These guys look happy and why not, they never expected to catch a 722 lb blue marlin. In fact the last time angler Dave Smith, from Atlanta caught anything close was a 55l lb'er twenty five years ago at Walkers Cay, Bahamas.
The fish was caught aboard the 46 ft Bertram Attitude Adjustment three miles from the Herradura which is about eleven miles straight out from Land's End. The fish took a 3.5 Zuker that was green and yellow. This area proved productive for Captain Edgar Renteria, has been a part of Pisces for over 18 years, started out by hooking up two sailfish, one released, one broke off, followed by a 35 lb dorado. Twelve minutes after putting the lures back in the water, BAM, they got hit out of nowhere by this huge fish that almost spooled them. Fifty-eight year old Dave Smith spoke to us from the boat not long after the fish was on board he was awed by the whole event but thrilled " This fish came out of nowwhere, it almost spooled us but we recovered line; it was a brute - every time we would get it as close as twenty feet, it would take off at full speed and rip off line". Dave is a project supervisor for an industrial flooring company and was here with Tom Montour also from Atlanta and colleagues Jack Bown and Clint Dean from Chattanooga. They do a yearly guys trip to fish and have been to such locations as Costa Rica and the Bahamas but as Dave said "there is nothing like Cabo, its the best, we will definitely be back. I have the utmost respect for the professionalism of the crew". When asked if they had killed the fish or if it had died he replied "It took almost two hours to bring to the boat and the last time, it was very tired, it was done, it floated sideways. I think it's heart exploded". The guys did not have to kill the fish, it was already gone, now the question was how to get it into the boat? Mother nature helped - they opened the transom door and the swells pushed it right in the back of the boat, aided by the flying gaffs they used to secure the fish. Attitude Adjustment forms part of Pisces Fleet.This is not the only large fish; we got a report of a 600 lb blue marlin taken on a commercial panga at Punta Lobos yesterday.
This bodes well for the upcoming billfish tournaments - but it would be really nice if somehow a release format could be implemented.
