Marlin catch places Bimini on world stage of big game fishing

Blue Marlin Mount, State Archives of Florida/ Dale McDonald
Circa 1970 

By Jane Feehan

Known today as the “Big Game Fishing Capital of the World,” Bimini entered the international sport fishing scene during the 1930s. Before 1930, locals were unable to land a marlin. The reason may surprise some.

Locals always knew the big fish were out there, but they didn’t have the heavier, more expensive gear to land many, according to local historian Ashley B. Saunders (History of Bimini, Vol. 1, Alice Town: New World Press, 2000). Miami Herald fishing columnist Earl Roman also knew the big ones were plentiful. But, in the early days, he returned to the mainland with broken lightweight rods, cut lines and no game fish. 

By 1933, possibilities grew; he wrote about how “shallows and flats around Bimini are good for bonefish hunting.” He recommended trolling with a heavy rod.

Earl Roman with student and
trolling rod 1948. State Archives of Florida

Bimini, with fewer than 1000 residents during the early 1900s, was known for its beautiful aqua waters, attracting the yachting set years before its sport fishing days. But the island could not provide much ice, had little electricity and no docks except for one used for mail and supply boats Nevertheless, yachters would visit from Florida, only 45 miles away, anchor in Bimini Bay, cook food onboard or get to a beach on small boats provided by locals where they could set up for meals. Steamship excursions, popular short trips from Miami, were advertised during the 1920s—until the hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 took a terrible toll on its population and economy. Bleak days.

Ill winds seemingly began to turn in 1930, thanks in part to Earl Roman’s column, Angler’s Notes, about Bimini fishing. U.S.-based Bimini Enterprises, Inc., advertised 1,000 homesites were available for purchase on this slice of the Bahamas. Flights $5 for the 20 minute-seaplane flight were offered to view the lots, there, which had the “greatest fishing grounds in the world,” and “where no passport is needed.”

Bimini’s reputation as a game fish hotspot took off when Miami-based fishing guide Tommy Gifford and fellow American Louis Wasey, visited in 1933. They hooked a marlin but lost the fish after a dramatic 14-hour fight. 

Months later, American writer and noted angler S. Kip Farrington landed the first blue marlin off Bimini weighing 155 pounds. Betty Moore, yet weeks later, hooked and fought a 502-pound blue marlin for a few hours that Louis Wasey eventually managed to land. Bimini big game fishing launched like a sailfish leaping out of blue ocean waters.

According to Saunders, Tommy Gifford designed the “first outriggers for deep sea fishing” and trained locals in big game fishing techniques, equipment and bait.

Writer Ernest Hemingway, who was also a top-notch fisherman, heard about the Bimini news. He traveled there in 1935 and remained with his family at the Compleat Angler Hotel writing and fishing until 1937 (this landmark hotel was destroyed by fire in 2006). Firsthand accounts of Hemingway’s fishing endeavors are available in Saunders’ book.

Fishing news from and about Bimini continued. The first big game fishing tournament was held in 1940. None was held during World War II but fishing events resumed and Bimini’s economy took off during the late 1940s with expanded availability of electricity, ice, freezers, drinking water and construction of docks and hotels.   

Saunders notes the island’s first nightclub – Calypso Club opened in 1947. Local restaurants also opened as did Bimini’s first straw works kiosks. By 1949 big game fishing enthusiasts from around the world traveled to the island in hopes of catching any of the game fish – bonefish, white marlin, bluefin tuna, sailfish and swordfish. Locals created the high-profile Annual Native Fishing Tournament during the 1960s; it remains as one of the key fishing events to this day with world-wide participants. About swordfish: they only swim at night. The first nighttime swordfish tourney was established in the late ‘60s or early 70s

Interest in Bimini, its people, big game fishing and today the island’s real estate, grows. A population count in 2010 indicated 1,988 residents. In 2022 the count went up to 2,417. Real estate listings show homes sell from $250,000 to millions of dollars. Resident visitors are not all there for the fishing. Bimini waters are beautiful and its people rock.

