John & Steve's Marlin

July 8th 2013

Jan had booked this charter for her husband John & friend Steve about 6 months ago.

Having made arrangements with them earlier, we left our dock at the Copra Shed Marina a little after 6.30, once we got to the Lighthouse at Savusavu harbour entrance, it was decided to troll first along the reef on the way to the seamount.

There wasn't much happening along the reef so decided to start heading towards the seamount.at 7.50am one of the reels started to peel out, then the Marlin started jumping out of the water, this is when all hell broke loose.

It had to take the lighter rod with only 1 gear & less line on, so very soon we had to start the backing up process to try & gain some line back, there was a swell running, so soon all on deck were wet through.

This went on for the next 4 1/2 hours, at times John & Terry helped Steve, all taking turns to try & bring it in a little at a time, not wanting to put too much pressure on the line as it was only 24kg.

When it finally got close to the boat we found out why, it had line wrapped round the tail, probably done during one of the jumps, & was dead, sadly we were unable to tag & release it.

Time now for a short rest, before getting ropes out to secured the fish on the duckboard,
There is going to be some sore arms tonight.

Once back at the Copra Shed Marine, the fish was taken ashore & hung up on a tree, so photos could be taken, then back on the boat to start the process of cutting the fish up.

News soon spread around the town, so people from all over arrived with plastic bags to get a share of the fish, in the end there was a small piece left for us to take home, at least it wasn't wasted & many good meals was had by all.