US $2.00 Bill, Fly Catches Marlin

For Immediate Release

Hi everyone, this story was given to me by, Kirk Weisman, a 4 time a year return client of CVL. Every time he comes down he wants to try to do something Unheard of. Well, the picture of the fly and story is great for a chuckle and if anyone out there is a cell phone wizard the marlin with the $2.00 fly pictures on the phone.

Antonio is trying everything possible to get them off but it’s an older phone that you can’t download to a cpu. I’m sure some one out there, somewhere could get those pictures off. Anyway, below is the story and attached is your fly! If any one has any comments or questions, please feel free to phone or email.

“They call me Senior Dos, I got that name from my friends at the Casa Veija Lodge. First time I stayed at the lodge I showed up with 2 dollar bills to give as “Suerte” (good luck). I gave 2 dollar bills to fellow anglers at the lodge, employees and anyone that would take one. And some people more than one bill. Coincidentally I was given room # 2 which has stuck.

Each time I returned to the lodge, I would continue with my 2 dollar bills and stay in room #2 as tradition for good luck. If you look in the kitchen, Mama Loya tapped a 2 dollar bill above the stove. There’s also a $2 bill tapped in Julian’s tip jar on the bar – 24/7. AND Last year with Captain Mike Sheeder, amazingly, I released a sail on 2# tippet, hence, the name Senior Dos. Not to mention the $2 bills showing up everywhere in the marina after I leave.

Upon my arrival this trip I learned room #2 was occupied, I was not happy. Antonio told me room #24 could be the new room #2. Room #24 looked pretty good and was the closest room to the food, so OK. While settling in my new room, I hear the sound of a drill on the door. What I found when I stepped outside is that Antonio had removed the “4” from the door. He did this so I would feel more at home in the new room #2.

My first day of fishing, I released only 2 sails on the fly. Capt Mike suggested that Flaco make a fly out of a $2 bill and tomorrow we will try releasing a sailfish with it. At least it will make a great story. And for my part in changing our luck, I decided to call my Rabbi on the satellite phone to ask him to pray for more fish. I called the Rabbi a second time at the end of the day. His question was: do you want me to pray for size or amount? I said both.

The sea was angry that day my friend.

For luck every day I got on the Intensity (the boat) I handed everyone $2 bills for their pockets, this day was no exception. With the $2 tradition for luck and a new $2 bill fly, I planned to use the $2 fly on the second fish of the day. So that morning, after releasing the first fish, we switched to the $2 fly that Flaco made, putting it on my 14 weight Cam Sigler fly rod with 20 pound tippet. While ready but waiting, I sat with Cap Mike. A tragedy struck, my lucky coin fell from my pocket and bounced into the Pacific, “this is not good”. Fortunately this turned out to be minor, because as luck goes maybe Manolo had saved us. In the $2 tradition, a bill goes on the Intensity’s transom when we go out. The wet bill sticks to the transom, but will eventually blow off into the sea. This upsets Manolo, so this trip he carefully tied the bill with fishing line to the bottom of transom. Each time the bill blew off; he would catch it and slap it back to the transom. Good job Manolo.

A little after 12 noon, up in the spread, comes a marlin. Captain Mike told me to cast out the marlin fly on the marlin rod. As I cast out, the fly becomes tangled, the marlin hits it, I strike the fish and the fish spit out the tangled fly. After many expletives coming from the bridge, Capt. Mike, yells out, “get the other rod.” I make my cast, the marlin eats it and its game on! About 2 minutes into the fight, everyone realizes it is the $2 fly I have on the marlin. Lucky fish. And approximately 45 minutes later, we released, tagged and billed the marlin, having recovered the $2 fly. By the way, the blue marlin was about 200 pounds. I think I will keep passing out my $2 bills for “mas suerte”. Calling the Rabbi two times could not have hurt. Just call me Senior Dos.

Senior Dos

Aka Kirk Weisman

Tampa, FL”