 | On thursday Jim from Midnight Ramler called to tell me he had a space for me. I was pretty excited, I had been waiting for a while to fish on Jim's boat. We left friday morning and 0 dark thirtyand made our way southeast. There was Jim, Andy, Paul and Rich. Andy's my bud, and Jim, but I hadn't met Rich or Pauly. Great guys, very personable and into fishing. Both have boats and both have done some fishin'. It felt like a good crew.
There's more "Rambler" news --- read 'Katydid's Floating' Date Sept 23 .
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 We trolled across the Atlantis canyons starting at about 11:00. Things looked OK but besides a few dolphin fish under the highflyers and some porpoise there wasn't anything. Jim got a call around noon that there were some fish to the east so we ran another two hours. This turned out to be a good move. As soon as we stopped I put the portside wayback in the clip and hoisted it. We saw dozens of porpoise and then a very close and VERY large whale came up less than 200 yds away.
I was gettting the next line in when the rigger popped off and the reel started screamin' . Rich yelled "'Marlin" and I looked back to see a blue and white two tone '67 Buick leap six feet out of the water. It was amazing ! We moved the rod to the aft starboard holder so Jim could run the boat. Andy reeled, the fish took line, Andy reeled, the fish took line. This fish was pulling forty pounds of drag like it was feathers. It took almost an hour to get it to the boat. HUGE ! It was thirteen feet long, we taped the distance along the boat, and was four feet tall. We couldn't get a girth because we were afraid it would get too stressed so we cut off at the hook and waved goodbye. That was the biggest ( longest at least ) fish I've ever seen, extremely stong, fast and determined. No wonder Marlin is supposed to be THE sport fish.
It didn't stop there though. As soon as the lures were back in we hit a flurry of albies. We got three, all about 50lbs or so. Then a few yellow fin a little bigger, and then the starboard rigger popped, the rod flew around and we were into something else really big.
The #80 bent butt was bent right over as Jim reeled this fish. We figured it was a bigeye and we knew it was big. Another battle that lasted more the thirty minutes. Once Jim got the fish near the boat Andy struck hard with the dart and we owned him. He was big, at least 400lbs and 74" long. Big and fat but the eye didn't look right.
Andy knows a lot about tuna and he had us look for a 'serrated liver and a hump inside the body. Turns out it was a bluefin giant. Unusual in that warm water but that's what it was. Nice day but we're still goin'. We fished all night getting a few yellowfin. Pauly got a great one, over a hundred lbs. In the morning we were still getting good yellows but the boxes were getting full. We were a long way away so after the sunrise bite ( we took three more nice yellofin ) Jim pointed Midnight Rambler towards Point Jude. Flat calm beautiful ride home. We were weary but smilin'.
Midnight Rambler is a great boat, set up perfectly for big fishin and a real solid seaboat. Put that boat together with great guys and terrific fishin' and you've got quite a weekend. There are ( or will be ) some great photos of this trip as soon as I get time to do 'em so check the pic-o- day photos. I hope to go up to the cape with Jim and Midnight Rambler to fish giants later this month. |
