What a weekend

jonp · 31 January 2016, 09:53

Unfortunately my rib stayed home for the weekend.

With a poor forecast, I had pretty much given up any idea of getting offshore.

With that in mind, my 15 yo daughter nagged me into a night dive in the harbour on Saturday night. When we got in the water just on dark, all was good with calm, mild weather. Within a few mins I had found a few sea horses and even an angler fish. I did also spook something big that was feeding on a large marlin head but never got a good clear look.

After a while we could hear what sounded like a boat with the engines revving hard - then flashes of light lit our surroundings. Within minutes the water turned brown and we couldn't see even our hands in front of us. We managed to find our way and made a very slow trip home on heavily flooded roads.

The storm raged through the night doing damage to many homes (as well as freaking out my dog!!). To top it off we had an earth quake through the night - not that you would have noticed as our house was already shaking from the thunder.

After sitting around the house writing off another morning on this forum, I got a call from a mate keen to take his bigger boat offshore. My daughter was keen to get among the stick faces.

Wasn't long before we had some mackerel in the live-bait tank and my daughter dropped one over the side. This bait barely went 20m before the line was flying from the spool with the bail arm open.

With the bail flicked closed the weight of the fish set the circle hook tight into the corner of its mouth. Unlike any other marlin we have ever encountered, it didn't do more than just swim off making us think we had a shark and it would soon be over. Wrong.

Just a steady constant pull soon had around 200m off the reel, the big saragosa 25000 was on around 10-12kg of arm-bustimg drag for my daughter.

It wasn't until around 20 mins into the fight that it decided to do a few jumps. This is where the excitement came in, now knowing she had her first stickface. This was the most stubborn deep fighting marlin my mate had ever seen, in his 100+ billfish.

Though it wasn't a huge fish it took her close to an hour to get it boat-side for tagging. The wind and sea conditions didn't help, for her first of these normally quite quick tag and release fish.

At the end of the day she now has around 15 blisters on her hand and is still wound up like an excited puppy. She's also having quite some fun posting it on Facebook right now.

She's also planning the next bigger one.

JonP

Maximus · 31 January 2016, 10:08

Wow what a Great Fish!!..Well done Young Lady!

I thought you were describing my local patch,..The Bristol Channel with the Brown water ect for a mo!

....Certainly don't get Fish like that though!!

The Black Pig · 31 January 2016, 10:08

Yes I had a similar day yesterday!

( tounged in cheek )

Harrys Game · 31 January 2016, 18:10

Wow Bloody Wow, Respect Jim

Stevem · 31 January 2016, 18:45

Jonp, no more please, I can't take it. The other half won't emigrate!

Awesome fishing

whisper · 31 January 2016, 20:06

jonp · 31 January 2016, 21:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevem

Jonp, no more please, I can't take it. The other half won't emigrate!

Awesome fishing

I left the UK and found a new other half

...just saying

jeffstevens763@g · 01 February 2016, 08:25

great fish and well done to her one of the top fish to catch in the fishing circles what beautifull colours.

two stroke mick · 01 February 2016, 10:15

What a fish. I know very little about sea fishing but that fishing rod looks very light for such a big fish.

paintman · 01 February 2016, 11:44

Nice fish

That's a big reel - which might make the rod look a bit light. What's the rod's class rating?
With modern materials rods have got much lighter & slimmer & comparing my old fibreglass rods to my carbon fibre ones the difference is considerable although the line ratings/test curves are the same.

jonp · 01 February 2016, 13:09

Rods and reels have moved on a great deal over recent years.

These rods weigh around 300-400gms but have incredible lifting power through parabolic action. That particular rod has a factory tested 33kg dead lift power, the reel has around 12 kg of set drag pressure but can double that if needed.

Not to many people ever really test their gear on such drag settings and actually use was less than they think. 12 kg is like lifting a large full bucket of water off the ground through the rod, most of us couldn't do this on traditional gear but rod designs have enabled us to take on fish in a much more fun way.

By the way my daughter has been taking on many kinds of game fish for several years and is extremely fit. Competing in athletics, triathlons etc at a high level has given her a never give in attitude.

I use mainly gear made by Jigging master, unfortunately it comes with a rather high price range. A JM monster game rod and reel could cost well over $2000 US depending on model.

Jon

jonp · 05 February 2016, 05:18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO3f6RWjFIk

paintman · 05 February 2016, 09:02

Very good!

I've looked at a few videos of the jigging master blanks being tested in a machine

that's what I call 'through action'!

jyasaki · 05 February 2016, 16:14

Great story. Best looking fish I've seen on here in quite a while. Congrats to you both.

jky

Pikey Dave · 05 February 2016, 16:57

Silly question, but how do you get the hook out of something so big?

mick · 05 February 2016, 17:51

Think they leave them in Dave from what I've seen on these fishing programs and they rot in time, I might be wrong though
Chemically sharpened round hooks are used as well that come out easy

jonp · 06 February 2016, 00:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Silly question, but how do you get the hook out of something so big?

We use circle hooks that 99% of the time hook in the hinge of the jaw. Once you get them alongside the boat you simply remove the hook by hand, even with barbs crushed in the hook tends to stay there untill you remove them.

Some people still use j hooks but this often ends in deep hooking which is no good for the fish or the fight.

Jon

Pikey Dave · 06 February 2016, 02:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonp

We use circle hooks that 99% of the time hook in the hinge of the jaw. Once you get them alongside the boat you simply remove the hook by hand, even with barbs crushed in the hook tends to stay there untill you remove them.

Some people still use j hooks but this often ends in deep hooking which is no good for the fish or the fight.

Jon

👍cheers Jon. Stunning fish btw, you're very lucky to have that kind of opportunity. The North East coast of England, Scarbrough-Whitby etc used to be famous for its huge Tuna. People came from all over the world to fish, including many Hollywood stars.

jonp · 06 February 2016, 09:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

👍cheers Jon. Stunning fish btw, you're very lucky to have that kind of opportunity. The North East coast of England, Scarbrough-Whitby etc used to be famous for its huge Tuna. People came from all over the world to fish, including many Hollywood stars.

I've heard the odd tuna are making a comeback over there though still off limits.

Bluefin have bounced back from overfishing here, though I think most we catch are way to big to keep.

By the way I'm from the UK too but moved out here about 20 years ago.

Cheers Jon

Stevem · 06 February 2016, 10:01

Ive heard of the odd tuna around also. We would probably still have them if the herring and mackerel wern't overfished!