April 27, 2008

Today was the first official marlin excursion out of Port Everglades with my new offshore vessel the Nicole Victoria (NV). I had her rigged and prepared just the way I wanted to target marlin. My theory has always been that if the bait is there then more than likely, so are the marlin. As we cleared the reef today we saw clouds of flying fish fleeing from our boat. There were dolphin fisherman spread out all over from 100 feet to 400 but we did not see any small dolphin or bonito around which is the preferred prey for marlin. We decided to put our baits in the water fairly shallow since the schools of small tuna and bonito had been spotted in those depths during the previous weeks. We trolled NE for a couple of hours with nothing to show for it until w picked up a nice cow around 25 lbs or so. We put the spread back out and within ten minutes we started marking big schools of bait under the boat at about 60 feet deep. A few minutes later our flat line gets blasted by a nice blue marlin but the hook did not stick. The fish drops back and takes a whack on the rigger bait and knocks it out but again the hook did not set and the fish disappeared.

As I spent about a minute or so bitching and moaning about missing two shots another big fish comes up on the other rigger. We could see him behind the bait but he would not take it. I decided I would try the “take away” method to try and get this fish to eat. I was taught this technique years ago in the late 70’s by my father and Tommy Green while fishing in Venezuela. You simply reel the bait away from the pursuing fish as it tends to make the fish more aggressive. Well it worked perfectly and we got a good hook in him. After going completely ballistic and running off about 250 yards of line, then bulldogging us for 50 minutes, Darin Jenkins successfully leadered and released his first blue marlin.

This was a really special blue marlin for me. It has been a life long dream for me to do this. Over the last 25 years I have fished on hundreds of boats and have caught more blue marlin than I can remember. Although those experiences were great, none were as gratifying as this one. Let me explain.

For the last 15 years I have been working really hard at building my inshore guide service here in Fort Lauderdale. I run a Ranger Banshee for the fly fishing and light tackle enthusiast and a 21 foot center console to live bait in the inlets and fish for sailfish on the reef. My most popular trip has been my sailfish/tarpon combo where we fish for sails for a couple of hours followed by an early evening tarpon adventure. During these trips we would see all of the offshore charter boats come in and out of the inlet. As I watched these guys I imagined how I would rig my own sport fishing boat to take my own clients out on.

About three years ago a friend of mine called and said: “You gotta see this Bertram I found online over in St. Pete. It is just like the ones we fish in Panama.” I took a look and just like he said, they were just like the ones we fished at Tropic Star and Coiba Island with Capt. Tom Yust in Panama. I soon forgot about the boat until about 8 months later when I just happened to be in the St Pete area. Long story short, I bought it and spent almost a year rebuilding her exactly the way I wanted her for fishing out of Fort Lauderdale. I wanted to fish for swordfish in the summertime, sailfish during the winter, and dolphin and marlin during the spring and fall. Last June we splashed her right before summer set in and went full-go sword fishing on her. We won 3 out of the six tournaments we entered and my brother landed a damn nice fish around 250lbs. Sail fishing was fair this year but very inconsistent over all.

Yesterday was the first time I fished my own sport fishing boat without having her occupied as a charter vessel. The boat that I dreamed of having my whole life, the boat that I put my heart and soul into for over a year, the boat that took me to where I wanted to fish and dragged the spread I wanted to drag, was finally put to the ultimate test. Catching this fish on our first trip targeting marlin on the NV here in Fort Lauderdale is one of the most gratifying experiences of my life.

Sometimes a fish can truly be more than just a “fish”. Tight lines and good luck out there!

Capt. Jeff