Fish:     dolphin
Weight:     24.5 pounds
Where:     East End, Grand Cayman
Bait:     naked ballyhoo
Line:     30 pound
At the rod:     Melissa Rewalt
Boat:     Reel Crazy II
Captain:     Tom Sperandeo
Mate:     Nick Jones

Links to fishing tend to run deep in families. An example of that can be seen in Melissa Rewalt and her rise to competitive angling.

Melissa is the daughter of the late Bill Rewalt, one of the founding members of the Cayman Islands Angling Club, Cayman’s governing body for fishing. In turn he also used his love and knowledge of fishing to help form Cayman’s first international fishing event titled Million Dollar Month which ran from 1984 to 1996.

An office manager at Camana Bay, Melissa made her debut in angling at this year’s Rooster Shootout tournament. Her dolphin catch would not be big enough to claim top prize but did place third in its category.
Melissa spoke about how catching the dolphin has reinvigorated her interest for fishing.

“The dolphin danced, just how my team-mates raved it would. It gave an eventful fight; it came within gaffing range twice before we got it on board. Each occasion the fish surfaced alongside the boat, it would then run again, taking 50 yards of line or so off the reel.

“It was exciting! Experiences such as this, reminds me why fishing is such a well loved sport, and so addicting! I’m hooked.”