Big Blue Marlin – What a Catch!
"A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money."
From the time I was a very young child, I used to love to go fishing in the brooks near our house or up in Maine at the camp when we were on vacation. I had always fished fresh water, but that changed after marrying my husband, Gary.
We were living on the north coast of Long Island, NY in a quaint little town called Northport. So lucky to be on the water, we could fish from our dock if we wanted to and look across the harbor and see Connecticut. Three clam boats would go out of the harbor every day and the activity on the water between the sail boats, swans, geese and gulls was always peaceful to watch.
We began our fishing adventures with a 17 foot run-about boat, something small to putt around the harbor and fish for flat fish or rock fish. The only problem was that I was at the front (bow) and Gary was at the back (stern), and when each of us would cast our lines at the same time, it was not unusual to catch the hooks in each other’s clothing. So, we decided we needed a bigger boat!
The next one was a 25 foot Grady White which is a great, solid fishing boat. It was then that we motored out to Montauk which is at the tip of the island with the wide ocean just waiting there in front of you. We caught lots of fish from sole to sharks, but the bed where we slept was small and I wanted an indoor potty. We enjoyed the Grady White for a few seasons, caught lots of fish, and had a great time, but could never really participate in the big fishing tournaments as they were often times held over the course of two days, and people would go out as far as 60 miles, and sleep over night. So, once more, we decided it was time to go bigger.
What about the Blue Marlin? I’m getting to that! Our next boat was a 36 foot Blackfin, our magic boat, with a queen bed, shower, crew bunks and a galley down below. And above on the main deck was plenty of seating and room to fish with the crow’s nest up high. To the folks at the yacht club where we kept our boat, the Blackfin was known as the bullet as it could just fly up and over the waves just as smooth as silk. We named her Chanteuse which means “singer” in French. The old fishermen called Gary and I, Hansel & Gretel as compared to them, we were very new to the sport, just two babies. What did we know about big game fishing?
Star Island Yacht Club - Tuna-Billfish Tournament
A Handsome Purse for the Win
The Billfish tournaments in the northern areas are often held in August as the fish are following the bait fish from the southern part of the U.S. up the coast on through to Nova Scotia. We decided to enter the Billfish Tournament at Star Island Yacht Club. There were over 100 boats and crew entered for this competition, and to say the least, I was overly excited! The night before was the Captain’s meeting, and when Gary proudly announced I would also be fishing, he was strongly chastised! “You can’t have a woman on board,” they said. “It’s bad luck!" There was one big guy in particular from Massachusetts who looked just like Bluto from the Popeye series who was big and burly with a thick bushy black beard and eyebrows, and he tried his best to intimidate us. But neither Gary nor I were having any of that.
Off to bed, but I couldn’t sleep filled with a sense of the adventure that was to come. At 3:00am, the halogen lights lit up the marina and all the docks as the theme from Jaws began to play loudly from the marina loudspeakers. I jumped up and woke up Gary. It was time to go, but he told me to relax, calm down, as they were now delivering the bait to all the boats. I couldn’t even nod off and kept thinking about getting out there on the water.
At 4:00am a big horn rang out over the speakers and you could hear all the boat engines starting up as they were told to go slowly through the jetty and not bunch up on each other. The tournament had begun and they were off.
We had an experienced first mate, 2 green mates to help, 1 young lad who kept our boat clean and in order, and Gary and I. I hopped up and said to everyone, “Let’s go!”
Gary, who is an old Army pilot and always thinking ahead, told me to calm my little self as he thought we should mosey on over to the restaurant first, since we had 2 inexperienced mates on board and get some food in their stomachs first. So, we drove the boat over to the restaurant and had a nice leisurely breakfast. All done with breakfast, we all climbed back on board ready to head out. Surely, we were ready to get out there now. Everyone else had left.
As we were moving slowly towards the jetty, Gary looked up and noticed that one of our outriggers was bent a bit. Oh, no, can’t have that. So, we pulled into the boat shop for them to straighten it out. That took up a little more time.
I am beside myself with anxiety. Everyone had left at 4:00am, and we were now just getting underway at 11:00am as we cleared the jetty! Gary just smiled at me and didn’t seem worried at all. He reminded me that most all the boats that were entered were the big, old slow fishing boats, and we had Chanteuse, the bullet of the marina. As we cleared the jetty, we took off, and I mean we flew over those waves like they weren’t even there. It was exhilarating to say the least. Talk about, “I feel the need for speed!”
As we got near the area where the tournament was taking place, we saw the crowd of boats to the far left of us all moving in a large circle. Someone must have thought they spotted fish as they began to get very close to each other. Just then, without hesitation, Gary veered off to the far right. “Where are we going?” I asked worriedly. “Everyone is over there,” as I pointed to the left. Gary reminded me that fish have fins and they swim. And just because everyone one else was over there didn’t mean we wouldn’t find fish over where we were going. Gary beats to his own drum and doesn’t feel the need to follow the crowd! Plus, he said that those guys run their boats up on top of each other making it very hard to catch your prize. I’m sure the old fishermen were just laughing as hard as they could because they know everything.
We set out 4 lines in the rod holders on the main part of the boat and 2 in the outriggers. In less than 30 minutes, we had a strike! Then, all hell broke loose. The line in one of the riggers snapped and began to scream. It was the guy, Mark (ex-NY Jet and as green as they come), who grabbed the rod and took the fighting chair. Everyone else began reeling in all the other lines. Gary started backing down on the fish (going in reverse), people were shouting and the waves were coming up over the stern as he moved swiftly to keep control of the fish on the line. I wanted to run up the flag, but Gary just about broke my arm and said a firm NO as he didn’t want all the lookers to come over and get in our way. It took us a little under 3 hours to get that 613 pound Blue Marlin in the boat. A miracle to say the least. She was a beautiful fish. We brought her in through our fish door, and carefully packed her in ice in a fish bag to keep her cool. Once we had her in, only then did we run up the flag and Gary announce we had caught the fish. This was only day one and it was a 2-day tournament.
We went back to the dock at the Star Island marina, they weighed her and carefully put her in the cooler. We had radioed some friends that we were on the way in with a fish, and they met us at the marina with champagne.
The next morning, I asked if we should go out again, but Gary said it wasn’t going to get any better than what we had. She was a big fish! By 5:00pm, the tournament was over and as everyone kept coming in with their catch, we waited with “baited breath!” It wasn’t until the last boat backed down to the scales at the dock that we saw this other boat had a good sized fish on board. But it weighed 543 pounds and ours was 613 pounds, so Hansel & Gretel won the tournament with a very large purse and lots of well wishers. Gary also won the side bet that the Captains made. Paid for all of the fuel and bait and then some for the season. Our story and photo was covered by Big Game Fishing & Tournament Digest magazine, January/February, 1990 edition. Of course, I didn’t make the photo as I was in the marina store getting us all something to drink and missed my big photo op.
It was an experience I shall never forget! I will be forever hooked on deep sea fishing.
Page 1 - Star Island Tournament Article from Big Game Fishing re Tournament
Page 2 - Star Island Tournament Article from Big Game Fishing re Tournament
