Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The First Marlin of the Year

I have been on both trips with ゆきぼーさん (Yukibo-san, the boat captain) this year for marlin. He's a つりきち (committed/obsessed fisherman) like me and we are finally on the page (we are pretty much both up for a marlin trip any time we can make it happen). Today, despite only four people, we went fishing.

One of the the guys was a newbie, so we agreed he would take the first fish. At 12:40pm, we hooked up. The marlin actually hit a pole to my right, briefly, then hit and got hooked on the far left pole.

[He looks tired, which he shouldn't be because he's only 30 minutes in]

[Since this was a small one, Yukibo handed over all the duties of getting the marlin in the boat. This gave me an opportunity to try a new job: spearing the marlin at the edge of the boat with a flying spear-point (attached to a rope, it detaches from the spear). It's a striped marlin - note how colorful it is in its waning moments]

[Many people showed up to witness the return of the first marlin this year. It weighed in at 52kg - big for a striped marlin, small for the 'general marlin' category]

[cutting up the marlin]

Later in the afternoon we had a marlin hit a lure, take some line out on it, then get off. He came back and hit the lure again, before taking out more line and getting off again! An hour later we had another barely touch a lure. Good to know they're still out there because we're probably going fishing again this weekend! (I cannot express my happiness at getting in with the marlin fishing captain. From now on, I think I'm set as a member of the team.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! I have been following your blog for a short while. Thought I said hi and not lurk too much. :) Its really nice to hear about your experiences in Japan. Keep writing! Hui

Dave said...

Hui, thanks for letting me know you're out there! (where are you?) Glad you enjoy reading. Hope it continues to be interesting.

Anonymous said...

I think you're just being modest, that fish is huge! Always fun reading your adventures over in your neck of the woods. Hope you're having fun! - Chris "Topher" Wargo

Dave said...

Chris, thanks for reading and replying! I think I owe you a letter from looong ago... Hope things are well for you.