Blue Marlin- Orange Beach

RollTideTofer · Blue Marlin- Orange Beach

Just something kind of cool thought I'd share. A nice 526 lb blue marlin was brought in yesterday to Orange Beach. Here's some footage if you want to see it. Also, some from the GSP on wkrg too. One heck of a sunday :)

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robertyb

It is not working Tofer. Try again please.

Jigslinger

Works for me. I wouldn't have kept it though unless it was gut hooked and it couldn't be revived.

stvtackett

Jigslinger

I don't like kill tournaments when it comes to billfish. Definately a money fish though.

RollTideTofer

Ya its a shame it wasn't released but they did donate the meat to the needy. Video should work, could be your flash player RobertyB.

BigKenny

Meat Aint worth eating. Cant keep it cold enough. Tried that. Doesnt work. Meat smelled badly. If you have a fishbag thats large enough that you can keep it cold with ice, fine. Thats 1 large fishbag & a lot of ice. that should be the rule. Or dont kill them. Do a lenght & girth measurement & cut them loose. Film them with the days newspaper. let em go.

Dow

I agree with Kenny, I think the only billfish I would kill would be sailfish from a pier or land for mounting. Even then it would only be if I didn't have trust worthy people around to man the rod and assist me in beaching long enough to get proper measurements.

FishAddict

There is no need to kill a billfish. I fish several billfish tournaments in the Dominican Republic a year, and even in developing countries they have figured out that they are worth more alive than dead. Kill tournaments are a thing of the past, they judge these by numbers caught, not weight. It's time we figure this out too and conserve this valuable resource before we screw it up.

the original pier pest

I know from experience that countries such as Venezuala and Mexico that they will kill every fish they can. The will clean them and send them to the fish market. They don't even put ice on the fish the entire day. They just leave the fish on the deck and let it slow cook in the sun. If you go to Cabo San Lucas, the bussiest place at the entire marina is the cleaning tables. They probably clean more billfish than anyother place.

FishAddict

Mexico is finally gaining on this issue, it takes a lot of education, there is a lot more releasing going on than there used to be. Central America (esp Guatemala, Costa Rica) is just about there, in the tournaments they are nearly all catch and relase now, you don't see the slaughter you used to see there.

plotalot

Tournament billfishermen are such hypocrites in general, they make me sick. Any and all of them would join a lynch mob if they heard of a billfish hitting the docks any other time other than a tournament weekend. I know that most tournaments are catch and release and even weigh in tourneys have a catch and release division. If they were true to their beliefs of releasing all billfish then what are they doing supporting a tournament that allows bringing in dead billfish? Stroking their own egos, is the answer to that.

I have eaten marlin before (in Jamaica) not bad but not great either. As Kenny pointed out it's too damn big of a fish to ice down properly. The meat was donated to the needy eh? BFD! If the tourney anglers really wanted to do something to help the needy they should use their prize money and callcutta winnings and buy a truckload of beef, chicken and veggies to feed the needy. They should stop trying to make it seem like they're such great guys for donating a fish that they personally don't want to eat or have the room to process and store it if they did want to.

FishinDon

One of my most memorable fishing trips was on a cruise to Cozumel a couple of years ago. We hooked up a blue marlin that wore 4 of us out. One of the mates got his hand on the leader before he broke off. They said we could have counted it as a catch and got a replica made. The fight, the couple of sky jobs he did and the pics we got of the trip were worth more than any meal. Long live the billfish and never kill one. I also have mixed feelings about killing the great grouper such as the one caught this summer out of St. George Island. I just wondered how they kept that thing from spoiling.

FishAddict

The guys that fish the tournaments I fish in take great care of the fish, they radio in the catch, and let 'em go. Sometimes they rotate a crew member around every day so there is "an outsider" on the boat. No hanging up the fish, no rotting fish to sell or give away. Winners get trophies, not big payouts (on their big white marlin tounament I think they give 1,000 gallons of fuel, no cash). It's more about fellowship and going fishing, and sharing some drinks at the end of the day. Granted some of the guys are high rollers, but some are not, like me. I would never get to do this if it weren't for my work taking me there, and a few weekends out of the year I get to enjoy myself. I know a lot of the tounaments are not done this way due to the amount of money involved. It is nicely done with class.

seanspots

RollTideTofer

Ya that is crazy if its not possible to keep the meat from spoiling, hadn't thought about it that way. I feel kind of bad now, its hard for me to even consider catching a fish that big let alone killing it. They should regulate that better with billfish as maybe only No-Kill tournaments. Its just such a rare catch I wanted to share it, but knowing a little more about the tournaments kind of changed my perspective.