So for several weeks now, Scott and I have been hatching a plan to target a marlin off what appeared to be some awesome structure down the South Coast. With Scott being familiar to these waters, we tucked in behind and just tagged along. Several messages back and forth during the week confirming weather forecasts which only seemed to improve as the week progressed had us chomping at the bit... it also had me frequenting tackle shops and having tackle sent on overnight delivery... thanks again Sheldon.
After reading the thread on tag lines, i decided to add tag lines to my riggers and also fitted hal-locks. Spread patterns were played with and tweaked, hooks sharpened and rods prepped. I had Shag on speed dial overtime i had a question or concern and at one stage he even let a work meeting interfere with these discussions.
So at 1:45am yesterday morning we left Hillcrest with the Scouse on tow and made our way down to Glenmore. We took a slow cruise and met up with Scott, Brad and Leon at the club at about 4:20. Final preps were done and we launched without too much fuss.
Early on we had a few Gremlins in the Raymarine system so had to stick close to Scott-no-fish to make sure we were fishing the right areas... what a blessing in disguise this proved to be!! After getting to the drop-offs, we began pulling lures about 800m behind Scott and just off to the starboard.
SpreadShort Corner - Sweet 16 (large)
Long Corner - Bobby Brown
Short Rigger - Pakula Sprocket
Long Rigger - Iland Express
Shotgun - Sweet 16
Water was a beautiful blue purple and around 26.8 degrees. Just after 7am Scott called over the VHF to say that they'd had a marlin in their spread which didn't stick. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, we asked if we tuck in on his line and see if we could entice a strike. As we came up on that patch, i watch the Tiagra rod bend and shouted to Don he was about to go just as the elastic on the Shagstix tagline popped and the Tiagra 50 screamed to life. Don grabbed the rod while i worked to clear all the lines with Don's brother Allan (new to game fishing) at the helm (we'd chatted beforehand about who was to do what in the event of a strike which eliminated a lot of chaos). The fish pulled about 250-300m of string but never once breached which had us believing he was into a decent YFT.
15 minutes into the fight, Don went soft cock on us and started complaining of cramp... we laughed and "motivated" him to carry on pressing the fish. There was also a bit of motivation over the VHF from the boys on Scott-no-fish hahahaha. Some of the suffering was due to Don not sizing up the Black Magic beforehand as suggested by the extremely knowledgeable Skipper #justsaying
Anyway, i digress... so a short while later Don starts making progress and we get the fish below the boat before it moves away and begins surfacing and shows a longer, more slender body than a YFT. Without a single breach, we're still in doubt as to it being a billie and i still have gaff in hand until Allan sees that distinctive sickle come out the water. A little screaming like girls, a little panic and a lot more attention has us all focussed on what we need to do to get Don his first marlin and the first marlin on Scouse African.
I start leadering the fish when it decides it wants to gives us one more go, breaching and klapping the Shagstix on the way. It peels a little line and we start again, remembering Shags advise to let the fish go if it's still green. When we leader the fish this time, it gives a few head shakes (Shag's instructions - stiff arms, don't let go). Eventually it calms down, we remove the hook and get a few k*K photos. The fish swims away strongly with High 5's and hugs all around...
ILAND EXPRESS BABY!!!
Been fishing with Don for over 25 years so was really magic to share this experience with him.
We then carried on pulling plastics until about 1:30 in the hope that we could get another billie. The signs were encouraging with interest shown in both the short and long corners as well as a marlin breaching just in front of us, but unfortunately there were to be no more.
Whilst trolling we came across what i ID'd this morning as a Giant Oceanic Manta Ray. First sight i called a whale... it was that big, easily the size of my boat. What an incredible creature!!
We met Scott backline before beaching who so kindly lent us his flags (we're not used to this... yet). With flags flying, we proudly hit the beach.
Big thanks again to Scott, Shag, Sheldon... what a magic day!! Looking forward to heading down south again soon and doing it again.
