“Guy, what is the greatest angling experience/biggest fish story you have had?” Here it is:
“Today, January 25, 2025 will mark the 20th anniversary of the tagging & release one of the largest black marlin ever caught at
@tropicstarlodge . The big marlin was initially hooked near the Zane Grey Reef in the morning by a TSL boat, “Miss Alaska” but broke the line right away. The same marlin was then hooked again 2 hours later by another TSL boat, “Miss Spain”, with captain Masso, mate Arnufo & anglers Neil & Anne Patrick from Australia. The GHRI team & Bonnier film crew were out tagging black marlin & shooting a TV episode. On the “Tropic Star” with Captain Alberto, we went over to film the action. Bill Shedd was our angler - Whit Davis our tagger. After seeing the size of the marlin jumping we decided to stay & film the whole process, putting film producer Ken Kavanaugh, Whit (w/ tag pole) & Bill on board the “Miss Spain”. Fighting the huge marlin on 50# line, Neil was not making much progress. We did not want the marlin to die. After several hours I decided to dive down in SCUBA gear to attach an 80# line to the leader. This would enable another angler to work on the marlin with Neil, so we could catch it faster, tag & release it. After 5 failed attempts diving to catch up with the marlin at 100 feet, I took my video to get some underwater footage. I could see the broken line & leader trailing along the right side of the fish, the snap swivel was about 3 feet past the tail. It was like having a measuring tape. The leaders at TSL then were all measured at 15 feet. Knowing this allowed me to calculate the short length of the marlin at 13 feet, with an estimated weight of about 1,300 pounds. Wow! On the next dive I secured the snap swivel on the leader at 80 feet. With Neil & Bill working in unison they brought the fish to leader 40 minutes later. After 5 hours fighting time, Whit got the satellite tag in, Arnufo cut the leader & the huge marlin swam off. Her track showed that she swam to the Galápagos Islands & returned several weeks later to the Perlas Islands close to the mainland before the tag came off after 9 weeks. Incredible.”
#GuyHarvey #GHF #LoveTheBlue
