# 6/6 at the Spur



## 285exp (Oct 17, 2007)

Having previously been thwarted by weather, daughter's high school graduation and associated activities, and various other lame excuses, I finally managed to get offshore for the first time this year. Randy, a friend from work, Ryan, his daughters boyfriend, and Cody, son of another co-worker, met me a the marina at 6. I had called the marina late afternoom on Friday to splash the boat, but when we got there she sat high and dry in the rack. !#$?&!. Had to wait until 7 for the marina to open, so by the time we got the boat in the water and loaded up, it was 8 before we cleared the pass. Ran to the elbow, only to find dirty green lifeless looking water, so we turned east and ran toward the Spur. About 6 miles west of the Spur we ran on a small grassline, so we put the outriggers out and lines in. The line quickly petered out, so we continued trolling east toward the Spur through scattered weeds. Had a strike on the WWB, a hoo based on the condition of the lure, but no hookup. I could see the royal red shrimpboat at the Spur, so weheaded over to see if things were any better there. He was trawling to the east, so it took us a while to finally catch up to him. It was 1pm by then, and we had agreed to make a pass around him, and if we didn't see anything we would turn back toward the Nipple. As we came up behind him I saw some splashes just to the south, so we turned and trolled in that direction. Just as we reached the area where I had seen the splashes, the port rigger popped and the 50W started screaming. I turned around to see a big blue make two beautiful jumps and then take off for the horizon. With the line melting off the reel at a frightening rate, Randy managed to get the rig out the rod holder and struggled his way over to the deck chair.I turned the boat so we were quartering toward the fish, and Randy reeled furiously to recover line. For the next 45 minutes we alternated backing down and cranking with more blistering runs, then the gimbal on the chair worked its way loose and fell off. I climbed down from the tower and tossed the kidsa fighting belt. One helped put it on Randy while the other got a screwdriver and reattached the gimbal to the chair. A few minutes later we were back in business, and in another half hour we had the wind-on back on the reel and the fish a few yards away. Naturally, non of us had managed to bring a real camera, so I had Ryan toss my cell phone up to me, and I took a few shots of the fish as it swam alongside. Neither of the kids had ever wired a fish that size, and since I was busy trying to keep the fish out from under the boat, we were at a bit of a stalemate. Randy managed to lead the fish alongside the boat, and then it made a last run under the boat, getting the leader in the outdrives. I pulled the boat into neutral, jumped down to the lower helm station, and tilted the drives up out of the water. Fortunately, the leader didn't get into the props, and the fish was finally worn out. I climbed out on the swim platform and got the leaderout ofthe outdrives, then reached down and removed the hook from the fishes mouth and watched as she slowly swam away. We didn't have a chance to measure her, but my boat has a 9'6" beam, and she was longer than that. By this time, it was around 2:30, so we decided to start heading back to the ranch. We stopped off at a couple of bottom spots on the way in, but the wind had picked up a bit, so after Cody caught a nice little king and we had tossed back several small snapper we headed in, flying our blue marlin flag. Got back to the marina at 7, but the cheering throngs had apparently already left. 

Still trying to get the photos off the cell phone, am too cheap to pay for the plan allowing emailing them. Will try to post them later.


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## Caspr21 (Oct 4, 2007)

send the pictures to a friend that has email on their phone. Sounds like a nice fish!


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## daddytime (Oct 1, 2007)

Can't wait for the pics. Great story and report. Congrats:usaflag


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## recess (Oct 8, 2007)

Fine report of a blue that did not get away. We were at the spur week before and all we seen out there was four blues in the 400 to 700 pound range. Rob fight one on a 70 but let's just say it was a very long release. Congrat's to you and your crew and thanks again for the post. Looking forward to the picture. Gene Team Recess


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## 285exp (Oct 17, 2007)

Award winning photography it is not, and this was even the best one.


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## DISANTO (Oct 1, 2007)

Nice job...looks like a fine fish!


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