MARLIN!!!!!!

We were invited down to Mount Maunganui to fish with Andre, the friend who has been up in our neighborhood fishing the last couple weeks, on his boat. We left our apartment Thursday and drove down to Auckland to break up the drive. Then on Friday morning we drove to Maunganui,

met up with Andre and Jared, got supplies, and hit the road to Waihau Bay to fish for the weekend. Waihau Bay was about a 3 hour drive from Andre's house, out in the sticks, but hot for marlin lately. Andre had arranged for us to use a family members property to camp on. There would be no electric or water, but plenty of room for a tent and boat parking, not to mention it was only about 100 feet from the boat ramp. Friday night we arrived just before dawn, so we quickly set up the tent and got ourselves situated. Luckily the Nationals Fishing Tournament was going on at the same time, so there were a few other people around and the local restaurant/bar was open for us to get dinner. Saturday morning we were up bright and early, with

the boat in the water around 6:30. Unfortunately while parking the trailer, Andre clipped the fence and bent the wheel well on the trailer. We would deal with that problem later before we put the boat back on. First thing in the morning, we saw about 20 dolphin, all playing around the boat. Jill got a great video (on facebook) of the dolphin at the bow. Lines were in the water by 7:15 and we were marlin fishing. By 8:30 we were hooked up to our first stripped marlin. She came up into the pattern (5 lures in the water), checked out a couple different lures, then Dave dropped back the shotgun lure and sent it straight down her throat. Andre was ready with his harness on, so he quickly got the rod in place, while Jared drove, and Jill and Dave cleared gear. Getting hooked up was such an adrenaline rush for all of us, no matter what you were doing you were amped and even a bit shaky. No matter how much you talk about "your plan", it still seems like chaos when it happens for the first time. We needed the go pro strapped

to Andre, we needed the camera on the boat turned on, we needed all lines in, we needed all lures off the floor, we needed a hook out of Andre's foot, we needed out riggers pulled in, we needed to keep tension on the line, and we needed to be ready to pull the fish in. Once everything was cleared, Jill scurried up to the roof to get pictures and video. After 15 fishing days, we had decided our first marlin would be kept and eaten, which made for a huge task. It took several attempts to leader and gaff the fish, but we worked out all the kinks. Jill drove, Dave was leadering, and Jared gaffed. Once the gaff was in, we had to get the fish around to the back of the boat and around the

outboard, so we could pull it in. With one big heave, Jared and Dave pulled it in rather easily. Yhewww! We did it! All of this happened in a small 20 minute window. It was intense and very exciting. We decided we would drive back in and unload the fish, then go back out and fish more. Because there was a tournament going on, we were able to get a courtesy weigh at the boat ramp. Usually you would pull your boat out of the water and back right up to the scale hook. However, we couldn't use our trailer because of the bent wheel guard

touching the tire. So we drove the boat close to shore, and dumped the marlin overboard. Dave, Jared, and Andre had to carry the wet, slippery, huge marlin up the bank to the scale. As Jill held the boat in place, she giggled to herself watching the three of them. It was a riot to watch. They tried several different ways to carry the fish and finally got in sync with each other. They hooked it up to the scale for the big moment. 86 kilos (190 pounds) for our first stripped marlin for all of us. What a great feeling! We were able to get in touch

with a local man who would smoke the fish for us. Once it was weighed, the guys had to carry it to the smokers truck. He would take the fish, smoke it, package it, and we would pick it up on Sunday on our way home. We all loaded back into the boat and headed out for more fishing at 9:30am. What a great morning! We fished until about 6:00pm. We did have a couple other fish come up, but they didn't eat the lures. We got back to

the dock, fixed the trailer, and pulled out of the water. With no fresh water, we couldn't clean the boat or anything, so we relaxed and celebrated with a beer. Jill filled up a couple of water bottles at the public bathroom and took a hobo shower to get the salt off and feel fresh. We ate dinner, and got ready for the next day. Sunday we were up even earlier, on the water at 6:00am. We fished until 3:00pm. We did see a couple of marlin, and got hooked up in the afternoon. Jared reeled in the fish, but once it was close, we realized it was a small mako shark. We didn't hook a marlin all day, but the mako was still a bit of fun. Once we got back to the ramp, we quickly took the tent down and packed everything up. We got on the road, stopped to pick up our smoked marlin, and headed home. What a great fishing weekend! Sunday night at Andre's, after we washed the boat and unloaded everything, we watched the videos and looked through the pictures. Of course the guys were super amped about the catch, so they just talked and talked and went thru the coulda, woulda, and shouldas with each other. All four of us were exhausted from the action-packed weekend, so we didn't stay up celebrating to late. We went to Jared and Kirsty's house, right on the beach, to spend the night. Monday morning we got on the road and headed back to the Bay of Islands. We did take our time driving back through a scenic route along the coast.