60 KG Black Marlin at somewhere near Ujung Kulon National Park

[Marko]

Hi guys,

just have a saltwater fishing trip on last saturday and Sunday.

we use a wooden boat with max speed of only 7 knot.. yeah.. it's making You crazy.

actually, we are carrying an high end fish finder/transducer. it's rated at 1KW if i wasn't mistaken. but it's too bad that the DC converter blew up and no jigging. we just go for trolling and popping.

on saturday, not even a single fish ate our lures on the 4 trolling sets. no bite also on the popper and stickbait 

on the evening, we saw the other 3 boats got a GT, 16 kg wahoo and dorado- even some baby skipjacks.. but zero on our side.. what a shame.

we review what went wrong and the captain said "we still got eggs on boat". . but we told him that all the boat also brought eggs with them. okay.. this is one myth that "believe it or not". we decide to cook half of the eggs left that afternoon and the another half for the breakfast.

on Sunday morning we left earlier than the other boats and go popping on a spot called "tanjung parat" . my popper got hit by a grouper.. but as i set the drags for the GT.. i think it ripped the grouper mouth. damn... 

another cast and bumm.. a GT got on my popper but no hook up.. damn.. what went wrong?

we decide to go to the captain fishing spot and on the journey we set 4 trolling gear. using small Rapala lures, one skipjack got hooked. finally... a brink of hope

using his experience, the captain took half an hour to found his fishing spot without any tools. only by sight seeing and dropping the bottom fishing gear. finally we got 4 pounder red snappers.. 30 of them and 4 - 2 pounder grouper.

as weather getting unfriendly, we decide to go back. and we drop another 4 lures. I use the small size williamson Konahead (i upgraded the hook to a custom order stainless hook) and 2 rapala and 1 big konahead on the other rods.

at first we got trash on the rapala. oh well.. that's not nice. and we go again.. another 3 rods got trash... so finally only my trolling tackle still trolling- the Accurate ATD 50 using 50 lbs mono, D.A.M jigging wannabe rods (it's written PE 10-12)- but only for 50 bucks. i use it usually for dead bait bottom fishing/ live bait and bottom fishing. an stupid snap (yup.. actually this snap was to attached the sinker leads) and the williamson konahead with 100 pounder leader.

on the rough seas- i said to myself that usually big fish got crazy.. just a few minutes later... krrreeeeeeetttttttttt............. A fish....

i put the drag on "strike" position and start the fight. and it jumps .. i started to reel in slowly. and another jump. at first glance, we assume it would be only around 40 pounder marlin. so we take it easy. but as the fight enters 20 minutes and it jumps at a clear distance.. "damn.. this is biggg "

i took the fight seriously. but just after 30 minutes.. both of my arms were seized . i could not keep fighting and finally another person took over. He fought the black marlin for another 1 and half hour. the fight took too long because improper trolling rods was used. it don't have enough backbone to push the fish to water surface. as we saw the marlin is too tired... we take a tough decision... to get it on gaff hook and take it. it required 4 person to pull it into the boat. and wow.. total length was around 8-10 feet (we did not measure).

until now, i'm still feel guilty that we kill that black marlin. honestly my target fish was a wahoo...  not a bill fish family..  .. i just found out that recommended marlin size to be taken is 99 inch in fork length from lower jaws. i prefer to Release in the future if i have the chance to caught again. their population was getting less and smaller in size...

i will upload the photo when i got it. no photo on my phone/camera.

ciaoo

[Bryan Young]

Wow, way to stick it out Marko.  Don't feel bad about taking a Marlin as long as it's not going to waste.  I love dried and smoked marlin.  Sashimi is also good. 

Taking of fish is not necessarily bad as long as it is not wasted.

Aloha,
Bryan

[HOLEINTHEWATER]

GREAT CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE PIC.

[wallacewt]

way to go marko,good stuff,your a better man than me gunger din on some of those boats ive seen. they are all uphill,ha!

[Marko]

dear Guys,

i dont have the pictures yet.. so i just upload the early fighting moments.. it's me on the white shirt holding the stupid trolling rods

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=epu4ojinK2o&NR=1

enjoy

[Irish Jigger]

I was beginning to feel sea sick watching that Marco   Looking forward to part 2.

[Ron Jones]

Nothing like a marlin skipping across the water. Way to keep tight lines Marco!
Ron

[wallacewt]

good to see you again on youtube

[Patudo]

Really enjoyed reading your report. My very first black marlin was also in the same area near Ujungkulon, many years ago. Congratulations and good luck in your future trips.

[Marko]

finally the only photos i have... too bad it's low quality

[Bryan Young]

Nice Marko.  Did you eat it?  if so, how was it prepared?

[wallacewt]

thats gunna be hard to beat marko 
ill be giving it a go at the end of may for 2 weeks
we are off to exmouth west aust.
mainly sailfish but who knows.

[Marko]

Nice Marko.  Did you eat it?  if so, how was it prepared?

sorry for late reply. busy gone fishing.

my mother in law prepared the marlin with light frying and put it in red chili sauce. very spicy but it blends awesome with the marlin taste...

my wife make it a steak and also awesome... another day my wife make pasta with the marlin meat... also awesome...

the marlin meat was delicious and amazingly soft and tasty. it mucchhhh better than mackerel or wahoo... i can also say it's comparable to tuna.