After spending the last 6 months sorting out our delicous 265 express and waiting for the weather gods to shine on our part of this globe.
Finally our day had come..... my son was on school holidays , I had made budget for the previous month, the winter weather pattern was our idea of utopia and my wife and daughter were O.S. at a wedding.
We thru' fuel and provisions in the boat, and headed out eastwards about 50 miles to our favourite patch of billfish country known as Bowling Green Bay.(usually anything but) however this day was different.
Some days you can feel it in your bones that luck is with you. Just before low tide a tuna took one of our ballyhoo on the downrigger. We had just released it and were setting out the pattern . With only my son and I aboard we had the autopilot working overtime as i helped on the deck.
Nelson was just positioning a swimming ballyhoo (Garfish in Aus) behind the squid daisychain teaser when he felt a light tug on the line and looking up saw a black shape materialise behind his bait.
He called , I looked up and by then he was freespooling to what we both felt sure was a billfish, probably a juvenile Black Marlin, fairly common around here at this time of year.
But as it started to tail walk , spiral and generally twist and do everything but shout we realised we had a Sail on, and a big one at that.
Again the autopilot worked beautifully as i throttled down and proceeded to clear the decks.
The weather was great for reversing all over the ocean. With only 6 kilo line and a fish somewhere between 30 and 40 kilo's it was a great contest.
Unfortunately being so shorthanded every photo I took missed the target.
By the time the sail was close enough to get a good shot ,I was on the end of the tag pole, trying not to miss my son's first Sailfish.
With the tag away, I picked up the camera, but just then as my son decided to restrain the fish with his thumb on the spool she made a lung and won her freedom. What can I say great day and Great Grady!
Finally our day had come..... my son was on school holidays , I had made budget for the previous month, the winter weather pattern was our idea of utopia and my wife and daughter were O.S. at a wedding.
We thru' fuel and provisions in the boat, and headed out eastwards about 50 miles to our favourite patch of billfish country known as Bowling Green Bay.(usually anything but) however this day was different.
Some days you can feel it in your bones that luck is with you. Just before low tide a tuna took one of our ballyhoo on the downrigger. We had just released it and were setting out the pattern . With only my son and I aboard we had the autopilot working overtime as i helped on the deck.
Nelson was just positioning a swimming ballyhoo (Garfish in Aus) behind the squid daisychain teaser when he felt a light tug on the line and looking up saw a black shape materialise behind his bait.
He called , I looked up and by then he was freespooling to what we both felt sure was a billfish, probably a juvenile Black Marlin, fairly common around here at this time of year.
But as it started to tail walk , spiral and generally twist and do everything but shout we realised we had a Sail on, and a big one at that.
Again the autopilot worked beautifully as i throttled down and proceeded to clear the decks.
The weather was great for reversing all over the ocean. With only 6 kilo line and a fish somewhere between 30 and 40 kilo's it was a great contest.
Unfortunately being so shorthanded every photo I took missed the target.
By the time the sail was close enough to get a good shot ,I was on the end of the tag pole, trying not to miss my son's first Sailfish.
With the tag away, I picked up the camera, but just then as my son decided to restrain the fish with his thumb on the spool she made a lung and won her freedom. What can I say great day and Great Grady!