Has a marlin ever kicked your butt?

[I'a]

2 years ago, Kona Iki trollers invitational tournament. We hooked up at around 8 am on live aku. Jumping like crazy all over the place. From 300 yards away looked to be over 500lbs. For the next 8 hrs, swivel comes up, my uncle cannot hold em, swivel goes down. Super frustrating, at the 5 hour mark, my dads friend comes on board to help leader. 3 hrs of 2 guys leadering and the double line at swivel finally parts. Super bummed and sore, but it was one of the best feelings I ever had, and almost the best day of my life ever. haha Looking at how big my friends marlin was, ( I was the leader man on a 809lb. blue at the 2009 Wee guys tournament), I'm thinking my fish went over a grand. Oh well

[marlinmike]

it was the 2000 or 01 zane grey tourny and a certain boat hooked one a very nice one on 30# then went like the next 6 hrs or so before boating the fish and all the rest of us were made to wait to hear the weight. the fish went 287# on 30# then the next morning as the rest of the fleet made way to start the day they(said boat in question) did not leave the mooring until 9 or 10 am. now hows that for "having your ass kicked".
big mike @ meltons

[kelpbass_kid]

When I was younger, I fought one for about an hour. Longest I've ever been on one, as the striper was really hot. I've had a couple others on for 15-30 minutes. When hooked on the right gear, the average striper should never fight for over an hour. There are some exceptions to the rule though. I have found that CA marlin are usually tougher than their Baja counterparts.

[marlinmike]

what are you trying to say "when i was younger" what last year???

[kelpbass_kid]

what are you trying to say "when i was younger" what last year???

4 years younger I guess.

[Hooops]

2 quick ones:

Virgin Islands / North Drop - 457lb Blue - 2hrs in 6-8ft thunderstorm rollers in my friends 30ft Pursuit center console - fighting chair in the bow - I think I had saltwater poisoning - could have used a mask and snorkel.

Kona - 425lb Blue - 3hrs with my buddy Scott Pruner on his old "Retriever" pre-fishing the Kona Classic - 130s were not rigged - so we started dragging Ahi bullets around the ahi schools on 30W - 50lb - she was a very mean fish - I pulled the 357 trigger boat side out of hatred.

[MATTANZA]

back in 2004, i had one on for about 3 hours, but lost it. i ditched work and we fished a hot bite off la jolla. i fished with my buddy ed on his boat "ami anne". we had got nothing all day. later in the day we hooked a small mako and while we were dealing with it we got bit on a drop back. it was a really big striper. we chased him on 30lb for over 3 hours and 7 miles according to a friend that was watching us [harry o'kuda]. the fish super smart, strong and tough. it only surfaced a couple times, not really jumping, and it was big. he swam about 10 - 12 feet below the water's surface and headed right into the sun as he spooled us over and over again. we conitually regained and lost spool after spool of line. we tried to manuver him and control him, but he'd run out all of all of my line and we'd have to chase him down. we would get right over the fish, but i couldn't lift him on 30lb. he finally tired after nearly 3 hours of fighting. we got the fish to the stern and he ran under the boat and broke off. the line was so worn from the fight i knew i'd be lucky to land him. i'd say the fish was over 250, maybe 300lbs. that fish ran us ragged. i was all sunburned and dehydrated from riding the bow of the boat into the sun... brutal.

[Rubberhook2]

Marlin can be tough but the toughest of them all...is swordfish. Without question. Talk about a brawler. I have pulled on many but was only able to land one...a 174lb fish off the local banks near Dana Point. I got that fish in 30 minutes on 50lb gear only because it never knew it was hooked and came back up finning after I hooked it. We got a shot at it early and basically freegaffed it and all hell broke loose as it ripped out one of the flyers. There were several others that I pulled on for hours only to lose them.

I wish I had the knowledge, technology and better gear that we have today. I may have stood a better chance.

Definitely a fish worthy of respect...

[HBfisherman]

These are great stories! Hopefully, one of these days I will catch my own and add my story. Keep them coming guys!

[Bottom Line]

Here is a shot of my brother Dave early on in the battle getting worked by a 400 lb class blue – Dave lasted about 30 minutes and handed off to Terry – Terry went for close to 30 minutes and handed it off to me and he immediately passed out! Freaked me out to see him hit the deck... This was just south of Acapulco and the temp was close to 110 degrees with 90% humidity.
I fought the fish for just a couple minutes and figured out it was tail wrapped. I spent the next hour on the swim step hand lining the fish up in increasingly sloppy water.


A side note: notice the mixed up water in the pic – the boat owner called us on the sat phone to make sure we were clear of the hurricane that was forming right where we were at! Sure enough, the water/wind started coming from every direction and we were soon in 6’ wind waves swirling around the boat. We headed south and were clear in a couple hours.