 POP ART — Marlin on a popper in Madagascar — By Mark Wals
WHAT an epic weekend fishing we had in Mahajunga, Madagascar! It reads like a fairy tale: I caught my first marlin, and it had to be on the lightest outfit that I had on the boat — a Stella 4000 reel with a 12 lb PowerPro line, Cabelas Salt Shaker 7’6” inshore rod, a 20 lb leader, a 1oz clear Doug Swannel popper and a 0.5mm speed clip from the leader to the lure.
We were a little worn out from jigging, so we decided to check out a small flock of birds to catch a bonito and have fun on the light rod. Well, that never happened!
When we got near the birds I saw a big fish under them, so I cast my popper near it and started cranking. As it turned I saw that it was a marlin, and it went straight for the popper, took a swipe at it but did not hook up. I was running out of space as the popper was getting too close to the boat, so I pulled it in and dropped it back in the water. In true marlin fishing fashion it spun around and ate the popper. Hookup!
Once hooked it stayed in the same place, thrashing his bill. It was then that I noticed that my main line had somehow become wrapped around the rusted anchor on the bow of the boat when I had dropped the lure back in the water. Talk about a panic attack!
I cleared the line just in time as it bolted in a series of jumps, going a million miles an hour, after which it started diving deep. A quick guesstimate put the fish at around 80 lb, which meant that I was heavily undergunned.
The fight was truly on now, and the reel was covered in a yellow dust from the PowerPro line peeling off at maximum pressure. At that speed it had me anticipating the inevitable sound of fishing line parting at the reel. I was using a 0.5mm thick speed clip from my leader to the lure, and the likelihood of the clip opening up, in addition to all the other things that could go wrong with the setup, was playing on my mind the entire time.
Read the full story in the January/February 2010 issue of SKI-BOAT.
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