We went out early and got some live baits around 4a.m then trolled rappies to Umhlanga. Put a few livies down but no takes, fished bottom but all still quiet, the water was as flat as a lake.
So we moved off to No:1 at about 10:30. I went down with a livie and hooked a bek but it came off the hook. At the same time the boat next to us hooked a dorrie that went flying and jumping all over the show and threw the hook.
At the moment my crew had a huge take on a bottom live bait that almost pulled him overboard , he was well hooked into the fish which he said felt like a flattie. Then chaos!!
The port side rod a Purglas tiger special with a shimano 20/40 30lb line went screaming mad. A few metres away pops up a black marlin angry as hell trying to spit the hook!! I was as mad as hell also since I told the guilty crew not to put a livie on that setup as there was a TLD 25 with 50lb mono on a saltiga 50lb boat stick.
Well with us in tow off that marlin went into the deep and before we knew it we were in 120m water about 10nm offshore. The fish sounded and with that light setup there was no way to put prssure on him, so we waited till he tailwalked eased the boat foward and got line back trying to keep him on the top. He was having none of it and sounded. This carried on for 4hrs.
With the wind picking up, the guy fighting the fish decided to really pressure the fish and boat it. As the fish tailwalked again and I throttled foward, just then it went under the boat and the crew was fast enough to move thats when the line got caught on the props. Snap....off! what dissapointment.
A tailwalking fighting marlin has to be the most awesome sight a fisherman could witness. The guys in the boats around us took pics and said they would email to me during the week, so I'll post them as soon as I can.
So we moved off to No:1 at about 10:30. I went down with a livie and hooked a bek but it came off the hook. At the same time the boat next to us hooked a dorrie that went flying and jumping all over the show and threw the hook.
At the moment my crew had a huge take on a bottom live bait that almost pulled him overboard , he was well hooked into the fish which he said felt like a flattie. Then chaos!!
The port side rod a Purglas tiger special with a shimano 20/40 30lb line went screaming mad. A few metres away pops up a black marlin angry as hell trying to spit the hook!! I was as mad as hell also since I told the guilty crew not to put a livie on that setup as there was a TLD 25 with 50lb mono on a saltiga 50lb boat stick.
Well with us in tow off that marlin went into the deep and before we knew it we were in 120m water about 10nm offshore. The fish sounded and with that light setup there was no way to put prssure on him, so we waited till he tailwalked eased the boat foward and got line back trying to keep him on the top. He was having none of it and sounded. This carried on for 4hrs.
With the wind picking up, the guy fighting the fish decided to really pressure the fish and boat it. As the fish tailwalked again and I throttled foward, just then it went under the boat and the crew was fast enough to move thats when the line got caught on the props. Snap....off! what dissapointment.
A tailwalking fighting marlin has to be the most awesome sight a fisherman could witness. The guys in the boats around us took pics and said they would email to me during the week, so I'll post them as soon as I can.