We ran through a stiff NE breeze to get offshore yesterday. It was not a fun ride and I wondered if it was really worth it. I was answered soon after we put our lines out in 50 fathoms about 8 miles south of the Norfolk Canyon. We got covered up with white marlin. All of the short line bites were missed. The long riggers were upstairs with me. I hooked up two white marlin and passed the rods down. The crew never heard anything about that at all. Mike Hurst had never caught a billfish. He was on one fish. Hunter Southall fought the other. The hook pulled on Mike’s fish before we could touch the leader. Hunter got his release. We just stayed in that area and worked between 50 and 100 fathoms. A nice blue marlin, about 400 pounds, came in and crashed the short rigger and hooked itself. We were running nakeds on circle hooks on the flat lines and long riggers with big baits and j-hooks on the short riggers. He hit the right bait. Bernie Sparrer caught that fish. I did not get any photos of that fish. I was too busy driving while that fish was going ape. It did not like that hook. The fish wore Bernie out pretty good. It was his second blue marlin. He caught his first out of Hatteras earlier this year. A bit later it was more white marlin. It was similar to the first bite. Fish on the big baits. Fish on the flat lines. I hooked one on a long rigger. I handed the rod down to Mike because he still had not caught his first billfish. We got the big stuff and the teasers up while circling Mike’s fish. One flat line and a pitch bait were San Cochoed. John Graves had the one flat line not bit. There was a white just following that thing. It must of really liked looking at it. No matter what he did, the fish just kept following that bait. Finally the fish left and we went and got Mike’s first billfish. The ride in was great. Back at the dock, Mike went swimming for his first billfish. Bernie went swimming because he had not gone swimming for his Hatteras blue. Hunter went swimming because they just wanted to throw him in. The reason given was that he went and caught a marlin while his dad was at work. Guy Harvey looked at the photos from the trip and identified Hunter’s fish as a roundscale spearfish. John Graves agreed with him. I guess Hunter went swimming for his first spearfish.
