Old Salt 757
07-05-2009, 08:24 PM
Crew: Brandon (Finally 757), Nick and Aristotle Cleanthes, Morgan and Jordan.
I put a call out to the crew the day before and told them my plan and later that afternoon we were a six man crew but at 330 am the day of we lost one but seconds later we pick up another one. We met at Marina Shores at 430am to load up the boat and we were off by 5am. We headed out into some solid east swell with some side chop and at about 40 miles out we ran into some very thick fog and the wind picked up a little more. Interesting conditions but the 30 footer is a solid boat, the Contender is the nicest riding CC I have ever driven. Highly Recommend! We finally break the fog and minutes later we start seeing bait all over the place. We stop and drop down a few jigs and nothing so we head further east. At 750am we arrive just south of the canyon in 100 fathoms in some super clear cobalt blue waters, temps were about 73-74 degrees. Minutes later we had our spread out and were trolling for a good 30 mintues before we picked up our first Mahi, Another 30 mins pass and then it happens, Nick yells out that he just saw something blast through the spread and with all of us looking out the back we suddenly see a bill come thrashing out of the water and we picked up “THE POLE” and feed the fish. Then all of the sudden a big Blue Marlin starts dancing 50’ feet off the back of the boat, we quickly realize that “The Pole” that we have a big blue hooked to is the smallest one on the boat other than the spinners. This pole was a, just in case pole that Brandon (Finally 757) had brought. It is an old Penn 45L; it is smaller than my TLD 25s I had out. It has about 2-3 year 25LB line and a busted eyelet with electrical tape holding it together. After doing a quick dance the Marlin dove and when it did that pole started screaming, after the immediate shock of being hooked up to the first bill fish for any of us I yelled to the crew to get the lines up and told the angler; Aristotle to get to the bow and seconds later the chase was on. With some excellent coaching from Brandon and a serious chase we were doing it! Two hours past and we finally got our first glance at this beast and it started ripping out more line. 30 more minutes past and we finally get it up to the boat and touch the leader, with two hands on the leader we start pulling it close to get a better picture and get a good release on it, but the Blue shakes its head one last time and cuts the leader. After we realized what we just did we high fived for ten minutes with everyone talking at the same time, telling the same story! What a catch, this was Aristotle’s first offshore fish, he did a great job fighting this fish for 2 ˝ hrs with only a small belt and “the pole”. We packed up and started to head back to where we saw the bait earlier that day and within twenty minutes we had lines back in and still talking about the Blue we had three lines get knocked down and went tight for a split second but nothing stayed tight. We trolled for a little while longer and had another knocked down and shortly thereafter we had two more gaffers in the boat. With a 5 o’clock curfew we had to head in, with a lot calmer seas we high tailed it in at 36 mph, getting back 2 ˝ hours later we pulled up to the dock to refill. We went 239 miles and burnt 105 gals. We didn’t get the picture we were all looking for but got some pretty good pictures for the situation. It was a trip to remember and a lot of thanks go out to the crew, it was a great trip and everyone did their part to accomplish what we did, we are just a bunch of want to be fulltime fishermen trying to fulfill a passion, in today’s economy! After registering the fish and talking to a few people I’m guessing the fish weighted about 450-500 lbs, it was roughly 11-13 feet long. Many thanks go out to David and Max at VB Contender, we will be back in a couple of weeks to do it again!
I put a call out to the crew the day before and told them my plan and later that afternoon we were a six man crew but at 330 am the day of we lost one but seconds later we pick up another one. We met at Marina Shores at 430am to load up the boat and we were off by 5am. We headed out into some solid east swell with some side chop and at about 40 miles out we ran into some very thick fog and the wind picked up a little more. Interesting conditions but the 30 footer is a solid boat, the Contender is the nicest riding CC I have ever driven. Highly Recommend! We finally break the fog and minutes later we start seeing bait all over the place. We stop and drop down a few jigs and nothing so we head further east. At 750am we arrive just south of the canyon in 100 fathoms in some super clear cobalt blue waters, temps were about 73-74 degrees. Minutes later we had our spread out and were trolling for a good 30 mintues before we picked up our first Mahi, Another 30 mins pass and then it happens, Nick yells out that he just saw something blast through the spread and with all of us looking out the back we suddenly see a bill come thrashing out of the water and we picked up “THE POLE” and feed the fish. Then all of the sudden a big Blue Marlin starts dancing 50’ feet off the back of the boat, we quickly realize that “The Pole” that we have a big blue hooked to is the smallest one on the boat other than the spinners. This pole was a, just in case pole that Brandon (Finally 757) had brought. It is an old Penn 45L; it is smaller than my TLD 25s I had out. It has about 2-3 year 25LB line and a busted eyelet with electrical tape holding it together. After doing a quick dance the Marlin dove and when it did that pole started screaming, after the immediate shock of being hooked up to the first bill fish for any of us I yelled to the crew to get the lines up and told the angler; Aristotle to get to the bow and seconds later the chase was on. With some excellent coaching from Brandon and a serious chase we were doing it! Two hours past and we finally got our first glance at this beast and it started ripping out more line. 30 more minutes past and we finally get it up to the boat and touch the leader, with two hands on the leader we start pulling it close to get a better picture and get a good release on it, but the Blue shakes its head one last time and cuts the leader. After we realized what we just did we high fived for ten minutes with everyone talking at the same time, telling the same story! What a catch, this was Aristotle’s first offshore fish, he did a great job fighting this fish for 2 ˝ hrs with only a small belt and “the pole”. We packed up and started to head back to where we saw the bait earlier that day and within twenty minutes we had lines back in and still talking about the Blue we had three lines get knocked down and went tight for a split second but nothing stayed tight. We trolled for a little while longer and had another knocked down and shortly thereafter we had two more gaffers in the boat. With a 5 o’clock curfew we had to head in, with a lot calmer seas we high tailed it in at 36 mph, getting back 2 ˝ hours later we pulled up to the dock to refill. We went 239 miles and burnt 105 gals. We didn’t get the picture we were all looking for but got some pretty good pictures for the situation. It was a trip to remember and a lot of thanks go out to the crew, it was a great trip and everyone did their part to accomplish what we did, we are just a bunch of want to be fulltime fishermen trying to fulfill a passion, in today’s economy! After registering the fish and talking to a few people I’m guessing the fish weighted about 450-500 lbs, it was roughly 11-13 feet long. Many thanks go out to David and Max at VB Contender, we will be back in a couple of weeks to do it again!