Fisherman lands a marlin the size of his boat

Les Kerbel with his catch of the day. Supplied photos.

While most fishermen talk about the one that got away, Les Kerbel is still talking about the marlin, which was about the side of his boat that he landed.

The Bay of Plenty fisherman decided to head out to Major Island to try his luck chasing skippys, when he ended up hooking a 117-pound marlin.

Les, who had planned to head out onto the water with a friend three weeks ago, was disappointed when there were issues with his 35-foot diesel powered boat.

Deciding to chance it, he headed out on his small 14-footer with a 30-horse outboard on it, taking out a friend of his to spend a day chasing skippys.

It was after about 15 minutes the line took off, and Les noticed some commotion in the water.

'I assumed it was a skippy but all I saw was this marlin shaking its head from side-to-side, taking my hook,” he says.

'It did a few runs, and we had to put the boat in gear to take up the slack.”

Les says the fight with the marlin lasted about 40 minutes.

The pair were buzzing for days after the catch and couldn't believe Les was able to land the marlin with the tackle he had used.

'I was using a light line, a 60-pound line on a small 6 barro reel that they use for kingfish and that,” he says.

'I also had a join in the line, so I was dealing with the knot each time it ran.”

Les was also using small lures that were only four inches long with a two-barb hook on it.

'I had actually bent the barbs back so I could get them out of a skippy easier. When I brought the fish up, the hook just slipped right out,” says Les.

The two men had to bring the marlin up from the back of the boat to save it from tipping over, and once up, the fish, from tip to tail took up the whole vessel.

Les' 14 foot boat.

'I hear of a lot of people spending a lot of time and money fishing for marlin and not getting anything,” he says.

'People may spend two hours each in the chair with all the expensive equipment and just not get anything.”

Once back on shore, Les took the 12 foot marlin to Tauranga Home Kills where it was weighed and smoked.

'In the end, I didn't even keep any for myself, it all went to friends and family.

'A lot of them hadn't tried marlin before,” says Les.

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2 comments

Sad

Posted on 30-04-2021 14:42 | By B.C.

That poor fish, it died terrified and in pain :(


Major island?

Posted on 30-04-2021 19:03 | By namxa

Big old marlin swimming free in the sea. Cool, let’s kill it.


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