St Helena to Brazil - Big Fish
SV Meshugga
Nicholas & Deidre Mace
Sat 28 Jan 2017 14:00
14:25,04S 007:58,25W How not to catch a Marlin Fly a big-blouse spinnaker in 10kn breeze. 7kn boat speed, 26 degree crystal blue water - perfect time to catch a small fish for dinner Fish on - lots of line flying off the reel. Cannot douse spinnaker quickly enough – increase reel drag and hang on. 300m of line gone before fish tires. Slowly start retrieving line – boat still doing 7 kn. 30 minutes later, fish is close and sees boat. Aerial acrobatics, tail walking and head-shaking. 100m of line and another 20 minutes, the 7 ft, 150lb White Atlantic Marlin is alongside. Idiot fisherman decides to release the magnificent beast – how hard can it be? After all, the old fisherman is exhausted – surely the marlin must be too? Grab the marlin by the spike using a towel and lift its head clear of the water to get hook out. Marlin objects and propels itself out of water towards fisherman’s stomach. What else could it do? Marlin don’t have a reverse gear, doh! Towel saves fisherman from being impaled like a kebab. Fish hook breaks, Marlin slides back into water and swims away. Fisherman loses composure and some blood, but gets a tick on his bucket-list. Yay! Boat continues at 7kn under spinnaker.  |