Weekend of 17-18 May, 1997
Dan Howard's KODA tagged a Blue,  South of the 131.   Rumor has it that the angler was not a member (photo to follow I hope!). Pratt Martin on the TIME OUT tagged a Blue over at South Pass. Angler was Jim Brown. Gerry Lowery on the LITTLE BUDDY tagged a White at South Pass. 

Weekend of 24-27 May, 1997
Joel Asmar on CHICO RUNNER tagged a Blue while limping in with engine trouble.  Belinda McCoy was the angler (her first Blue I believe).Earl Robinson on the QUEST  had a double hookup of blue marlin (maybe triple) on Saturday.The MARIA DEL CARMEN  took 3rd Place for Yellowfin Tuna (141 lbs.) in Memorial Day tournament.(A Blue was also tagged by WET WILLIE on Saturday.)Several club boats held an impromptu raft-up Sunday  behind the beach because it was so  windy.  (and partied all night!)Report from Capt. GEO:
Water conditions:  Water is green-blue to blue-green inshore out to the Nipple area.  South of that you have "clean green" water produced by Mississippi outflow (the so-called "green river effect) which is early this year.  At 60 to 70 miles you hit scattered grass at the fringe water which fades from green to green-blue to blue-green in about four miles.  Past this you hit loop current (cobalt blue) water.  There are some large grass patches in the fringe water which will be awesome if it all gets together.  Blue water was pushing hard North all weekend.  All the tuna were well South in the blue water.  The water did warm up further South with several one degree jumps encountered, accompanied by vast areas of "Sargasso Sea" (very scattered).  Good amount of flyers in the blue water.  I think all the bait like little bonito up North are holding fish but they all seem to be small rats.  Probably males waiting for big sow females to arrive for spawning.
NOTE:  98-8 #  White caught during Memorial day tournament---New state record for Alabama!  

3 June 1997
Steve Kaiser on the VENTURE broke a blue off in the morning, then tagged a 375-400 pounder at about 1:00 in the afternoon.  Apparently the fish jumped right next to the boat, hit it,  and did some minor boat damage.  It's a story you'll have to hear from Steve himself!! 

Weekend of 7-8 June 1997
Bobby Snelgrove on the TINKER BELL tagged two blues around the 131 hole and  John Turner on the JEWELS almost tagged one in the same area!It looks like the Club wiped out the Dolphin catagory of the Outcast Anglers Classic with club boats taking all three places.  (If only it could have been Marlin!) 

Weekend of 14-15 June 1997
Jim Ward tagged a 300-400 lb. Blue on Saturday afternoon.Other news heard on VHF-------MISS BROOK'S had Blue on for couple of minutes at the Nipple.  WHIZ BANG had a Sailfish in the baits back around 47031.  Lucky Lady???? had a White on for six jumps.  CARPETBAGGER caught two nice Wahoo.  QUEST had a 60# Wahoo.  Pratt Martin on the TIME OUT had a nice Wahoo on board.  SHORT CIRCUIT boated two Wahoo and lost one (shame on you Doug!).  JEWELS  boated a really big Wahoo (either 67 or 71)??  Won't know about any of this until the catch cards come in.  Not a bad intra-club tournament!!
Note:  During the the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic (Biloxi) the weekend of 14-15 June, a big hoo-rah occured with a Blue Marlin brought to the dock.  (A $100,000 award for any Blue Marlin breaking Mississippi State record (485#) I believe).  The MISS ORLEANS brought in a blue that weighed 917 lbs., however it had a bad case of prop chop.  It seems that they put the flying gaff in her and killed  her. Then they couldn't get the fish through the tuna door because it was too big.  They decided to float the fish into the cockpit by flooding in reverse but had too much gaff line in the water.  The gaff line got sucked into the wheels and promptly reeled the fish down to them.  What resulted were several slices and about a 30 lb. hunk of meat which was missing along with some entrails. Must have been a really nice fish!!  The fish that won the money was caught by a 17 year old.  The boat (NEVER CONTENT) wasn't in the calcutta!  It weighed 631.8 lbs.  First place paid $30,000 in addition to the $100,000.

