[MrBill]

Capt. Jeff Rogers finally caught his grander last week. I've fished with him a couple of times. He was the first guy I ever went fishing with that begged me to stop trolling and start jigging. He has a lot of Japanese clients that brought their jigs, rods and reels specifically for jigging. That was about eight years ago, and it was the first time I ever saw a jig with a assist hook.

Anyway, he hooked up with a huge marlin only about two miles from the harbor. He was in 500 fathoms and could still the Costco from his boat.
After three hours, the fish made it to the boat but the rope from the flying gaff was to short and the fish went under the boat. He gunned forward and the props cut the marlin a little and gave him new life.

When they finally got him back to the boat, and flying gaff with a longer rope was planted in the shoulder. They opened up the transom door and got his head in the boat when three oceanic whitetip sharks appeared and started feasting on the marling. Jeff and the angler held onto the marlin's head as the deckhand opened up the throttle. They could barely hang on. The sharks followed the boat to the mouth of the harbor.

After loosing about 150 pounds of meat from the sharks, the marlin still tipped the scales at 1056 pounds. Probably a 1200 pounder before the shark attack. This was his first grander as a Capt. I hooked on a grander once in Kona, but was spooled. I will probably never have that happen to me again.
Here's some pics.