8/5 - Skipjack's 1st released blue marlin

[backman]

We've had 6 or 8 on over the years but never got one to the boat.

today I hammered south in a following north wind when everyone else turned back; found yellowfin 68 miles south of the islands. Eventually I got scared being so far south in a NE wind and started trolling north. The blue came up; hit the entire spread before eating a homemade lure from a shower ball valve and taking off for the hills.

10 years practice with this boat and I was able to keep the angler tight long enough for the fish to settle. A while later in some horracious seas we got the fish to the boat and had the leader pop on the rough edges of my ball valve lure.


58 miles to lee; 18 knots for the 1st 1/2 hr; then 20; then 22, then by the end 25 knots. Rough yes; comfortable no; safe - absolutely.

Boat of course - Carolina Classic.

The Luhrs turned back; the Hydrasport 33 turned back, the Bertram 38 (!!) turned back. The Carolina Classic raised fish....

[REEL ADDICTION]

Nice report capt! Guess the saying is true you get what you pay for.

[TwinFin]

Very cool!

And... I gotta see a pic of one of your shower ball valve lures. What is the story behind that???

[backman]

Here you go - only known shot

http://www.carolinaclassicboatowners.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=543&stc=1&d=1186568194

This winter I was replacing a leaky shower head and looked at the ball joint with its round ball head; 1/2" hole and hexagonal base and said "hmm - what the f&&&" and rigged it up with a couple skirts.

Joe Expert was hanging on my boat Saturday so to pi**s him off I rigged it up with a 7/0 hook. "too small a hook; it will tangle, maybe a wahoo will eat that" etc.

Out it went on the port long rigger for the day which was really sloppy. A mahi or two ate it but the 4 yellowfin, including an eat your heart out 90 pounder, ate ballyhoo inside.

We were 68 miles from lee and 68 miles into the teeth of a NE 15 blow; I didn't want to go any further south so we started trolling north, presumably out of the hot zone. The marlin came in 8 miles later; whacked at everything in the spread; then a rod started howling. It never jumped; just burned line. We survived the initial 400 yard + run on a Penn 30 w/ 50# line and hung tough for 30 minutes. Eventually it came in sight and I started screaming "its the showerhead, its my showerhead". We got to bimini; then the single snapped at the reel. I found 6' of single was billed to hell and beyond which is why we broke it off at the end.

The picture above is the only known shot of the lure though I know where to get and make more

[Petty Cash]

Great report. Showerball story funny. And I just replaced 72 shower heads and threw the old ones away. Who knew.