A Marlin Well Earned

All game fishermen know the age-old adage of “beginner’s luck”. You hear many stories of the guy or girl’s first trip out and they catch a bloody marlin. Then there is the other side of the coin where people go years and years without ever seeing a marlin, let alone catch one.

For those of us lucky enough to have caught a marlin, or even just had the pleasure of being hooked up to one of these beautiful fish, you know the adrenaline rush that consumes you and keeps you going out day after day hunting these powerful creatures.

This story is about a good mate of mine, Woody, a good, honest (sometimes hard-working) Kiwi bloke. He made the mistake of taking up the invite of a day’s game fishing on my boat, Mini Chiefie. Beginners luck would have it that on his first day ever out game fishing we caught a striped marlin. I was the fortunate angler on the rod but man, that fish was special for all three of us on the boat. A big, beautiful lit-up stripey in the gear with an outstanding bite that all three of us witnessed, and an even better aerial display after the hook had set. After an hour we had boated a 114kg striped marlin with Woody doing an outstanding job on the leader for his first attempt on his first-ever day out. I looked into his eyes after we boated that fish and I said to myself, “You poor bugger! You are hooked.”

What followed was talking his Dad into a bigger boat set up for game fishing, 50/50 split on the costs, a full set of Penn 80w rod/reel combos (x4), too many lures to count, 1000s of hours of YouTube watching marlin tips and tricks from rigging to just cool-as videos of people catching them, the hours and hours of time on the water hunting them and the GAS bill. Also not to mention, the hours spent talking about them that our better halves have to listen to and put up with.

Woody had an eventful start to his Game Fishing addiction with a nice 30kg yellow fin early last season. Then a month or so later came the day that has kept him awake at night. With a few close mates who had had zero experience game fishing, they hooked a big blue marlin that came in and smashed the Red Gill RG4 in short corner (this lure will feature again). What followed was a 31/2 hour battle that resulted in a snapped mainline and the fish winning its freedom; having the fish on the leader half-a-dozen times but with the inexperience of the crew, they couldn’t manage that last metre to sink the gaff. First taste of real heartbreak!

The next dose of heartbreak was dished out last month when Rodney Thomsen (owner of the Adventurer newspaper) and I decided to take Mini Chiefie out West for the first time, Raglan being the location of choice. With beautiful conditions and a good bite on, we were pretty confident in getting Woody his first marlin. With lots of bait schools on the sounder and nice, warm, blue water we seemed to be in a good area so we worked it all morning. Then 12 o’clock came and our first dose of heartbreak for the day! Here he was, a nice striped marlin on the Long Corner Red Gill RG4, the same colour as Woody’s when he lost his blue marlin. Bang! The rigger released after loading a lot more than normal; the marlin started jumping, but no reel was going off? I glanced to the rod, and then I saw that the mainline had snapped. Must have somehow got caught in the rigger clip (never ever heard of this happening before)!

We licked our wounds and continued working the area. Two hours later ––bang! The short rigger went off! Then the bugger started jumping! ‘Yes, let’s hope this one sticks!’ we thought. No! Heartbreak again! This time the heat-shrink over the eye of the hook is pulled down, fully covering the tip of the hook and barb, so zero chance of that hook setting. More sleepless nights for poor Woody (Rodney and me also now)!

On 6th of March, 2018 came a day that Woody will never forget!

With a good forecast we decided Raglan was the location again and we went straight back to the same area. We came up on the spot where we had dropped our second marlin and there was a big bait ball in mid-water. Had to be a sign! We worked the area all day with very little action apart for the skippies that seemed to be everywhere. With the wind dropping away to non-existent, and a sleepy and bored crew, I decided it was time to spice things up and catch some fresh bait. So while I was sitting spotting from the roof out went the skippy lure with plenty of laughs. We caught two fresh skippies from the roof for the tuna tubes and boy, would they come in handy within the hour. With the high tide 20 minutes away and plenty of bait both on the surface and on the sounder, I tossed Woody a Red Bull and said, “You are gonna need this, we are in the right spot.”

No more than 10 minutes later, there he was! A striped marlin on the surface; then another one joined him only 30-40m off our bow. The water erupted in front of them with mackerel jumping and the marlin went into a feeding frenzy. So we trolled our lures back and forward, past them, over them, between them, and not one bite. We tried using the dredge to pull them away from the bait-ball, but nothing would work. After watching the footage back, this went on for a good 12 minutes as we continued to spot them feeding on the surface and even had them swim under the boat. With a bit of quick thinking and very nervous shaky hands I cleared the shotgun and rigged a live skippy to be pitched to the marlin as they were feeding. With the bait rigged and the marlin spotted feeding on the surface just ahead of us, it was the moment of truth. We rushed over to them, slowed the boat and I deployed the live skippy just as one was swimming on the surface beside us. Then, just as I had hoped, he grabbed it. I gave him plenty of time to eat the bait then slowly increased the drag.

Nothing; no weight at all; couldn’t even feel the skippy. So I continued to wind the line and tell the rest of the crew, “I think our skippy is gone.” Little did I know he was swimming towards me. Then I felt a couple of strong head nods, the rod loaded, and out of my mouth with huge excitement came the words, “THIS AIN’T A SKIPPY BOYS!” He then surfaced 30m behind the boat as the crew cleared the gear and Woody fitted his gimbal. “We got him on boys.” I could see he was hooked well with the VMC circle doing the trick, and it was time for Woody to go to work.

After a 40-minute tough battle on 14kg of drag, we now had the fish boat-side, and with nervous, shaky hands, again I grabbed the leader. As crewman Bryce held the boat alongside the fish, crewman Bones sank the gaff, I grabbed the bill and I’m pretty sure then you could have heard us on land as we jumped around hugging as if we had won the Rugby World Cup!

Then it was off to the Raglan Sports Fishing Club which is at the Pub (how awesome is that) where some of Woody’s friends and family were present to witness his awesome achievement. The fish went 122kg and tasted absolutely beautiful smoked. Definitely one fish that the four of us will never forget.