A Marlin Dream come true for John Bayett
by Captain Duarte Rato
After two slow days fishing with Rod, Carmen and Gordon Janz from Canada they decided to take a break from their 6 day charter. John Bayett from SA was staying with us and his had a dream of catching a Marlin for many years. He tried in Mauritius and one day at Bazaruto with no luck. I asked him if he would like to go out and he readily agreed to go out on a half day.
We started at V mile under a cloudy sky and light SE breeze at 7am. As we worked north the water got better and better and at sailfish bay the tuna and bonito were wild. Our other boat was already there catching them up on poppers and they bagged a few good one’s up to 30 kg. We got a couple but John wanted a Marlin so we left the shallow water mayhem and worked our lures in deeper water. After an hour we got to lighthouse and on the way got one of the biggest skipjacks I have ever seen. The water looked absolutely beautiful, a deep electric blue that gave us hope. It was just before 10am and we were approaching a skipjack school feeding on the surface when the left long rigger went and chaos fallowed as this 300 pound fish started jumping frantically towards the boat. With one engine full ahead it was hard to keep it tight but after some absolutely crazy moments and some more aerial displays we were settle down and John was grinning and sweating it out in the chair. We had a big storm approaching and I urged John to put some heat on the fish early on. In 15 minutes we had him close and again some awesome jumps before the fish went deep. Low gear, heavy drag and slowly we inched it in and on after 25 minutes we got the leader, placed a tag, took some photos and let the fish go.
Happy days and another dream come true!!!
