Being hooked up to a hard fighting fish gives the angler and all the other people involved a cocktail of emotions. There is the excitement that you’re hooked up, anxiety at the thought of the fish getting away, the anticipation of just how great the catch might be, and a constant changing of hope and despair as the upper hand in the fight changes between angler and fish. All these emotions culminate a type of thrill that only fishers know, it is a feeling that gets greater the more the stakes are raised.
The stakes might be knowing you are hooked up to your biggest snapper or your first marlin, or maybe a big fish in the final hours of a big competition. Basically the more important the fish is to you, the more heightened the thrill is, to the point where you can feel it sitting heavy in the pit of your stomach. I have felt this feeling countless times over years of fishing, but as a lot of my personal bests and goals have been conquered I haven’t experienced that heightened thrill for some time – that was until a few weeks ago while I was fishing on board Ultimate Lady.
While I have spent a lot of time as crew on Ultimate Lady, this trip was different because I was on board in a new capacity. Myself and good friend Kerren Packer were filming an Episode for ‘The Fishing Show’. One of the things we thought we’d like to film on this trip was some different ways of catching marlin. As expected we encountered plenty of marlin on lures, live baits dead baits and even a banana skin. We had shot some stunning marlin footage and while every marlin catch is special you do become a wee bit desensitised when catching so many, and we are aware that our viewers may also become desensitised. We needed that special moment that would cap off an incredible trip, so a plan was hatched. We decided to have a crack at catching a marlin on a popper using the same tackle that you might use for catching snapper or kingfish.
You can read how the whole story unfolded at http://www.thefishingshow.co.nz/Marlinpopper.html and remember you’ll catch us on TV3 at 4.30 on Saturday’s; starting April 26th 2008.
Keep em tight
Matt Watson
