REAL FISHING

September 1998 Table of Contents - Current Issue of The Abaco Journal - Abaco Bahamas' Home Page

REAL FISHING
by Jack Hardy

A fleet of sport fishing boats setting out at the start of a billfish tournament is a most impressive sight. And so it should be, as many of those boats cost more than a million dollars. The intrepid anglers sit in the shade and sip upon cool drinks as they wait for a tussle with the giants of the deep. Couldn't the sport be a little more demanding?

It certainly was back in Green Turtle Cay in the 1950s. Instead of a million dollar sport fisherman, Dr Curtis Mendelson used a 12 foot Abaco dinghy with an inboard engine.

Dr Mendelson, out of Long Island NY, flew in to Nassau in the early 1950s in his single engine Cessna 180, equipped with floats. He met up with developer Colyn Rees who suggested a trip to Abaco. Dr Mendelson fell in love with Green Turtle Cay and he and his wife, Marie, built a house on Gillam Bay and stayed for many years.

Dr Mendelson loved fishing but preferred to do it the hairy-chested way, the way Papa Ernest Hemingway would approve of. One day in November 1958 he borrowed some bait from Colyn Rees ("Really ripe bonefish," Colyn remembers) and set off with his guide, Arnold Adderley, and Marie to catch blue marlins.

Trolling one and a half miles off the northern shore of Green Turtle Cay they had their first strike, but the fish escaped. Shortly afterwards they had their second strike, and this time the hook was set. It took Dr Mendelson a little over half an hour to bring in the 498 lb blue marlin using 39 thread line and what Colyn Rees calls "Very good, very expensive rod and tackle".

Boating the leviathon was another problem. Marie felt uneasy about sharing a 12 foot boat with a thrashing, muscular 12 foot fish. The problem was solved in time and the blue marlin was brought to land to be photographed. Now that's what I call real fishing!

[Real Fishing uses material from an article written by Colyn Rees in 1960, used with his permission. Pictures provided by Colyn Rees.]

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