THE IGFA REPORT

THE IGFA REPORT

BRAZIL SPORT-FISHING CONFERENCE Vitoria, Brazil, will be the site for an IGFA-hosted

sport-fishing conference, November 1-3. According to Jason Schratwieser (jschratwieser@igfa.org), various segments of the recreational-fishing community will be involved. Topics will include the historical/current status of recreational fishing in Brazil, species/locations of interest to anglers, and economic value of recreational fishing in Brazil, as well as issues looking at ramifications, communication, management, catch/release and more. PENDING RECORDS: BIG BONES BITE FLIES IN FLORIDA Two big fly-rod (A) bonefish lead the list of pending records at IGFA, one of them a monster 15-pound-1-ouncer taken off Islamorada in the Florida Keys by Carl Navarre Jr., of New York in March on 16- pound tippet. The fish hit a Tim’s Tart fly. The very same waters during the same month produced an (B)11-pound-2- ounce bone for Diana A. Rudolph of Islamorada, Florida. Rudolph fished 8- pound tippet with a TK Special fly. Another fine March fly-rod catch, this one in Costa Rica off Golfito, involved a 911 ⁄2-pound Pacific sailfish, which Stacey Parkerson of Coral Springs, Florida, caught on something called an Abraham 80% fly. The angler required 35 minutes to land the big sail, which if approved would nearly double the existing record in the 8-pound-tippet class. Although not a big fish compared with many species, the (C) 5-pound-11-ounce black seabass caught by Julie H. Ball is large enough for consideration as the 16- pound-line-class record. She pulled the fish from the 44-Fathom Wreck off her hometown, Virginia Beach, Virginia, in late January on squid. Taken from another Virginia wreck: a (D)15-pound-4-ounce blueline tilefish by another Virginia Beach resident, Pat Hirsch. And again, squid was the bait of choice. The angler made the catch in March.