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Left the dock at 530am (i know, kinda late) headed for the Spencer as we had a solid report from that area. Made a solid 26 kt. cruise to about 6 miles short of the tip where we dunked the lures in around 830am. Heard some radio chatter about some boats doing REALLY well just SW of the tip. Trolled in towards the tip and got covered in Longfins around 930am. One of the longfins was big AND foul hooked in the back. Boated 2 of them. Made for a long, drawn out, dead weight fight even on a 50w. Longfins ate a GM behind a bird WWB, and a GM Daisy chain off the short rigger. Rainbow colored squid bar took a couple hits but didn't come tight.
Trolled around the tip of the Spencer for a while longer with 2 knockdowns from small Mahi. Never came tight. Around 1200pm we decided to beat it and go find some pretty water of our own. Heard of some action up towards the Lindenkohl so we decided to troll up north on the 100 line that direction. Around 1230pm we got bit one of the flats by what appeared to be a wahoo. B/W Islander with Bally. Came tight for a bit then nothing. Had some chatter opn the radio of big hoo's cruising the area.
About 15 min. later i just happened to look at the port flat line...to my amazement i saw something of the "billfish persuasion" coming in bent on killing a BLACK AND PURPLE FEATHER!!! Of all things!! Instinct took over and just as he came up and gave a whack, i threw it into free spool and set the lure right back into his mouth. I heard the spool start to sing so i locked it up and then what ensued could only be described as pure mayhem.
See now the problem is that on our boat we only own 5-50TW set ups, the other 2 that make up the 7 rod spread are 20-30# class setups matched with Okuma (bleh! i know i know, i feel the same way) lever drag reels. Essentially the equivalent to a TLD-20 spooled with 30# line. Yes, you guessed it, this is the rod that was hit.
I honestly thought it was a big white being the setup was light. He screamed 3/4 of the spool off before greyhounding and going beserk some distance off. Greyhounding, jumping, flipping, he almost took me down to the spool. We began backing down in true hot rod fashion with turqouise white water plowing over the stern. Then some how, for some reason, he stopped. We backed and backed, and backed some more. Finally we had half the spool back. After the initial run i had passed the rod off to one of our guests who's first offshore trip it was. The marlin licked him good, then beat up my younger brother bad too. They gave the rod back to me and I finished him up then passed the rod back to my brother so i could leader the fish. After and hour and 15 min. fight i grabbed the leader on an estimated 200-250 lb. blue marlin. I removed the hook, spent some time reviving him boatside, and then released him back to the deep where he swam away. First blue marlin release ever on our boat, my first ever. A moment i will never forget. Headed for the barn at 230pm and arrived back at the dock at about 530pm.
Pics of the man in the blue suit coming soon! Have to take them off the camera.
Edit: Here is ONE of the pics, trying to see if my brother has taken more off the camera yet.
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Originally Posted by Double D
