BY CHUCK BALL
On the Dawn Lee, Wilbur had just got out of the fighting chair
when the reel sang out from a strike. He had to watch as the next
angler fought an unseen fish. He grumbled under his breath. So
far this had been the only bite and he had been in the chair twice.
He climbed up to the flybridge to get out of the way and have a
better view.
The captain radioed the other charter captains that he was hooked
up. He also was cursing a boat that he thought was too close.
“Got a darn googan about to screw up my lines,” he said.
Wilbur looked over at the boat that had ticked off his captain.
Named El Conquistador, it had a uniformed crew. He saw
a tall bald guy scramble down from the flybridge. The
man in the cockpit, obviously the mate, rocked back
on the trolling rod, setting the hook and hand-ing
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it off as the tall guy got in the chair.
Wilbur grumbled again. Seemed like
fish were all around when it
was not his turn.
On the El Conquistador Roger got into the chair and the
fight was on. Marlin are generally solitary fish, though some-times
a male and female will pair up. Was this one of those times?
It looked like the Dawn Lee had hooked the male and the
El Conquistador had the female, which are always larger. The fish
tried with all their considerable strength to swim to each other. This
was causing the boats to get too close as they ran with the fish.