MOORPARK — It was a fishing trip a 70 year old grandmother of nine will never forget.

LaVerne Glover of Moorpark reeled in a 380 pound halibut last week on the final day of her fishing trip to Sitka, Alaska with her husband, Bob.

The huge halibut measured 7-feet-4-inches, dwarfing LaVerne’s 5-foot-3 1/4-inch frame.

LaVerne, a retired receptionist for a beauty salon, used chunk bait with a 5-foot-6-inch Seeker rod, an Avet 4/0 two-speed reel, 16/0 circle hook and 80-pound Spectra line.

She says she knew right away that she had hooked a big fish. Once she saw the fish come to the top, everyone on the boat thought it was a monster.

“I was so shocked and I was trying to stay composed, you know, not just scream,” she told KTLA.

LaVerne says she “had leverage” and used two hands and “really raise it up.”

It took her 45 minutes and help from everyone on board to bring the big fish onto the boat.

The gigantic catch didn’t make it into the record books, however. The scales were closed at the Kingfisher lodge the day LaVerne caught it.

Fishing has always been a part of the Glovers life together. The couple met in Westlake Village and their first date was a twilight fishing trip in Oxnard.

LaVerne fished as a child growing up in Santa Monica, but she gave it up for nearly 20 years until meeting Bob.

The Glovers brought back nearly 150 pounds of fish, and say they will be enjoying halibut dinners for quite some time.

Derek Plum caught the flesh-eating fish at a pond in Kent, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of London — and thousands of miles away from the piranha’s usual home in the Amazon.

The fish was left to die by the angler and later identified as a red-bellied piranha, which eats other fish, insects and worms. It was left to die by the angler.

The Environment Agency said Thursday the sharp-toothed predator was likely dumped by a pet owner who found it too large for its tank.

The agency says exotic pet owners should refrain from releasing nonnative species into the wild because they can upset native wildlife.

Buscher would pump, reel, pump, reel and gain maybe 15 feet of line. Then the fish would make a short run and those 15 feet would be gone. The stalemate repeated time and again.

After about 40 minutes of muscle-draining toil, Buscher’s denizen of the deep finally appeared off the stern of the Crackerjack Voyager. The sight took Buscher’s breath away.

“It was bigger than anything I’ve ever dreamed of,” said Buscher, a 34-year-old on his first trip to Alaska. “I didn’t even know they got that big. Everybody was floored when that thing hit the surface.

“It was like a submarine coming up.”

A small sub, perhaps, but one heck of a halibut. By the time the 7-foot-4-inch fish tipped the scales at 337 pounds on the Seward docks, Crackerjack captain Andy Mezirow had repeated more than once, “It’s good to be lucky.”

Lucky to have the biggest sport-caught halibut in Alaska this year.

Lucky to have a seemingly insurmountable lead for the $10,000 first place prize in the Seward Halibut Derby.

Lucky to have the biggest fish a Crackerjack angler has ever boated in 15 years of operating — and perhaps Seward’s biggest ever.

Lucky that the 50-pound test line held with a fish that large.

But before anyone could start toasting their luck, there was the small matter of getting the exhausted halibut aboard.

“Nobody knew what to do,” Buscher said. “Everyone seemed to be grabbing gaffs.”

After the fish was gaffed and shot to keep it from flopping, two men tried to pull it onto the stern of the 46-foot Crackerjack Voyager.

“Two guys couldn’t even get it onto the platform,” Buscher said.

Then three tried. Same result.

“Finally, we had four pretty big guys and we barely got in through the back of the boat,” Buscher said. “We pulled with every ounce of muscle we had. I feel like I dislocated my shoulders.”

For halibut anglers, that’s a feeling to savor.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Mezirow said. “Everybody was very boisterous and ecstatic. Aaron hugged the fish as soon as he got it in the boat. You know, there are really not many halibut in the ocean that big, and it’s nice when a fisherman realizes it’s a once-in-a-lifetime fish.”

