The Key West Citizen Newspaper, March 25, 1953, Page 3

Islamorada Fishing Guides Describe Thriving Season ~ Upper Keys Guides Specialize On Light Tackle Sport Fishing, They Say BY SUSAN MCAVOY One of the busiest seasons in history is reported by fishing Guide Capt. Bonnie Smith, who with her husband Bill owns and skipper the BilBon, cruiser at Islamorada. A totally different picture than that given by Key West charter-| Bonnie’s | boatmen was story. “Why we're booked May - with some ir June. The season started late had fishing parties since January.” The pioneer woman skipper ‘eys was relaxing from her duties at Cocoloba Beach Club, Islamorada, owned by our mutual friends Peter and Alice Kossodo. “This is the center of light tackle saltwater fishing in the world,” the hardy, friendly skip- per said. “Up here or down here — we concentrate on light tackle fish- ing, plug casting and. fly fish- ing both. We have educated our customers so they don’t judge Capt. | fish they bring in dead, but by | through | but we have} every day/| ter party to take to the south | their sport by the qualitity of | the challenge of catching fish after a fair fight. We discourage all our customers from bring- ing in more than one or two fish. We have gotten across the point that if they kill all the | fish they catch there won‘t be | any left.” Fishing guies in Islamorada | do not sell their fish commer- | cially. Only enough fish are brought in for the boat custom- er to stuff one, or eat one. | Wanton killing of fish for the sake of photographs for the homefolks is frowned upon. Islamorada is renowned for its famous fishing guides who in-} stead of lining up on water front, have their signs out on the high-| way, and in some cases do not} even have that. | } | coast of that Island. He was beached on the sand, his boat sprang a leak wita the result that he is missing most of his sea- sonal guests. Capt. Bonnie was the first wo- }man to get her boat operator’s license in these parts. Back in 1929 in Tampa, she made the grade. “Then it was tough,” said the salty skipper. Shi ever since and at Islamorda sin 1937 with her husband. Her sister “Frankie” is also a skipper and jis married to Capt. Jimmie Al- bright, there. Bonnie herself has walked off with championships and other sport well known guide up fishing. The | world record for permit is held by party guide by Bonnie and her husband Capt. Bill had the | Pleasure of carrying customers who chalked up the world re- cord for plugcasting tarpon. Fly casting for bone fish record is held by fishermen who went out with Capt. Hollenbeck, and even the channel bass record is out 's! of Islamorada. Bonnie was the first woman to been fishing ~ in tarpon | they are overlooking some the best permit fishing. grounds lin the world. One Islamorada | guide said that permit as large jas 75 pounds could be caught off the Island City. And farther up the Keys, off nerland Key, are the Con- Keys, where bone and per- fishing is the best to be und, according to Capt. Bon-/ nie. | One of the most underrated | fish for sport is the Jack Creval-! le, according to Capt. Bonnie. For their size, she said, they put | up one of the roughest fights in the fishing world. Vic Barothy, farther up at Windley Key has had a booming year at his huge fishing lodge} |there, but more exciting to him is the unexpectedly big year at} his brand new Isle of Pines, Cuba | g camp. There his house-j| Jucaro, takes parties of} men down to the South On the north coast, his} 's and other craft take fisher- men out into the Caribbean where they are making national- One of the most famous guides, |catch permit on flyrod when she | ly publicized catches. Capt. Leo Johnson is actually} hard to find. That’s because he like, the Smiths are so well known to their Northern fishing custom- ers. Right now Leo _ needs| help. He is stuck on the beach| on the South coast of Cuba with his 62 foot fishing boat. Capt. Johnson was en route to the Isle | of Pines fishing camp of Vic} Barothy’s, where he had a chart-| SALES and INSTALLATIONS Miami Awning Windows Clearview Louver Windows Aluminum Jalousies Storm-Stop Awnings Jalousie Doors ‘the Florida Keys will was successful last year. Islamorada fishermen are so conservation minded that they formed a Fishing Club a few years back to make and enforce rules on fishing, spearfishing, net fishing and other practices | up the Keys. The club asked the National Park Service to extend tu its area so that fish could be better protected. Net fishermen were regulated by rules. Laws have been passed in the Flori- da State legislature banning spearfishing one mile on either side of U. S. 1, at the behest of the club. No female stone crabs can be caught because of the work of the conservation mind- ed fishing guides. The guides are not just dreamy idealists in fighting for enforceable conservation laws, they are realis- tic. For unless the permit, bone, tarpon and other exciting game fish are protected they will see an end of their business. Fishing off become a part of history, they say. The difference between the! | The Upper Keys fishing guides |are well content