Africa 1209 lb blue marlin - Grand Baie

[Patudo]

Just heard that a 1209 lb blue marlin was caught a couple days ago from Grand Baie in the north of Mauritius island. That's an awesome fish...

[edylie]

Yeah ... I read about it too on S C M O - Viewing Topic #37065 - 1209 Blue Marlin March 22nd - Mauritius

It must be a magnificient fish ... anyone has the pic or story?

-e

[Makaira]

Yo Patudo ......... my buddies are off to the Andamans next weekend with JP for the season finale. Hope they can finally tag a grander.

[Patudo]

Good luck to them. How has the Andamans been fishing this year?

Best regards

D.

[Makaira]

Good luck to them. How has the Andamans been fishing this year?

Best regards

D.

Have not really been following the catch this season & JP has not been updating his catch reports. Ragman was there just last month & had a pretty good trip with 50-60kg YFTs.

[Makaira]

Good luck to them. How has the Andamans been fishing this year?

Best regards

D.

Just popped in to the Wahoo website to check if JP uploaded any Andamans 2008 pics or not. Lo & behold, the gallery has been updated & some of Ragman's trip photos are on the last page.

Wahoo Big Game Fishing (Thailand)

[Patudo]

Good stuff, I did not realize Ragman was into big game fishing! Well done to Ragman, did he catch the marlin in those photos as well?

[DaFrogman]

Good Lord Mak.....

I'm surprised the fish didn't flee the scene looking at the size of the anglers....

Some serious muscle there dude....Hmmmm I feel quite inadequate now ...

Its good to see Master Ragman in action with some nice sized bottom dwellers...

Great Stuff,

Saimee

[ragman]

Hi Saimee & Fat lazy one

This year's trip to the Andamans was really an eye opener for me. The fish there are really prim and prime. The YellowFin Tuna there can really pull and plentiful too. Marlin bite in JP's spot is second to none even better then OZ too. Only big regret is we did bring enough stand up stuff, fishing in the chair is really a pain everywhere can't put the load into the lines as what we normally can on stand up and worse off broke my best 50 pd calstar on a big ray(?) after the thai skipper got cramps in his legs and arms. My rod broke at mid section after i max out the drag and held the drum tight, must have over done it a bit. Only 20 yrs old this rod sigh! maybe ah teck will give me a refund.

Any ways now gearing up 80 pd stand up outfits after a mutual friend broke his new 80 pd calstar on a 750 +/- at the boat side.

We'll be back
Ragman

[Patudo]

Hey Ragman,

Great to hear of your success. There really is nothing like the big pelagics for me... the speed and power of a marlin or yellowfin tuna, wow - it just takes my breath away. Nothing in the world like it.

Normally fishing in the chair with a correct chair rod and harness is much more powerful than any stand up rod, if the chair is correctly set up and the angler fishing with the right technique he can easily withstand drag forces of 45 lb plus. I would have thought JP would have coached you fully in using the chair?

Best regards

P.

[Makaira]

Any ways now gearing up 80 pd stand up outfits after a mutual friend broke his new 80 pd calstar on a 750 +/- at the boat side.

FYI .... it wasn't a Calstar

[DaFrogman]

.....and worse off broke my best 50 pd calstar on a big ray(?) after the thai skipper got cramps in his legs and arms. My rod broke at mid section after i max out the drag and held the drum tight, must have over done it a bit. Only 20 yrs old this rod sigh! maybe ah teck will give me a refund.

OOOWWWCH!!... "Only 20 yrs old"..... sheesh, good luck with the refund

Do you remember the blank name and do they still make it? I sure hope so, if not, its time to build up a GF755H although I'm sure you have a couple of those already... Sounds like you had fun, fun and more fun.

Patudo,

The idea of that sized Marlin must make you drool.... I'm sure that the 10-20kg sized YFT are a principal part of the mega Marlin diet and thats probably why there is a good concentration of big pelagics. How big where the Wahoo Ragman?....

Regards,

Saimee

[MarkR]

Great stuff from the Andamans!!!

Hmmmmmm....looks like a must go place now

Rumor has it that Crystal Coral may be sold to an operator for Andamans charter....

Got back from Miri on Monday...was supposed to head out to E11 and F6 platforms but switched destination to Luconia shoal instead due to a mishap with the small speedboat...Phew!!!! Lucky to be back in one piece...sea state was dreadful...decision was made to head home on the first night...weather continued to deteriorate on the journey back and got much worse the following day...Miri was hit by the tail-end of a tropical cyclone...

[DaFrogman]

Mark,

You must have been with Cheng's trip then.... Man the seas were crazy dude. I managed to squeeze a tiny trip in the Thursday before that and already the sea state stopped us from going further out to the dropoff...

