Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

Marlin Mania! (several pictures included)


Tyler Holm

Recommended Posts

I was on my honeymoon for 2 weeks in Hawaii and had the opportunity to spend 1 day atop the mighty waters off the coast of Kona (West side of the Big Island). My wife and I chartered a half day trip through Bite Me Sport Fishing. Awesome boat… 2 leather couches, TV, VCR, all the latest and greatest fishing equip, bathroom, bunk beds, even a nice place for my wife to suntan.

Funny thing.. I called the guy the day before our trip and he had to let me go because he was busy trying to get a marlin in the boat. Instant blood rush. He called back and said they had the best day on the water of the season. I was excited, but hoping it wasn’t going to be one of those “You should have been here yesterday” deals.

Here was our lure selection. 530# mono leaders on these things. The reels had 415# test mono. We’re talking big gear here. Most lures were 12 - 18" long.

lures.jpg

Captain Mike took great care of us, and even let me navigate a bit.

ty_mike.jpg

About 2 hours into our trip we had our first hookup. It was about a 150# blue marlin (estimated by “Deck Hand” Jon). He slashed at the surface lure 3 times before connecting, then proceeded to strip about 30 yards of drag before getting loose.

An hour later all heck broke loose. A Marlin came out of nowhere and slammed one of the lures. Within seconds, another giant Blue Marlin crushed another one of our lures. We had ourselves a double. There was chaos on the deck as we rushed towards the rods. And then it jumped! BIG FISH, BIG FISH, is what I remember hearing in a frantic uproar. I saw this enormous Blue Marlin surface and proceed to “tail dance” its way across the surface. Both Jon and Captain Mike agreed it was around 700 pounds; trouble was that we didn’t know which fish was on which rod.

I got positioned in the fighting chair and was handed the rod. HOLY SMOKES the fight was on. Soon afterwards the fish on the other rod simply got off, but we didn’t know if I was fighting the monster 700# fish, or a smaller one. After a few minutes it became apparent that the 700 pounder got away, but I really didn’t care at this point as I was doing all I could do, just to keep at bay with whatever was at the end of my line.

I gave it my all for about 20 minutes before we could see what it was. Turns out, it was a decent Marlin. As the fish approached the boat, “Deck Hand” Jon did a great job of coaching me and preparing me for the release of this bugger. My wife Michelle was snapping pictures throughout the entire fight. Jon said I would be the one to tag the fish, just prior to the release. As the fish approached the boat, apparently it was hooked deeply in the eye with the trailer hook so Jon made the decision to harvest the fish as he claimed it would not have survived that injury.

Here’s a couple pictures of the Marlin as its being wrangled into the boat

close1.jpg

close2.jpg

Fish Details:

113.5 pounds

86” long

Caught in 9000 FOW 10 miles off the coast of Kona, HI

"Deck Hand" Jon and I

jon_ty_marlin2.jpg

It was a heafy load

ty_marlin1.jpg

ty_marlin2.jpg

I got to raise the Marlin flag!

marlin_flag.jpg

Simply put, it was the time of my LIFE!

Special Thanks to Mike, Jon, and Brian at Bite Me Sport Fishing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tyler,

Congratulations on your Marriage, may you, and your bride, have many happy fishing years ahead of you.

What an awesome Marlin experience!

Wedding...$15,000

Honeymoon...$3,000

Cost of new life together...national budget. grin.gif

New bride taking pictures of your fishing adventure(on your honeymoon...priceless)!

Congratulations again Tyler!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats to you Tyler and Michelle on your new life together.Looks like you had a great time fishing.Those Marlin are one awesome fighting fish for sure.

Now that bad part is you will want to go again as it gets in your blood.I have went fishing those beasts 5 times and want to go again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kona Rocks! I spent part of my recent honeymoon there. it's a beautiful place and you made a great choice. Congrats on some great fish and even more congrats on finding a life mate!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The coolest part of the whole story is that you went fishing on your honeymoon!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tyler,

As a part of your wedding party, CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU AND MICHELLE!! Great fish too!!! I'll be waiting for the hundreds of stories to come. Now that you have hit the ocean fishing scene, we will have to plan a trip to Alaska to battle King salmon and Halibut. That was the fishing trip of my life. I know dad wants to go back in the worst way... maybe we could shoot for something next summer?

