Stu Potter and mates fishing aboard Ultimate Lady wide off Cairns had a spectacular trip.
7 days of fishing produced 13 marlin, with the odd yellowfin, mahimahi and wahoo thrown in for good measure. Included amongst the marlin were four fish over 900 lb and a grander weighed after the fish died. The fish pulled the scales to 1058 lbs, congratulations Stu, fellow fishermen and the skipper and crew of Ultimate Lady. The fish took a Gaza - skippy and took around 4 1/2 hours to boat on 130 lb tackle. (photos courtesy of Stu Potter and Gary Smith).
The Gaza - skippy accounted for marlin, yellowfin and a mahimahi during the trip.
Species: black marlin
Date: 19/11/2009
Angler Stu Potter
Weight: 1058 lb/480.9 kg
Line class: 130 lb/60 kg
Skipper: Tom Francis
Vessel: Ultimate Lady
Location: Cairns
Lure: Gaza - skippy
The day was the 19th November 2009 and was to be the ultimate days fishing
and the day when we would catch a grander on a NZ made lure by Azure lures.
Andrew Randell landed a small black early that morning at around 10 am of
around 100 kg which was brought aboard to be smoked back on land. That fish
was caught on the same lure. Immediately after landing that one we
had another black come in on the center bait. It took a bit of line and
then lost interest after 5 minutes. Half an hour later we struck gold and
found the fisherman’s eldorado. After three days we had found the fish
aggregation that the longliners had foretold us about. All around us we had
marlin, tuna and whale sharks feeding on baitfish. Gary Smith and I were
lucky enough to swim with a couple of whale sharks.
It was about 15 minutes after this most amazing encounter that she hit! I
was still drip drying in my grundies when the purple/black gaza got rampaged.
The water exploded as she vented her fury for the first five minutes on the
surface. We could all tell that this was a big fish! The first 30 minutes
she took out plenty of line, rolled and changed angles. Then 45 minutes
into the fight she went straight down. The drag was well past strike and
she peeled line effortlessly. Then the unthinkable, she died with close on
1 km of line taken off the spool. It was sickening to think about the effort
required to fill the reel back up. I tried to lift the fish but the weight
of the fish and the drag of the line made it all in vain. The only method
to bring a fish off the bottom under these conditions was to 'bust the cogs'
which was manually pulling the line inch by inch with your left hand whilst
you wind at the same time with the reel. Passing all physical and mental
boundaries, with the amazing support of my friends and crew the fish came to
the boat after 4.5 hours. It was then that we noticed that the line had
wrapped around the fishes mid-section. By this stage it was dark so we
settled in for the night and eagerly woke early the next morning for the
weigh-in. The fish pulled the scales down to 1058 pounds and is the first
grander that has been weighed in Cairns this season. My thanks to Grant
from Azure lures, the skipper and crew of the Ultimate Lady and friends Gary
Smith and Andrew Randell for their unwavering support and encouragement and
my thanks to the lord for allowing me the opportunity to catch that fish of
a lifetime!
Stu Potter
Stu’s account of the catch.
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