Especially for Buscher, a Conifer, Colo., resident who previously lived in Illinois. He loves to fish, but his Lower 48 quarry has been bass, walleye and trout.

“I don’t ever expect to see a fish this big again,” he said.

But he will be seeing halibut filets for quite some time. The fat flatfish was 14-to-16-inches thick, Mezirow said, accounting for the weight.

Mezirow said he boated a 91-incher — three inches longer than Buscher’s — a few years back, but it weighed 318 pounds.

After endless picture-taking on the dock, Buscher had his fish fileted, and he’s packing up 88 pounds per side and 5 pounds for each halibut cheek back to Colorado. The tail will be mounted.

“I have to share the wealth when I get back home,” he said.

Buscher, who works as a directional driller for Baker Hughes in North Dakota, said his first trip to Alaska won’t be his last.

“I’ll be back, guaranteed,” he said. “My passion has always been halibut. It’s my favorite eating fish and I just like catching a big fish.”

If he returns next year, a free fishing trip awaits. His day prize for bringing in the biggest fish on Monday is a seat aboard a 2011 Seward charter.

Big halibut stats

Weight: 337 pounds

Length: 88 inches

Line: 50-pound-test Berkley tracer braid with 30 feet of 60-pound-test Stren fluorocarbon monofiliment

Bait: A 17-ounce Youngquist lead head jig with a white 8-inch Berkley Power Bait Grub lure

Reel: Penn Torque 10

Rod: A 7-foot Penn Torque 20-40 pound rod

Boat: 46-foot Crackerjack Voyager with 800-horsepower diesel

Where: South of Montague Island

Depth: 100 feet

Winner’s Derby Share: $10,000

Second-place Derby Fish: 203-pounder by Jeff Holsinger of Sheridan, Wyo

By MIKE CAMPBELL

Thirty-nine-year-old Jonathan VanHook hauled in the big fish May 25 at Cecil M. Harden Lake in Parke County. It measured 42.25 inches long with a 30-inch girth.

VanHook’s 39-pound catch broke the previous record of a 35.4-pound striped bass that an angler caught in 1993 in the Ohio River.

VanHook, who’s a police officer in Rockville, says his catch was the best fish he ever landed. He hooked it as he and two friends were trolling the lake using bluegill for bait.

“Maryland’s recreational anglers provide this state with a tremendous value and they depend upon the health of its marine and coastal resources, and having a plan in place for the effects of the oil spill off our coast is a logical first step to mitigate any damage,” said Dave Smith, MSSA executive director.

Anglers are worried that the Loop Current, a major ocean current that rotates in a clockwise direction in the Gulf of Mexico, could carry the oil and chemical dispersants down the west coast of Florida, past the Keys and into the Gulf Stream, Smith said.

If the toxic plume reaches the Gulf Stream and is carried north to Cape Hatteras, N.C., it could wreak havoc on the marine and coastal life that recreational fishermen enjoy, he said. The spill also could harm several year classes of sport fish.

In a pre-Memorial day briefing, the Maryland Department of the Environment told Gov. Martin O’Malley that “it is extremely unlikely” that the spill will reach the state’s beaches and wetlands.

Computer models used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict that oil reaching the Loop Current would take 8-10 days to reach the Florida Keys. The slick would be less concentrated and continue to degrade as it moved up the coast on the Gulf Stream.

NOAA scientists say they do not expect spill residue–in the form of tar balls–to reach any further up the East Coast than Cape Hatteras.

MDE officials believe any impact here would take the form of tar balls or an oily sheen. They note that in 1995, beach crews were able to scoop up tar balls that came ashore at Ocean City with their regular trash cleaning equipment

Guided by Capt. Al Dopirak, Evans hooked the fish in about eight feet of water over the famed “Oklahoma Flat” off Pine Island, south of Homosassa. The current world record is 177 pounds.

