Hello my friends at Moldcraft, I´m Capt Marcelo "Moorea" writing from Brazil to thank you for the creation of wide range lures.

This weekend, 70 miles South From Ilhabela Island, in São Paulo coast we get one of the biggest dourados i ever saw. Last year, we caught what we believe, if it was not the world record, its very close to it, but this year´s fish was even bigger.
This way I´m sending you the pics of both dourados, the one with the head on the white plastic box was the 2006´s the other one was this year's.

Thanks again and my best regards

Capt Marcelo "Moorea" Polato
Ilhabela - Brazil

Hi Gang,

Thought you'd enjoy this shot of an estimated 150lb. Striped Marlin which found the new Standard Reel Tight in Green/Yellow/Black simply irresistable. The fish was released immediately after the photo, and swam off strongly. It was my first chance to show the new lure to the aquatic denizens at the East Cape region of Baja in May, 2007. I fished out of Martin Verdugo's Resort in Los Barriles. My guide, Alfredo Lucero, holds the fish for the photo. The new lure also accounted for a nice 30lb. Dorado.

I think you have another winner on your hands! Thanks!

Norm Mastalarz
Cassel, CA

On Thursday, August 30, 2007, the custom carolina sportfishing boat Swordfish set out of Oregon Inlet, NC, on what was to be a casual day of white marlin fishing amongst friends of the crew. The crew included Austin Robins, first mate and Jimmy Hillsman, second mate, along with Clay Estes of Elizabeth City. "The white marlin bite has been real strong" says boat owner Brant Wise. We released nine fish during the Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament, and some of the other Oregon Inlet boats have been releasing up to six and seven fish a day." After a slow day of trolling their patience paid off. Captain Justin Ringer stated that he saw a huge shadow under the right teaser, "it was too big to be a fish and (I) thought its too small to be a whale". "The fish faded off the teaser and went straight for one of our dink baits". The crew had set out their spread for white marlin and sailfish using smaller baits and 20 pound tackle, but as always, mate Austin Robins had the elephant gun, a large 80 Shimano reel with 600 pound wire leader at his side. Captain Ringer said "elephants eat peanuts too."

As the party cranked in the smaller baits, mate, Robins, grabbed his pitch bait and dropped back to the fish. Robins was able to switch the fish off the teaser and hooked-up. Robins said the fish came up to the bait all lit-up and quivering, she was hungry. They had no idea at the time how big the fish was, "we knew she was big, but not having seen anything so big before we had no idea" Robins said.

Two of Robins friends, Billy Landes and Steve Daniels, were visiting the Outer Banks from Gloucester, Virginia. They stopped by the boat the night before just to see about getting t-shirts, little did they know they would be invited to go fishing. Landes, who had never been off-shore fishing before, jumped in the fighting chair and Robins passed off the Rod. The fight went on for just over 3 hours. "The fish grey-hounded several times where she came completely out of the water" Captain Ringer said. "She came up to the boat and rolled up, unfortunately large fish like this do not live after such a fight, they spend so much of their energy that they rarely live."

"The fish was so long that the bill was sticking into the salon of the boat and the tail was hanging out the tuna door." stated Robins. The fish measured 186 inches overall and was 143 inches from fork to bottom jaw. The girth was 74 inches and the fish weighed in at 1,077 pounds.

This is the first grander in over 16 years brought in to Oregon Inlet.

Although Wise was not on the boat this particular day he stated "no one deserves this catch more than my crew. I have the utmost respect for Justin and Austin they take marlin fishing seriously, everyday is a tournament day to them." "We have put in the time as a team and it paid off for them." Wise said "this is every off-shore angler's dream, to catch a grander and I am proud of my boys and happy for Steve."

Frank,

I thought you would like to see this pic of the SEA REAPER III team out of Orange Beach, AL pulling in the 106 pound 1st place Wahoo in the Pensacola International a week ago. Check out the "Halloween" Senior Wide Range hanging out of his mouth. I am the guy who bought some chugger heads, to use as cabinet pulls, from you about 10 years ago. The cabinet pulls still look great and get lots of comments and your lures are still catching the BIG ONES.

