Fly fits the Bill!

[vertico]

Trueblue (Mick) asked me out to chase billys off mba and put into practice some new techniques for livebaiting he had learnt from one of the pro's Smithy. Arrive to find the bait and decided to jig liveys. Mick was on first but we think it was like a baby black marlin and dropped it down deep. After a few snip offs from Wahoo I decided to give the PEtackle gear a go and tied on a 6/0 gar Fly. Rigged up a Dead Slimey Bait but still rigged it up just like a livey and positioned it about 40 off the bottom. Moments later we were on and after waiting for like forever Mick said i could turn the drag slowly to strike and hookup as we watched the marlin jumping all over the horizon. A long and strenuous figh took place and eventually after about 45minutes we had the black boatside. We had the bill at the boat plenty of times so maybe Mick needs to invest in that tag pole sooner rather than later

We took some photos boatside and then spent the best part of 45 minutes swimming the bill boatside. Things were looking good with the bill seeming to bite a bit on the hand but no action of the tail and after a while Things didnt look good. Im pretty sure the bill had its mouth wrapped with the leader for half the fight and probably didnt help its survival rate.

It was decided after 45 minutes the fish was dead and was brought aboard.

Not happy about my second ever billy not being able to be released but these things happen apparrently and the flesh wasnt wasted.

Thanks again for the trip mick and I look forward to a 1770 trip with yah

Sean

[trueblue]

Thanks for the company Sean - great day out.

some stats on the first marlin to come boatside to Trueblue......

it went 1.94m short length, with a girth of 95cm - solid fish. 70 odd kilo fish.

It put on a very dogged fight, where we had to drive away from it about 8 times to stop it going deep. We ended up a long way south of the grounds, but the upside to that was finding some really good bait shows while chasing down the fish. Also pretty cool to see a PE Tackle fly catching a billy on a dead bait......

We had about 8 hits today, 3 of them wahoo snip offs. I had a really little billy on for a while and if I had to guess it would have been less that 10 kg's, but somehow it spat the hook.

I enjoyed chasing Seans good fish at the helm just as much as achieving my own first marlin capture a couple of weeks ago.

cheers

Mick

[Angla]

That is a very good looking fish Sean. Good to hear it didn't go to waste after the capture. Mick certainly agreed that you both put in the effort to revive it.

A little sad you did not pull a Wahoo. Maybe I can get one in the near future

Cheers
Chris

[jeffo]

Sean- it looks healthy as in that 2nd photo. What happened? to long at the boat?

[trueblue]

honestly just don't know what happened. We never had it out of the water except lifting its head for a quick photo with the fly, and then got it upright and were swimming it pretty quickly. It had a couple of really soft early bites on the hand when we first started swimming it but the bites stopped quickly and it never had any tail action at all.

It had tied itself in knots earlier in the fight. One time it came up for a jump close enough that we could see the leader was wrapped around its mouth with its mouth closed, and another time it was tail wrapped, but that came free after a while.

just don't understand what happened and why it just gave up. We were both pretty disappointed that it wouldn't revive.

[trueblue]

probably one comment though that I can chalk up to inexperience was not getting after it quickly enough with the boat. It got a lot of line off us initially, and now I can see exactly what Ian (finding_time) meant by his previous comment about 'driving the boat like you hate it'........

[Midnight]

Well done on the fish and good onya for trying something a bit different bait wise.

Bit of a bugger it couldn't be revived, but you certainly tried. These things happen. A good mate of mine got one about 70kg in the Trench a month or so ago that did the same thing, they swam it for a good half an hour with no luck. It ended up in the smoker!

Mick,
On the driving there is a happy medium to be found, I go after them as soon as the gear is in, but I have lost 2 fish by being a bit over zealous on the throttle and having the fish turn towards the boat quicker than I could turn or drive the other way and with the slack line that resulted they shook the hooks.
Its all good fun though, and I normally end up driving all day and never have a turn on strike.
I enjoy watching people catch their first one as much, if not more, than catching one myself.

Cheers,
Myles

P.S To catch my first Blue, I really did have to drive the boat as Ian suggested haha was a lot of fun! Good to hear the turbo whistle up when you are chasing a fish!

[trueblue]

yeah mate, understood. just thinking back through it, there were a few times there where we could have got a lot of line back quicker through a bit more agressive driving. It took us 45 minutes to get it boatside, and obviously if we could have done it in 30 the fish may have survived

experience is what you get after you need it............
cheers

Mick

[Thunderbird]

looks like a good reason not to buy pe flys 50% mortality rate.
sean the fish probably choked on what is commonly known as a "furrball"

[vertico]

haha thunderbird. I think it all comes down to inexperience at fighting the fish and not backing down enough. Mick did yah check that drag setting ?

[trueblue]

yes mate, drag was right.... correct setting when pulling it quickly off the rod tip

billy on mono just isn't the same as skull dragging a red emporer with 80 lb braid on a stella..........

[Midnight]

Dont be too hard on yourself. The boys have been fighting 80-100kg fish for up to 4 hours at times on 8kg this season, and still had them swim away.

Sometimes they just kark it. When you have caught a hundred in your boat Mick and killed em all, we might start to talk about ya!

Cheers,
Myles

[vertico]

yerh mick but remember i turned it up a bit

[trueblue]

oh well then - one bedded in new drag

[jeffo]

I gotta say sometimes swimming the fish is not the best option. I too have seen them go down hill after being towed along beside the boat...but also seen very tired fish come good. If they are obviously alive when they first come boat side, get rid of them asap. The 2nd photo of the fish shows it was still well and truely alive at some point.

Dont worry to much if they dont kick off at a million miles an hour. Most of them will just glide off into the depths. I once read some info about a blue marlin that had been tagged with a satilite tag. The fish was nearly dead and they held very little hope for it surviving. Once the tag popped off data showed the fish had sunk for 4-5 mins before righting itself and swimming off. (obviously not the ideal release but a successfull one).