Blue Marlin 30 August 2008

Catching a Blue Marlin is the Pinnacle in offshore fishing and not a whole lot of people get to experience the ferocity and power of one of these beasts. Still Think'n has had 3 shots at the blue ones this year, landing one yesterday....This one was special because Don Malkowski, who gives so much to this sport had never closed the deal on one of these beasts of the deep, for various reasons, all of which are common to all anglers having a Blue Marlin on the end of a thin plastic line.....Woke up an hour late yesterday morning for reasons I won't get into and had 3 missed calls on my phone....Don called, Otter called and John Hamilton called wondering where I was at....dammit, the alarm clock didn't go off so we're running late.....Otter and Don met me at the house while Jim and I were loading the boat and we got underway...first stop the gas station to fill up....finally got in the water at around 515 or 530 or so.....hit the mouth of the inlet and found some nice swells with some wind chop coming out of the SE...little choppy but not too bad...made 28 - 30 knots heading out to the 420 line 250 fathoms where there have been some big-eye's spotted and hooked recently....found Oblivion (Dave TRax) already working the area so we put line out....about 2 minutes into the troll the first of many Mahi is hooked...My buddy Jim is down from Marlyland so we give him the rod but this little flip flop comes off the line....start trolling my area and come on a beautiful mark about 50 - 100 feet down...thinking this is the big-eye's we're looking for we work the area hard...along with Dave Trax but nothing but small Mahi come out of the mix.....I start trolling north between 200 - 300 fathoms trying to find some Tuna....find a long line set with a flyer on it and there are literally 100's of fish under this set up.....we decide to get some meat in the boat so we start bailing...well after trying to flip 3 or 4 fish in the boat and getting broken lines we figure out these are a little bigger class of bailers so we start gaffing these guys as they are about 5 - 10 pounders all over us....we get about 25 fish in the box and I call linees in and start the troll again....Now I'm planning on heading up towards the canyon but we get a call from somebody down on the 350 line saying he just got hammered by Tuna but lost all 5 of the fish...this is all I need to hear...get the trolling lines in and put out two of Don's high speed Wahoo lures with some inline sinkers.....these new lures Don has built look awesome trolling behind the boat at 15 knots but nothing hit while doing out high speed troll....get down to around the 350 line and it's loaded with sulpher lines, weed lines, temp breaks going from 79 - 81 and more birds than I have seen all year.....we get lines back out and immediately get lazered by a Wahoo on a G&H pink and crystal sea witch with Mylar.....rerig and get lines back out....steady pick of Mahi which most of them were released...kept a couple of nicer gaffers but we probably caught near 70 Mahi yesterday..they were everywhere..and just the right eating size for Mr. Blue Marlin.....I told they guys that there had to be bigger fish in here so we're working this area the rest of the day.....about 315PM the left long (Pink and white G&H Sea witch) gets hammered....this is no flip flop Mahi....lines screaming off the 50 wide...I'm thinking Wahoo and Jim picks up the rod....well about a 250 pound Blue marlin decides to show himself and all hell breaks loose....I tell Don to get in a belt...start screaming at everybody to clear lines fast because this 50 wide is loosing line fast.....the crew performs flawlessly and gets everything cleared and moved forward.....Don's belted up and Jim hands off the rod and Still Think'n begins the chase......Now Don's line is directly off the back of the boat, but about 200 yards or more in front of me I see the beast doing an arial dance trying to spit the sharp pointy thing on the side of his face.....Oh shit Don...big bow in the line...you need to crank crank crank while I run this fish down.....John Hamilton (captain of Norfolk Blue) is coaching Don along, giving him water and encouraging him....Otter is on the Video and Jim is standing around goin...why did I give him that fish..lol...just kidding he was keeping an eye out for the fish and snapping pictures.....I get the fish closer and behind the boat and he comes up again maybe 50 - 100 yards behind the boat doing his dance again....I start backing down on this fish to get leader for Don's first release and water is pouring into the transon.....uh oh..clear those pine needles out of the scuppers, water is building up...hahaha....we get the fish close again, John Hamilton is standing on the transom reaching for all he's worth, leader is right there, almost in reach...and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Off goes the fish again, he's not ready to give Don the scratch just yet......more danciing and I'm backing down hard again....crank crank crank Don....keep working it man he's almost here....well, about 350 or so the leader comes onto the tip of the rod, John grabs leader and we call scratch on a Blue Marlin for Skinny's Kid !!!!!!!!!!......we work the fish for a couple of more minutes and then break him off on the leader...130# fluro is strong but can only take so much but it held on long enough for a release...Congrats to Don for his first Blue marlin...thanks John, Otter and Jim for a great day on the water and WHERE THE HELL ARE THE TUNA.....Until next time........Bob