I went back and looked at that fish.
Two things about that fish make me call it a blue. First, the pectoral fins straight and folded. Second, the skin covering the branchiostegals and gills under the throat ends just behind the mouth rather than extending to the pectoral fin.
That truly is a first for Hong Kong
From: Hank Terrebrood [mailto:hankt@hongkongsportfishing.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2013 10:38
Subject: FW: We Made History !
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2013 10:38
Subject: FW: We Made History !
To my regular fishing crowd, see the story and pics below. Forgive Brad's ignorance (at the time) of the history of Hong Kong and marlin catches. The history certainly predates my participation in this fishery since 2001.
Congrats again to David Tuthill for a nice fish.
Hank
From: Brad Ainslie
Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 8:47 AM
Subject: We Made History !
Subject: We Made History !
A fishing report from the South China Sea, Hong Kong CHINA
June 30th, 2013
There had been rumors of marlin in Hong Kong waters over the years … a group claimed to hook up with a 100 lber a few years back but there was no proof. We’ve been fishing these waters for five years and have seen a lot of dolphin (mahi mahi), yellowfin tuna, barracuda, and one wahoo but nothing big… We always wondered if these waters could sustain life for a marlin and if it one would even wander this far from the trenches off Pratas Island and the Phillipines.
This fishing trip was a special day even without the marlin… The owner/captain of the boat Dave Tuthill was leaving HK in a few weeks so we knew this was going to be the last big fishing trip offshore in Hong Kong. The end of an era of exploring these waters and having some incredible adventures along the way out there. I don’t believe any non-Chinese fishing boat has ever covered as much ground as Tut and Murder One has over the years! We are talking about 250 mile days of running looking for signs of life from 4am to sunset… (Murder One is a 33 ft Hydra Sport with triple 225hph engines)
We left the docks of Aberdeen, Hong Kong at 4:00AM on the dot…. We had an amazing crew on board. Myself, Greg Moore, Andrew Bazarian, Dan Shepherd, Carl Vine and Captain Tut. We cruised past the old fishing junk boats and weaved our way thru the dozens of fully loaded shipping containers on their way to the US in the pitch black. It was a perfect morning to head offshore… no wind and flat calm with a 3 foot ground swell. We caught the perfect window just ahead of a Typhoon due to hit the next morning. We cleared Stanley and Po Toi island and got her going 35 knots and began the long journey out to the oil rigs and blue water; 75 miles south east of HK Island.
On normal day the water turns from the usual green murky water around Hong Kong into pacific blue at about 40 miles… today was different. We didn’t hit the blue water until 65 miles and when we did at about 6:00 AM there was life everywhere. More birds than normal working the waters.. small dolphin and tuna jumping everywhere and the water was dead flat. We thru the lures in the water and Carl and Shep quickly hooked up with a few mahi mahi and got them in the boat. Baz noticed a big group of birds working real hard just where the green water line hit the blue water line so we put a few dolphin lures on and started chasing the birds. Not long after that at about 6:45 AM it happened…. The marlin attacked the blue dolphin lure on the right outrigger.. … It was an explosion. The marlin came half way out of the water when it hit.. bill fully out of the water and his huge tail splashing away. The fish went nuts… jumping 20-30x and going crazy off the back of the boat. Tut jumped on the rod, I grabbed the steering wheel, the rest of the crew quickly cleared the back of the boat of rods, lures, beer cans, and the battle began. Mooresy jumped on the rooftop and began filming. She dragged us all over the place… not sure on how far but we must have covered close to 10 miles fighting her. Three and a half hours of sweating, swearing, and fighting later the fish was done. She fought very hard but died and drowned herself out as she got wrapped in the line around her body. This was the first marlin we had ever caught that was coming home with us. (We have always had the chance, and always tagged and released) There was one last problem though. The fish was down about 20-25 ft in the water dying and was dead weight away from the boat… the line was worn and we couldn’t get her to the surface as we were sure it would snap. There was no way Tut was letting that fish go to waste as it would have never lived at this point. He threw on a mask, snorkel, and fins… grabbed a gaff and dove down to the fish and dragged the beast to the surface !!! HAHAHAHAH ( NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY EXAGERATING) It took him 2 solid minutes down below and kicking!!! We quickly got a couple gaffs in her and got it to the side of the boat. We knew there were big mako sharks and oceanic white tips in the area and with a dead fish of that size on the side of the boat we needed to get Tut and the fish out of the water as quickly as possible. It took all six of us to get the marlin over the side of the boat and into the cockpit. (Three gaffs and a massive rope tied to the tail, with a pulley system from the hard top) The fish was beautiful and an incredible animal. We all had mixed emotions about an animal as majestic as this dying but it was meant to be.. this fish was ours. It was our Hemingway moment and it capped off five years of exploring these waters in the most epic way. The fishing gods wanted us to catch this marlin !!!
Seven hours later we were back at the HK Yacht Club with a 505 lb Black Marlin, a few yellow fin tuna, a bunch of mahi and successfully drank the Yacht Club out every bottle of rum it had! Here are a few pictures below of the beast. We fileted her up with a bowie knife and have been feeding as many people marlin since!
We measured her length, width and shoulders and based on the IGFA equations the fish was somewhere between 500-560 lbs. We called her 505 !
For you fishing fans… It was caught on a 50W Shimano Tiagra reel (a 50lb class rod), 100 lb mono leader on a black & Blue R&S #44 made in Fort Lauderdale lure...8/0 Mustad Hook... the type of hook you catch large-mouth bass with !! hahaha
Here are a few photos but there are many more to come.
Brad
