West Africa. Rod Overboard!! 4-28-07

[Twotems]

It looks like if I want to catch any decent fish I have to use my lures on someone else's boat! Time to sell mine methinks.

We took my friends new Pro-Line 31WA (excellent boat btw) and had a truly memorable day. Lines went in at about 9:30am and we had our first Marlin within 30 minutes. It was a small one but it managed to birdsnest the Alutecnos 80W and broke the line. The thing was still jumping around, trying to throw the hook for about 5 minutes, before it realized it was free. Lines back in about 30 minutes later after some equipment adjustments and a new lure/bird combo. Within 10 minutes we had another strike but he didn't stay hooked. Trolled for another 20 minutes and yet another strike, this time about a 150-200lb marlin. This one stayed on and he was alot of fun on the 50W. Brought him to the boat and released him unharmed. Trolled for another couple of hours and got nothing so we decided to leave marlin central and go look for tuna. Fished around some ships and got nothing at all. After about 2 hours of wasted fuel we picked up and ran back to marlin central. Within 15 minutes we had a tap-tap on the outrigger and the reel starts to scream. But wait, the clip isn't releasing. My friend rushes to the reel and just as he gets there the outrigger lifts the rod and reel out of the rodholder and it's hanging just out of reach off the port side.The clip releases and the whole combo is gone!! Brand new Alutecnos 50W on an Alutecnos 50-80 rod. This was a small Sailfish and it continued to jump all over the place as I chased it to try and snag the line with the other lures. After about 10 minutes of this, the fish was gone and so was the whole outfit. OUCH!!

It was a fun day that I'll never forget. Here are some pics.

[Capt_John]

Nice report....losing that outfit sucks though.

[bigeasy]

Strong release clip. I guess it was set tight to troll lures but it was tighter than planned. It will never happen again I would bet.

[Twotems]

I've never seen that happen before and doubt I'll ever see it again. I was a bit suspicious of his clips and he said he didn't like them when we were setting up. I prefer the Aftco roller types. He didn't say a word for about 15 minutes after it happened.

When we got back I gave him a bunch of rubber bands to use in the clips next time.

[shoefish]

Man that is one expensive Sailfish! If it makes your buddy feel better, let him know that some of us spend thousands of dollars just to get to an area where we can have a shot at a sail, so maybe he is still ahead of the game. I love that first picture too, beautiful colors.

[wauwinet]

There was an editorial in SWS a few months back describing the exact same thing. Always use safety lines.

[Deep C]

WOw that sucks.... My ass still puckers about losing a new tld 25 to a center rigger in the Bahamas a couple years ago...