Island fishing team wins ILTTA Big Belt

Bill Easum, J.W. Bones and John Price, the Port Aransas Rod and Reel Club (PARR) team, achieved top honors in the 68th International Light Tackle Tournament Association (ILTTA) tournament held recently at Cap Cana, Dominican Republic.

The PARR team competed against 33 other teams from Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Curacao, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, South Africa and several different states in the U.S., fishing for white marlin in Caribbean waters near Punta Cana.

Along with the coveted Big Belt, the team brought home bronze white marlin sculptures by artist Joeffery Smith of Stuart, Fla.

Bill Easum was second place individual angler, separated from first place angler only by time of final release.

The Big Belt is an ornate leather fish fighting belt decorated with silver lettering and emblems. Below the belt hangs a large silver plaque listing the winning teams for the first 50 tournaments. Below that are 18 smaller silver plaques listing winning angler and club names in the most recent 18 tournaments. Each tournament's winners will add a plaque until there are 50, and then this belt will be retired.

The original Big Belt, with its 50 plaques, is on permanent display in the International Game Fishing Association (IGFA) Museum in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

PARR also won the belt in 1998, and Texas Tournament Anglers of Corpus Christi won it in 1986. The winning club keeps the Big Belt until the next tournament, when it is passed to the new winner.

ILTTA is an organization composed of member fishing clubs from around the world. It began in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1948 and currently has about 50 member clubs representing thousands of anglers worldwide. Usually annually, one of the member clubs hosts a tournament for ILTTA in its home waters.

ILTTA tournaments since the early 1950s have released live all billfish, unheard of in that day. ILTTA was one of the first organizations to permanently adopt circle hooks when their benefit to the healthy release of billfish became apparent several years ago.

Unlike most billfish tournaments, ILTTA anglers draw for boats before each tournament and anglers switch boats each day to fish with anglers from two other teams. This system allows anglers to make friends from around the globe.

ILTTA was founded by a young dentist from Wichita Falls, Dr. Roy Dean. He migrated to Mexico City to practice soon after completing his dental training. Dean's love of fishing soon led him to join the Sailfish and Tarpon Club of Mexico. He then found his way to Acapulco and a newly-discovered sailfish stock.

Dean will be inducted into the IGFA Fishing Hall Of Fame later this year.

Past presidents of ILTTA from this area include the late Harvey Weil of Corpus Christi and Lynn Gavit of Port Aransas, and John Price and Dale Schroeder of Port Aransas and Bill Gavit of Corpus Christi.

Further information on ILTTA is available on the internet at ILTTA.org.