Before leaving for South America for a year, I fulfilled a goal I had since a teenager to fish the Big Rock Blue Marlin tournament on my own my boat. We fished in my 30′ Grady-White among the big boys, and we managed to bring a nice dolphin to the scales in one of the roughest Big Rock’s in recent memory. We saw one billfish (a sailfish), but did not manage to snag it.
I sold my boat before sabbatical, and I’ve yet to replace it :-\. In the meantime, I’m fortunate to have a friend who bought a 45′ custom express, Traveller. We opted to fish the Big Rock this year on his boat.
On day two of fishing, we hooked into a blue marlin about 70 miles offshore, in 700 feet of water, on the edge of the continental shelf.
It was not the plan for me to be in the chair to fight the fish, but as these things go, mayhem ensued after the strike, and I ended up in the chair to fight the fish.
17 minutes after the strike, we released the fish, our first blue marlin the Big Rock tournament. We missed a second blue marlin about 10 minutes later, and that was the last we would see.
272 boats fished the tournament. 129 caught blue marlin. We were one of those 129, so we’re pleased with showing up and releasing one. Especially since we were fishing on our own without a captain or mates. We picked the location, rigged the baits and lures, and ran the spread to snag our first blue marlin. My hands still hurt from days of manning baits, lines, and dredges.
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