Martha and her husband Larry came to Kona in pursuit of catching Martha her last species of billfish to complete the Billfish slam. Short nose spearfish are usually the last species for an avid sport fisherman to catch and Martha had come all the way to Kona for just that reason. We started the week off with a bang and on day one she caught three Striped Marlin and a small blue. This day was full of action and most of our bites were doubles, including blues and striped marlin together. On our way home from the grounds a large blue climbed on one of our 50’s and we chased it for over 2 miles never letting it get very far away. After close to an hour into the fight we finally had the big blue beat. Ten feet from getting the leader we added some more pressure to plane the fish up and the 50 lb test line gave out. Though it can’t be considered a catch we definably got the best out of that fish.
(Originally posted on February 17, 2009)