The 2009 membership fee will be $75.00 (down from$125) as we really want to keep our members happy and involved in the club. Membership includes access to all meetings, the internet reporting site and all the great speakers and their stories. Due to this new price we will not be including a t-shirt, but we will have some new RJ Boyle designed T-Shirts for sale at the meetings.
“The Swordfish Club meetings provide a great opportunity to exchange on various levels of topics.
The breadth and scope of the club meetings is nicely balanced by the various guests & visitors as well as adventure tales from club members, like John Anderson’s fishing adventure from NE Australia. Thanks for sharing. But what I want to know is how he got all of those great photos. Sometimes it is hard enough to simply fish, let alone gather a nice collection of photos to serve as nice reminders of the story.
Ron Coddington always brings good information to the table from current events going on at NMFS and ICCAT. And Vinnie Montella provides similar feedback, but from a slightly different point of view, (both are serving as NMFS Advisory Panel members, on their own dime & time). Captain Allie always has something to say that scratches the sword fisherman’s ear. And Captain Ollie occasionally provides some good nuggets of info: like the importance of engaging 4 wheel drive, if you have it, while loading and unloading your vessel at the boat ramp.
I remember back when, some club meetings could fit the members at just 3 round tables. Last night’s meeting seemed to have attracted more than 150 members and guests all with a passion or ailment for swordfishing. RJ is always quick to get hand drawings of fishing illustrations onto the canvas so that others can understand the technical details a little better.
Indeed, it is the charisma that Skip Smith brings to the leadership group that keeps the Swordfishing Club going with interesting agendas, fishy stories and a healthy membership base.
Again, special thanks to the Swordfishing Pioneers (from the Catch-22) that came from their small little island to share their journey and present day experiences.
With all the good stuff happening and great raffle prizes, I guess Capn. Ken nor Cliff got to boast of their fishing tale of the 800 pound swordfish they got last month. Do’h, wait that was Kennie’s story, probably a fisherman’s fib. We better de-rate that story a bit and call it a 650# fish by more credible guestimates. Still an exceptionally large fish caught recently, and right out front.”
Michael Baumstark