2 Minute Warning, Excessive Celebration......GAME OVER

It's Friday and our last day with the S's and P's. We decided to make a light day of it. The crew all wanted breakfast and CJM said we needed to be back in by 2:00 or 3:00. We got out around 9:30 and decided to run East towards Columbus Point before we started fishing. Near the area where we had caught the Marlin on Tuesday, we set up our spread, big Marlin lures on the flat lines and rigged Hoos on the outriggers and that special lure in the shotgun position as before. This time we decided to switch out one of the TLD 50's for the smaller TLD 25 we had caught the Marlin on. We trolled out along the rocks to the point and then continued out until we were off the charts again. We could see the 8 mile long pink sand beach from there. We had only had a couple hits at this point on the Hoos but no hookups so we decided to head in. Near Hawk's Nest is a pinnacle that resembles the humps we fish in Islamorada so we thought we would troll by there even though Nate had told us they don't catch many fish there any longer. The humps at home always hold baitfish and you can almost always catch a BF Tuna. We decided to switch out some of the lures and put Billy Baits on the riggers. We trolled completely around the hump without a hit. We saw a bunch of birds working and did hook up a pesky Skipjack Tuna and quickly released it. It was 1:50 and since we only had 10 minutes to troll before heading in we decided to pump our holding tank for the final 10 minutes before reeling up to go home. After letting it run a few minutes CJM called out, "Two minute warning, then reel up!" You guessed it, we had a monster hit on the same little TLD 25 with the blue & white Billy. GP grabbed the rod and was hooked up to a Blue Marlin. Long story short, CJM once again handled the boat perfectly, GP finessed that big fish in with the light tackle. The rest of the crew did lots of cheerleading and picture taking and I was successful at taking the hook out and releasing a very nice 150-175 pound Blue Marlin. There is nothing much more satisfying to a fisherman than setting up the baits, deciding where to fish and have a successful catch & release of one of the most sought after fish in the ocean. WE DID IT! GAME OVER, JEANNIE!!! Here are some shots of the event......



Wait a minute....there are two more contestants in the 2010 FF III Bahamas Tournament....better have your "Big Girl Panties On," Caldwell & Kate!

There was "excessive celebration" that evening....CJM calls it "The Last Night In Town Syndrome. We had a GREAT fishing trip with P's and S's and that was a reason to celebrate in itself!

CTM