We got to Vidal on a Friday afternoon,
which was a blowout, so Game drives
were the order of the day. Saturday
only gave us about a two-hour gap,
and Sunday turned out a lot better than
predicted.
And that’s all I needed to get the fish of
a lifetime in so many ways.
I launched early on Sunday at about 4.30am, got some nice live bait and was
soon paddling out towards the point and beyond. After ten minutes or so
my livie got quite agitated and then my ratchet went. It never screamed off
though, and after setting the hook it just sat below me. So, my first thought
was it was a pesky Shark. And then all hell broke loose as my line started
peeling from my reel. And then it broke the surface in all its splendour.
Sailfish!! I couldn’t contain my excitement as you will see in the video. After
lots of incredible aerial displays and a few good runs, it was next to my ski
after about 13-14 minutes or so. Probably a bit too quickly as I would soon
find out.
As I had never landed a Sailie, I
was contemplating exactly how
to play this out and how to get
some good footage. First the
angry fish had a swoosh at me.
Just a surface flash back at me
but enough to make me lift my
arms and legs in defence. This
wasn’t going to be easy. About
two or three minutes passed
as I made sure my gloves were
on. I did at least know that
you shouldn’t hold the bill of a
billfish with your bare hands.
About three or four minutes passed as it
ran a bit more and then settled alongside
again. And then out of the blue it launched
itself out of the water onto the front of my
ski, slashing back at me and knocking my
camera down in the process. It all happened
so quickly all I had time to do was fend it
off with foot and fishing rod. At the time I
don’t think I quite realised how close it was
to being a serious accident.