LadyFish
Admiral
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2003
- Messages
- 6,894
We headed out on The Dutch Treat, a beautiful fishing yacht on Friday August 25th around 4:30 in the afternoon. We were making an overnight trip to fish for marlin, tuna and Wahoo. The boat belongs to some friends of ours. The group included the owner and his wife, our best friends Sean, who captained, his wife Zena, Ben, another friend who deck handed and Rod and I.<br /><br />The seas were calm and the skies were clear. It was an absolutely beautiful evening. Once we got out about 50 miles, we emptied the 100 gallon fuel bladder into the boat tanks to ensure we had enough fuel to get out and back. <br /><br />There were a cazillion stars in the sky and the Milky Way looked like you could reach up and touch it. I saw lots of shooting stars while we laid on the back deck looking up in amazement.<br /><br />The water was the bluest I have ever seen. You could look straight down and see 40 below the surface. <br /><br />The deepest water we fished was 1,457 feet. At one point during the night at about 1:00 am, we stopped along side a huge oil rig. The depth was 1,000 feet. We were fishing for yellow fin and black fin tuna. Tuna are at the bottom so we had to let our lines all the way down. Those of us using jigs got a real workout. After you hit bottom with your jig, you have to yank real hard then reel 4-5 times, then yank again, over and over again, until you get your jig all the way to the top. The boat owner caught two black fin tunas, real beauties. We also caught a barracuda, several blue runners which we used for bait, and a couple of jack fish.<br /><br />In the wee hours of the morning around 5 a.m., we quit fishing for tuna and started trolling for marlin, wahoo and dorado. We trolled at 7 knots, with 3 lines on the outriggers and 3 others straight off the stern. We threw in two fish attractors that are like mobiles, one with ballyhoo and one with Dorado. One line had shad with a skirt, another with fresh ballyhoo and a skirt, and the others were rigged with lures.<br /><br />At one point, bottle nosed dolphins were swimming and playing all around us, it was awesome.<br /><br />After 5-6 hour of trolling and not one hit, Captain Sean said, pull everything in, were moving to shallow water. So we headed out of the 1,400 ft depth into about 325 feet. At this time we were in closer, about 80 miles offshore. Ben, our deckhand put out the lines off the back first, then proceeded to hook up the outriggers. As he was letting out the line on the first outrigger (baited with a ballyhoo/skirt combo), got out about 30 years and saw something hit. It was a Dorado. Almost immediately after the Dorado was on, he yelled to me "get in the fighting chair." Just then the line was hit again by something bigger. I jumped in the chair, he handed me the rod and reel, strapped me into the bucket seat, and all of a sudden the fish came out of the water
..it was a big blue marlin. I was in for fight of my life.<br /><br />The boat captain threw the boat into gear to hook the fish good and to allow the crew time to retrieve the other lines. Then the fight was on.<br /><br />I got so excited, my heart was beating a mile a minute, pounding in my chest. Thoughts of losing this once in a lifetime fish were going through my mind. I knew I could never forgive myself if I lost the biggest fish of my life, and the biggest fish that was ever brought onboard that boat. I also knew that if I lost it, I would never live it down.<br /><br />I held on for dear life, which was all I could do at this point. The fish was fighting with all her might. The owner, the deckhand, and the captain were all screaming orders at me. The girls were screaming in the background go Connie, go Connie, go girl, you can do it. Of course, none of the order from the guys were the same. The girls were giving me moral support, but it was a bit confusing to me when all I could do was concentrate on was hanging onto the rod n reel. I could not believe the sheer weight of the fish let alone her ability to fight like this. I really had no idea what it was going to feel like. It was exhausting trying to keep the tip up, and reel at the same time. <br /><br />I soon realized that a fish this size could not be fought, she was stronger than anything I had to give. I could only get a couple spins of the reel each time I let the tip down before I raised it back up again. This fish was relentless. She didnt give me any slack, and the drag was so tight on the reel that she could not take anything out. It was her power against my sheer determination not to lose her. <br /><br />After about 10 minutes, I felt a bit of slack finally, just then she came about half way out of the water. At this point I could finally make some headway and reeled with all my might as fast as I could. Then she tried running again, with the drag set tight, she could go nowhere and again, I held on for all I was worth. <br /><br />In the meantime, the deckhand and Rod were clearing the deck and trying to get the other rods out of the way. It was like a Chinese fire drill with all the commotion behind me. The owners wife was instructed to turn the fighting chair in the direction of the fish, so I was being spun back and forth trying to avoid slack. The boat owner was making adjustments to my reel and at one point, I was so afraid of losing her, I yelled I cant do it, Im afraid of losing her. The boat owner grabbed my biceps and squeezed and said, Cmon Connie, you still got more to give, you can do it. At this point my legs and arms were all shaking like I had epilepsy or something; I was cussing like a sailor determined that I WOULD do it. I was gonna to fight her til I passed out from exhaustion if I had to, but I was not going to give up. I knew I had the biggest fish of my life on, an opportunity that is one in a million. I was NOT gonna lose this fight.<br /> <br />Basically, I had to strong arm the fish, it was only thing I could do given the circumstances. I was completely exhausted but I did manage to get her up to the boat within 20 minutes. As the deck hand opened the back door on the boat and I got my first up close look at her, I screamed (something profane) in pure shock and awe of her size. It was surreal.<br /><br />Capn Sean and Ben were hanging over the side and back of the boat trying to get their hands on her. She went under the boat. My heart nearly stopped in fear that wed lose her right there at the boat.<br /><br />They fought and fought, and finally got her back around toward to the open door but she wouldn't fit through the door. They had to pull her up over the side.<br /><br />Just then, the boat owner yelled, everyone into the salon. I was still strapped to the chair. <br /><br />Ben had a hold of her snout, and Captain Sean was straddling her midsection to keep her from flopping around and hurting someone. Her whole body was flipping up and down as Sean rode her like a rodeo bull yelling YEE HAW. Poor Ben used every bit of strength in his 150 pound body to keep her snout in position. <br /><br />The sound of this fish hitting the deck was unbelievable. At one point, I thought she was gonna break the floor of the boat. It was just incredible like nothing I have ever seen or heard before.<br /><br />With the rest of us out of harms way, and the boys holding her down it was time to take a picture. Unfortunately, Rod couldnt get a shot of the entire fish since the fighting chair was in the way and there was no room to get around to the transom. He did the best he could under the circumstances. There wasnt much time, she was losing color and we had to get her back in the water. The guys were exhausted by now, so he had to act fast. There is no picture of the entire fish, or even me with the fish, but I was there holding her tail. <br /><br />
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<br /><br />The fish was a keeper, well over the required 99, but it was my choice to get her back in the water as soon as possible so she didnt die. The fish was between 8 and 10 foot long from tip to tail according to the boat captain, with a massive girth. She had an estimated weight of 400 pounds.<br /><br />After we released her, I grabbed a beer and found a place to rest my weary and spent body. I sat there in a state of shock, like "did this really just happen?" We all high fived each other, woohoon and laughing our asses off outta sheer exhaustion and amazement of the experience we all just shared.<br /><br />It was the most exciting experience of my life. This story will go down in all our history books and be shared with our grandchildren, and their grandchildren. What a trip! 
<br /><br />The perfect end to a perfect fishing trip.<br />
<br /><br />The perfect end to a perfect fishing trip.<br />
