First Solo Striped Marlin

[locknut]

A Solo Marlin
By Jeremy Millichamp

Well if catching those Skippies wasn't hard enough this was going to be near impossible. I was dying for a drink (water) but couldn't reach the bottle. I was having a really hard time steering the boat and don't even think about changing the throttle.

Of course I had brought all this on myself and had no one else to blame.

Perhaps I should explain. I live In Auckland NZ and fish from  6.0m Alloy boat. I try to fish most weekends on the Westcoast weather permitting. We had spent a week at Waihau Bay over the Nationals and though it was a great holiday and a very long tow the fishing was for us at least a bit slow. Who am I kidding we saw one fish tailing beside the boat. So after getting home the fishing bug still wasn't cured. Due to temporary unemployment (not a bad thing during the game season) I decided to go fishing on Monday. All the fishing cobbers were at work so I decided to take the boat over the Manukau Bar solo.

This is in its self not a problem wearing a safety harness, however things do get problematic when you actually hook a fish.

A few years ago I had read an article by Peter Pakula about catching Marlin solo and thought what a mad idea. The idea had sort of festered in my mind and last year I had spent a couple of short days out behind the Manukau Bar slow trolling around the late season Kahawai schools with no luck.

I headed out to where the  Skippies had been caught over the weekend and managed to find an area holding deep bait on the sounder with Skippies on the surface,  out went the favourite Skippy lure and a couple of bungies. The first Skippy came in quickly and into the tuna tube but the second was proving harder to catch. Finally the rod went off again only it turned out to be a small Albie not ideal, and it was hooked down the throat so that was no good. That went onto ice.

After another 10 minutes with the Skippy in the tube getting weaker and weaker the rod bent over again what a great sight. I turned down wind so the Marlin lures wouldn't tangle kicked the boat out of gear and started to work on a very enthusiastic Skippy. When it was half way in something grabbed the short corner lure and headed for the horizon. What! I was doing less than a knot of speed what grabs a Moldcraft  Senior Wide Range 4 metres from the boat at dead slow and starts emptying a 37kg reel? I don't know I never saw it.

While I was trying to decide what to do, fight the big fish or get the skippy in the reel stopped emptying. Well that was sort of a relief, I then had a troubling thought. What if it was a Marlin that had grabbed the lure and it was now heading for my Skippy which was attached to a Penn 7500 SS. That wouldn't be a good look. I won the race and got the Skippy to the boat got it rigged up and out it went again attached to a live bait trace. That one was the best of the two baits it would go on the Downrigger after the other bait was rescued from the Tuna tube.

I was starting to realise this solo fishing could be a bit frantic. I got the other Skippy out of the tube, rigged it and got it in the water. So I'm clearing the other trolling rods, putting away lures keeping the boat in a straight line, putting out the parachute (even at idle the boat goes a bit fast for livebaiting), digging around up the front  looking for the downrigger and generally doing all the things the fishing mates usually do. I hooked the downrigger up and put the Skippy down to 40m. The other bait needed sorting out, it had been sitting just behind the motor hopefully reviving a bit and needed to be let back to about 80m out.

I heard a noise behind me and turning  around  realised that line was coming off the Duel. I mustn't have put the drag up enough and the belly in the line to the downrigger was pulling more line off. So I reached over and pushed the drag up a bit, but instead of the spool stopping it started to speed up alarmingly. Oh that's what the problem is I've got a Marlin on. I'VE GOT A MARLIN ON!!.

Oh man and there it is jumping all over the place. Now  where did I put my instruction list. Ok #1 Don't Panic.  Boat forward a bit faster, no retrieve the parachute, now boat forward no downrigger up luckily its electric, now boat forward no get the bungies in, check line situation, pull in other live bait which was now a  skip bait, shorten downrigger boom and swing forward, check line situation, slow boat down before I spool myself, now where is the fish, remember to breath, check line situation not good, two thirds out. Finally I put on my harness and oh no gimbal on my belt get that on. Pick up the rod attach harness and we are away.