Evans caught the fish on a brown tarpon bunny fly. He was using a 12-weight Kennedy Fisher fly rod and a Tibor Gulfstream reel carrying Cortland Crystal 12-wt floating fly line. Evans caught the fish around 1 p.m. on an outgoing tide.

An accomplished angler with seven world records for tarpon and marlin, Evans carries an official scale on every trip for record pursuits. He and Dopirak weighed the fish at a private residence on the Weeki Wachee River. Evans, who has fished most of May with Dopirak for the past 27 years, will submit an official record application to the International Game Fish Association upon returning home at month’s end.

The IGFA requires a notarized application, a sample of the main line, the complete leader with shock tippet, proof of scale certification and photos showing the angler with the fish, the rod and reel and the scale used to weigh the fish.

The process takes a minimum of 60 days for domestic applications and 90 days for internationals. State-issued tarpon tags, along with a valid saltwater license, are required for harvesting the daily limit of two tarpon.

Dopirak, who guides from a 17-foot Maverick Master Angler, said the day had yielded little opportunity before Evans’ big fish appeared.

“We had a glary day and we saw three fish coming out of the glare. Tom made a perfect cast to the lead fish, the fish ate and jumped and we both said ‘Ooh, we might want to catch this one.’ So off we went for an hour and a half.”

Evans also fishes for bonefish in The Florida Keys, but most of his time in the Sunshine State is spent chasing giant silver kings. The shallow waters of Northwest Florida where he and Dopirak fish offer the opportunities he seeks.

“It’s a matter of putting in the time and looking for the fish,” he said. “You don’t come up here for numbers, you come here for the chance to put the bug in front of something big.”

Repetition and concentration, he said, are intrinsic to catching big tarpon.

“It’s just putting one foot in front of another and knowing what to do at the right time,” Evans said. “When you get the right opportunities, it just becomes (instinctive) because you’ve done it so many times.

“When we knew we had a big fish, I was a whole lot more focused. It’s just a matter of paying attention and pulling when you should and not pulling when you shouldn’t.”

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida currently holds 29 world records for tarpon. All of the major fly fishing records have been caught in the Homosassa area.

The Florida state record for tarpon caught with conventional tackle is the 243-pounder that Gus Bell caught in Key West in 1975 on 20-pound test line. The all-tackle world record (additionally certified as the 80-pound class record) for a giant tarpon is 286 pounds, 9 ounces. Max Domecq caught that fish in Rubane, Guinea-Bissau, Africa on March 20, 2003.

For additional information on world records, visit www.igfa.org.

Capt. Mike Locklear (www.homosassafishing.com) contributed to this report.

The 12th annual Cape Fear Disabled Sportsman’s Tournament runs 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Kure Beach Fishing Pier.

Hosted by the Got ’Em On Live Bait Fishing Club, the tournament is open to anyone with any disability, and all participants have to do is show up.

“It’s just enormous,” said tournament director Dawson Freuler, a member of the Got ’Em On club’s board of directors. “It’s just amazing, too, because even taking a group of six or so special-needs kids – that’s a handful – and we get over 300 folks fishing out there on the pier. But it’s a great thing, between all the people fishing, the volunteers, the attendants, the friends and family, and well-wishers and what we have here. There are usually 600 to 700 total people out there.”

Participants will be provided with everything they need to fish – rods, tackle and bait included – in addition to being fed breakfast and provided with refreshments throughout the day.

Freuler expects everyone from disabled military veterans to Down syndrome children. He’s even talked with a group of blind soldiers who will be coming from Fort Bragg. “It’s great having the veterans coming,” Freuler said. “I really dig that because supporting our troops is a good thing.”

Sunscreen is provided, as are coffee, biscuits and Britt’s Donuts for breakfast.

Blackburn’s Seafood will donate 100 pounds of shrimp to use as bait, and A&G Barbecue will donate food.

Prizes will be given to those who catch the five largest fish. But “everyone will get something just for coming out,” Freuler said.

There were 63 total sponsors last year and about the same number this year, Freuler said. Some have been sponsors since the first tournament was held 12 years ago. T-shirts and prizes will also be given away.

