ Zalinski , a perfectionist who leaves nothing to chance , piloted the boat . Miami’s super angler Nelson Fonseca flew over to join the team to help with the winning effort . Fonseca, I believe is an alumnus of Rensselaer Poly Institute the alma mater of Julio Sanchez a pioneer big game fisherman in the primitive , halcyon days of Bahamas bluefin and marlin action . Juliio fished his Willow Dean in the era of such luminaries as Lerner , Hemingway , Bill Carpenter and Captain Tommy Gifford .
Fishing is not all tournaments and billfish . Mari Valdez attractive basketball and track star at Miami’s Southwest High School trekked down to marker 51 in the Florida Keys with her pals and caught this feisty fish after an epic battle. The pretty young lady and future veterinarian was hoping the catch had a million dollar tag but alas there was none .
Mr. Crook goes to Washington.
Karl K.C. Crook C. E. O. of Crook and Crook concerned over the 
proposed fishing ban on ten thousand plus acres of the most popular and productive areas in Biscayne National Park flew to Washington to testify before a congressional committee to present his views on the subject . K.C. was offered a chance to go before the congressmen and attempt to halt this draconian action . K.C. and his bride Lili went to our nation’s capital out of pocket and gave their opinion on the drawbacks and ramifications of this ban on our local economy . These productive acres are the fishing grounds of the majority of South Florida’s middle class sportsmen who don’t have the wherewithal to afford Bahamas trips. These anglers are the backbone of the fishing industry, local regular fishermen and th
eir families who use the area for sport and recreation. It is venues like this where children learn to love the sport . They become the anglers of tomorrow K.C. made a strong case for not imposing this ban in our area . With public opinion in favor of curbing big government interference he spoke for the majority of our sportsmen . Mr Crook handled himself like a veteran making an erudite and compelling argument that hopefully will stem the tide of this unscientific and unpopular action and return the fishing grounds to the public .
Captain Bil Harrison just received a call from the prolific tuna fisherman Captain Bart Sherwood informing him know that he spotted three schools of bluefins off Cat Cay and the season is on. Tuna Tony Carrizoso is already heading for the action at flank speed from his base in Costa Rica.
That is it for this month fans
We will close with a quote from a dictionary.
Parks –“ An area of land largely in a natural state for the
Recreation and use of the PUBLIC .”
Tight lines
Dude Perkins
