Hi Fran,

It has been a few years since Mike took the picture of me holding the Halibut in the second group of photos. It brought back great memories, and fishing with Mike is among the best of them. Has he told you about the Marlin that was caught on my Boat off C.C. during the El Nino years?

Hi Fran,

Well it all started when Mike asked if he could invite a fishing buddy to go with us on a Tuna Fishing trip. Mike said," his name is Doug Oxford, and he's a former fishing guide turned Sherriffs Deputy". I said OK, he's welcolme to join us. Our first trip with Doug was very good and so when we planned another trip Mike couldn't go, but Doug was available and another friend John Conderaque (not sure of spelling). John owned the Smith River Motel, and I had him through Mike. It was around early Sept of 1997, and we headed out very early around 5amone morning. As we left the Harbor I noticed what seemed a carpet of small round Jelly Fish all around us and as deep as i could see. John promptly took out his brand new camera, a Minolta i think, and proceeded to snap shots above and then holding the camera under the water taking shot after shot. I finally asked him to save some for the fish, at which time we continued on with our mission to catch Tuna. Well we wre out about 15 miles and hadn't caught a thing. Conditions were very good and water temp was right, but no Tuna. We had been trolling for some time when I heard radio chatter about Tuna at 9 miles from C.C. I could see a couple of boats inside us, so we picked up the Lures and headed toward them. After we started trolling again,it wasn't long before we had jig strikes and caught a couple of Tuna. So we put the lines back in, and started trolling again. This time when we hooked up, a big seal grabbed the fish. So, I made a quick move to get away from the seal and started trolling again. Well, we trolled some distance, but had no strikes. So I turned back towards the area we had hooked the Tuna, hoping that the seal would be else where by now. I retraced the the path shown on my Chart Plotter back to the area of the catches we'd had, noticing another vessel was also fishing the same area. Doug said he thought the other fisherman was a retired DFG warden, and we waved and continued on. Now the entire time we trolled i operated the Helm, so i relied on Doug and John to spot any activity behind, and i would do the same ahead. Suddenly, I saw Dougs eyes go wide open and wondered out loud what's that! About that time one of the reels started to scream from a jig strike, and as I looked back to see, a Marlin jumped behind the boat with my lure, ( a Mexican Flag pattern) and proceeded to take the line off the reel. I turned the boatr around in order to chase the fish,so that Doug could tighten the drag and get back some line on the reel, which by this time was almost empty. I put the engine in neutral and watched as Doug proceeded to pull on the Marlin. The fish put on agreat show for us and attracted the other boater we had passed to watch. I was waiting for Doug to hand off the fish so we could all have a turn, since is was my boat and fishing equipment, I didn't think it was to much to ask, but Doug would not hand off. So John at the least was taking picture after picture with his brand new Camera of an amazing event, such as it was. As the Marlin, a Striped Marlin, came to the boat, I put on my gloves,and was able to grab its Bill and hold on. It was worn out by that time,and put up little resistance. Now while this was going on John was making a visual recording with his "brand new Minolta", so I suggested that rather than kill such a fish, that we release it to live on. Having no voiced objections, and the fact that we would have pictoral proof of our wonderous catch, I ordered the engine put in gear and proceeded to revive the Marlin by holding it in a swimming position. It wasn't long before i felt the fish starting to revive, and as I released it, the fish put on a visual glow turning different colors as it left our view. I felt extremely pleased that it was still alive, and we were anxious to get back to the dock and brag about our Marlin. I asked John to get the film developed asap, so we could prove the catch. The next i heard was from Mike,telling me how Doug Oxford went to the Triplicate and told them how he caught a Marlin and omitted to mention me or my boat and fishing equipment, and so in the Issue of Sept. 6 1997, an article appeared with Dougs version of how he caught a Marlin off C.C. To top it off, John seemed to have had a malfunctio with his "Brand New Camera", and only the Jelly fish pics developed. I imagine that the camera ran out of film, but John has never said and I know how bad he felt, so it was best not to ask him. So Fran, by this time you probably wished you'd never asked about the Marlin, but I can tell you it was a thrill for me regardles of the lack of proof. Oh, and by the way, Doug was never invited again.