Blue Marlin Sashimi...... CSL BCS (non yak)

 .... Great job Bro!!!!!

Congrats Antonio, loved the story,  Wow.

Wtg congrats antonio,  that's a big a??? fish

Congratulations on a great catch Antonio!  Is this the best time to go down there for marlin?  I really want to go back down there next year. 

We were about 27 miles out during choppy seas at the 180 spot. Looking for porpoises and the yellowfin tunas that had been found in the vicinity the previous day. When all of the sudden..........

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

I quickly grabbed the rod out of the holder and forcefully set the hook with three full, solid jerks. Jaime yelled at me " dale mas cabron it's a blue marlin!! " so I yanked the rod hard three more times firmly setting the hook into the beast.

In a matter of seconds Jaime had the stand up belt on me and I had slipped the gimbal into the slot.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
The fish made a 100 yard run out and away from the boat then sounded down about 100 feet. I turned off the clicker and slowly started pumping him up to the boat. Methodically I pumped the rod up and cranking the reel on the way down to gain line on fish. After about 10 mins I told Jaime " I don't think he knows he's hooked yet "

At the 15 min mark I finally started to see color and my first blurred glimpse of the fish.  That's when it bolted again straight under the boat peeling off about 150 yards. As i watched the rod double over all I could do is hold on for dear life and pray.

I looked up at the horizon and saw a silhouette of a massive fish jumping out of the water about 200 feet away thrashing its bill back and forth. I yelled at Jaime "look there's another one!" He replied "no pendejo it's your fish!"

I watched in awe as the Marlin Azul feverishly danced across the surface.
Each majestic and powerful leap covered 15 to 20 ft distances at heights of about 10 ft. The brute force would cause violent explosions on the waters surface when it came crashing down after each leap.

At the 30 min mark I got him to the boat for a second time and as soon as I saw color he was off to the races one more time.

By now I was sweating profusely under the scorching Baja sun and mid 90 degree temps. I could feel my lat mussels in my back flexing like I was doing wide grip pull ups. My biceps were engorged and the veins in my arms were swollen. Fatigue was setting in and I asked Jaime for some water since I was feeling dehydrated and was afraid of cramping.

I downed the ice cold bottle of water and felt rejuvenated. Jaime asked if I wanted the shoulder/back harness to give my arms some relief and I declined.
I wanted to feel the shear power of this animal.... I wanted it to be "Mano a Mano"

The battle continued on and at the 45 min mark I had him to the boat for the 3rd time. Once again the monster fish peeled off another couple hundred feet of line. By now I kept having visions of the fish breaking off. These thoughts were racing in and out of my head constantly. My arms were killing me and I had to keep switching hands because it felt like rigamortise was setting into my fingers in the form of claws so I had to constantly straighten them out.

At the one hour mark I was nearing the fish closer and closer and felt that color was nearby. When all of the sudden the line went completely limp. So many thoughts raced though my mind in a split second and the only word that bellowed out of my mouth was....NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I frantically reeled and reeled and soon realized that the fish was still on and had apparently made a run for the boat. I thanked god numerous times as I held on dearly to the doubled over rod as the fish sounded another 100 ft below the boat.

75 mins into the fight I finally had the beast closer than the previous 4 attempts. It circled the boat on the surface numerous times before Jaime was able to grasp the leader. He then firmly grabbed ahold of the bill raised its head out of the water and commenced savagely clubbing him about a couple dozen times in the head.

Jaime tried pulling the fish up onto the panga but was unable to do so alone. I put the rod down and grasped one of its pectoral fins and we both simultaneously heaved it onto the deck. The massive fish tail and bill was spilling over the sides of the boat as he flopped around dangerously on the deck.

Once on the boat Jaime and I jumped around laughing and hugging like a couple little kids.
We then took and few pics, covered the fish with some damp towels and started heading back to port. Since we were 27 miles out in choppy conditions it was going to take a couple of hours to get back.

Jaime thought that we should fast troll back in hopes of possibly landing a wahoo.

Just 25 mins on our journey back........... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!
To be continued........

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!

I thought to myself "no not again" I just got through fighting the biggest fish of my life and although I was ecstatic about it I was hurting everywhere.

I grabbed the rod out of the holder backed up and immediately fell over the Marlin on the deck landing flat on my ass and back. All I could here was Jaime yelling profanities in Spanish and the reel screaming Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

 I quickly got up and repeatedly set the hook hard and deep. It was another blue marlin that took off like a rocket. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

HOLY SHIT!!!!

It covered about 100 yards all on the surface. It put on an aerial show of epic proportions jumping out of the water in a similar fashion as the 1st marlin but with many more leaps. It easily jumped at least 30 times. Unlike the first fight Jaime chased the Marlin with the boat. I had to reel fast to pickup the slack in the line.

"Reel you pussy!!!!! Reel!!!!!" He shouted

My biceps felt like wet sandbags as I mustered all of my energy to reel in the slack. This fish was hooked on a different setup than the first fish and unfortunately for me was not to my advantage. Instead of a cushiony hypalon foam grips this rod had a thick twine in its place. This grip was absolute murder on my already crippled palms and fingers.

I was in agony and I was in so much pain that I was convincing myself that it would be OK to lose this fish. I thought to myself that there was no way in hell that I could reel this one in too.

After a 20 minute fight I finally got him to the boat but just like the first one sounded directly under the panga stripping off about 150ft of line. I struggled to keep the submerged rod tip out of the water on the doubled over rod.

Jaime asked " do you need help cabron?"

Remember this is all unfolding on a panga in rough seas, on standup tackle with just the belt and no harness.

It was at that time that I finally realized that I can actually accomplish this feat. Before that point I was happy if he had spit the lure. But now I REALLY wanted to land this one too no matter how much pain I had to endure.

After all I've been fishing these same waters for 25 years and have been on boats that have landed blues but had never reeled one of these bad boys in myself.

Now I finally had a once in a lifetime opportunity to catch not one but two of these bullies on the same day!

"No cabron this pescado is mine" I replied

At the 40 minute mark I brought the fish to color for the second and luckily for me the final time. He was still all lit up with fluorescent blue highlights across his body. Luckily Jaime was recording footage on his phone of some of the fight and transferred the phone to me to film the clean and healthy release of the estimated 180lb bruiser.

"No Mas" I told him.."no more fast troll" . We had other opportunities on the way back but just passed them up after all we had this huge fish on deck that needed to get put on ice ASAP.

Back at the dock the 1st fish weighed in at 251 lbs. I can still feel the power of that fish and the released one throughout my aching body 3 days later.

Time to hit the hot tub with a bucket of cervezas and reflect on my day of battling big blues.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet !!!!!!

Fishing trip of a lifetime for sure,  WTG bro!

Awesome catch Bro!!! 



-Kiel

Damn!

Antonio,  New acupuncture for the knee????  . Seriously what a bossbitchn'cool trip.     

Nice fish there "Pinche Cabeza de Martillo ". lol.  Great read as well !!!!

Alex

Congrats on the awesome catches!  Thanks for the great report Antonio.

OMG !  Totally jealous. Congrats!

Great report!   One big fish!

You GOTTA post that video.