On 31st January, Herman,
Quinton and I launched Mitsufishi off Richards Bay. We were hoping that the
last day of 2017 would be good to us. We worked the drop-off straight off the
harbour but despite finding some bait and current lines, there was no action.
The day wore on and out of desperation we headed shallower to see if there was
a black marlin that would be interested.
We were in about 80m when I saw a
fin flash behind the ruckus on the left short. The rigger popped and the 130
took off. The fish never jumped and just made a constant run on the surface.
This gave us a chance to clear the other lines and get Quinton into the chair.
It was the first time he had fought a fish on the big tackle and was lifted out
the seat a few times. After a few minutes, he settled into a good rhythm and
had the fish near the boat. The fish was on the leader, but by no means tired!
It made a few big head nods, turned 180 degrees and took off on another good
run. Thee heavy drag took its toll on the fish and it was soon on the leader
again. It was extremely stubborn, and I struggled to get its head out from
under the boat. At one stage, it touched the boat and went mental, ripping the
leader out my gloves as it took off straight down. All we could see was the
electric blue tail kicking hard as it swam into the depths. After a few minutes
though, the fish was on the leader again. This time I managed to get a few
wraps on the leader and pull the fish up against the side of the boat. We were
all surprised to see that it was in fact a blue marlin of about 120kg and not
the black we were expecting. This fish was hooked in the top of the eye socket
which is probably why it gave us such a tough time. On closer inspection, there
was also a longliner hook in the corner of the mouth, so the fish obviously had
some experience. Herman removed the hook and sent the marlin on its way.
With the new years festivities
happening later that evening, we decided to head back to port, ending off the
year in a good way.
No comments:
Post a Comment