Had a mixed day yesterday. Weather was sensational at last. Fished club member Bruce Parker and his son Tim, Paul Chesire, Mal Ramsay and his mate Anthony. Caught a few good mahi mahi in the morning, but found the real action in 285m east of Cape Moreton in the afternoon, dolphins, birds and within 10 minutes, a blue marlin. It scoffed the lure and went ballistic and from the initial jumps, it looked like a real solid fish. Mal was in the chair on 80lb tackle and the fish peeled line off on the first run like the reel was in free spool. Got after it, but it went deep and slugged it out. Sadly, it died in the fight after about 2 hours, due to being tail wrapped by the leader. 3 hours and 15 minutes later we planed it to the surface and were surprised at how big it actually was. We pulled it in the boat and took some measurements to work out the weight from the formula. It was about 600lb and it was a real shame it died as we would have let it go. Have only ever had 3 fish die like that during the fight in more than 25 years of fishing for them, so although it happened, it is the exception rather than the rule. In case you are wondering why a “blue” marlin looks coppery brown, that’s the colour they go when they die.