Bob Ellingson

June 9th, 2007 Orange Beach, Alabama:
I have been meaning to send this picture of a blue marlin that was caught on June 9th. Fish is around 400lbs caught off Orange Beach, Alabama. Thought it was cool because of the July Marlin Magazine article.

Tight lines,
Browne Mercer

January 24 , 2007 Hollywood, Florida:
Jose’s first Sword and first on the troll 60 inch fish, caught using 9.5" Wide Range.

Catchem Up
Dan

January 15 , 2007 Hollywood, Florida:
Another picture for the bragging board, went out Monday drifted for a little bit off Hollywood, FL and caught one Swordfish shallow, so decided to drag some Soft Heads behind the boat, well it paid off and we caught this 59 inch Pumpkin Swordfish.

Catchem Up
Dan

Hello,

My name is Dan Bieniek, and we have been trolling for Swords in South Florida since February of this year. I have to say we were having a lot of fun with it in the spring. Then the larger fish moved out and we have not been able to hook up since June. We have had plenty of action with slashed baits but these smaller fish do not know how to chase down bait once they slash it and do not give chase. At least that is what I keep telling myself. Anyway I thought you might enjoy these pictures. We are fishing the Hyrdoglow tournament in October and we will be trolling the softheads, and a couple other lures that we have had success with so hopefully we will be on the board with a nice fish to win it. We have not had much with glow lures but I have not tried your glow lures they seem to like them as natural looking as possible.

Thanks,
Dan

March 11, 2006 Iztapa, Guatemala:
I received a call Tuesday morning from Jim Turner, owner of Guatemala's newest gameboat the Release, a classic 37ft Merritt. He asked "what are you doing this weekend?" Having spoken minutes earlier to Capt. Ron Hamlin aboard the Captain Hook on his second day with over 50 releases, my response was quick "nothing, let’s go fishing."

Airline tickets were issued and away we went. I met Jim and his wife, Liz, at the American Airlines ticket counter at Miami International Airport, where we checked in our typical four suitcases full of tackle. We spent time talking about the incredible body of sailfish that had moved into Guatemala. Two and half-hours later, we were arriving at Guatemala City’s LaAurora International Airport being met by Antonio, for our 90 minute drive down to the coast.

Once in Iztapa, we checked in at the Quinta Pez Vela where Jonathan and Melusine, our hosts, met us with cocktails served by our very own bartender Julian. The anticipation of what was to come the next day kept us up all night swapping stories. Jim made the decision that night that we were going to fly fish for them. 

The next morning Capt. Hamlin met us at the dock, by now it was his fifth day straight with over 50 releases, "Well boys do the best you can, it’s unbelievable out there".  We boarded the Release and Capt. Chris Sheeder introduced me to his mates Nico and Ricardo.

Teaser baits were rigged and three Billy Pate Bluefin fly reels coupled with Cam Sigler 16 weight fly rods were ready for action. A selection of Cam Sigler flies, ballyhoo and belly strip teasers were rigged and ready. Forty-five minutes later, the engines throttled down to trolling speed, the left outrigger was lowered, and the bridge teaser started dancing in the waves. Not more than 10 minutes later, the madness had begun, "He's on the teaser" said Capt. Chris calmly, and like a Wimbledon final match, Nico and Ricardo teased the first sailfish into position.

Jim performed his first cast flawlessly, like he'd been casting buddy with Lefty Kreh for years. Minutes later Nico retrieved the fly and the teasers were back in position. "Teaser" said Capt. Chris again. I thought to myself, "there's no way, it has only been a couple of minutes." Again Jim's cast was right on the money and a few minutes later the sailfish swam away as fast as it had come into our spread. "Teaser", "He's on the Spinner", "Teaser", "Teaser" and sail after sail were released.

These weren't your typical sailfish, not the 30-40 pound fish I'm used to catching in South Florida. These were BIG! The average sail was 75-90 pounds. It was 9:45am, and we had just released our 18th sail!

