Brad With His First Black Marlin

The winds finally started to calm down on Friday so we were able to confirm a Fishing Charter with 2 couple that had been waiting to go out since arriving into Savusavu from Australia on Tuesday.

We had planned to leave the dock before 7am so had the engines warming up since 6.45, finally at 7.05 we switched off.  we guessed the taxi hadn't turned up to pick up the guests? sure enough about 7.10 they arrived & yes the taxi hadn't bothered to turn up, so it wasn't the start we wanted.

There was still a swell out pass the lighthouse so Terry decided to put the gear in the water & make our way slowly to the sea mount.

Saw a few birds working on the way & gave it a try but nothing was really working so kept heading out to the mount.

On arriving at the mount nothing seemed to be working so did the usual path to see if anything was around.  Finally saw birds working in the distance so headed towards them, but as soon as we got there, they all sat down on the water, this kept on for a while, there had to be something there but nothing was coming up.

Finally all of a sudden one of the lines on the outrigger started to peel off, then in the distance we saw a Black Marlin tail walking. now the boat came alive, lines were brought in while Brad got into the game chair.

Brad worked hard to bring in line only to have it taken out so many times we thought it would never come in.  In the end we were amazed it only took him about 50min to bring it in on 24kg line.

Nothing else was caught that day it was just fortunate we were in the right place at the right time.
Sadly the hook was well lodged in it's mouth so couldn't release it as it wouldn't have been able to feed, & eventually would have died.

The fish was estimated to be about 100kg, once photos were taken Terry had the job of cutting it up, this took close to 2hours, some of it was taken to the resort that the clients were staying at & most was given to the locals for them to enjoy for Mothers Day on Sunday.

After a month of not being out. because of weather conditions, we all had a lovely day, especially Brad as this was his first time Game Fishing & his first Marlin.

Congratulations Brad job well done.