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Midnight
25-02-2012, 04:57 PM
G'day,
I caught my first solo Marlin today bringing the boat home from Port Stephens on my own. I released a Striped Marlin between 50-60kg on 24kg, in 120m of water east of Newcastle.

I was running one teaser lure and a 50lb outfit from the rocket launcher, and I had my stand up harness and gloves on the bridge ready to roll.

Caught him on a Black Bart El Squid Snr in blue mackerel over pink.

I fought the fish from the bridge until I had the double up and then went down the ladder to leader the fish, get my lure back and cut him off.

It was an awesome feeling when I cut the leader and watched him swim away! I had done it! Solo Striped Marlin on 50lb, from the Flybridge of a 33 Bertram.

It was my first Striped Marlin, my first marlin as angler on 2CATS, and first solo Marlin.

It really capped off a great couple of weeks in Port Stephens.

I have watched the video 3 times now, and I think I will watch it at least once more tonight

Stoked!!

Cheers,
Myles

FisHard
25-02-2012, 05:23 PM
Good stuff mate, well done!
A buddy of mine got a 100 kg Black on Thursday in that general area. He was also solo in his 18' Edgewater centre console. He snapped his rod whilst tracing the fish, but still got the tag in, and she swam away. Good times :D

TREVELLY
25-02-2012, 06:22 PM
Congratulations Myles and yes as you say capped of a great two weeks.

Striped marlin are supposed to be alright to eat aren't they ;D

Great thing you got it on film too - enjoy :beer:

captain rednut
25-02-2012, 10:59 PM
hey mate well done and i keep laughing thinking if only that fish was a 250 pounder things might have been more interesting. LOL

Horse
26-02-2012, 06:07 AM
Congratulation Myles. A mighty effort

Midnight
26-02-2012, 07:57 AM
Thanks everyone,
I was great fun to do it, as well as being a bit nervous not to stuff it up, but the feeling when I cut him off was the best I have ever had when fishing.

Basically it went like this, I missed the bite as I was watching the sounder, I had marked a fish about 3 minutes earlier but didn't get a bite, I heard the reel scream and turned around to see a little Striped Marlin jumping around, "yeeeeehaaaa GOTIMON!"
"damn, now I actually have to do this hahaha"

I quickly cleared the teaser lure and put my gimbal plate on and picked up the rod and pushed it up to strike drag, (only run 12lbs of drag when pulling lures on 50 and 80lb, it allows the fish to turn their head away when they pile on and I have found it has improve the hook up rate, also it makes the rod easier to get out of the holder)
I put the rest of the standup harness on and started back down after the fish, put my gloves on ready to leader it, and then went to about 22lbs of drag and chased hard.

Once the double was up,I went to sunset drag of 28lbs and went down the ladder to the cockpit to finish the job, once the double was on the rod, I pulled on that with my left hand while winding, and then did the same with the wind-on leader until the snap was at the rod tip, I was then able to grab the leader and take 2 wraps and pull him toward to boat and up along side.
I grabbed my lure and threw it up the leader and then got my release knife and cut the leader about a foot up from the hook.

Yahooooooo! I was punching the air! The whole thing only took 10 minutes, but I was puffing hahaha

I got some "ordinary" video of the whole fight. I don't have a go pro yet (wishing I did now!), so I had my normal video camera mounted on the bridge rail. You can see the initial jumps etc and some later in the fight, but the lense isn't wide enough to capture the cockpit for when I had the fish boat side and the release. When I work out how, I will put it on YouTube and post the link.

Well done to your buddy FisHard.

Jimmy, I was pleased to see he was only a little fella when he jumped haha

Trev, he would have been a good eating size, but I was happy to release him. Also gaffing and boating a Marlin solo is too much excitement for me :)

Thanks Horse.

Still smiling about it

Cheers,
Myles

Timfishin4fun
26-02-2012, 02:34 PM
Great work Myles, I got a 100kg Black last weekend at the cathederals solo.

I had all the same feelings of not wanting to stuff up and found it a blast to drive the boat and angle the fish and give some lip to my mates on the vhf all at the same time.

Now I did leader the fish and get hold of him to get the hooks out, the was where the real challange took part solo, in a deep vee like mine we were doing circles before I knew it and thought to myself, who is going to get dissy first.

But as you stated felt the best I ever have after releasing that fish, just dissapointed I could not get any pics.

By the way I did not have my leadering gloves onboard and my right hand got torn to shreds, do it all again? Hell yeah!

You will find this memory had to beat in the future mate. Well done.

Timbo

Midnight
26-02-2012, 06:59 PM
Well done Timbo! No Marlin like a solo Marlin now haha

Good job mate.

Cheers,
Myles

Smithy
27-02-2012, 01:58 PM
Good work Myles and Tim!

Greg P
27-02-2012, 02:16 PM
Nice stuff Myles - time for an Auto-pilot on the new machine ???

The car park makes hutchies look like the local IGA car park v Westfields with the amount of boats. How was the "Marlin Rage" ::)::);D;D

Midnight
27-02-2012, 05:58 PM
Thanks Smithy and Greg.

Greg,I have an autopilot, but without a remote for it down in the cockpit, it would be kind of more hinderence than help I think. It would get the rudders into screwy positions, which could be a pain if I had to go back up the ladder and chase it again.

I had the boat just idling ahead downsea right before I went down the ladder, the I just put them both in neutral, and went down to finish it off. The wind and swell kept the boat just moving forward enough to be able to controll the fish.

I have to work out what the best way to do this is really, more experimentation required :)

Cheers,
Myles

Midnight
27-02-2012, 06:06 PM
Oh, I didn't witness any rage out there. I heard a few guys barking on the radio about being chopped off now and then, but we were pretty lucky.

Gunrunner and I both got fish on at the same time, and we were only about 30m apart, and I was thinking, this will be interesting! But luckily the fish went in different directions.

I did go flat out in reverse about 2 feet from some dudes Platey bowsprit though one day there, I figured all the white water and smoke would have given him a clue that we were chasing a fish towards him, but they all just stood and watched and then offered encougement to the angler as we roared past hahaha

Midnight
05-03-2012, 11:10 PM
Here is the video of my solo Striped Marlin :)

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYEbKNSyEE2A%26con text%3DC3fafc2fADOEgsToPDskLR8Em7C6FjQRIFyrAzOC7_&context=C3fafc2fADOEgsToPDskLR8Em7C6FjQRIFyrAzOC7_&v=YEbKNSyEE2A&gl=AU

Cheers,
Myles

Midnight
08-03-2012, 12:01 PM
Sorry people, that link was bad. Im new to the whole youtube thing haha

Try this one;

http://www.youtube.com/user/2catsbertram33?feature=guide

Cheers,
Myles