Marlin hits back....

That video clip looks remarkably like the much publicised instance of Stewart Campbell being pulled from the fighting chair of his boat Chunder off Madeira. If so he was fishing for a potential World record Blue Marlin on 30lb class tackle. Fishing Bait 'n' Switch they'd hooked the fish and backed down fast - his boat's designed to reverse at speeds in excess of 10 knots - and taken the leader on a very green fish.

Unfortunately Stewart hadn't, before the crewman took the leader, wound the swivel to the tip roller. And the weight of the swivel, and its momentum, had caused it to wrap several turns of the 600lb B/S leader around one of the roller guides. Hence when the crewman had 'dumped the wraps', with a 600lb connection to the fish, it was a case of the 'early bath'!

Fortunately yoy'll see that he's dragged away from the propellors and, because of that 600lb connection, it quickly dragged the guides of the rod. And now, with just the 30lb main line connecting him to the fish, broke.

If there's a lesson for ordinary anglers always remember to wind the swivel into the top guide and back the drag off slightly from strike in case the crewman is forced to 'dump the wraps' as the fish pulls away.
Dave

This stays with the same theme - Fish against Man.

It shows a 600lb Black Marlin, off Pinas Bay - Tropic Star Lodge, on Panama’s Pacific coastline - that jumps towards the boat, lands on the transom and strikes the angler with its bill. The angler had to be air-lifted out to a Panama City hospital immediately, but recovered. He lost teeth and his palate was fractured, but apart from that was OK. A lucky man indeed!

A report has just appeared in the international press of a crewman, on the boat Challenger , who was impaled on the bill of an estimated 800lb Blue Marlin off Bermuda.

Here's the url link - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2298459.html.

Just 10 minutes into the fight the fish leapt out of the water impaling the crewman in the chest. Its momentum then carried it, and the crewman, back into the water the other side of the cockpit.

Fortunately they managed to recover the crewman and he is now recovering in hospital. A lucky man!