Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 4436 West Palm Beach Fishing Club Mounts added to Club's Collection In 1934 one of the stated goals of the West Palm Beach Fishing Club was to eventually build a building that would not only serve as a headquarters for club activities, but also become a museum featuring a display of mounted game fish representative of the species found in local waters. Eighty years later, the club has certainly made good on the founding members idea. Our building is listed in the City’s Historic Register and our collection of fish mounts on public display is among the finest found anywhere…. and it just keeps getting better. Club memb er Joh n Mooney of North Palm Beach has donated beauti- fully preserved sailfish and white marlin bill mounts. “There are some pretty good fish stories behind these bills. The white was the first billfish we caught off my old 36 foot Hatteras. We caught that fish in 1979 in the Hudson Canyon, over 90 miles off New Jersey. I caught the only fish on the boat that day, the white marlin, a yellowfin tuna, a dolphin and a wahoo. I almost had a mutiny that day - not just because I caught all the fish, but the weather got really bad on the way in too. It was a long ride home," chuckled Mooney, who has been a WPBFC member for over 33 years. “The sailfish was caught in 1984 and it was the last billfish we caught off that boat. It was a big one too, about 80 pounds. I’m glad the mounts have found a good home here at the club.” You can’t miss Rob Kis- lak’s 240-pound Warsaw grouper mount. The giant grouper now hangs front and center inside the clubhouse. The Warsaw was one of nine he caught during a memora- ble week of commercial fish- ing in 1984. “A few of those fish were so big I had to get help getting them in the boat. I knew Tommy Heisler was fishing not far from me that day, so I hailed him on the radio. Thankfully he came over and helped me get two 300 pounders in the boat,” recalled Kislak. The fish Rob donated is a skin mount prepared by Pfluger Taxidermy. “It’s such a unique mount, I just wanted it somewhere where it could be enjoyed for a long time,” said Rob. One of the fish that had been missing from the club’s col- lection was a flounder. Usually people eat the fish rather than mount it. Club member Rich Ebersold of Lake Worth found out about this missing species in our collection and took action. He had his friends at Gray Taxidermy make a trophy flatfish for the club. “I just wanted to do something for the club that was needed. Guess we can check that one off our list of missing fish,” laughed Ebersold. Skip Tollefsen of Palm Beach Gardens has donated a bill that once belonged to a very large sawfish. “I caught the fish over 60 years ago in the Florida Keys when I was about twelve years old,” said Tollef- sen. “My family used to travel to the Keys to go sailfishing and I would sometimes go shark fishing in the bay. When I caught this fish I was fishing in a rowboat with no motor using a quarter inch thick hand Skip Tollefsen's sawfish bill measures 4 ft. long Rob & Vicki Kislak with warsaw mount