January 29, 2012 Team Fin-Nor Day 1

Last year I had the privilege of fishing with Rob and Dave from Fin-Nor tackle company.  I tested one of their 130lb class reels for them last season and was very impressed by it’s quality and durability on big fish.  Since then, I have upgraded all of my reels to Fin-Nor.  Rob was joined by one of their sales reps Victor and booked two consecutive days.  We wanted to see just how strong their new Fin-Nor 30w handled.  The fishing has been really good lately for striped marlin and short nose spearfish – so it was perfect for running smaller gear like the 30w.  On our first day we headed south and immediately ran into a small porpoise school right in front of the harbor.  Our first pass yielded nothing and my sounder didn’t show any fish down deep so we continued on.  About one mile away was a bigger pile of porpoise and on our first pass again, my sounder showed nothing below.  Frustrated, I turned to make our second pass when the long rigger came slamming down with the screaming run that could only mean ahi!  The Fin-Nor 30w handled the run – no problem.  Victor was first up so he strapped into the fighting chair and got to work.  We were at close to 300yds of line out before the fish slowed.  Victor did a great job and landed his largest ahi in about 35 minutes that weighed 131lbs!  We ran back to the porpoise school but again we didn’t see anymore fish so we went back to trolling.  Later in the day, on the 700 fathom line the Fin-Nor 30w would be tested again as a nice blue marlin blew up on the short rigger.  The blue made a long run straight away and then came up jumping alongside the boat leaving only half the spool.  The Fin Nor held up great once again and the drag remained smooth and steady.  Rob got to work on the fish as we took the belly out of the line.  We backed down hard trying to regain line and in about 20 minutes Rob landed his first blue marlin that we released and estimated at 200lbs!