"Off the Charts" @ Columbus Point

Nate showed up early Tuesday morning to take a look at our tackle and get everything ready for the hunt. He did not even want to look at the spinning rods only the big stuff AND the Billy Baits were out of the question. He helped me set up the 80's as this would be their first outing since we got them last year. He liked the rigged ballyhoo we had but rigged up some bigger baits for Marlin. We headed out for Columbus Point. Coincidentally Columbus Point is the same area George Poveromo fished on the video we had just watched. It is the southeastern most point on Cat Island. It juts out into the ocean a few miles from the tip of the shore with very deep water on each side. It actually is at the very end of our charts on our gps so we were "off the charts" so to speak.

From 2010_05_25

We started trolling just a few miles from Hawk's Nest at Devil's Point. We set up the two 80's with big lures on the flat lines on the corners, the two 50's with rigged ballyhoo on the riggers and the next biggest reel we had was a TLD 25 which we put in the shotgun position in one of the rocket launchers on the bridge. We had trolled along the edge, 300-800 feet of water, for a little over an hour when we spotted some birds working in a little deeper water. We headed for them and then spotted a small weedline there also. We were just starting along the weedline when the TLD 25, the smallest reel of the spread, was hit. The line was peeling off at an incredible pace. I handed the rod down to Nate........it was a Blue Marlin. It jumped and jumped and jumped and continued to peel line off. Gary & Scott must have had it made up ahead of time that they were going to pass the first fish off to me because they insisted I take it. The rest of the crew immediately got all the other lines in as CJM began to back down on the fish. CJM yelled from the bridge that the only question she missed on her Captain's test was how to back down on a fish! I just had the reel serviced and spooled with 450 yards of 40# line at WWS before the trip and I believe 449 yards were now in the water between me and this monster when the spool finally stopped turning. Nate kept saying, "I knew I shouldn't have put that lure on this little rig because this is a really good one for marlin." Thirty minutes Shark! Nate asked if we had a gun on the boat and I directed GP where it and the shells were. He wanted GP to kill the Shark before it killed our Marlin!!! I could go on for an hour or so describing the battle and how long it took, but the short story is with some masterful boat handling by CJM, GP standing guard with the shotgun, photographing the event by SBS, cheerleading and more photographing by Cindy and Karen, and some great coaching and handling of the fish for the release by Nate we had our first catch and release of a Blue Marlin on FF III. Nate estimated the fish at 225-250 pounds. Not a "grander" (a fish over 1000 pounds) but the FIRST BLUE MARLIN on FF III! Here's a slide show of the event...start to finish.



Now for the rest of the story.... We trolled around this same area and then continued out along Columbus Point. We had several hits on rigged ballyhoo, GP and SBS landed 3 very nice Mahi up to 25 pounds or so. GP said he was pretty sure his biggest one was 42 pounds 1 ounce but that might be a stretch. What do you think?

From 2010_05_25

We had another Billfish bite but no hookups. I can't believe that is all I can think of to say about catching 3 nice Dolphin, but with the big catch I guess I am speechless. By the way, Nate also showed us a new technique on cleaning big Dolphin I will have to try the next time we get one in the box. Fresh Mahi for dinner....

From 2010_05_25

CTM