A new DVD reproduces a 1954 film showing the Splendid Splinter landing a 1,235-pound black marlin off Peru.

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 8, 2006

BY DAVE STREGE
The Orange County Register

One of the greatest catches Ted Williams ever made landed on a 1959 Fleer baseball card. It was entitled, "Fisherman Ted Hooks a Big One."

The card featured a photo of Williams beside the 1,235- pound black marlin he caught off Cabo Blanco, Peru, in December 1954.

It was said to be the world's eighth-largest fish taken by rod and reel, and the late baseball legend delighted in telling people of his feat.

He even had documented proof: The 30-minute battle was filmed by the General Electric Housewares Division and shown as a public service announcement.

Now, more than 50 years later, the PSA is making a comeback.

Michael Fowlkes of Inside Sportfishing obtained the 16mm color film through the International Game Fish Association and digitized it.

The result is Black Marlin Boulevard, a DVD showing the catch by Williams and the waters of Cabo Blanco, once the most prolific big-game fishery in the world.

"It's such a classic piece of American history, of fishing history, and a slice of the life of Ted Williams," said Fowlkes, who lives in Laguna Beach. "There's so many attributes, we couldn't not make it available."

Fans of Williams, of history and of fishing will enjoy the 54-minute film that starts with the Splendid Splinter saying, "This is the story of the biggest fish I've ever caught."

The Cabo Blanco Fishing Club sat on the western-most point of South America, a nondescript patch of oil-rich land at the foot of a barren mountain range.

The waters teemed with life. And big game were plentiful. The first 1,000-pound marlin was caught there. The world-record black marlin (1,560 pounds) was caught there. During one season, 16 black marlin of 1,000 pounds or better were caught there.

Bigeye tuna, swordfish, sailfish and striped marlin were also caught regularly. But it was the black marlin that brought Williams to this out-of-the-way place, thanks to General Electric.

The fishing was on a stretch called Black Marlin Boulevard.

Williams tells of the cold-water Humboldt current merging with the warm-water Equatorial current at Cabo Blanco, creating a mass of bait and gamefish.

A narrator describes the scenes and action, at one point saying of the fishing equipment, "Everything has to work just right -- really big league."

Also featured in the 1954 footage is a married couple who each land a 1,200-pound black marlin on the same boat on the same day.

Cabo Blanco's fishing grounds are now a ghost town, destroyed by eight years of commercial fishing that devastated the eco-system by wiping out the anchovitas and baitfish, according to Fowlkes.

"No other spot could rival it then. No other spot rivals it now," Doug Olander of Sport Fishing magazine said in 2003. "And it seems increasingly possible that no place ever will."

The DVD is $17.95 at www.insidesportfishing.com.