Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
The outrigger baits were skipping nicely in our wake. Our boat speed was just right. We must have been making a very natural presentation was all that I could figure. At least the gulls seemed to think so.
For several minutes I watched Mr. Evans cranking furiously and cussing profusely as he tried to keep our ballyhoo baits from getting beaked! Special guest crew member Capt. Ryan Freese, of “A Salt Weapon III” fame, was trying to deter the winged bait snatchers by shouting and cat-calling at them. I turned into the wind and subsequently with the wind. Neither worked to discourage the flying foursome that had posted up over our baits.
Then the right short rigger popped out of the clip and the drag started to sing! In all my years I have never met a bird that could pull drag against a Penn 50W International. Something had snuck up on us while we were bird watching, actually more like bird battling. Mr. Evans handed the rod to our good friend and client, Brooke Duvall, and the fight was on.
For the first minute or so of the fight there was some discussion as to what the identity of the sneak attacking species might be. The de-bait was quickly decided when ol’ Whitey came up jumping behind the “Last Call”. I was quite pleased. It was early in the day and we were hooked up to our primary target for the day. A great start to the day.
Shortly thereafter Mr. Evans was able to grasp the leader and make our catch official. Much to our surprise, the fish was sporting some bling! A bright orange ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) tag was piercing the shoulder of our white marlin. Whether or not fish actually have shoulders is a discussion we can save for another time! Mr. Evans held on to the marlin’s snoot and Mr. Freese (guest crew members get honorary titles of respect as well) deftly removed the tag. The marlin was successfully revived and released. The baits were again deployed.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with ICCAT, there is a wealth of information to be found on the interweb. The Cliff’s Notes answer is that it is an international organization tasked with the management and conservation of tunas and tuna-like species. Marlin, swordfish, and sailfish are somehow included in the definition of tuna-like species. Tuna-like species???? I guess we can save that topic for the follow up to the “Do Fish Have Shoulders? Talk Amongst Yourselves” (DFHSTAY for short) meeting to be held at the Ocean City Marlin Club this winter! I encourage you all to read up on ICCAT and form your own opinion on the group and its history.
Personally I have never been shy, or quiet, about my opinion of ICCAT. I will not go into that here, so as not to lend any bias to the forming of your opinion. Likewise I will hold my tongue and curb my keyboard when it comes to my thoughts on tagging. Over the years I have tagged many fish, and been involved in the recapture of many tagged fish.
Somehow, however, this was the first tagged white marlin I have ever caught off of Ocean City. Brooke Duvall has been fishing with me since 1997 and his resume includes trips to Australia, Cabo San Lucas, Costa Rica, the Galapagos, Guatemala, Isla Mujeres, Kona, and Venezuela, along with all of the East Coast hot spots. This was his first tag recapture ever! We are both anxious to hear about the travels of this particular white marlin once ICCAT responds to our recapture correspondence. I will share that information in the Winter Issue of the Coastal Fisherman, along with some other tagging stories…
Winter Issue…. Wow. The fact that I am mentioning the Winter Issue means that the regular season issues are coming to a close. Another set of marbles have left my jar. The Summer of 2020 lived up to the rest of the year. Unpredictable and unprecedented. I never thought I would say that I missed having in-person Captain Meetings for tournaments! A few of my favorite tournaments were canceled out of Covid cautionary measures. The town was not quite as crowded, and the docks were sometimes empty. We didn’t gather at the watering holes to swap fish stories. Ocean City just didn’t feel like Ocean City many times this summer.
But then again….. The tunas bit like crazy for a good portion of the summer. I have never seen Spanish mackerel in such numbers. There were plenty of marlin and some monster mahi. The bay fishing might have been a little hit or miss, but Big Bird Cropper and Neighbor Dave still popped up in just about every issue of the Coastal Fisherman. At the start of each charter I got to marvel at not one, but two, amazing ferris wheels as I ran out the inlet. The sun still popped up each morning in all its glory, welcoming a new day on the water. Old friends still came back and new friends showed up on the scene (Will we ever know the true identity of the Marlin Mauler???). Maybe Ocean City still felt just like the Ocean City I have known and loved since I was a kid after all.
I would like to thank Christine and Larry Budd for carrying on the tradition of the Coastal Fisherman, and keeping me in the fold. I want to send my love to Mary, Tom, Little Larry and Mrs. Jock. When I wrote my first column this season I had tears in my eyes thinking about my buddy Jocko. Tonight I have different tears (yes tonight, Thursday night, I am late for deadline again). Tears that are still about LJ, but they are tears that are sentimental because the Coastal Fisherman survived through 2020 and will continue on in the future. That is what Larry would have wanted. Stay the course everyone. Stay Safe. There are wondrous days ahead. Thanks for reading.
God Bless you all, and God Bless the USA… §