Weekend of 20-23 June 1997
RUM RUNNER tagged a blue marlin this past Sunday 22 June near the Elbow.  Janet Briggs was the angler and they were fishing the Mobile Ladies Tournament.  She caught the fish (est. wt. 350#)  on 30# test line.She's been waiting 23 yrs. for that Blue! TIME OUT tagged a blue marlin over at South Pass this past Friday 20 June.  Don Gremillion----non-club member was the angler.MARIA DEL CARMEN caught a 68 1/2 lb. Hooter on Sunday.

Weekend of 19-20 July 1997
Here is the action from this weekend.

Weekend of 26-27 July 1997
The Ladies Billfish Tournament went off without a hitch at Bahia Mar Marina.  Had a nice crowd of spectators. There was a nice Blue brought to the scales about 9:00 PM on the charter boat EXODUS.  It was caught by Kim Wiedeman and weighed in at 331.75 lb. Congrats!  Now, she's a believer after five hours on the end of the rod!
Tag and Release was won by Terri Fussner. She tagged a White Marlin while fishing on the HOOLIGAN.
1st place Wahoo was caught by Stephanie Gregory on the LUVINIT (70.5 lb).
1st place Dolphin was caught by Rosemary Ropke on the ANTICIPATION (42.0 lb).
1st place Tuna was caught by Amanda Meyers on the WILD EAGLE (70.0 lb).
Many thanks to Mary and Gary Malone for a tournament well done!!

It seems that the pretty water has moved back in somewhat closer since earlier in the month.  I'm told it is located about the 46850 line. It's not that close, but it's better than the 85 miles we had to run during the International!

Weekend of 1-2-3 August 1997
This weekend is the weekend for the Destin Sportfish Tournament and the weather is really crappy!! Apparently there is a low pressure area sitting directly on top of the prime fishing grounds (Nipple, Canyon, and Spur) and I was entered in tournament on the LUVINIT. We fished the first day and didn't find blue water until the 46750 line. Storms and lightning were everywhere with six to eight foot seas and fifteen to twenty knot winds. (not a pretty sight!) No fish caught. Second day forcast was for more of the same and we said uh-uh. As it turns out , it WAS more of the same. The water at the Canyon is pretty with some bait. Only saw one weedline (and it was pathetic).
Apparently Geo on the MARIA DEL CARMEN had better fishing conditions and better luck. They were considerably to the west of us and somewhat to the south and were beyond the foul weather (12720 & 46630). There were five boats in the area and they caught a total of eight Blue Marlin and one White. They saw 12 to 14 Blues and 3-4 Whites. Also lots of tuna in the area.

Weekend of 9-10 August 1997
The Pensacola Junior Anglers Tournament was really a great tournament this weekend.   We had more than 120 Junior anglers fishing on 39 boats.  The largest fish of the tournament was 14 year old Ryan Malone's  54.5 lb. White Marlin caught aboard the Gem Dandy.   It never jumped and they never saw saw it until it got to the back of the boat.   The hook dropped out after the wireman grabbed the bill (it was sort of a close thing).   It was brought on board for a picture, not knowing that it was a legal fish until it was measured after the picture.  It edged out the second place White by 1.2 lbs.   No Blues were brought to the dock but one Blue and one White were tagged by the Jr. Anglers.  Many congrats to Mike Guffey, Tournament Chairman, for a great job!!

