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Mako nails marlin


lofty
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In the grand scheme of things, sharks taking Marlin, Wahoo, Tuna etc that are hooked is quite common place.

 

It's nicknamed the "Men in Grey Suits" when they come on the scene.

Often if it is a pack of sharks you'll get nothing back, but the head.

 

As for taking the back end, yes, this is normal.

 

In Cape Verde, a guy I became friends with had his own private boat there and he used to release his Marlin by donning some fins and a mask and freediving down pretty deep (25 to 30m) before "shooting" the Marlin on it's way with a big shove and the momentum of the dive. He used to carry a small underwater camera and take shots as he did it which were always pretty cool to see on the big flat screen TV on his boat.

One set of shots saw a HUGE Hamerhead and a slightly smaller Mako hovering either side waiting for the kill. I don't imagine the Marlin lasted long after being sent on it's way.

 

Personally I have only ever experienced it once. In Antigua I was fishing a set of sea mounts about 15nm off the south coast in a big Atlantic swell. We'd been catching some mid sized Wahoo (see my avatar on my info page) and then I hooked into what turned out to be a small Yellowfin Tuna of about 30lb or so.

From being a scrappy, juddering fight typical of Tuna my line simply started leaving the reel and just not stopping. At this stage the crew were still clearing other lines and hadin't noticed and it was only when I was down to the last knockings of line on the reel that they finally listened to my shouts to back the boat up and then the next 45 minutes or so became a dogged fight of retrieving line and then losing it again.

About 20 feet directly under the boat the line suddenly went slack and I got back the whole Yellowfin Tuna, but it had been destroyed with a HUGE bite across the back just behind the pecs. The gape of the bite was far wider than the depth of the fish and was estimated at nearly 18 inches. The teeth marks also suggest a Mako with the local experts guestimating a fish of about 800lb by the size of the gape... but that is all fishermans tales.

The shark hadn't swallowed or even bitten the Tuna in half, it had simply been holding on to it, much like a dogish does with a squid bait. It just let go when it knew it was going to lose the battle.

 

Would have loved to have seen it though!

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