The year was 1977 and Rene was experimenting with the west coast fishing both north and south of Naples pier.In April of the same year Rene fought and lost a much larger jewfish at the Bahia Honda bridge that would of surely broken the still standing world record of 680 lbs.I remember him describing it as being as big as a Volkswagen.He fought the monster jewfish for 6 and a half hours and when the current changed the massive fish dove down and went under the bridge and out the other side,,,,it cut him off on the pilings.
Rene wins the 1977 met tournament's Afoot Award for a 345 lb jewfish he caught while fishing with James (Jimbo)Fuqua on the Naples fishing pier.
Rene and Jimbo with the big Jewfish.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
Man!.....i love these old vintage photos!......its making me wonder our local newspaper has some of the articles that was done on us is on file or in a archive....again classic stuff Will...!... keep them comming.....mike 
I love the expression on JD's face. He looks like he's in love with the jewfish!