Originally Posted by
The Codfather
Saturday, the day before the derby, OnO was sitting hard and dry. The outriggers were finally on and rigged, two more rod holders and two cleats were the latest additions along with a camera mount and a few other small details. She was finally starting to look like a fishing boat. I had spent the last trick at sea carefully rigging the rods, reels and lures, leaving nothing to chance and accepting nothing less than the best. We loaded OnO with the gear and launched her at the northern marina, Hagatna. A quick stop at the fuel pier and Jeremy and I made our way south to the Navy Base Marina, Sumay. No fishing, but we discussed strategy as I made the final rigging adjustments.
Jeremy drove me back to my car in Hagatna and we parted ways, for now. 'My' car is actually Jeremy's, he let me use it while his wife was in New Zealand giving birth to their second child, a strong baby boy. Your typical Guam beater car. Friday while running around making the final changes and buying ever more crap I had discovered that the rear right had gone flat while I was away at sea (I left the car on the pier). So I replaced it. Back to Saturday, its 10pm, I've been up since midnight and want to lay in bed wide awake thinking of tomorrow and not sleeping for a few hours. I stop in a nearby gas station for some energy drinks for tomorrow. Hidden curb! Shit! CRUNCHwHooooosh. Front left tire is demolished. I figure Ill go inside, get a soda, cool off then put the spare on. As I am paying for it, Jeremy walks in! Apparently he hadn't gone home so soon and had decided to get some gas as well. He helped me change the tire and we parted ways again. Well I made it 1 mile from the ship before the spare blew out and I drove to the ship almost on the rim. So I call Jeremy back and tell him I need a pick-up tomorrow. All the gear is still in the car.
I wake up at 3am, but dont arrive to the Marina until 4.30. The derby starts at 5! Shit there goes my plans to be the first ones out there. Let me say, the guys really stepped up. Ive never seen a boat rigged so fast. Rods on, gear stowed, safety inspection done. The only thing I didnt get set up was the teaser lines and the pitch bait, a 5lb skipjack I had picked up from the coop the day before. We were boat #5 to head out. Most boats still had to launch, the line at the ramp had to be 20 deep. We head out with the big deck spotlight on, the boys rigging lures as fast as they can and me driving with my head out the window like some half-blind lab. We hit the outer harbor and I gun it, pass all the other boats, and we end up being the first ones out of the breakwater!
The plan was to do a wahoo run up and down the breakwater and cliffs, my most productive spot and where Eric caught his 55lber. We decided to CANEX that, and focus on making our way as far south to the banks as we could, buoy hopping and looking for a bill or big mahi. Tuna weren't really in the schedule. The derby had a yellowfin category, but few were being caught recently, the bonita had just started showing up, and there was no wahoo category for some strange reason. Not many around, but a few were sure to be caught. More than yellowfin. I duly made a token protest to the organizers in honor of OnO.
We left Orote Pt, dropped our wings, a full 36' spread. Long rigger, short rigger, corner rod on each side with a shotgun in the center swivel, a spinning rod and pitch bait ready to go on the house rod holders. One ARCHER BAR (4" meatball) on each corner with my skipjack toad down the center. Two large CANYONGEAR plungers ran behind each hookless bar. The inside riggers were a 12" Gay Bob Marlin Magic Medium Pear plunger, and a 9" Purple Big Hook Special. (Ill have to take some pics of this head, its wacky, I dont know where Big Hook found it). The long riggers had the 'mahi' lures, a 9" blue and pink Joe Yee plunger, and a 9" Green/Gold/Pink 'Coggins Style' Plunger made by Meadow Lures in HI. The Shotgun was a 9" 'Rainbow' jet (Blue/yellow/orange/pink/silver).
5 Minutes into the ride to the first buoy the port rigger pops off right at sunrise. After a decent amount of fight there's a 7.5lb mahi in da box, trying to punch a hole through it. We stick with the plan to rotate every hour on the hour and Im up next in the hot seat. Angler always has the harness on and adjusted so I do that and set up rigging the pitch bait with a circle hook on a bridle. It goes in a bucket on the stbd side, ready for the Tom Brady pass. I could go on about pitch baits all day but thats another Chapter. I sit down and just a few second later I see the stbd rigger bend, SNAP, reel starts working like a mahi, not too wild since there is 18lbs of strike drag on there, Im about to get the rod out of the holder and Eric yells, 'ITS A MARLIN'. Holeeey shit. I think the rules of the universe bent around OnO when I looked up in slow motion with the rod in the belt and the marlin launched itself fully 2' above the water behind the boat, framed by the orange sunrise arcing around the mountains and laying across the water turning it a smattering of yellows and oranges. My heart leapt into my throat and my legs turned to lead. Every movement seemed to take hours. One harness clip in. The marlin rockets on its tail across the water, every head shake coming up the braid to the fast action 50lb custom rod I had made by JPR, with Winthrop Tool Rollers and custom cut foregrip. I look down again. Second harness clip on. I lean back, sit down into the harness which is on my lower back. I push it down to my butt where it belongs. Ease the drag to full, now Im at 24 lbs and a good squat in the harness. Line is still shooting off the reel, a Tiburon SST30 from Charkbait. The Marlin dances with the waves for the last time, and dives deep. Straight down. Later, the air bladder was full of many smaller bubbles. Ive never seen that before. Im down to 2/3 of the spool, a good 250 yards. From the size of the waves and his broad shoulders I estimate 8-10', 300-400lbs, but that turns out to wildly liberal and I was pretty embarrassed when it becomes known the fish is half that weight. Even the experienced Guam Marlin expert aboard, Eric, estimated 200-250.
