South African citrus farmer Ben Vorster, 50, was fishing aboard the 37-foot Bertram constitution boat Smoker with famend Capt. Ryan “Roo” Williamson the morning of Might 19 when he hooked into one of many largest Atlantic blue marlin ever caught on a rod and reel. The crew was trolling off Africa’s central-west coast close to Mindelo, Cape Verde, once they first noticed the fish.
“At 7:30 a.m. Roo seen a monster marlin rise on a far again trolling lure simply quarter-hour after establishing for fishing,” says South African Capt. Steve Andrews, one among Williamson’s finest mates and fishing buddies. (Williamson was out marlin fishing when Out of doors Life contacted him for an interview, however he informed the story of the fishing journey to Andrews, who shared with us the story from Cape Verde.)
Williamson solely trolls a single long-line lure—usually a Pulsator tube of his personal design—for large marlin, Andrews explains. The concept is to tease an enormous fish up shut, drawing it into the transom teasers and dredges. The crew then tries to seal the deal by pitching out a 4-pound tuna bait rigged on a circle hook.
When this explicit marlin rose behind the Smoker on Thursday morning, Andrews says the deckhands labored onerous and quick to tease the fish inside straightforward pitching distance. It took the bait immediately, and Vorster hopped into the combating chair to do battle, utilizing a stout rod and an 80-pound trolling reel spooled with 130-pound take a look at line—a super setup for pitch-fishing to very large marlin.
“After hooking the fish, it by no means jumped, so that they couldn’t affirm how large they believed it to be,” says Andrews. “Ben is a powerful, powerful farmer, and an enormous sport hunter. [He] did an unbelievable job combating the fish and getting the marlin to the boat in solely half-hour.”
As the massive blue neared the boat, the crew realized simply how huge it was. They hit the billfish with flying gaffs whereas it was nonetheless inexperienced and lots robust. The fish bent open one of many gaffs, however the crew was nonetheless capable of wrestle it into the boat.
Again on the marina, the marlin was positioned on a digital scale, the place it formally weighed in at 1,370 kilos. It measured 12.6 ft in size with a 6.6-foot girth, and the fish’s tail fin alone was practically three ft throughout.
“It’s a dream come true for Ben Voster,” says Andrews. “He’s an avid marlin fisherman and boat proprietor, similar to his brothers Gerhard and Michiel, who have been alongside him through the catch.”
The Voster brothers have been fishing a six-day constitution with Capt. Williamson. Andrews says they loved phenomenal fishing over the course of their journey, catching and releasing 14 blue marlin as much as 800 kilos. Just about all these marlin have been caught utilizing the pitch-bait tactic.
“The final morning of the constitution journey was when Ben caught his large marlin,” says Andrews. “The Cape Verde space is only a spectacular blue marlin fishery.”
Williamson would agree. He believes the realm would possibly one of the best place on the earth for catching numerous large blue marlin, Andrews says. And Roo is a reasonably good choose of the world’s marlin fisheries. The son of the late however legendary Capt. John Williamson, founding father of the well-known Williamson Lures firm, Roo has fished practically all over the place the species swims. When he’s not chasing marlin and chartering offshore journeys, he produces large sport lures for Pulsator Lures, which relies in South Africa.
Placing their catch in perspective, the fish that the Smoker crew landed earlier this week is the second heaviest blue marlin ever caught from the Atlantic. Though loads of anglers goal these large billfish in deep water, it’s not fairly often {that a} fish over 1,000 kilos—also called a “grander”—is introduced into the boat.
The IGFA All-Sort out World Report for Atlantic blue marlin weighed 1,402 kilos, and it was caught off the coast of Brazil in 1992 by angler Paulo Amorim. Portugal has produced at the very least two Atlantic blues weighing within the 1,100-pound class, with the final one taken in 1993. Every of those fish is an IGFA line-class file for the species. A 1,305 pounder was additionally caught in 2015 off Ascencion Island by Jada Van Mols Holt, and that fish continues to be the IGFA girls’s 130-pound-class world file.
