FISHERMAN'S CALENDAR

SO—season opens SC—season closes C—clear water D—water dirty, roily N—water normal height SH—slightly high H—high VH—very high M—water muddy L—low R—rising WT50—water 50° FG—fishing good FVG—fishing very good FF—fishing fair FP—fishing poor OG—outlook good OVG—outlook very good OF—outlook fair OP—outlook poor

CHANNEL BASS: NORTH CAROLINA: Less than a week after Miss Amelia Ballance of Buxton, N.C. beached a 63-pound channel bass for a yet-to-be-confirmed Women's All Tackle World Record (SI, Nov. 11), Alfred Gray of Cape Hatteras walloped a 61-pound fish on 20-pound test line and forthwith requested the International Game Fish Association to recognize his catch as a new record in the 20-pound-line category. Oddly enough, on November 29, 1941 then Coast Guard Officer Bernice Ballance, father of Amelia Ballance, took a 75½-pound channel bass from Hatteras waters. It stood as a world record until August 5, 1949 when Zack Waters Jr. collared an 83-pounder at Cape Charles, Va. OVG for big bass in Hatteras area until early December.

SAILFISH: FLORIDA: Exceptionally heavy run of sailfish now off Keys. Last week anglers out of Marathon reported 50 sails released, others boated for mounting. Largest of latter was 7 feet 4½ inches long and was gaffed after a 30-minute tussle on 40-pound test monofilament line by Frank Wiley of Nashville, Tenn. At Islamorada, Captain Buck Starck advised that in two days Dr. and Mrs. Lowell T. Oldhan of Mason City, Iowa battled 9 sailfish on 30-pound test line; immediate OVG, but since Keys is not accustomed to such a plethora of sails it is uncertain. Not so uncertain is Miami, but even there sailfish were congregating in unusual numbers for this time of year and affording both pleasure and problem for small-boat anglers. Agent insists he counted over 1,000 15-to 16-foot skiffs (see page 64) in Gulf Stream off Bakers Haulover. Sportsmen in most of them were getting sailfish strikes. That was pleasurable. Problem came in trying to boat fish half as big as skiff. Result: many sailfish released.

BAHAMAS: NASSAU: Sailfish in Nassau waters are rare enough to be considered an angler's dividend, but more were taken there last week than in the past 11 months combined. Norman Rosner of Yonkers, N.Y. accounted for the heftiest with a 47-pound 8-ounce fish. Like Keys, OVG.

BLUE MARLIN: LOUISIANA: Largely unexploited Gulf waters proving to have large blue marlin potential. Recently, Jim Meriwether of Shreveport took his boat Malou II 25 miles south of Mississippi River delta and in three days hooked 3 marlin, raised several others. One fish was big enough to strip the reel.

HAWAII: OVG-FVG at Kona as last week's blue marlin count was 12. The largest was a 582-pound goliath smitten by Adam Fron of Mapleton, Minn. in 2 hours 50 minutes from Tacks Waldron's Kumu.