with their busi- |ness this year. Though they take |out parties for the day as do the |Key West charterboatmen, they have long time customers for the most part, men and women who come to the Keys primarily for | port of fishing, not for the y of barracuda they catch | tackle. | In Marathon, Capt. Parky | Parkhurst and Capt. Harry Snow jare doing their best to educate their customers to conservation jand sportsmanlike fishing. In Key West the light tackle fisher- man on a charter boat is still a rarity. Perhaps as the public be- comes more aware of the immin- ence of the end of fishing off the Keys, the result of continued killing, instead of releasing, it will be less eager to load up the boat with dead fish, and more eager to let the beautiful creatures |of the sea go back to their depths | and breed for future generations of fishermen, |quant | with he: May Bring New Look To Alaska FAIRBANKS, Alaska (®—Imag- ine; if you can, a mooseboy or| moosepoke striding along the Alas- ka tundra in his mukluks, his moose herd lowing gently in the distance. i Might even be a new hero for the TV junior set to worship. The point.arose here that if) ‘there are cowboys end cowpokes, why can’t there be mooseboys, etc? What it boils down to is that a newly organized Fairbanks corpo- ration has petitioned the Interior Department for permission to cap- ture 95 female moose and five ; males in the wilderness along the Alaska Railroad. The captive moose would be| herded onto a special reservation near Fairbanks. Then they’d be breed, be butchered and marketed like cattle. The partners—Lee S. Gardiner, Charles F. Purvis and Robert J. McNealy—said they hope to build up a sizable industry selling moose steaks, Mooseburger, Moose roasts and other cuts. Any Alaskan can tell you the meat’s delicious. : The trio’s petition pointed out there are too many moose around ec RES SS THREE HOTELS IN MIAMI at POPULAR PRICES Located in the Heart of the City REASONABLE RATES [eee anyway. They delay Alaska | Railroad trains by congregating on jthe track, interfere with highway | traffic and wreak damage to crops lin farming areas. They said, too, that Alaska is | badly in need of new industries | and moose ranching could become |a good source of income. Repairing? Remodeling? Painting? Stop in today and see our Local Representative who will be glad to assist you in working out a loan on a. monthly pay- ment basis. Loans made on real estate, auto, household furniture up to $300.00 with a monthly payment as low as $18.68. Town Finance Co, Of Key West 602 Duval St. Phone 2.5684 WRITE or WIRE for RESERVATIONS with BATH and TELEPHONE Ritz Pershing Hotel N.E, Ist Ave. 229 N.E. Ist Ave. 100 Rooms % Hotel 132. E. Flagler St. 226 102 Reoms Elevator Elevator Heated Hotel Rooms Elevator Wednesday, March 25, 1953 THE KEY WEST CITIZEN Page Turkey. Only final remains before the cay ee come effective, PACT RATIFIED ATHENS, Greece —Greece and | Yugoslavia have ratified their | three-nation defense pact with | - | STRONG ARM Your Grocer SELLS That Goa | Triumph Coffee STAR * BRAND | and CUBAN ——TRY A POUND TODAY——/| ALL GROCERS BRAND COFFES FOR HOME or COMMERCIAL USE... We Are Prepared To Furnish You With Clear. Pure Cube » Crushed ICE Thompson Enterprises, Int. (ICE DIVISION) KEY WEST, FLORIDA . DIAL 2-6831 Solarium 8 BLOCKS FROM UNION BUS STATION sports fishermen who fish with Superior Casements Venetian Blinds Canvas Awnings Patio Furniture : Key West Venetian Blind Co. 123 DUVAL STRFET Capt. Bonnie and Bill, Capt. John- son, and other pioneers up the| Keys, and those in Key West, is} Better Late hard to explain. Perhaps it is be-| cause Key West customers are not | sport fishermen, but merely visi-| tors who want to go out for a day| MEADVILLE, Pa. (#)—George : E. Hamilton, president of the in the Gulf stream, catch as many | aegis “ fish with as heavy a tackle as | Keystone View Co., is to receive they can and then be photo-|# master’s degree from Oxford graphed with their catch, or sell | University ve England this July it, or ship it back home. —46 years late. Than Never Hamilton completed work on a While Key West charterboat- men concentrate on reef fishing, JUST ARRIVED! A Complete Shipment of SIMMONS’ BEDROOM SUITES IN FOUR BEAUTIFUL COLORS Consisting Of @ DRESSER and MIRRO: @ FIVE DRAWER CHES! @ ONE DRAWER NITE TABLE @ CHAIR WE ALSO RECEIVED A FULL SHIPMENT Vi Solid Rattan Furniture Three Piece Living Room Suites . . Coffee Tables . . Lamp» . End and Step Tabies - Occasional Chairs Altman's Furniture 900 DUVAL ST. DIAL 2-594] ‘Master of Arts degree at Pem- | broke College, Oxford, in“ 1907, but found he would have .had to remain in England three* months jlonger to get the degree because lit was not awarded ih “absentia. |He went home instead. | This year Hamilton and his | wife are going to attend the col- Hege reunion--and pick up the sheepskin. —— A new development in gas re- frigerators is an automatic ice maker, It freezes ice cubes with- out the use of trays, and automa- tically replaces them as they are Sport of Queens AT ITS BEST Post Time, 8:15 P.M. 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