A Fish Story

Sharing a story from our new blue realitas.

There’s a story to that Yellowfin.
I was out fishing a Temp break about 100 miles out on my brother’s boat. We had put a few nice fish in the boat during the night and early morning and now we had a chance to dive. The boat was still fishing two chunk bait rods shallow and chumming. Me and my dive buddy from Bali and Marthas Vineyard Davo Holdsworth were diving right underneath the hull. Coming up ft from the boat. There were fish everywhere. Nice YFT busting the surface in the distance. Big Shoals of Skipjack and Bonito in Blue 100’ vis 80+ water. Primo.
I’m breathing up on the surface a few ft from the boat and Wham! I get smashed in the arm. Unsettling slow motion. I turn my head to get a face full of Tuna belly. WTF! I instantly think about a shaft. Davo must have shot this thing. The fish is now on my shoulders trying to hide behind me. No Shaft. Shit. Look out for fishing line and hooks. 1 second has passed. No line. Oh. Freeswimming Fat YFT on the surface. Shoot that. I grabbed the muzzle of my Long gun to try to pull it around, but the fish was so close that it wasn’t possible to reach the handle. Whitewater. This fish is going nuts. Then I look down. I see a Huge Bill slashing ft away from my chest. The YFT is on my back. This Marlin reminds me of a giant Bull Snorting pissed off that it can’t get it’s dinner. This is not a good situation. I look to my Dive buddy and tell him to get out of the water. Instead he angles off and laces that Tuna in the head off my shoulder. Blood and the tuna takes off and then all hell breaks loose. The Marlin chasing the tuna. The tuna trying to hide behind us. The most aggressive and incredible moves. Lines. Shafts. And then the Marlin snags himself on one of our baits and takes off at 100mph and shortly breaks off. We subdue that tuna as quickly as possible and get in the boat. Nuts. How big was that Marlin? Big enough to eat this Tuna. Check out the marks on the fish.
What did I learn? In this situation I was glad we were not using Cable Shooting lines. At one point I did have my gun aimed right at the head of that Marlin, but at that moment I didn’t feel threatened. Things could have easily gone sour in many ways. We were lucky the boat was Right there. I’m a big fan of making the boat the center of the drift in Bluewater diving. If the engine’s off the fish don’t mind it at all. I’ve shot plenty of nice fish right under the hull in Bluewater situations.
Anyways. Just a fish story.

Yes.. We caught and released many times Marlin over 600lbs this year. They're a nuisance for us as we are fishing for Tuna. When we get a Marlin we crank down the drag, put on gloves, and Handline the fish to the boat as quickly as possible. Usually less than 20 mins, and release. This allows us to get back to fishing and the Marlin the bet chance of a healthy release. A guy caught and landed and kept a Blue Marlin almost 900lbs near to where we were diving. Divers have had a few encounters this year with Huge Marlin attacking their speared fish, and also another team of divers out of Montauk had a similar situation to mine where the Marlin was chasing a Bonito which was trying to hide in the Armpit of one of the divers and he was being stalked by a Big Marlin. His dive buddy opted for the shot and placed a solid shot on a 600lb Blue Marlin. It dragged him for 2 miles in what he said was an "extremely tough fight" He landed the fish. A World Record. Chris Miller is a Fisherman born under the docks in Montauk. He processed this fish expertly and none went to waste.