• LESLIE WILBER - VICTORIA ADVOCATE
• Originally published July 20, 2008 at 11:28 p.m., updated July 20, 2008 at 11:28 p.m.

PORT O’CONNOR – Big fish brought to glory and cash for anglers, and food for orphans were all part of the Poco Bueno tournament.

Fishermen on the Wasabi, from Dover, Del., caught the 518- pound winning blue marlin Saturday.

Most of the Poco Bueno’s bounty feeds orphans and the hungry in Matamoros, Mexico, said Erny McDonough, pastor of the Fisherman’s Chapel here.

Competitors can donate their catches to the church, McDonough said, which brings them to Mexico during mission trips.

The blue marlin are almost always donated, he said.

“They’re not tasty,” he said. Cooks at the orphanage grind the fishy, tough marlins and use the meat in soups or to make patties, he said.

While most fishermen would never eat the marlins, it’s helped countless orphans and people living in a Matamoros dump, McDonough said.

“This is the only protein they get except for beans,” he said.

Smaller fish also go to Mexico or are handed out at the church’s food pantry, McDonough said.

The tournament itself is the stuff of Hemingway and Melville – man versus elusive marine life well equipped for a fight. The blue marlin are so hard to snag that none were caught in last year’s tournament, said Stetson Roane, a Cuero ISD principal.

The anglers strap themselves into chairs to catch the big fish like blue marlin and tuna, Roane said.

“You fight it ‘til it wears out,” he said. It takes four or five men to haul one of the giant fish onboard, he said.

Most teams want the big fishes’ tails to mount as trophies once they’re butchered, McDonough said.

Roane estimated the Calcutta purse for the biggest blue marlin was between $600,000 and $800,000.

Leslie Wilber is a reporter for the Victoria Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6521 or e-mail her at lwilber@vicad.com or comment on this story at www.VicAd.com

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