Ski-Boat — May-June 2017

SKI-BOAT May/June 2017 • 53

By Roberto Fierro

W

HEN it’s your time it’s your
time. Two weeks prior to
the 2017 Cape Vidal Ski-
Boat Club Marlin
Competition there was a possibility that
Eye-Tiewould not be part of the com-
petition. At that stage we only had a
team of two — Steve de Ricquebourg
and I, although I guess you could call
“autopilot” the third crew member.
I gave Steve a call and we made a
decision to fish two up. A week prior
to the competition Steve’s brother,
Bully, committed to fishing with us — a
commitment he does not regret mak-
ing! Bully’s son, Shaun, who was out
from Fiji also joined us for the first two
days — the game was on.
The week started with our tradition-
al pre-lunch at Barraca Restaurant in St
Lucia. The restaurant serves the best
chicken, prawn and calamari combos.
We sat around the table drinking 2Ms
and discussing tactics. There was a lot
of talk about how I, as the skipper, had
to pull up my socks and not let down
the crew. After a good lunch and a
short trip to Cape Vidal we met up with
all the teams for the briefing.

We had a bright and

early start to the first

day — we were up at

3.30am sorting out boat

lunches and final prepa-

rations on the boat

before heading out to

sea at 5am.

We set out the lures

and fished most of the

day straight off The

Point at a spot known

as the Honey Pot. This

productive spot varies

between 200m and

320m of water and has

produced many marlin

over the years. We

managed to raise a

marlin around mid-

morning but the fish

was not interested in

our lures. At midday

we had a striped mar-

lin hookup which Shaun fought for five

minutes before the hooks pulled.

The next day we launched at 5am,

again heading to the Honey Pot area.

By mid-morning we had hooked a

striped marlin at our usual spot. Steve

was on the chair and we successfully

released a striped marlin after a 20-

minute fight. This fish was caught on a

blue and white Stripey Tickler by

Pulsator.

On day three we managed to raise

two fish but had no hook ups. The fol-

lowing day the sea was on its head; we

fished for half the day then threw in the

towel.

On the fifth day the weather had

changed and we were back to a full

day’s fishing. We headed out to sea

with fingers crossed. We hadn’t seen or

heard of much action for most of the

day. We had a strike on the red and

black Stripey Tickler with a bird in front

of it out on the Japan. Bully was in the

chair, and 40 minutes later we released

a magnificent blue marlin estimated to

weigh between 500- and 600 pounds.

This was Bully’s first marlin — a great

start to marlin fishing in anyone’s book.

Friday night we sat around the table dis-

cussing tactics for the final day of the

competition. We had released two fish

and the leading boat,Kellys Eye,had

released three fish. We had to hook up

and release two fish in order to take the

lead.

We were back on the beach at 5am

the next morning, highly motivated.

We’d decided to change from our usual

Honey Pot spot to deep off Half Way/

Vegetation. We set out the lures and

fished from deep to shallow in an east

to west direction. For whatever reason

I decided to put a different lure into the

TOP CATCHES

I shouted out,“It

must be a grander!”

Then I told myself,

“Calm down now,

you are really over

excited.”