Ladies and gents.
This a warning for my fellow Ausfish members - please stay well away from me at any times when I'm fishing. At the moment a very dark and vicious curse has descended upon me and crew in my boat.
So far this marlin season I am 8-8-0 with anything that could go wrong going wrong but Saturday was a new experience - even for me.
I took Leanne out for a "picnic" in the big boat with a plan of a few swims at Flinders and maybe a quick fish before staying overnight on the inside of Moreton. You couldn't have got a better day - it was hot - no wind - no swell - water was warm - champagne was cold. It really was the reason we own a boat.
Leanne wanted some sushimi so we put out three rods with verminator pusher lures and had or first stripey on board within 200m of leaving Flinders. No good I had to tell her - lets wait for a yellowfin. 40 mins later and a few more stripeys down she was having a ball.
Over a gourmet smoked salmon roll for lunch the long rod goes off and Leanne runs down stairs to go again. This one is taking more line and by the time I run down to clear the other two lines she's worried about being spooled. My interest was pricked and sure enough when I look back there's a lovely black jumping clear out of the water and performing a full somersault before landing tail first. By the time I got back into the chair it was 350m+ away and going further. I started backing down but Leanne's arms were struggling to keep up. Her constant cries of stop, as her arms went "jello", had us gaining only slowly on the fish but we had manged to close the distance to 150mish after about 10min.
It was at this moment the feeling of dread started. It was a solid hook-up and although my anxiety was raised as a result of my luck so far this season, it seemed there was nothing that could prevent Leanne from tagging her first marlin. That was until I looked to my left !
About 300m away and closing was a big ocean sailing cat. With plenty of spare water around I wasn't too concerned and went back to watching the fish and Leanne. When I looked up again he was 200m away and had yet to divert course despite a bloke on the bow pointing at the pretty marlin going spare out the back of our boat. I started sreaming, waving my arms around and pointing to Leanne and the fish but the three guys out the back of the cat just stood there watching me as if they were stone. I couldn't believe it - they kept bearing down just looking at me and the fish. Leanne was screaming no and I was going beserk but they kept sailing. They crossed 50m from the stern of my boat directly between the fish and us. The line went dead but Leanne's first marlin continued to jump on the other side - just not connected to her rod and reel.
I switched off the motor with the only sound a quite swish from the cat as it went passed. I then let the biggest tirade of abuse and insults the world as ever seen go at the three blokes who just continued to look at me but a little more sheepishly than before. In between the abuse I could here Leanne saying "don't chase them don't chase them". How did she know what I was going to do even as my hand reached for the key. I looked at her - the disappointment in her eyes and then back at the cat - it was over and there was nothing any of us could do.
We were both gutted - I felt so bad for Leanne who has wanted to catch a marlin for so long but had always taken a back seat on the boat when we'd gone out fishing with the other boys. She was so close - it was just unbelievable to have it end that way.
Greg (Sportsfish5) was nearby and had seen the whole thing. I don't think I'll forget his summary "it was like watching a car crash in slow motion" I think that pretty much summed it up.
As Brooksy said later - the only thing I haven't encountered in my onging marlin battle this year is "space junk". Well there's always next weekend
Bugman
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. They must have shite for brains.... 
) left the camera at work DOH !!!
Originally Posted by Brooksy
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