Blue Marlin And The Perfect Mate...

We started off in the Norfolk and 30 seconds after lines in.... blue marlin on a 50 wide. I fought the fish for 40 minutes before getting a hold of the bill and releasing about a 250-300 pound blue marlin.

 

 

 

After that we trolled around for a bit, and she caught her first yellowfin, a little while later she caught her second yellowfin, then she caught her first mahi, we missed a white marlin, had another short strike from a tuna, then at the end of the day... we had another big bite that ended up being a 158# yellowfin tuna. Laurie was a great help and did a great job. Laurie has never gaffed a fish before and when I told her she was going to have to gaff a huge yellowfin, she got really nervous. I explained to her exactly what to do, and when the time came, she stuck the fish better than 9 out of 10 professional mates out there AND when she hit the fish with the gaff, the fish freaked out and about ripped Laurie out of the boat, breaking through the 100 pound fluorocarbon leader. So there was nothing keeping that big, pissed off tuna- except Laurie hanging onto the gaff. She didnt let go and held on long enough for me to get a second gaff and get the fish into the boat. With just the two of us on the boat, we somehow managed to catch 5 of the 7 bites we had, and the little tiny pink and white seawitch with 100# fluoro and a little medium ballyhoo out long had most of our bites, including the marlin, the big tuna, and Laurie's first tuna. So I retired that lure and I'm probably going to frame it with some of these awesome photos Laurie took to remember our awesome adventure.

 

That's a hell of a woman there.....

 

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