This is where I was glad there was no video camera on board. When I reached forward to adjust the steering I couldn't reach the wheel. With the rod in the stand up harness the rod hit the rocket launcher, when I turned sideways the rod got hooked up in the outrigger halyard and I could only just reach. This wasn't in the master plan. I didn't think that dacron racing off the reel next to the halyard was a good idea. So plan B, I picked up a short gaff and poked it through the steering wheel. At least now I could steer (sort of). If I left the boat in forward idle I would hopefully be ok.

That was until I ran over the line. One minute things were ok then all of a sudden it was angling under the bow.  I managed to pull the boat into reverse, don't know  how I reached I suppose sheer terror, spun the wheel and gunned it, in the wrong direction dumb ####. More frantic reaching no stuff this select neutral and raise the motor I looked back to see the line pass under the prop . This must be the most unlucky Marlin on the West Coast.

By now things had sort of settled down. I could retrieve line slowly but I had to push the drag up well past strike so with over half a spool out there was a fair bit of strain on things. More on the fish than me I hoped. With the extra drag  doing other stuff like getting an extra bottle of water or bending down to pick up a glove I had dropped was not easy. I found that bending over when strapped into a standup harness is no mean feat. Trying to bend over and touch the boat deck was impossible. It would have been hilarious watching but not quite such fun if you are the fool staggering around the deck. Lucky it was not rough. Note to OSH I still had my safety harness on.

I was sure that the fish was tail wrapped as there had been no runs or jumps for 15 minutes. The fish hadn't gone deep so a least it wasn't dead.

Finally the mono topshot came onto the reel  so only another 200m to go. I unhooked the tag pole and kept pumping and there she was on the surface. About 135Kg Striped Marlin. Things didn't look so good the fish was coming in tail first upside down a sure sign of a very sick Marlin. I quickly put in a tag and took some photos, dumped the rod in the holder and untied the half hitch of windon trace that was wrapped around the tail. She was just moving so all wasn't lost, I didn't want to kill this fish. 

The only problem was the marlin was facing the wrong way to revive. Even with the tail tied to the base of the rocket launcher I couldn't reach the bill it was just too long. After much effort I manage to snag the bill with a gaff, tie it off, untie the tail and lead the fish to the port side were I tied off the top bill to a cleat. When I turned the fish up the right way and held it the flowing water as we idled forward started to revive her.

For 5 minutes I tidied up the boat and sorted out all the mess. I got a couple of not so great photos, and when I checked the Marlin was starting to come around.  I untied her and held the bill in one hand and the dorsal fin in the other. Now I could gauge her condition and let her go when she made more aggressive tail beats. Finally her colour improved, I could feel her bill opening and closing and with a sweep of her tail she was away. What a great sight.

   

[wallacewt]

great effort locknut, you are gunna have to get auto pilot.

[Nessie Hunter]

LMAO...   
I was actually sitting here laughing out loud!!!!!   
That was funny stuff... The visual was just to hilarious !!!!!!

Great big Congrats on all that effort and the handling of the fish...
Dang good job, although it started out a little confused and one legged!!



Thank you for an excellent read....



.

[redsetta]

Great work Jeremy - and a cracker read.
Thanks for sharing.

...and with a sweep of her tail she was away. What a great sight.

Doesn't get much better than that
Cheers, Justin
PS If you need someone to steer the boat next time...

[Dominick]

Loved the story and photos.  Congratulations.  Dominick

[broadway]

Well done Capt! ... nice read too
Thanks
Dom

[locknut]

Thanks guys for the kind comments, I can't work out how to get the photos into the text, am I being daft or what?

[Nessie Hunter]

I can't work out how to get the photos into the text, am I being daft or what?

You can only do that with a photo hosting site = Photobucket etc..
You have a link to the pic and put it anywhere you want, thats where it shows up...


All the sites I know, only show uploaded pics at bottom of text...
Photobucket it Free to join and use....



.

[saltydog]

Great story and wonderful fish,congrats!

[locknut]

Thanks Nessie.

[Bill B]

Great read...can only imagine the kaos on board   glad you could revive that great fish and return her to fight another day...keep up the good fishing