The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1961-05-26

ed just before the late autumn
"And look, Hal :" Edgar con-
tinued.
"You look!" I yelled and grab
bed the rod out of its holder.
Another long, blue shadow had
risen from the depths right behind
my skip bait. The marlin did not
hesitate. 1t took the bait with a
crash as the line twanged out OF
the outrigger clothespin. tried to
be as deliberate as Albert had been,
as l made for the fighting chair,
but all of a sudden l seemed to
have too many feet.
Line peeled off the reel. l waited
for the speed-up. which did not
seem to come. Then l waited a
moment longer. Finally, 1 struck.
The bait moved through empty
water with no resistance. Lyman
had missed again!
"Reel" shouted Edgar, but his
warning had been acted upon be-
fore he gave it. When a marlin
drops the bait, it often will hit
again if it thinks the bait is escap-
ing. l was reeling as fast as
could.
And the trick worked. There was
no need to set the hook. The fish
did it for me with a strike that
tore line off the spool against a
heavy drag at a frightening rate.
I was in business.
This fish, like Albert's, was an
underwater fighter, but there was
no question of it being badly hurt.
1t was far too active and its runs
were long ones. After the first few
I ran into difficulties. The
harness was not adjusted properly
and l had to remove it so that Ed
gar and Albert could make emer-
gency repairs. They claim that this
process took five minutes at the
most. Fight a blue marlin with
your arms alone and you will dis
cover that such five minute pc
riod seems to stretch in direct pro-
portion as your arms stretch.
Moral. test all tackle before using
it.
After about half an hour, the
double 36-thread was in sight and
l had no complaints. Only a shark
attack or some major error on my
part seemed to stand between me
and my first blue marlin.
Then the ibillfihh thrashed on the
surface, turned and was away
again on it's longest run. 1 seemed
to have no control over it. Every
time I gained a little line, it would
take more. The fish was catching
the angler.
"Feel any thumps on the line ?"
Edgar asked.
l certainly did as the vibrations
of the rod tip indicated. And l said
so in no uncertain terms.
"Tail-wrapped." Edgar comment
ed briefly. NV heart sank. On its
surface thrash that marlin had
succeeded in getting a turn of the
leader or line around its tail, which
meant that something might well
break in the connection between
me and it. However, by good boat
M euvering and considerable
sweating on my part, line was
gained slowly but surely. At one
point, my weary fingers slipped of
the foregrip.
Losing your grip?" Edgar
neeedled-and I redoubled my eff.
forts. Again the double line wa:
in sight, until the fish saw the boat
1t was off again in a tremendou.
run which stopped almost as quick,
as it had started. I found mysel
hauling on dead weight.
"a shark may have hit IT," Ed
gar commented grimly, but HI
changed his diagnosis when I still
had trouble gaining line. THAT las
run killed it and it's stuck on bot
tom. Go to work, Hal"
l did. And as l did. I had vision
of the marlin far below us strucl
Like an enormous cribbage peg bill