12 August 1997
Here is an Email that I just HAVE to share with all, in its entirety!! (Solicited)Subject: An Adventure in White Marlin Fishing
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 97 12:49:30 UT
From: "Steve Kaiser"
To: rayc@pbgfc.com

On Monday 11 August 1997,my 23' SeaCraft "Venture" returned to Pensacola on one engine after experiencing starboard engine failure enroute to the 100 fathom curve in search of White Marlin. Needless to say, my crew of long time Navy friend and close fishing buddy, Wally Coupe,along with my oldest grandson---15 year old Travis Black---were not too excited about our no fishing day. I did lots of trouble shooting that afternoon, and found the problem was a broken set of points. Upon replacing points and successful turn-up in the yard (on the trailer), called Travis to reschedule trip next day. He gave me a tentative yes, and as Wally was not available Tuesday, I told him he could bring a friend. So it looked like a go for 12 August. At 2230 Travis called to announce friend could not make it and asked if they could both go Thursday instead and besides he had some other things to take care of. So I told him OK and said I would probably not go Tuesday as it was a little late to call someone then.......Well this was the event that set things up for me to go billfishing alone......that's like by myself. I didn't set the alarm for Tuesday AM, but tossed and turned, just thinking about should I go alone. I had a life-long dream of catching a billfish SOLO, so when I awoke early that morning and observed the weather to be ideal, I decided to do it alone. It was probably not the best of headwork items, but having celebrated my 66th birthday just two days before, thought if I am ever to pull this off, I had better get on with it. Besides, I had been a Navy Pilot all those years.......so what's the big deal. So I launched at first light and was on my way to the Nipple(point on the 100-fathom curve closest to Pensacola). Observed a magnificent sunrise on the run out. Auto-pilot was working great. Would never have even thought about going SOLO without that auto-pilot. Had five lines in the water by 0725. Was extra cautious in getting gear set up. I wore the rod belt(belly band), had two gaffs uncovered on each side, in easy reach, pair of gloves on the engine box, and just played it a little bit safer. Abeam the Nipple(about two miles East)at 0805, had a strike on the starboard flatline. Was trolling four plastics and one ballyhoo behind a small blue/white Island Girl lure. As I went for the flat line rod the starboard outrigger went off.....that was the ballyhoo. No hook-up and had not yet identified the kind of fish. Started working the lure to tease the fish back on and it appeared as though the ballyhoo was no longer there. Well about that time the port outrigger went off. This time I could see a White Marlin dorsal fin. Still no hook-up.Took the rod in my hands and tried to tease him back. Mr.Whitey hit a few more times but just couldn't get em' hooked-up. Finally put the rod back in the gunnel holder, thinking the attack was all over with and nothing to show for it. About that time that same port outrigger rod with Knucklehead bowed up, and I had #1 White Marlin hooked-up, taking line and jumping. Talk about adrenalin flowing! Put the rod in the belly band and kept it clear of the other four lines. After a pretty long run, managed to pull the throttles back to slow ahead idle,and finally got the fish stopped. Then all of a sudden the starboard outrigger(Island Girl with probably no ballyhoo)bowed up and line started singing off. That clicker was magic to my ears. I just watched in shear amazement at what was happening. Never touched that second rod. Concentrated on #1 White, and just enjoyed watching #2 White jumping and taking line. When I got #1 under control put one engine in neutral and worked the fish closer to the boat. Sometime during this period I placed the rod in the gunnel holder always making sure I had tight line, and I reeled in the two flat lines quickly. Decided not to fool with the center way-back line. Back to #1 and worked him closer to the boat. #2 White remained bowed up and appeared to have a good hook-up. As the double line broke the surface decided this was the time to put the gloves on. Returned rod to gunnel, went slow ahead idle on both engines. Continued keeping tight line as I got the gloves on. Back to the belly band. Finally got Whitey #1 up to the swivel. Slowly brought the rod butt to the deck and hand-over-hand worked my way up the rod to the leader. Once I had the leader in hand was a "piece of cake". Billed that baby as I had done so many times before. Playing things extra cautious, boating the fish seemed the safest bet. As he lay on deck thrashing about I removed the knucklehead hooks, tagged him,and even had presence of mind to get a picture. Adrenalin flow was at a max. Fish was on deck for about 10-12 seconds. Meantime Marlin #2 is still bowed up and things are lookin' good. Talk about being excited. Wanting to get to #2 ASAP,I picked up fish on deck by bill and tail section and tossed him overboard. He started swimming smartly when he hit the water. Then proceeded to reel in #2.   I was pretty tired at this time but kept on reeling. Could hardly believe what was happening. Rod stayed bowed up and I carried out the same procedures as with the first fish. When I got the leader, fish got a little frisky but finally got the bill in my hands. Brought him onboard, and did about the same as with the first fish. He remained lit-up and quite active, and the on deck time did not appear to hurt him. He, too, swam away smartly on contact with the water. It was hard to believe what I had just accomplished. I was about as excited and as happy as any human being could be. As I glanced around the boat there were rods everywhere and four Remoras lying on deck. I called on the VHF just to tell someone what I had just pulled off. Gem Dandy,another Pensacola Big Game Fishing Club boat answered up. By the tone of my voice they knew there had been some real excitement aboard the Venture. Adrenalin was still flowing strong, but I was one happy guy to put it mildly. A double hook-up of White Marlin successfully completed while fishing by yourself is the highlight of my fishing days. Is this a great time........or what!

