Well Adam and I hit the Tantabiddi bluewater today to pop my marlin cherry. Weather was forecast to be pretty good- not exactly accurate but alright none the less. Ended up trolling for 52nm (first time I've measured to get a gauge on fuel usage). Got a strike within the first hour only for the reel to give a squeal and see a baby black hop away unhooked. Oh well, good sign seeing it was this early. Trolled for the next 2 hours for a few tiny longtails and a striped tuna. Iced down a small longtail and knocked it off sashimi style once back on terra firma- good way to finish the day. Anyway back to the fishing- kept trolling north, south, east and west only to have another strike and dropped fish again. Not going to pop it today we were thinking. Plenty of bait around a still ok weather so we pushed on. Finally get another strike but it's only a small tuna. As we were reeling it in there was plenty of blue flashing going on- dollie we thought but strange it didn't jump. Then Adam's commentary started: "it's a mahi mahi.......no it's a wahoo..........no it's a marlin!" It was a marlin chasing the tuna we had hooked and lit up so much we thought it was a flouro dollie or wahoo. We didn't know what to to- take off again and get the lures working or free spool the tuna and hope for a hook up. Anyway it took off once near the boat and left us wondering what could have been. With renewed enthusiasim we recommenced trolling and eventually stuck the hooks into my first baby black at probably 20kg. Only a pup but a first is still a first. After a few pics and a nice swim it took of to make someone else happy. The rest of the arvo was uneventful but it didn't matter, we'd done what we set out to do. Cheers Adam, hopefully they get bigger from here on. Anyway gotta go, the missus is complaining about the amount of time I spend on here.
Tim