The Year of Lightning, Rainbows and Unicorns (9/21)

[Latimeria]

I got a late invite on Friday by Tombo to take a trip on the big Viking.  I was supposed to be home getting things done and also having some family time on this "No-Fishing Weekend".... Ut Oh.... I let the family know....

Skip to the next morning.  I woke up, so she didn't kill me in my sleep.  Whew, first success of the day!





Met Tombo at the marina....  This might be the richest marina in SD from the size of the boats that were in here!  Holy smokes!  Finally got to the Viking and she was as cool as I pictured!







Tom gave me the tour of the boat.... It just kept going and going and going.
3 floors, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths with showers, full kitchen with even a dishwasher, full laundry room, spiral staircase to the second floor, full AC, fully filtered fresh water system, automatic ice maker in the fish box that kicks out fresh ice everytime the ice levels get low.... Sonar monitors everywhere!  I'm probably forgetting a bunch of things.



















It's a hell of an impressive boat and takes a bit from going from bow to stern.  Even has a full sized bait tank up front.





Captain Mike says let's Go!



He was a Marlin guy through and through.  He laid out his plan and gave everyone of us a position and role to play.  He was the coach and there was no denying that.

A couple of retired FBI agents who fish with him all the time are on board and ready to shoot some fish.





No drinkers on board, so someone needed to pay homage to the fish gods.



It was pretty bumpy out there, but really hard to tell being in such huge vessel!  I swear it could probably take 20' seas with fairly good ease.
Captain said first fish goes into the box and any subsequent ones get a release.  He was treating this trip like he does like a tournament day, so we had to be on our game.  We put the trollers in with no signs of life literally anywhere.

In about 30 minutes of trolling 10 miles outside the inlet and we hear a screamer!  We each have our roles and I grabbed the rod.  No fighting this one in the rod holder and had about 1000 yards of line out while they cleared the other rods and riggers.

Damn teamwork on the boat was spot on and we finally landed this brute of Marlin!  It wasn't long, but thick and stocky!





We didn't have time to get fresh pictures since the Captain wanted to get the trollers out again before we f@cked with the fish.  This dude was about getting numbers like he would in a tournament, so our pictures looked like a dead marlin when all the colors faded.



We got the fish in the box and 15 minutes later get a double jig strike!  I was at the outrigger rod and hooked up and the starboard stern rod was quickly hit and missed.  I was cranking while others were reeling in the spread and a few jumps later, the marlin threw the hook.  Time to set back out!

We saw probably 15 jumping and gray hounding marlin, but they all sunk out when we got to them.





This dude has all the top line gear but one thing grabbed my attention... Crazy Ivan



It was my turn up in the crows nest  with the Captain using the gyros to locate Marlin.  We kept seeing them, but not the ones that wanted to eat.  Mike was bummed these close marlin all ruined his plan to head out to the 182.



Then we saw it.... A pack of marlin tailing in front of us!



Holy smokes!  The guys ran up front to cast on them while I climbed down trying not to kill myself in the process.

I hear the Capt yelling, "You cast when I tell you to cast, keep the bait in the tank!".  He was amped up and I would have missed the fun if I didn't have the head sets on.  (God forbid you didn't have the he4adset on if he call for you, LOL)

I start to reel up the trollers when I hear them yell "Hooked Up!"

Damn thing rand straight back and right through the outrigger line.  Now I had to figure out how to untangle the mess, and Tombo jumped in to help get the lure out without losing the fish.  The captain wanted the 30# test rod used, so it was going to be a delicate process getting the marlin to the side of the boat.  It only had 3' of 80# leader to the hook, so there wasn't much room for error.

We got video, and it was jumping like crazy!  Finally got it close enough for me to grab the leader, but the marlin didn't like that and took off.  I was told to grab the leader and break it off if he did that again since it was already a catch.

They got great video as I started to pullit to the side of the boat, but it took off again and I just clamped down on the line.  RELEASE!  Captain was stoked and immediately said "Set up bhoys, we're doing it again!".

I'll have to capture clips from the video since I couldn't take many pictures due to having a few jobs to fulfill. 

We trolled and trolled and saw some huge sharks, but had to call it the day and headed back.  Mike talked to his Marlin friends and they all had a tough day out there as we were the only boat with fish at least at the dock.

Water was between 70-71.  The marlin we kept had small chovie in it's belly, but so little life out there.  It's amazing with all of these marlin.

I probably forgot something, but I will check back in later and add any details that I missed along with pictures.

Thanks for reading!

[Latimeria]

This year has been a crazy windy year, BUT I've really done good on big Lightning Trout, Rainbow Trout, Cats, and Marlin.  hahahaha

[jrodda]

That picture of the hallway in the boat really gave me the sense of size you were talking about. That's got everything and then some. How's breaking 80# in your hands on the release?

Another nice marlin for you this year. Seems like you have a better mass of them down there than I've otherwise heard about. Spotty news on them up here, although folks have certainly been louder about it here than down there.

Super cool that you were able to participate in that marlin team fishing dynamic. Sounds a bit intense at times but probably because you had so many shots. Otherwise could have easily been a booze cruise for you. The marlin teams are super interesting to me, especially out here with our generally low volume of billfish, and how successful SoCal guys can sustain their success enough to go at it all summer.

[vdisney]

WOW, just frick'n WOW

[Tim524]

A whole different class of fishing right there, you are lucky to be part of the elite team

Definitely a trip to remember  

Now you have some Family Time to make up and redeem yourself 

[skrilla]

Awesome! Stoked for you guys.