Weekend of 23-24 August 1997
It seems that the blue marlin are still at the Nipple as the crew of the SMALL WONDER tagged a legal blue there on Saturday . It wasn't the early morning bite either. The fish was tagged at 10:50 A.M. after putting on an acrobatic show for an hour and a half on 50# test. The angler was Eddie Small's brother, Kelly. The fish measured 91 inches and was estimated to weigh 275#. From Steve Kaiser: Only fish caught while I was out there Sunday was a White Marlin on Fish Tale---Ed Parker's boat. Venture broke off a nice Blue at 1615. After he got off he performed a beautiful show for 8-10 sec. Tail walked and grey hounded----white water everywhere while trying to shake the hook.

27 August 1997
Steve Kaiser is still doing it at the Nipple. He tagged a 400+# Blue on VENTURE, while LITTLE BUDDY and GEM DANDY looked on and took video. Got the tag in her after an hour, but took another hour to get hooks back (only two people on boat). Feisty fish that just wouldn't give up!! Congrats

Weekend of 30-31 August 1997
What a great weekend on the water!!! Sunny sky, calm winds, and lots of fish. Actually, the sunny sky and calm wind made for miserably hot fishing, but the fish were there! This was the weekend of the Mobile Big Game Fishing Club (our rival) Labor Day tournament. Our club did well, taking 1st Place White Marlin (Angler Kathy Smith on the SEARCHIN BLUE with a 67#), 1st Place Sailfish (Mickey O'Reilly on the MAC ATTACK with a 38.8#), 2nd Place Tag & Release (Robin Howard on the BLUE SKY with a Blue on 30#), 3rd Place Tag & Release (Janet Briggs on the RUM RUNNER with a Blue on 30#), 1st Place Wahoo (Ron Powers on the QUEST with a 52.6#), and Top Lady Angler (Robin Howard on the BLUE SKY with a Blue Marlin on 30#). As an angler that was there on the BLUE SKY, I'll have to say that out of all the blue marlin that I've ever seen, the one that we got had to be the smallest as well as the prettiest. It was tiny, approx. 40-45 inches. The bill was about 6 inches long (you could get only one hand on it), but he was gorgeous! He lit up brighter than any larger blue that I have ever seen.   (The video-tape of it is unbelievable.)
What a great weekend!!

Weekend of 6-7 September 1997
Not much fishing done this weekend. A cold front came through on Thursday morning and brought the wind associated with such. Everyone that I know either didn't bother, or tried it and turned back. Reported seas of 6' to 8'.

