IGFA Museum - Part 3 - Famous people


Chisie Farrington was an avid lady Angler. She competed in tournaments and even wrote a book, "Woman can Fish."

She has been honored here in the Hall of Fame with her fishing jacket, a trophy dish, her book, photos and a plaque on the wall.



Ernest Hemmingway was inducted in to the Hall of Fame in 1993, although he never got the joy of knowing that in his lifetime. Around the museum, there are several momentos that were his works or personal belongings.

Mark Sosin is also in the Hall of Fame and can still be seen weekly in his fishing show on the Sun Network in Florida. While I did not take a picture of his exhibit, they had a few pictures and a fly lure that he loved framed on the wall.




I don't know who this guy was (sorry, I'm pitiful at not reading each display case) but this seems to be a record or his personal best Marlin picture on the wall. You can see the weight is 1,560 lbs!!!! The replica sits to the left and we all took our turns posing in front of it. It was HUGE!!

IGFA All Tackle World Record Black Marlin caught in Cabo Blanco Peru in 1953 during it's heyday as the world's premier Black Marlin fishery. The fish was caught by an American angler named Alfred Glassell Jr. The women's world record for giant Black Marlin was caught that same year, also in Cabo Blanco and that fish weighed in at 1523 lbs. Swordfish are relatives of Marlin and are also members of the Billfish family but do not grow nearly as big as the Black Marlin does. The world record Swordfish weighed in at 1182 lbs. and to date is the only "grander" (fish weighing at least 1000 lbs.) Swordfish ever caught. 


One thing we remarked on was that we were amazed that the tiny little area of muscle in the tail of a fish could actually be strong enough to hold up that much weight off the ground. How that tail did not snap off is a mystery to us.


To the right of this monster display was the gift shop in the lobby to purchase keepsakes on your way out. As you can see, it is filled with mini-replicas of the fish if you need something for that spot over the fireplace. You had better bring a lot of extra cash. They can run you from a couple hundred to several hundred dollars. 1 ft ones were only $40.

They had many coffee mugs, glasses, stuffed animals, t-shirts, mirrors and prints to purchase. I nearly came home with one of those Jason prints of the Grouper. The featured artist in the top two pictures is Guy Harvey's work. He is infamous for making all those t-shirts with fish on them. Every fisherman has (or should have) a selection for each day of the week of Guy's t's at their home.

IGFA Museum - Part 2

In the beginning of the hallway that has the beautiful artwork on the walls lies this large tank exhibit of young snook and red fish swimming around. The ones with the lines and yellow fins are snook. The plain silver is the baby red drum/fish before it gets it infamous spot on the tail.





They were featuring a certain artist's work down the hallway. Forgive me, being somewhat an artist myself, I didn't catch the name other than Jason. To the right are Pompano on the Flats.


I took several photos of his works incase I wanted to recreate some of the ideas onto the walls of our homes. I promised Capt Jack that once we moved, I would make him a fish room and I will probably paint some pictures for his walls.

This is a gorgeous Goliath Grouper amongst a wreck awaiting an opportunity to ambush some dinner. The picture was stunning in person and I could not capture it that way on digital.




They also had mount after mount of replicas on the walls. Near the end of this hallway, they had the tail of a record Thrasher Shark mounted on the wall. Jack is nearly 6 ft and it was taller than him. Next to it were a few different turtle mounts. I have never seen a Loggerhead turtle in person so it was telling of its size and majesty to see the one on the wall.

My final picture is one of Jack and the boys in front of the Green Sea Turtle exhibit where you can read about their nesting, life cycle and eating habits. We have actually caught one of these on the hook and safely released it inspite of all the hissing it did.

6/24/06 IGFA Museum and Hall of Fame


The boys and I at the front entrance.

Here are our day trip pictures to the IGFA Museum down in Ft. Lauderdale. I may break this up into a couple day's worth of stories and pictures because there won't be any fishing pictures for a few days. We've had high seas and plenty of afternoon thunderstorms.

They had plenty of photo opportunities in the lobby. Here is a picture of me with little M in front of a record marlin. To the right top corner, you can barely see the original picture that this replica was taken from. To my left was the actual fishing shirt of the man that caught this fish.

In the museum, they have replicas of the record fish that have been caught. Each species is represented and directly below them are the names of the people that caught them, what year caught in, what type of tackle and exact weights.

For example, that yellow fish to the left (mahi mahi) was the largest phin (46ish lbs) caught on 4 lb line. I'm sure there is a larger one for stronger test line, but this still is an impressive feat.

Later that afternoon, they were setting up tables in this room for a wedding reception. I'm sure it was a lovely reception.



Off this main room were smaller rooms with different interests to fishing. This next picture is a photo of a piece in the trophy room. It was stunning to see in person. I didn't catch the artists name but s/he did a beautiful job capturing the spirit of the sailfish. You can see some other trophies in the background.

6/18/06 Father's Day for Jack

I have to say that it was a rather laid back day. Jack worked through his entire weekend to cover somebody else's vacation and his only free hours of awake time were Sunday morning. We gifted him with cards and the boys picked out a new heavy-duty hose to wash the boat down. Our former hose had succumb to the pressure of summer heat.

I wanted to get Jack lures but we had just done that at Bass Pro Shop in Orlando during our vacation, so mostly it came down to the fact that he simply wanted some family time. And we did.... We watched our ol' favorite fishing shows early Sun am as the rain turned on/off. We played hookie from morning service to watch the MadFin Shark Tournament in the Keys. When that was over, we had Wahoo, lightly breaded & fried along with veggies. As soon as lunch was over, the Capt had to head back to sleep.