Freuler is planning for his largest year yet, expecting 350 participants. “It’s turning into more of a logistical challenge,” he said. “But we have so many great volunteers, there’s always an extra pair of hands here to help.”

After hearing a student talking about how excited she was for the tournament, a teacher called Freuler asking if it was true how open the tournament was and if it really was free.

“She was real excited to find out it was open to anybody,” Freuler said.

On July 1, 2010, the cost of a turkey permit will go up from $5 to $10 for Florida residents and from $100 to $125 for nonresidents. In addition, Florida waterfowl permits will increase as well, from $3 to $5.

The cost of two saltwater fishing permits also will go up July 1. The snook permit will increase from $2 to $10, and lobster permits will increase from $2 to $5.

Until July 1, though, sportsmen can buy all of these permits at the current prices, and all permits are valid for one year after the date of purchase.

There also is a new deer permit that will be required whenever hunting deer in Florida, beginning during the upcoming 2010-2011 hunting season. The permit will cost $5 and will not be available for purchase until July 1.

Those with a Sportsman’s License, Gold Sportsman’s License, 64 or Older Sportsman’s License, Military Gold Sportsman’s License, Lifetime Hunting License or Lifetime Sportsman’s License will not need to purchase the new deer permit because it has already been included in each of these licenses, even if they were purchased before July 1.

However, the deer permit is not included with a hunting license, combination hunting/freshwater fishing license, combination hunting/freshwater/saltwater license or a five-year hunting license. Anyone hunting deer with either of these licenses must also buy the $5 deer permit to hunt deer legally.

All permits and related licenses can be purchased at county tax collectors’ offices, retail outlets that sell fishing and hunting supplies, online at www.fl.wildlifelicense.com or by calling toll-free 888-HUNT-FLORIDA (486-8356).
Contact:
Tony Young (850) 488-7867

A few years ago, as he approached the Par 5, 16th hole at Sawgrass during the tournament’s first practice day, Briny Baird gazed at the three-acre pond that runs down its right-hand side. The sight proved irresistible. As other tour players worked out the kinks in their swings, Baird decided to take a few casts into the pond with a rod he stowed away in his bag for that purpose.

“I moved off the green because I saw a golfer coming,” says the 11-year tour veteran.

But Baird couldn’t resist a cast. And he happened to hook a big fish. The golfer behind him, Tim Petrovic, arrived at the green just in time to help Baird haul in a seven-pound largemouth bass.

Baird has also fished from the green on the 17th at Sawgrass, the island Par 3 that’s arguably the most famous hole in golf. “Fishing is a little harder to pull off there,” he says, “because you always have golfers waiting on the tee.”

To get around that Baird says he usually returns to the hole in the late afternoon, when most golfers have left the course. He slings casts right from the green. “There are some huge bass in that pond,” he says. And there’s plenty of room for your backcast.

Baird is part of an unofficial PGA Tour fishing club, a group of players that brings along both rods and clubs to tournaments. The water hazards they avoid during competitive rounds? With rod in hand, those ponds and creeks transform into fishing sweet spots. Many courses in the country frown upon fishing the hazards, but look the other way when it comes to Tour pros. At Sawgrass, only Tour players are allowed to fish.

“If the water is good on a course, I’ll usually fish from Monday until Wednesday before the tournament starts,” says Heath Slocum, the 77th-ranked golfer in the world. “Sometimes I’ll fish all week if it’s good. It’s a great way to get your mind off of golf.”

Says Bo Van Pelt, a fishing golfer who finished fifth in last week’s Quail Hollow Championship, “We have a lot of free time on tour.”

Van Pelt, Slocum and Baird are just a few of the PGA Tour’s passionate anglers. We asked them, and David Toms, a major winner and another avid angler, to help us compile a list of nine of the best fishing “holes” on courses where PGA Tour events are held–places where, for these golfers, a hook is actually a good thing.