Weekend of 13-14 September 1997
This is the weekend of the 2nd Annual Fish-Off with the Mobile Big Game Fishing Club (Captains' Meeting tonight!). The weather forecast looks beautiful and hopefully we will put out a lot of club boats to fight this dastardly challenge to take our (rightfully won) trophy back to the Mobile clubhouse. May the better club win!!Well, it's Sunday morning and the Fish-off is history. Gorgeous weather and lotsa lotsa boats. Very few billfish tagged, although you couldn't tell it by talking to Jim Ward on the MISS ASHLEY! He caught a Blue on 50# AND a White on 50#. (That sounds sort of obscene!) The prime fish of the day was tagged by Janet Briggs aboard the RUM RUNNER, a White Marlin caught on 20 # test. Congratulations to both! I didn't hear anything on the VHF about any billfish being tagged by the Mobile Big Game Fishing Club although I'm sure there was. The Nipple area was extremely hard worked as I counted as many as FORTY boats on the radar within eight miles! If there were any more fish there,their brains must have been scrambled by all the commotion.Here are some incomplete and unofficial results from Bill Flowers for both the Fish-off and the intraclub as of Monday evening.

(For those unfamiliar with our club, all marlin were tagged and released alive.)What did Mobile do?????     (Haven't heard as of Monday, September 22 1997 at 23:02:35)

Weekend of 20-21 September 1997
The weekend is here and it looks beautiful. I'm sitting on go waiting on some fish reports.

22 September 1997
Steve Kaiser is on a roll. He went out today and and tagged another White Marlin on 50# about 9:30 this morning. Double hookup on Dolphin this afternoon; got both. He said he had several other knock-downs. I don't know how he does what he does but I think I need to find out!!

Weekend of 27-28 September 1997
CHICO RUNNER, while fishing Sunday, had a Blue on, but lost him 25-30 yds.from the boat. Caught a Sailfish that afternoon around 2:**. Congrats!! The sails sure seem like they they are coming into the area.VENTURE is still rolling!
Put the lines in at the 47007 line and with only 3 rods out, hooked up Mr.Blue at the 47000 line----30 fathoms--and what a show he put on---shoulder jump at hook-up,then almost dumped a 50 wide---series of greyhounds some 750 yds. from boat--thats between 1/4 to 1/2 mile away. Reel McCoy observed the greyhounding better than Venture---he was much closer---we were frantically calling him to not cut us off. Anyway,over an hour later we had him at boatside. A magnificent 300# class fish. Kenny McCoy came alongside and got a few photos. Then about noontime hooked a Sailfish on our one and only Ballyhoo(behind the infamous blue/white Island Tracker). Tagged him at 1220 and had all the rest of the day to try and get Mr.Whitey. Port alternator failed early in the day and port battery was slowly decreasing voltage. Soon after releasing the Sail port engine quit. Besides the engine we also lost all radios,loran and auto-pilot. Flagged down Blue Sky and transferred two of his spare batteries to the Venture. He is a gentleman and a scholar. Got everything back working and went on in pursuit of the Grand Slam. It was not to be. Here it was the 27th of September when White Marlin are most plentiful, but my luck had run out for that day. That's the closest I've ever been to a Grand Slam. Had already caught the two toughest ones, but it was not to be.

