What an epic day of fishing for my charter’s first time ever deep sea fishing. This week the majority of our trips were local half days where we caught tons of fish. One charter guest decided that he and his group wanted to venture out to big blue and try their luck on a full day offshore trip. There has been a really good dorado and yellowfin bite the past few days, so we gave the trip a green light and headed out. The weather and water conditions were perfect and we made quick timing out to the fishing grounds about 35 miles south into Mexican waters. When we arrived to the targeted fishing area, we set out the trollers to see if we could hook up on some yellowfin as we drove around in search of kelp paddies and schooling fish. As we slowly trolled around we started chatting and our charter guest was telling me about how he has never been deep sea fishing before, and how happy he would be to just be able to reel in a fish. He didn’t seem to care what kind of fish, only cared about catching something. It wasn’t 20 minutes later that my favorite sound in the world buzzed through the air, the sound of a fish strike on one our troll lines. ZZZZZZZ! The reel spun faster and faster as the fish made its first run. Fish on! Fish on! I yelled, as I stopped the boat and we set the hook on the fish. I handed the rod to the charter guest and he started fighting the fish. I coached him throughout the entire process and for a first timer, he picked it up really quick. He was working the fish hard as it took run after run on us. We had no idea what kind of fish was on the line, but we knew it was something big! The fight continued and about 15 minutes in, we saw our first glimpse of our fish. It was a marlin!! Talk about beginner’s luck. Now, I have been fishing in San Diego and Mexican waters for over 10 years, and I have only caught 1 other marlin. This was truly a rare treat for our charter guest and for me personally as well. We fought long and hard and after each run the marlin made, we reeled up more and more line. After an epic battle of over 50 minutes, we were able to bring this gorgeous ocean predator to the side of the boat. The excitement on board was unbelievable, everyone was so stoked to see this amazing fish after such a great fight. We took some pictures, then removed the hook to safely return this incredible creature back to the big blue. This is a fish story I know I will be telling for years to come, and now our charter guest has one of the best first time fishing experiences to tell everyone about as well! This is why I love fishing so much, you really never know what you are going to catch!
