August 3, 2012 Father and Daughter Blue Marlins!

Dan and his family fished with me today.  Dan’s daughter Meredith, is the real fisherman of the family and the plan was to get her a nice fish, preferably an ahi.  We searched for porpoise as we headed along the ledge.  Off Hookena a blue marlin cam flying into the pattern and ate the long corner lure.  Meredith was up and got harnessed into the fighting chair as line dumped off the reel.  We backed down on the fish and Meredith cranked as hard as she could with assistance from her father.  We got the fish close to the boat and got some nice close-up jumps as the blue tore off more line.  We released her biggest fish ever and her first blue marlin in about 20 minutes!  I estimated her fish at 160lbs!  I set up again and worked the area.  Sometimes when you catch a blue marlin you can sometimes find more in the general area.  It didn’t take much longer when another blue came in and knocked down the short rigger and came off.  We continued to work the area and had another blue pile on the stinger and quickly come unbuttoned!  UGH!  Two misses back to back!  Soon after we would be visited again by another blue!  It piled on the long corner and missed the lure!  It switched to the long rigger and took off for the horizon with hooks dug deep!  This time, Dan was up and buckled into the chair.  Dan’s fish was also pretty feisty and put on a good show with a nice series of jumps.  Dan landed his first marlin also in about 15 minutes.  We safely released it and I estimate it weighed about 200lbs!  I’m sure Meredith will be back to Kona one day for more blue marlin and hopefully and ahi next time!