The Streaker, the Redbird and the Man in the Dark Blue suit.
GENESIS 1:20-21
And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly
above the earth across the expanse of the sky."21- So God created the great
creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water
teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to it's
kind, And God saw that it was good.
We had planned a gulf stream fishing trip for Saturday-so all day Friday we
prepared tackle, sharpened hooks, retied leaders, checked drag settings, did
the maintaince on the engines-and launched "the streaker" our 30ft fountain.
Saturday AM brought pouring rains, bad winds -too bad to even think about
going to the dock- Art had invited me to spend the wk-end at their house on
Fripp Island-We "chilled out" Saturday and somehow never got around to
getting the boat out-Sunday came and the weather looked a lot better-but
neither Art or I fish on Sunday. We were going to take the boat out Monday and
go back to work.
Monday AM we were both up before dawn having a cup of coffee on the
deck-no wind-perfectly still-perfect conditions for offshore-and it happened-
A redbird flew up and landed on the deck-redbirds are really special to mesince
childhood every time My Grandmother-Father or Mother would see
one- they would stop and make a wish-I explained this to Art -who
immediately understood the wish and in the next few minutes we were
going out The Fripp Inlet some 45 mph- The Streaker was doing what it was
made to do. We crossed the snapper Banks in about 45 minutes (35 miles
out) and decided to go on to the gulf stream-the sea was so flat-just perfect
running conditions for this boat- that would really "streak".
Another 45 minutes running-we pulled back the throttles and started trolling
the 100 fathom curve-600ft. During the next couple of hours- fishing was as
slow as the ocean was pretty-we finally caught one small 20 lb dolphin and
decided to troll back into shallower waters.
Somewhere about 350ft of water-about some 65-70 miles offshore-Art
started hollowing "Ed, here comes the biggest-bluest Marlin ever!" this fish
was totally "lit-up" neon blue. We decided if the Blue hit-to try and set the
hook with the engines. The way this works is by leaving the rod in the
holder-
Dropping the lever on he petll1 international to free spool with the clicker
on keeping pressure on the line for about 8/10 seconds-then slamming both
the engine throttles and the reel's drag lever forward to set the hook-Well- it
hit-and we did the drill perfectly-when Art threw the lever to full-the giant
Marlin jumped unreal-This was the biggest fish either of us had ever seen-
Every time this giant fish jumped water would be thrown up in sheets-the
Penn International was screaming-We had our hands full-the penn 50 wide
holds some 8-900 yards of 50lb test line and it was disappearing way too
fast-for the next hour-this fish stayed airborne-with jumps and runs on top
of the ocean-It put on the grandest airborne show we had ever seen ..
Staying airborne after about an hour the fish began to tire enough to start
bringing her closer to the boat-I grabbed the leader and pulled her boat side.
That's when we realized how huge this Blue Marlin was. We both could
clearly see-we we had way more fish than we had ever encountered before.
We realized that this fish was well over 800 lbs. at least a new South
Carolina record we also realized there was no way in the world for the two
of us to boat this fish- we needed some help-so we called every channel on
the VHF radio-looking for some help -nothing-nobody answered not even
the coast guard.
It was Monday AM and we were alone on the pond some 70 miles offshore.
We did not have a transom door-nor a winch-we knew we were looking at
one mad grown fish over 800 lbs- This fish was communicating to mewith
eye contact-The size of the fish made us start rethinking our plansquick.
It let me know he had every intention to kill me -ifhe could get me into the
water. During the fight we had made all the preparations to gaff this fish-
The flying gaff was tied off to the transom- I had the perfect shot for gaffing
this giant.-I placed the gaff over her shoulder - all that was left to finish this
fight was to sink the gaff and the gaff head would be secured into the giant
fish- tied to the boat cleat with the lh inch rope.- Art and I knew it was
wrong to kill her-We discussed why we would kill this great fish- for a
picture? it just wasn't right, so we were getting the knife to cut the line -
when the giant fish made another huge run-this time grazing the line on the
boat-she was free-Art and I both were glad to see the giant swimming away.
We had just had the offshore thrill of a lifetime and everybody won.
Fishing was over for that day- it wasn't noon yet but we knew anything else
that happened that day wouldn't began to compare- so we headed home. On
the way home we talked a lot about God's creation and it's beauty. We
talked a lot about The majesty of the gulf stream and how blessed we had
been to experience it's beauty and fury so many times. We talked about how
God knows us personally. I remember that Art said He believed that The
Lord also knows the name of every fish we had ever been allowed to catch.
As we got closer into shore we were discussing eternity and Art said that
eternity was longer in time than one seagull picking up one grain of sand
from every beach on the east coast and placing it on the west coast then
making another few trillion trips back to repeat the process again.
We don't have any pictures of this giant fish but I hope that anyone who
reads this will be more excited about knowing that this great fish is still very
much alive-than from seeing it hanging up from a hoist.
God Bless.
Fishing tip-if you fish INSHORE in saltwater-buy an EPIRB! Emergency
Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon- even if you carry handheld VHF's and
Cell phones an EPIRB will bring help faster than anything else .It could be
the best investment you ever make.
Ed Ellis
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