I spent a lot of my day cleaning and then went on to evening church.

Today, we had the leftover Mahi we thawed but didn't need yesterday. (the fish that we caught as a team effort back in May) Again, we had it lightly breaded in Italian breadcrumbs and then pan fried in olive oil. Corn and fries as sides. Dip the fish in either marinara or sprinkle with lime juice (or do both). Yummy!

We made a decision at lunch that we need to get back on the water as soon as the seas permit and then restock the freezer with more fish.

Jack w/ boys & blue fish caught in the surf '03.

Picture of the Month? Year?


While I don't like to take others photos w/o permission, I am going to do it here to share with family and friends. Some awesome photographer was in the right place at the right time and took the BEST shot of tuna in action. Look! The tuna has caught a flying fish right in the air!

6/16/06 River Report

We had one of those 'doh' moments while getting ready to sink the boat in at the docks. We left the engine key at home. Now, we have 2 sets and both are sitting together at home on the key keeper. Ugh! Sooooo, now we have one set in the Suburban and one at home. Why have we not done this before?

We got the keys and decided not to haul the boat all the way back to the port but instead stop mid-way, to the Banana River. We had some dead shrimp (no live available) and hit a few spots under the bridges and by the locks.

I caught the first, biggest and most today. LOL! I caught one juvenile whiting about as long as Jack's hand. Silly fish. We did enjoy a wild dolphin show. They were out in force feeding this afternoon. The river was very clear. Nice. (Sorry, no pictures)

A man in a river charter business showed us his secret of calling the wild dolphins to the boat w/ a dead mullet. They came right to him and took the fish. Wow! After he left, the dolphin came near us to see if we had anything and then left.

Older news on Warsaw Grouper

An aquaintence of ours named KP caught this monster Warsaw Grouper last month on an electric reel in very deep water. Its unofficial weight is something around 100 lbs.



This next photo is not for the weak. It happened last week off our coast. That is around a 10/0 size hook for tuna that was lodged in the foot while they were starting a fishing tournament.

Oh good, it is actually small enough it isn't totally gross to view. Anyhow, it severed through 2 arteries, so it was proper emergency care to keep the hook in. Personally, I would have not let anybody touch it with steel cutters either only because the next thing I would have been screaming for would be pain killers and anesthesia.

6/12/06 Alberto's here, Mangrove trip & Monster Wahoo!

He's a bit early but we're ready for the rain after a very dry spring. It looks like our area will get 20-40 mph winds and 2-3" rain. I am welcoming the relief from the heat as well. It has been sweltering here. We will also begin to clean-up the playroom/school room. It has taken quite the beating this past month of vacationing.

I also wanted to post quickly about Jack's offshore trip on Saturday night Moonlight Mangrove trip 6/10/06. Many of the men/captains from his fishing forum left out late morning to noon for some easy trolling (dolphins) in the afternoon before anchoring up at dusk. Seas were building to 3-4 ft, short sets (time between wave peaks). NOAA predicted 2 ft seas all day. *They were WRONG!* On the radio, Jack reached some other captains and they had reassured him it was the sea breeze and that it would relax by nightfall. About 7pm, there were some occassional 5-6 ft waves thrown into the mix and Jack called the trip off. The First Choice (our boat) took many crashes of water over her bow and all the men were well-soaked even with the eisenglas curtains up. (clear plastic windows) They were back at the docks by 8:15 and I helped unload the boat in the driveway at 9:30pm. Good call. During dinner, I saw the first reports of Alberto coming as well. So, the boat will be sitting for a while until everything passes.

Some of Jack's friends stayed out to Mango fish the full moon but the bite was non-existant. One man got a few Red Snappers in 60 ft of water and came in relatively early. Another lost an anchor & chain.

I did want to leave you with one picture. Friday afternoon, somebody landed this 100 lb Wahoo on 8A reef. The Port record is 105 lbs.

6/7/06 - Offshore swim with family!!!



I'm a couple days behind in reporting but here it is. We took my sister, her husband and the cousins through the locks to see manatee and dolphin. A manatee did show up and passed our boat slowly. It was such a thrill for our cousins to see. While we saw rescued ones at Sea World, it was their first time experience for a wild one. We watched 'Barbara' eat the sea grass around the locks.

Next, we looked around for tripletails under floating things but none were out that day. So, we headed out 6 miles east of the port to beautiful blue water and NO STRUCTURE. That is the key. We wanted to be over sandy bottom where nothing was 'hanging out'. One by one, we all jumped overboard with our lifevests on. My brother-in-law said the current wasn't bad and it wasn't. Nice for swimming alongside the boat. We did put out the anchor bouy and some line in case somebody drifted too far or got in trouble. One adult on the boat always kept an eye out for anything swimming around or if somebody drifted off too far. The older kids decided it would be a blast to jump off the side of the boat. I did it once too. That was a wonderful way to cool off.



Then, we headed back in to make use of those shrimp in the live well. We anchored close to shore a few minutes and then backed away a little to the 20 ft reef line. 'M' caught & released a bonnett hammerhead baby. The water was a bit choppy and we had a few kids & my sister not feeling so well. We motored over to the South Jetty rocks and anchored again. Again, 'M' caught something in the large grunt family which found it's way back home in the rocks. By then, it was after 6pm, it seemed like a better option to head back in to the dock and get cleaned up for dinner.

6/5-6/06 Our trip to Sea World

It was spectacular, as expected.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.