The month of May has ended and the Marlin fishing is really getting hot. This past month started off with an awesome Dolphin bite with fish averaging 30-45 lbs, with several 50 pounders and one monster that tipped the scales at over 60. The Blues started showing up in the first week with at least one shot a day. We were averaging one marlin a day and as the month wore on, that turned into two shots, then three.
For the past two days, the Reel Candy Sportfishing Team has been hard at it in the Abacos. We had the pleasure of fishing with a group of guys that had varying levels of interests in fishing, and each had their own unique expectations of what they hoped to catch on their two day charter with us.
Stepping onto the Reel Candy was Paul Duhaime, John Conti, David Lowery, Sunil Amin and “Doc Cesar” who in real life is Dr. Cesar Deleon; all from either Florida or Michigan. Talk about a menagerie of individuals! Usually on a charter with a few people, one person tends to stand out, and this trip was no different. Here we are in the Abacos, Bahamas, in the heart of Marlin season and “Doc” tells us that all he really wants to catch is a shark. He doesn’t care what kind of shark it is, as long as it’s a shark.
Some others in the group simply want to catch “Meat Fish”. Now, to us that means Tuna, Dolphin, and maybe a Wahoo. I think someone in the group may have mentioned a Marlin, but I’m not sure. We are strictly set up for big game trolling this time of year, and the man in the Blue Suit is the main target in our crosshairs. If some other critter shows up while we’re doing that, that’s OK, but we want the Blue Man.
Day one starts off a lil slow until a Blue of about 250 lbs decides he’s gonna play tag with every lure in the entire spread !!! Left flat, Right Rigger, Left flat again, right rigger. You get the picture. This Marlin had the life span of Morris the Cat because no matter how many lures he took shots at, he couldn’t get hooked. We thought we had this fish hooked solid three separate occasions, only to have him swim off to another lure. Finally, after toying with us for a while, we parted ways. The Marlin won I guess!
No worries, not an hour goes by when the right rigger snaps! Captain Marvin gets the first glimpse of the fish and sees it’s a decent Blue. David Lowery is up on the rod and settles into the fighting chair. David worked the fish for about 40 minutes before we were able to get a tag in him and snap a few quick pictures. Dave’s first Blue Marlin and he is happy to be in in the Bahamas Marlin Fishing.
The rest of the group wants to know when the “Meat Fish” are scheduled to arrive. No worries, “Doc” snags a dolphin in the 40 pound range and another one about 25 despite heavy rainstorms; the group has dinner in the box. Doc still is looking for his shark though.
When we returned to the Abaco Beach Resort, the group tells us that they kind of like the whole Marlin Fishing thing, but really would like to catch more Tuna, Dolphin and wahoo. Doc happens to mention the shark thing again. We tell them that tomorrow, we will switch things up a little bit, in order to catch some eating fish, instead of the pesky Marlin Thingies.
On day two, we really downsize our spread, with one mid-size lure on the right flat. We get a great start with several decent Blackfin Tuna jumping over the gunnels and we have the skunk off the boat and the pressure off the crew. We then saw two huge Yellowfin Tuna free-jumping under a large flock of birds and quickly alter course and assume ramming speed. We get into the area and drag near two Frigate birds when two lines pop with more tuna. Then we realize that the large lure on the flat is now screaming away from us at Warp speed and it’s singing loud!!
Off the transom is a show that you simply can’t forget. We see a huge Blue Marlin going crazy, throwing white water for what seemed like thirty feet on either side of her. Those Tuna we had on were simply a nuisance at this point. We had the guys lock the drags down and Crank them in as hard as they could, just to get them out of the way. We had to go hard reverse to get this monster slowed before we dumped the spool. Then the big girl went straight down- not good.
For over an hour, we went inch for inch with this Marlin. Our first mate Greg had to pour cool fresh water on the reel to cool it down while he coached Paul through the fight. It seemed like an eternity, but we finally got the fish on the leader. Greg brought the fish alongside the boat and we were able to throw the measuring line over to get an idea; well past the 110” tournament benchmark. You take it from there…
A few more Tuna, a fat Dolphin and the group yet again had plenty of fish for dinner. Doc, we feel obligated to apologize though, we never did get you that shark. Those pesky Marlin kept getting in the way.
Great job guys from the Reel Candy Crew. We are gearing up for the Boat Harbour Leg of the Bahamas Billfish Championship this week. There are a lot of Marlin here and we can tell you the big girls are definitely here. A great June is upon us!!
Tight Lines,
“Reel Candy”