Christmas day we were invited to our neighbours Gerry and Elaine’s for dinner.
One of the guests, John and I were talking when his wife said: “Did you hear about John’s fish?” That’s all I needed was another fish story. However, this one was a bit different.
John and a few other guys were out on a charter boat run by Jerry, a Mexican. They were a long way out and taking 20-minute shifts on the rod.
When John’s turn came around he got a hit. They started to play it but lost it again. But then it hit a second time and the fight was on. It took them two and a half hours to get it to the boat. They had caught a huge Blue Marlin.
When they tried to get it into the boat it almost swamped them. Two guys had to sit in the bow to balance things out.
When they got to shore there was a crowd to meet them as they headed to the weigh station. The problem was that the scale wasn’t big enough for the fish. They got a bigger scale and tried to weigh the thing. It was 12 feet long and was weighed with the tail still in the boat. It topped out at 302 Kgs. or 665lbs. John told me that his arms hurt for the next couple of days.
Cleaning it was a breeze. The locals took over because they knew that they were about to get a steak or two. After the guys that caught it had got what they needed, the rest was distributed to the skipper and the locals.
The best part of the story is that they couldn’t wipe the smile off Jerry the skipper’s face. He got great advertising for the third largest fish caught out of Barra. Not only that, there was a pool by the local fishermen that went to whoever brought in the first fish over 150 kg. He won between 10,000 and 12,000 pesos ($690 – $830.)
Check this link. It’s in Spanish but the pictures tell the tale.