Square Restaurateur Lands a Big One

Tanned, mustachioed Charlie Chaprales, familiar Harvard Square restauranteur-sportsman, is shown here with the seven foot, 94-pound Blue Marlin he recently landed off the Florida Keys, and his brother John (front).

Chaprales, who has owned the University Restaurant for ten years, does most of his fishing in a 30-foot Pacemaker cabin cruiser, but caught the marlin in another boat. A good thing it was, too, because the fish's beak went through the side of the ship's hull. Three men had to sit on the marlin to keep it down.

"The fish has attracted more attention than anything in the restaurant since an MTA bus drove through the window a few years ago," brother John told a reporter yesterday.

Chaprales keeps his Pacemaker, the Patti C. III, anchored at the Charlesgate Yacht Club, and fishes off Rockport and the Cape for tuna, which is the largest game fish in the area.

Before going into the restaurant business, Chaprales studied music for 16 years and played clarinet and sax in his own band, "Charlie Ellis and his Five Notes of Rhythm."

His brother John, who calls himself "more expert at land sports," came to work for Chaprales after studying at B.U.