Glad you got back safe and sound... the seas are still pretty bad and there have been some very strong winds with structural damage and fallen trees etc all over the place.

Good call by your captain to head back.

Regards,

Saimee

[galanted]

Hi Saimee & Fat lazy one

This year's trip to the Andamans was really an eye opener for me. The fish there are really prim and prime. The YellowFin Tuna there can really pull and plentiful too. Marlin bite in JP's spot is second to none even better then OZ too. Only big regret is we did bring enough stand up stuff, fishing in the chair is really a pain everywhere can't put the load into the lines as what we normally can on stand up and worse off broke my best 50 pd calstar on a big ray(?) after the thai skipper got cramps in his legs and arms. My rod broke at mid section after i max out the drag and held the drum tight, must have over done it a bit. Only 20 yrs old this rod sigh! maybe ah teck will give me a refund.

Any ways now gearing up 80 pd stand up outfits after a mutual friend broke his new 80 pd calstar on a 750 +/- at the boat side.

We'll be back
Ragman

Hi Ragman! Any chance of me jigging your pesty YFT out of the way for you? Catch up and chat with you again someday!
Cheers!

[Patudo]

To be honest Saimee, I love marlin of all sizes, not just the big ones. Although I must admit the big ones are something special, that's for sure, smaller marlin can do some incredible things too. Any place where you can get consistent strikes from marlin is a good place, no matter what the size.

[ragman]

Hi guys thought i just pen a word to all in this thread, hope it is the correct net manners. Not very familar with MMSing and posting.


Hi Mak

Thought you told me Ah teck did new rods for him with bend butt. What blank
was it that broke.


Hi Mark

I'm sure glad you got back safely. The sea state in Miri / E. Malaysia can be really scary and the boats they used are not exactly certified. We are always very careful which craft and Capitan to use with safety paramount. Lets plan a trip maybe with Saimee to fish there. That dude will know what to do.


Hi Saimee

Ya Saimee 1st thing I did was to grab the GF 755 XH but can’t figure out to built straight or bend butt to go with my old faithfully Penn 50SW. That old souped reel by Cal still work like a charm, this trip hook onto a one ticket YFT on the island that we shelter for the night. The beast took off near 250M+ of 100pd line on 30 drag before the 5X trebles gave way. The reel was scorching hot but everything still works well, Cal really did a number on that reel. Any ways I’m grab a ATD 50W too so am in the process of gearing up for next year.



Hi Patudo

JP did couch us and the chair was reset for each angler on his turn but still a pain to use, for me still stand by easy to put 40 pd drag and very comfortable. In the chair felt so imprisoned and awkward to reel and move about. JP is a real pro and really joke and work us hard when it is on. He is coming to s’pore and have dinner with me tomorrow night on the way to OZ. Catch up with you when you next come home been a long time since you’ll been onboard.


Hi Galanted

Lots of football sized tuna where we trolled for the marlin, if we used any small lures and hooks smaller then 12/0 every 15mins sure get stop by the massive amount of tuna schools. Around the islands the YFT are even biggerer. This is the place to go mate. Give us a shout when you have some time.

Cheers all guys
Ragman

[Makaira]

[/quote]Thought you told me Ah teck did new rods for him with bend butt. What blank was it that broke.[/quote]

yo ... we have stopped using bent-butts standups for a long, long time because they are a pain to use without a harness setup. Anyways, imho, BB standup rods are more effective on yo-yo ding dong deep sounding all the way kind of fight like with a YellowFin Tuna. When it comes to a marlin, occasionally, the fish will come to the surface & in those situations, a BB standup rod gives no leverage what-so-ever because of the angle of the rod relative to the water's surface Anyways, opinions differ.

I believe the rod that broke was an Aussie or a Kiwi blank. That's the price one pays for deviating away from Calstar ...... Wahahahahahahaha!!!

[Patudo]

Ragman,

I have to agree a good stand up angler probably does find it easier to move around and follow the fish. There's no doubt that stand up fishing is very satisfying. Sadly I have not had the pleasure to fish with many anglers who were really experienced with stand up. You and Makaira must fish with me one day. It would be a pleasure to try and put you on something like this:

(from last year... Charlie Large gaffed him, I wired him)



I was lucky enough to wire this one later in the day...



I really do not know how Captain Jason Pipe can shoot his camera with one hand while sliding back a 37 foot Bertram with the other, but I'm glad he did it....



Regards

Dustin

[Skanibal]

what for a goods photos!

about the blue marlin, i was in Mauritius 2 days defore, we lost a 800 lbs marlin after 2h of fihgt, but have a 150 lbs dogtooth tuna on jig!!!

see you soon on the sea if you come in reunion island!