Tuesday, September 30 1997
VENTURE is still rolling!  (part 2), only this time I was with him!! The day started off just beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky. We cleared Pensacola Pass about 6:45 AM., seas about 1-3'. (Why am I trying to write this thing like Steve does?) Lines in the water about 8:00, about the 47000 line. Chicken dolphin @ 8:15 and thought this was a good omen. Heard on VHF about two whites up, one on and then gone after two or three minutes. We were starting to get pumped! About 9:00 A.M., couldn't see the plug on the fly pole and brought in an empty line. One really productive Knucklehead--gone. No drag pulled, nothing. 10:00A.M., mystery hit on the short flat--nothing. 12.00, knockdown on port rigger, good bow-up and then dead line. Really dead line! Lost a brand new (rigged yesterday) softhead. From the looks of the leader, a definite wahoo cutoff. We are all starting to get a little bit discouraged at this point after the good omens early this morning. 2:15 P.M., starboard rigger knockdown (the only ballyhoo out). I saw the swirl when he hit, but didn't see a bill. Then slack line. Wally jumps on the rod, freespools it and feeds it back, pushes the drag back up and WHAM, hookup!! About ten seconds into the run he came up in a spectacular side-ways greyhound. Definitely a billfish!!! About that time, Steve says "looks like a sail by the way he jumped!". Sure enough, it was a Sail and there was Wally Coupe (Steve's best fishing buddy and long time friend) fighting his second Sailfish in four days!! We aren't talking fighting chair either. We're talking ice chest chair! "Big deal", alot of people might say, but this was a spry and fit 76 year old!! He fought him like a pro and got him to the boat about 15 minutes later. Put tag in him and took lotsa pictures. If you think Steve gets excited at the club-meetings talking about his latest billfish, you should have seen him out there after poking that tag into that one. I thought about tying him down before he wound up bouncing over the side!!!! About an hour later we had a double hookup on eatin' size wahoo, (Wally again), and boated them both but it was a little bit anticlimactic after that Sailfish. Figured it was time to head to the barn while we were ahead (considering the earlier part of the day). What a SUPER day. No-one knows what billfish excitement is until they have fished with Steve Kaiser on the VENTURE!!!

Weekend of 4-5 October, 1997
The weather was really windy this weekend. Really marginal! I talked to three people that tried it and they all said they got beat up. Luckily, the MISS ASHLEY (45' Bert) managed to find a Blue out there amongst the big seas. Tagged it on fifty lb. According to Capt. Turner, there were about nine billfish either seen or tagged NE of the Nipple. (He got his limit of bonito towards the West!!!)  :-)Monday--Sustained wind of 19 kt, gusts to 21 kt.

Weekend of 11-12 October, 1997
The wind is still driving us crazy. Large high pressure area off of the GA / NC coast still generating enough wind to keep almost everyone from going offshore. Winds to 21 kt. Cold front due in when High eases with forecast winds of 30-35 kt.  
When are we going to be able to fish the season of the best White Marlin fishing of the year??

Wednesday, November 5 1997
I got offshore today on the BLUE SKY. Gulf sort of bumpy with 4-6 ft. seas from the East. Only boats out braving the weather were club boats BLUE SKY, SHORT CIRCUIT, REEL MCCOY, and VENTURE. VENTURE got another White after three shots. Angler was friend Wally. Most other boats had shots. SHORT CIRCUIT was trying to get meatfish grand slam I guess. Caught wahoo, blackfin, yellowfin, amberjack, and king mack. All action seemed to be centered a little NW of nipple among widely scattered tiny patches of grass.

Sunday, November 9th 1997
Beautiful day offshore today! Seas maybe 1 ft., bright sunshine although a little cool when not in sun. The day started with a bang about 8:40 when VENTURE reported being hooked up with a blue. We on the BLUE SKY started trolling in that direction. About 9:00, starboard rigger went down with good bow-up on 30# (VENTURE in sight). Tagged White about 9:20. VENTURE still fighting Blue. I believe they placed the tag in her about 9:40. Both fish NW of the Nipple. After that, not too much action. Towards end of day, headed to the Nipple for first time. Saw a boat dead in water apparently fighting fish. Turns out boat was RUM RUNNER. Janet Briggs tagged a Blue on 50#. Congrats!
All in all, really good day. Probably also close to last day out for the season. Water temp dropping rapidly with air temp 40-60F degrees.

Wednesday, November 26th 1997
Got a report from Steve Kaiser today. He got out today and found another White. Jumped 10-12 times. He said the fish are still here. Water Temp about between 72 and 73 degrees with calm seas. Got the fish in 75 fathoms, NW of the Nipple. Only had the single shot. Congrats Steve on the Venture, and to Wally, who caught the fish.