Yesterday we posted a story about a large blue marlin caught in Cabo. We got several comments about the fish not being released. We have been able to communicate with the captain who told us the following:
"We were fishing the
95 bank on Tuesday morning and afternoon. Dave Hanson called me told me
that he had been catching blue marlin there all week. We were grinding
the high spot up when just before the tide our deckhand Pancho shouted up to me
and told me he had just seen a big blue under the teasers. For what
seemed like 2 minutes straight the massive blue marlin punished the teasers
with at least 6 passes. We were all amazed by the size but had to idea
the fish was as big as it was. Finally after what seemed like an eternity
the fish dropped back behind the outrigger jig, Custom Steve Elkins
Junior pop in the flying fish color, and inhaled the jig. The fish never
really took to the air as the fight was deep. We only got a look at the
fish once when it came out of the water in the distance. We all thought
the fish was between 400-500 pounds. About 90 minutes into the flight
after almost getting spooled 3 times the fight changed dramatically. It
was apparent the fish had perished and we were just reeling in dead weight from
the deep. It was very unfortunate for us as we had every intent on
releasing the fish back to the ocean. When the fish finally appeared
belly up off the transom we were all shocked at the actual size. It took
us 30 minutes to wrestle the fish on the swim step. Once we heard the
weight at the scales we were all shocked. We had tapped the fish out
somewhere between 750-800. We didn't hear about the scale bottoming out
at 750 until we were on our way home to Newport. The crew and I all agree
that it was an amazing fish and the number didn't matter. We would have
been much happier with a healthy release.
The crew consisted of
Captain Rob Petrina
Angler Gary Steelberg
Mate Pancho
Mate Ken Cicchelli
Chef Stacey Fetterman
Moral Support D'ette Steelberg"