1987 - Al's Birthday

 

    Marlin fishing normally takes off in mid-July, but occasionally they pop up earlier. On July 11 several of us gathered at Avalon to celebrate Al Epstein's 50th birthday. The Epstein's were there on their "SANCTUARY," Bob and Jan Flamer on their "PETTY CASH," etc. The party was set for that evening with Ken and I somewhat restless with nothing to do, but shopping. So we decided to go out "for a couple of hours" and look around. We made the turn, headed out barely 4 miles off the East End just looking around when, suddenly, about 4 or 5 groups of sauries (a form of bait fish) came flying out of the water. Immediately behind each one of these groups came a feeding marlin driving the bait out of the water. Kenneth ran up to the bow to cast a bait when one of the lures, a "pink lady," got bit. He ran back and went to work. We were able to get the lines in and quickly got the fish to the boat. As I reached out with the gaff the hook pulled free, but I was still able to nail it. 133 pounds in 14 minutes on 30. Thus, to everyone's amazement, barely 2 hours after leaving, we returned to the harbor with that blue flag flying. This turned out to be the 4th fish taken that summer.