George, the Marlin and the Shark

One of the things we hope that everyone gets to experience is wrestling with one of the large finny critters that swim around our here. Unfortunately, things had not been going well for son George and he was batting 0 after a number of hookups.

Well that changed pretty dramatically this time around. George arrived at the back of the boat to see a large marlin tail walking across the horizon. At first blush, he thought things would be pretty straight forward.

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But it wasn’t long before the marlin decided that wasn’t the way it was going to be.

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Some 45 minutes later, the marlin showed himself.

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And then promptly dove straight down 150 feet or so. It was at this point that we noticed something else hanging around.

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Nest time we got the marling near the boat, we noticed it was lacking a significant number of its body parts.

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And as we tried to boat the marlin, the oceanic white tip sharp wasn’t the least bit bashful about attacking the marlin right at the transom.

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The shark was aggressive enough that we simply cut the marlin loose and the last we saw was the shark following the marlin as it sank. In fact, it was disconcerting to see how it had virtually no fear or concern about our presence – it was going to have its way with the marlin.

We all felt bad for the marlin as we intended to release it but mother nature had other ideas. It was an amazing thing to see but also was a stark reminder about how things operate out here.

On this one, all complaints about killing a bill fish should be addressed directly to the shark.

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