On Saturday 20th October at 7am, we arrived at the beach at Sodwana. Phillip Marx had just taken delivery of his new 24ft Tomcat “Stephé”. Joining him were Trevor Harvey, Markus and Madelene and myself. After an uneventful launch, we set the spread and headed for Diepgat.
With new Raymarine electronics onboard, Trevor showed Phillip the functionality and setup. Mid way through the lesson, the left long popped and the reel smoked off! A small but angry marlin cleared the water while the dead lines were being cleared. As the last of the lures were lifted into the boat, the fish threw the hooks. Unlucky!
The lures went back in and trolling resumed. At about 8:30, I saw a swirl behind the right short followed by a small bill swatting the lure. The fish seemed a bit lazy and after popping the rigger but not hooking up, it faded off.
Phillip worked the area a bit and at 10:30, a fish came up on the left short. It billed the lure and popped the rigger, still no hookup. I teased the fish a bit and it came up again. This time it took some line before coming off. Again I teased it and the bill appeared behind the lure. As it took the lure, I freespooled it for a few seconds before tightening up. The fish took about 50m before pulling hooks! It seemed like the fish were there, but not aggressive enough to commit on the strike. Speaking to other boats in the area, they were having the same problem. I was hoping that the turn of the tide (11:30) would change their feeding pattern.
As it was, at 12:30, a nice fish came up on the left short but missed. It came back with all its lights on and smashed the lure. The rigger popped and the reel smoked off. The other lines came in in a flash as the fish jumped out the back. Madelene jumped into the chair and took up the rod. The fish took a lot of line so we chased it in forward to slow the run and gain some line. After 15 minutes, the double line came up and soon I had hold of the leader. Slowly I muscled it up but just as I had the trace in hand, the fish took off, ripping the leader out my hands. Almost immediately the fish took to the air and greyhounded for a few hundred meters before settling down again. Every time it came close, it would go on a long run again. After over an hour, Madelene had the fish close again. I took the leader and brought a lovely 350Lbs blue marlin to the boat. Trevor took the bill so that we could remove the hooks but was given a beating second to none! We took a few photos before removing the hooks and turning it loose. Great stuff!
That was all the action that we saw for the day so we headed home very chuffed with a marlin on the first launch.