Davo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations on all accounts Tyler, Great Pictures, you got to do on your honeymoon I couldn't. We honeymooned in Hawaii as well, but the day I was going to go out the boats weren't leaving port due to weather. So I told my wife we need to go back on our 5 or 10 yr anniversary so I can go fishing...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tyler:

Very cool! Nice fish. I did some reef fishing on mine and it was a blast. You get the big-fish award tho.

Joel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats Tyler, on the fish and um...........the wife to!!! grin.gif Just kidding, I agree with boilerguy the best thing is that you got to go fishing on your honeymoon, she sounds like a keeper also!!! grin.gif Again awesome fish for sure!!!

Perchjr

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, I'm green with envy! Sounds like a blast.

I'm curious, how much for a day of fishing like that? I understand if you don't want to provide this info, but I'm thinking about a similar trip for my wife and me and I'd like to fish for a day on the trip. How much can I expect to pay for an outing like that?

I was up on the NE side of Australia a couple months ago and they wanted anywhere from 2K to 3.5K for that type of outing. I passed. Coulda gone on a trip with dozens of other people chasing baramundi and some other smaller fish, but I decided big game fish or nothin'. Unfortunately, the final word was nothin'.

Anyway, congrats on the wife and the great trip. Did I mention that I'm really, really jealous (of the fishing, that is)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Davo,

You wouldn't have to twist my arm the least little bit to get me up to Alaska. Lets book it! Tell Joe I'm in.

Scoot,

A half day of fishing cost $375 to charter an entire 40' boat to yourslef. After tax and tip, it was $450 for 4 hours of fishing. Share trips were much cheaper, but when there's 6 of you sharing a boat what are the odds that you'll be the one who gets to fight the fish.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice Tyler!!! Good thing that big one got away, otherwise your wife could've caught one bigger than yours!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well looks like you had a good time then, i bet your glad that you got out of there before that big earthquake hit huh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes its a nice fish.. and call me sick.. but my fave part of the whole thing is Tyler with his shirt off and shorts and the "deck hand" with a winter cap on... cracks me up!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fish Details:

113.5 pounds

86” long

Caught in 9000 FOW 10 miles off the coast of Kona, HI

Link to comment
Share on other sites

She looks a little bigger than that. I got my first blue last week in Cabo, est. 175 released. Slowest marlin fishing I've seen down there in a few years of trying. Usually we manage to average about a striper (marlin) a day, but we were shut down cold for 3 days before breaking out on the 4th day with 2 stripers and the blue. Also some dorado and tuna, but we mostly troll marlin. Quite a thrill, ain't they:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Traveler, they are probably holding out for me in March. smile.gif

Sorry to hear bout the slow fishing. We finally nailed down our dates. Do you have a spring trip planned yet? Maybe we could hit it at the same time and share a boat to get me on the water more than one day. I'll be there the last week of March first week of April.

By the way nice fish Tyler!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cheffrey; wish I could swing another southern jaunt in the spring, but I'm pretty locked into the fall time frame now; I'm going to keep at it till I beat my dads 350 lb. blue, and they're only there in Aug. thru Oct. You should hit some stripers, hopefully. Are you going back to Cabo? Know who you'll fish with?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Traveler,

I'll be heading back to Cabo and will likely join up with the pisces fleet this time around. I would love to hit it in the late summer but I would never be able to pry myself away from work during that time frame plus the family time share is the last week in March. Stripers have always been good while we are down there. 190 is our tops, last year I started getting into the shorefishing from the resort we stay at. That can be just as fun with the sierra's hitting the way they did last year.

Keep us informed on your trips and good luck with that 350+.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.