Clarkies 1st Marlin

[Secho]

Left Botany at first light on Monday, dropped a spread out from the top shelf line and headed wide. Conditions were a little uncomfortable with close / sharp sea on a relatively small swell - not what BOM or Seabreeze had predicted. Water temp was sub 19's right up to the shelf where it jumped up to mid 22's then 23's and back down to 20's when we got out to the thousand line. This was also unusual because the SST charts were saying that the warm water wouldn't kick in until we got out to 152 but it only got colder out there.

Anyway, we were only about 6 miles passed Browns and headed for Heatons when the short corner took off.. we thought we were hooked up however after a short run it had thrown the hooks. About 20 seconds later the same lure (Hothead Beer Barrel in lumo) took another burst but once again hooks didn't stick, the fish lost attention in the short and moved straight over to the long corner where it took an extra large Pakula Smoking Jo in blue over green lumo.

Hooks stuck this time and Clarkie got saddled up for his first crack at a Marlin... The first run was a screamer and stripped the Tiagra 50 back to about 20 meters on the spool. We thought we were gone for sure however we chased hard and managed to get back most of what we had lost. The fight continued for about half an hour but then the fish shot back under the boat and out the other side.. in the process we got caught up on both motors. With some tricky work Cammo managed to save the line and with a miracle we were still hooked up - lucky we were on 37kg or i'd say we'd have lost it.

After 40 minutes we had the fish boat side and decided as it was his first, we'd take it back to the Club and weigh it. We called it for a blue of about 130kg to 140kg however the scales brought it in at 110kg's. The Club also called it for a stripey but no-one was too sure. Either way, a cracker first fish for Clarkie and we got the whole lot on Gopro for him this time. We cut the fish up into what seemed like a hundred steaks and shared it with all our mates - tastes great.

Cheers

Marty

Edited March 29, 2012 by Secho

[scaffsta]

Onya boys nice job on getting that fish

[srushton]

Great Report Clarky and great fish. We have had real problems this season getting anything to stick. Somehow they seemed to have grown jaws made of concrete. Many strikes but they manage to toss the lure. We also lost two big ones out towards Heaton's a few weeks ago where the lures stuck but then they nearly spooled us before breaking off on 24kg. Lost the fish and the lures. Thanks for sharing the lure colours. Most of the strikes we have had this season have been on lures with lumo. Black Barts and Pakulas.

[whitjoe1958]

Well done, I'll go with the boys at the club and say its a stripe due to the high dorsal and long bill

Fantastic job getting amongst the action

[REEF MAGIC CHARTERS]

Hey Secho nice fish mate & well done to Clarkie. Still stick by my first opinion that it's a blue, dorsal is to short & so is the lower jaw length & affter speaking to you about the flesh colour I would also say it's a blue. But as I said when you get a marlin around that size blues & stripes are very hard to tell apart hence a lot of people getting it wrong.

Would like to hear other peoples opinions as to what species they think it is???

Cheers

Damo

[mangonui]

Blue.