Another Black Marlin for Fat Girl
Marlin Report – Durban – 10.03.2018
On Saturday morning the clean purple water was back inshore and we saw a Marlin come bouncing into the spread from the side and 1 Tiagra start screaming and it was not long before the line was halfway into the backing with over 600m of line out before we able to turn the fish. We had to fight on a light drag because we had a small Blue/White Williamson Sailfish Catcher rigged with a 6/0 hook on a 1mm leader, so rather delicate for the fish at hand. 2 hours later and by that time the NE had picked up and turned the ocean choppy we released a large Black Marlin. What a great feeling, especially on such a small lure. Well done Sakkie on your Marlin.
It’s been a frustrating 3 weeks and the water has not been that great with screaming currents, green water inside and wind from every direction, water temperatures have varied from 22deg.C – 28deg.C and out in the deep the flying fish and squid are plentiful. We have not seen a Dorado or Wahoo since early February, but we have been catching a lot of Yellowfin Tuna, including a nice size one and the Skipjack Tuna have been around in large numbers and many multiple hook ups with 1 trip yielding 18. In the last 3 weeks we have been as far as the Tugela drop off and the continental shelf and have had 5 Marlin strikes, but all of them have not committing and hitting the leader far up from the kona. All the fish and the Marlin strikes have been coming in the colder green water with the warm purple water yielding nothing. With the amount of squid, flying fish and skipjack tuna around and added to this the amount of Marlin strikes we have had I am certain that Marlin are around in fair numbers especially the Blacks so we should see some more this season.