Several mentioned the 17th hole at the Magnolia Golf Club in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., where the mid-November Children’s Miracle Network Classic is held. The Disney course is rumored to harbor largemouth bass weighing up to 15 pounds. The 485-yard, Par 4 hole is a favorite of Toms, who keeps a bait-casting rod in his cart during practice rounds.

Four years ago Slocum’s father, a golf instructor, came along with him for a practice round at Magnolia. Slocum’s brother-in-law was his caddy that week. The trio broke out their rods on the 17th.

“My brother-in-law caught back-to-back nine-pounders and my dad had a bigger one on that broke his line,” says Slocum. “It was incredible. Three huge fish in less than an hour. Unfortunately none were mine.”

Van Pelt is a fan of the 15th hole at PGA National Champion course in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where the Honda Classic is played. Here a lake surrounds the green on three sides.

“I like to bring my kids out after a round and take a few casts,” he says of the 170-yard Par 3. “We have a blast.”

When he’s not fishing at Sawgrass, Baird likes the 17th hole at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C., home of the Verizon Heritage tournament. The 185-yard Par 3 is bordered by a forbidding lagoon.

“I’ve fished for redfish there,” he says. “I’ve caught six of them while standing right there in the bunker.”

Baird says the redfish sneak in through a little creek connected to the lagoon at high tide. “You can see them when you’re playing the hole in the tournament,” he says. “It’s unbelievably distracting.”

And then of course, there’s Augusta National, one of the most hallowed courses in the game. None of the players would admit they had fished at the home of the Masters (they probably didn’t want to incur the wrath of Augusta chairman Billy Payne and the rest of the staid greencoats).

Some caddies were more forthcoming. Tripp Bowden, a former caddy at Augusta and the author of Freddie and Me, a memoir of his time spent apprenticing under a legendary August caddy master, says the course is full of fish. Dwight Eisenhower used to fish for bass and bream in the ponds on Augusta’s Par 3 course (one of the ponds is named “Ike’s Pond”). But Bowden says some of the best fishing can be found on the mother course, which, though it was not nominated by the pros, made the list.

The shortest hole at Augusta–the Par 3, 150-yard 12th–is widely considered one of the most treacherous, mainly because of Rae’s Creek, which flows in front of the green. It also happens to be full of bream. “The caddies loved to fish there,” says Bowden.

And the 16th hole–the 170-yard Par 3 that’s perhaps most famous for Tiger Woods’ dramatic 2006 final-round chip-in–has a pond in front of it brimming with bass.

Just don’t tell Payne.

Tog fishing remains good for captains who focus on the reefs, rock piles, wrecks and walls. Capt. Rick Yakimowicz, of the all-day headboat out of Fisherman’s Wharf in Lewes, reported that his patrons “tore up” the tog on several recent trips. The best results are coming from the reefs and wrecks. Jetty jockeys at the Indian River inlet have been extricating a few tog from the rock piles, mixing in a few bergalls as well. Green crabs, shrimp or frozen fleas have been the bait of choice.

Lewes Harbor Marina reports improving flounder action in the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal and at the Cape Henlopen fishing pier. Bill’s Sport Shop and Old Inlet Bait & Tackle also reported decent flounder fishing, with the VFW slough providing the bulk of the action. A few fish were even caught in the surf. Live minnows on a small jig or plain bare hook are great for early season flounders.

The spillway at Wagamon’s pond in Milton has been the hot spot for limit catches of herring. Try using a Sabiki rig for something different. The herring make great flounder or striper bait, and are a time-honored spring treat in Sussex County.

Snapper blues and some bigger blues have been pulled from the surf during the last week. The biggest concentrations are being found around the Indian River Inlet. Try fresh bunker for bait.

Striper fishing has been slowing down as the fish have spread up the river to spawn; however, there has been fair fishing in the Indian River Inlet. Night fishing for the stripers has been one way to go, along with saltwater flies fished deep.

There should be plenty of action for anglers in the coming week. Good luck and good fishing!