For lots of stories,tournaments, stats and more, visit International Game Fishing Association at IGFA.org (located in Dania Beach off I-95).

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Saunders, Ashley B. History of Bimini, Vol. 1, Alice Town: New World Press, 2000.

Miami Herald, Sept. 21, 1928

Miami News, May 18, 1930

Miami Herald, June 28, 1931

Miami Herald, July 12, 1933

Miami Herald, July 2, 1934

Bahamas Realty

 

 

Tags: Bimini history, Bimini fishing, Bimini big game fishing, Miami history, marlin, tuna, swordfish, bonefish, Earl Roman

Bruce Stanley Bethel, Bimini Rum King

Barely visible, Bimini is in The Bahamas
West District
40 miles off Florida

By Jane Feehan

Prohibition (1920-1933) proved to be a financial boon to organized crime as well as to the adventurous. Illicit liquor trafficking also benefited The Bahamas where much of it was traded and stored before it made its way to the speakeasies, warehouses and alcove hideaways along the South Florida coast.

About forty miles off Miami lies the small island of Bimini, part of the Bahamian archipelago. Today it is known more for its game fishing opportunities than for its role during the Prohibition era when its dangerous shoals provided cover for smugglers. Before the 1920s, island inhabitants made a subsistence living off the “wracks” or wrecks of ships that met their demise atop those shoals.

Bimini shoreline
Florida State Archives

After 1920, things changed with Bruce Stanley Bethel, a quiet, retired British soldier. A polite man who was said to have attended church regularly, “Bethel of Bimini” helped island inhabitants, mostly blacks, make a comfortable living from the brisk export liquor trade. A veteran beset with debilitating war wounds, Bethel welcomed smugglers with a few heavily padlocked warehouses of liquor. His business was licensed.

A long, spindly dock made of twisted mangrove roots pointed the way to the first of several warehouses

NASA photo of the boomerang-shaped island

Bethel built for the liquid gold.  Some said the amount of liquor stored there was impressive—enough to “bewilder the mind.” A bar was installed in the first one, where conviviality reigned and customers were encouraged by one of Bethel’s minions (he rarely entered the warehouses) to sample rather than buy. Today we’d call that good marketing.

Bethel probably picked up some of his marketing skills in Nassau where he and his brother operated a liquor store. When the Volstead Act of 1919 opened the window to Prohibition, Bethel saw opportunity. He looked at a map and pointed to the boomerang-shaped Bimini. A supply of liquor close to the Florida coast could reap profits. He loaded up two chartered schooners with liquor and set sail for the tiny island. The liquor salesman opened a business within hours of his arrival.  Within a few years, Bethel’s prestige among the island’s 300-500 British subjects was rivaled only by that of its resident commissioner.

Besides building warehouses, Bethel converted a concrete ship, the SS Sapona into a warehouse. He purchased the ship from Miami Beach developer Carl G. Fisher in 1924. Its engines were stripped out and sold; Bethel had the ship towed to Bimini where he used it for liquor storage. It sunk in the hurricane of 1926. Rather than serving as a tangible reminder of rum running days,  the old ship today serves as an artificial reef, attracting divers from around the world. (For years it was used for military target practice; most of the concrete on its hull is gone.)

A case of liquor from one of those warehouses purchased for $18 could be sold as high as $100 in Florida. By 1928, Bethel estimated that he had sold more than $3 million – at island prices – of liquor.  But, in a few short years it was over for Bimini.  Traffic had shifted, according to W.T. Cleare, the island’s commissioner, to Gun Cay. The glory of Bimini as smugglers’ paradise faded into history. Bruce Stanley Bethel died penniless in 1950.

Sources:

The New York Times, Aug. 5, 1925.

The New York Times, 18, 1928.

www.concreteships.org

Tags: Florida rum running days, Prohibition and the Bahamas, smugglers in Bimini, Bimini bootleggers, Bruce Stanley Bethel, historical researcher, Florida film researcher, SS Sapona