So up at 0300 to load the boat. Rosie and Jordan showed up at 0430 and off we went. Jordan has fished the estuaries and off a yak. Never caught a marlin. So no pressure to get him one.
We were running in the dark so I left the cover over the sounder and followed the compass with a 60 degree heading for 17.5 miles. It seemed if there were some little blacks on the 18 mile it would be a good place to pop his cherry.
We deployed the spread and continued east at 6.5-7 knots. Within ten minutes we heard a little zzzzzztttt of a clicker. Rosie and I perked up and were trying to decide which of the 7 reels it had come from when one of the reels started howling and the rod was buckled over in protest. For those who haven’t done this the short zzzztttt of the clicker was the lure getting bill whacked.
Jordan took the rod and a micro black rocketed to the surface. It didn’t take him to long and he was officially a marlin fisherman. With the sun just coming up it was a pretty good start to the day.
We knew there were probably more around but had dreams of some larger models so continued east. We hit the banks and trolled north across a few areas that have performed well this summer without a sniff. We then cut east and trolled past the fad in 110m of water. A mahi hit and I brought it toward the boat trying to thread the needle between the other lines so we didn’t have to clear any gear. Just behind the boat I lost it before the gaff went in and we continued east.
We didn’t want to pull the gear and run the 6-7 miles so we trolled out. About half way there we encountered some bird action and saw tuna busting up. We rolled through and two rods buckled over. Jordan and I brought in two 7-10lb skipjack tuna. Yuk! One got flicked off and the other turned into strip baits. We did a second lap and caught two more which both got flicked off the hook without bringing them out of the water. We then continued east so we didn’t donate anymore gar to that glorified cat food.
We trolled out through the areas we hooked up on Tuesday but couldn’t find any current lines. The sky was overcast and everything was grey which made it hard to spot the coral spawn which indicated current lines. We worked the area for a few hours without success.
I was checking the bait on the ilander that runs shotgun and was feeding it back out when it was smashed. I set the drag and felt the fish but he dropped it pretty much instantly.
We trolled until about noon without any action and then we finally had a strike. I was standing next to the rod and took it. A striped marlin shot to the surface and rosie cleared lines while Jordan drove the boat.
This marlin fought different to any I’ve seen yet. It spent as much time in the air it could of been a bird. It took many long hard runs but spent the entire fight at the surface. I was rocking the go pro for about half of the fight and got one good footage. We got it to the boat, Rosie leadered it and had a hold of it then lost its bill. Being as I had beat the fish I passed the rod off to Jordan and he got to fight it again for another 10-15 minutes. At that point I got my hands on the leader again and got it unhooked. It measured 2.45 meters and should be around 140-145kg.
We continued trolling toward home as we were 37 nm from the boat ramp and it was starting to chop up from the wind. At about 160m we were still waiting to get Rosie a billfish when the tiagra on the shotgun let out a howl. He pulled it down and dropped it back a bit. Pumped the rod a few times and managed to hook up. It was evident we didn’t have a billfish on the line and Rosie brought in some quality sashimi for us.
As the lines were in and the wind chop was getting gross we pulled the pin and ran back in. Not the most successful day but we’ve had far worse.
I was planning on getting a couple pics of the big parasites that live in a wahoos stomach but I forgot when I was cleaning it. I’ll try and remember on the next one.
The sashimi was as good as it always is.