I had the rod, Eric got the rods in and stowed, then the teasers. Lost my favorite CANYONGEAR lure, a large plunger because it sank and we ran over it. That was the only hiccup. Deft maneuvering from Jeremy at the helm, even though I hadn't found the time yet to add a suicide knob. From there on it was easy. Thats right. Marlin. Easy. Ive had smaller sharks put up better fights. Up and down for the next 13 minutes. When he saw the boat he tried to go around it but we deftly maneuvered. He surfaced right at our feet and we made the call to end it there before he could recover. The goal was to stick to the plan we had made but in the excitement it didnt exactly go just the way I had hoped. Good enough, but we will do some more practice cause the next one might not be such a pussycat. Eric grabbed the bill, I sank a gaff deep into an artery causing a jet of red to spray across the ocean. I would have liked to get a flying gaff and bill rope on but he was waking up so we have him a few knocks around the head. Jeremy apparently had enough of watching the action as he turned around, grabbed the bill and nearly by himself wrestled the big kicking fish into the boat. The marlin spat up a few fish, I dont recall what, but its on the video. Eric says they were 'weird, spiky things with hooks'. Eric grabs the bat and goes for a few well placed killshots to seal the deal. I hop back in my chair and we start the ride back.
We wrapped the fish in a tarp, covered it with ice, and finish cleaning up. Took the scupper plug out to drain and promptly lost it. After some beers, high fives and congrats we got to talking about luck. Luck wasnt the fish choosing that lure. The teasers brought him in, the atulai, flyingfish and skipjack bait ball pattern gave him something to eat. Luck wasnt the hook sticking. It was sharp. The leader was new, the rigging perfect. Luck wasnt the fish to the boat. That was my rodwork, Jeremy's driving, Eric's leadership, and an overall flow that was enhanced with good communication. It went smoothly. For my first marlin, OnO's first marlin, there was no yelling, no frantic movements, no hurry. Like we've all done it a hundred times. I might have yelled 'HOLY SHIT' at the start but otherwise we were all calm, cool and collected and thats how we got the fish in the boat. Luck WAS, the hook in the lower jaw, keeping the marlin from opening its mouth and breathing. Keeping the constant pressure on the fish from hookup with 24lbs of drag and the steady reeling (no pumping required) on the auto-shifting Tib30 is what gave the fish no chance to recover. I was prepared to go 2-3 hours. At least. It will come to that. But not this time.
13 Minutes. Hookup at 0615, in the boat at 0628. I have a 9 minute video that will go up before the weekend. Then it was over. We knew we had probably won. This early in the season, this was a larger male, and uncommon too. I knew anyone who caught a marlin was going to take grand prize. We drove back to the Marina, weighed the fish as 150lbs at 0730, Eric grabbed a bodybag (literally) and we stuffed the fish in that, added more ice, and drove to the Coop. I got a decent price for it, pays for gas and the lure we lost. The prize was only $250. We caught 2 more mahi that day, one before we got to the coop at 0930 and one after. School sized, 7.5lbs. The big schools have broken up, but larger more solitary fish are caught now. A 25lb Mahi and 22lb Wahoo won in those categories (they ditched the YFT after none were brought in), as well as a few 7lb bonita. We goofed off until it was time to head in, jigging, swimming, slow trolling for grouper, trolling for jacks, but nothing else for us. We had it already. Tied up, got the prize, Jeremy had to depart, Eric's wife, daughter and dog showed up to take some pictures. Not even a pickle dish, but I did get a hat Ill probably never wear. It was good to come out for our first tournament, first season, first marlin trip on the boat and catch a marlin, my first, and win the whole shebang. We saw alot of people we knew there and we'll try to do it again in Saipan if I can swing it. Eric and I drove back to Agat, the wind was gusting to 30 and it was pretty nasty out, but in the trough was much better than head on. Eric ditched me with all my gear (and some of his) and Jeremy sent his wife and son to come pick me up, cause I, you know, wrecked his car.
That was it. Team OnO swoops in, takes grand prize, and leaves. Maybe another marlin trip Thursday but the weather is looking grim.
Id like to talk more about conservation, our pattern strategy and pitch baits but I've written enough already. Questions and especially ADVICE are most welcome. Thank you.
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