No one dared mention "the record" word, but we all thought it - "Could we tie or even surpass the fly day record of 27 today?" At 11:30am the new Fly World Record was released, number 28! The radio was ablaze with the usual congratulations, good going, etc., but it wasn't even noon.

Obviously, this was no ordinary day. This was one of those days you read about in the Lerner logs at IGFA or hear about from some old timer at your local tackle shop.

The baits were placed back in the water to see where the day would take us. It's now 2PM and number 40 had been safely released! Did I mention that 95 percent of the flies were retrieved! WOW What a day! My one gig camera chip was full, and we still had two more hours to fish. We were back at the dock at 4:45PM with the new Angler World Record of 54 releases (conforming to all IGFA rules and regulations), along with the new Boat Day Fly Record of 57 releases! I even sneaked in and released three sails of my own.

Congratulations to Jim, Liz, Capt. Chris, mates Nico and Ricardo. Great mates who made the magic happen. Thank you for sharing this incredible day with me.

South Fishing, Inc.
www.southfishing.com
800 882~HOOK (4665)

FISH: Striped Marlin - 190-200LB Class (Released after photo).

PLACE: Los Barriles, East Cape, Baja, MX

DATE: June 20, 2005

ANGLER: Norm Mastalarz

GUIDE: Alfredo Lucero (pictured)

LURE: Standard Wide Range, Mackerel / Pink

BOAT: 22 Ft Open Panga

GEAR: Penn Formula 10 kg Reel, Ugly Stick BW Rod, Trilene Big Game 40LB Line

Hey Kids

Capt. Will Kitsos, Crocodile Bay Lodge, Puerto Jimenz Costa Rica here.

If you looked at my spread.. if you looked at my tackle bags you'd see that at least 75% of my lures and birds are Mold Craft.. Why?  Because they work.

On an average day of 'bait and switch' fishing for sails and marlin offshore; a day which can range from raising 8 to 28 fish a day.. an average of 23 days a month for seven months of the season ... I run wide range seniors ... wide range standards behind birds, soft knobs and chuggers either solo or behind birds and then I throw out a magnum wide range, tied off to a cleat and skipping in the second wave. 

Whamo.. something gets hit by somebody with a big pointy face and follows said lure.. pick one..  to the boat like a cat chasing a toy on a string.. My mate, who is usually cussing in spanish begging the billfish to let the lure go instructs the fisherman or woman to throw the live bait or dead bait or cast the fly.  Most first timers or even seasoned fishers used to other styles of fishing stand there, mouths agape and drooling on the deck... up close and personal.

A couple of seasons ago I had a fisher play in a sail wich went about 120lbs.   After about a 20  minute fight on light tackle the fish approached the boat and my mate grabbed the leader to coax the fish to the boat for the photo and release... a wide range senior was hanging from my right outrigger and the sail took a leap and slashed at the lure hanging there.  You don't believe me?... I got the video.  Actually I hadn't realized that the fish slashed the lure until I reviewed my tape days later.  On that day it looked like just another fish balking at being touched by human hands.

What, you're not fishing Mold Craft?? Tisk..Tisk.. Tisk..
Capt. Will

Hi,
    Just wanted to let you know that I have been having great success on school bluefin tuna, using your Moldcraft standard birds in a chain with a soft machine. They are an absolute killer! These fish (both ninety pounders) were caught off of Cape Ann Massachusetts, on twenty five pound test. The tuna on the left, actually hit the softmachine so hard it pulled the rod from the rod holder! Luckily I had a safety line on it.
 
Capt. Allan Smith
Rockport Mass.

Frank,

Here's the pic from the HIBT. The other guy is Jeff Waugh from Nassau. 562.5 pound Blue marlin caught on a Senior Purple Wide Range. On 50#test line. 1 hr. 50 min fight. On board Pamela with Capt. Peter Hoogs and Mate Teddy Hoogs.

See you in San Juan.
Phil (Boot) LeBoutillier