REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Firsts!!! one in sock feet

Our sock footed angler

Many times in past posts I have written about guests catching their first blue marlin. Its always special. But this past weekend we had a father and son that we took fishing. Neither of them had caught a blue marlin before. The first day we managed to catch the father his first blue marlin. It was very exciting and he was ecstatic. The blue was on the smaller side but gave him a great fight on 30 lb tackle. We had a couple other shots that day but only came tight on one other fish, only to pull the hooks. Upon returning to the dock, tradition has it that when an angler catches his or her first marlin, they get thrown in the water. We talked about it, but decided that we would wait till his son caught his first blue as well. On day two, once again we had some good shots on fish but just could not capitalize on the shots we had. Day three proved very slow. We had one fish in the spread around mid day that barely bit the left short rigger bait. The day wore on and the anxiety increased with each minute. I wanted to catch a blue marlin for our guests 14 year old son so bad. This young man had not felt well at all for the three days we had fished and never complained one time. He was a real trooper. Things were looking bleak as the clock pushed to 15 minutes till 5 pm. It was not looking good. Then out of nowhere a nice size blue marlin popped up behind the left teaser. As soon as I started to retrieve the teaser, the blue faded back and clobbered the lure just behind the teaser. Everyone went into fight mode and everyone was screaming for Mason. All the lines were being retrieved but the young man was still in the cabin. ( perhaps thinking were were pulling his leg. ) When he finally walked onto the back deck. the chaos of all the lines being retrieved as the line was steadily pealing off the reel with a pissed off marlin on the other end stunned him. He was still a bit groggy standing there in his socks after napping on the couch. He walked in a couple circles then gained his senses. He soon realized that he needed to jump into action. He did so like a champ. He stepped up to the rod and reel and showed the marlin that had peeled most of the line off the reel that he was not asleep anymore. Gone too was the nausea. The fish headed down sea and played give and take for the first 15 minutes of the fight. With his arms and hand beginning to cramp and still in his socks the young man toughed it out. We nearly got the leader to the tip of the pole a few times but this fish was a mean one. The fish had no idea that the 14 year old at the other end of the line was more determined that it was. Once Matt grabbed the leader there was a loud unison cheer that I believe was heard in Japan from everyone on board. We worked the fish along side and got some great pics. I am not sure who was prouder ... the angler , the father, my mate or me. Lots of high fives and congrats to one hell of a sock footed angler.
The weekend before I had asked to boss to let us go try for a swordfish as we were pretty much caught up with projects. He agreed and told us to go. So we grabbed a few other crews off the dock and headed out. Now with the boss allowing us to go out for a fun day I did not want to abuse the privilege, so we began trolling right from the marina. About thirty minutes into the day we hooked up and caught a white marlin. We were all ecstatic as we were only 4 miles from the marina. Thirty minutes later we pulled in the lines and began drifting baits on the bottom in 1800 feet of water for swordfish, after about 40 minutes we came tight on a swordfish. It pulled pretty good and just as we were about to see color the line went slack. The hooks had pulled loose. That was a big let down. As I turned around to look at my plotter the swordfish jumped twice off of the bow of the boat. Oh well! we made another drift and got bit but never came tight. We all decided that we should troll back to the marina. Low and behold, in the same spot we had caught our white marlin earlier, another white marlin jumped us. Everyones mood was lifted from losing the swordfish. Then 20 minutes later we caught yet another white marlin. All in all it was a great day off.
The boss comes back in a few days from now. Matt and I are looking forward to having him back.