February 9, 2013 – Ann Lands Her First Blue Marlin 222lbs!

Ann and Jim have fished all over the world.  Last year they went to Costa Rica to try for blue marlin and didn’t catch one.  They fished a full day with me in hopes of making that dream a reality.  The last few days the bite has been north of the harbor on the Grounds so again I headed that way.  The bait on the ledge has been thick and the marlin are there but not on the chew as good as we had hoped.  The fish have preferred trolled lures as opposed to live bait but today I decided to get a few live baits and try our luck.  As we drug our baits up and down the ledge we saw a few boats hook up trolling near us, but I stuck with my plan.  About mid day I marked a fish at 40 fathoms and my long bait started to get nervous.  I told Jim, “get ready because something is checking out our bait”.  The marlin chased the bait for about 20 seconds (which feels like an eternity) but it finally decided to eat it.  We set up on the fish and it came blasting out of the water about 100yds behind the boat.  Line was peeling off the reel as Ann got settled into the fighting chair.   She was excited and scared at the same time thinking the fish would pull her out of the chair.  She did a really good job and never gave up!  We had the fish close a few times but everytime it got within 20yds it would freight train across the water going straight away from the boat.  We got some really good jumps out of this fish for sure!  Finally, after a 30 minute fight, Ann brought the fish to leader and since we had hooked it deep in the stomach we decided to take it.  Her first blue marlin would scale out at 222lbs!