BY KEI VANG
DANA POINT— Every August has been the sweet month out at Dana Point. This is the fourth year we’ve made the trek out there. Schools of marlin are showing up there, and tuna has been spotted foaming as close as a couple miles, but the only problem Is the water temp is a little bit cold. Get out there on the right day with the right water temperature and you might get into some tuna action.
On August 3, a few of us kayakers launched out of Dana Point in search of tuna. We pedaled 6.5 miles to the canyon where I’ve caught tuna a few years ago. Once we got to the area we trolled around with live sardines, but there was no sign of life. No birds or fish activity at all. We continued to search for fish trolling with our heavy gear with no luck.
We were about 8 miles out at about 10 a.m., and by this time and I decided to switch out one of the rod setups to a lighter one. It was a Moon’s Custom Rod built with a Rainshadow RCLB79ML paired with a Daiwa Saltiga 20HA. It was a smaller reel, so I had on 50-pound J-Braid and a 30-pound J-Fluorocarbon leader.
Within 10 minutes my rod went bendo and I heard a splash about 150 feet away. It was a marlin jumping and trying to shake the hook! I had a marlin on! The marlin jumped about 8x times and almost spooled me. I had to button down my drag and chase it down trying to gain line back, peddling as fast as I could, I was able to get most back. The fight was on.
The marlin was towing me straight out. Minutes pass, then hours. The whole time, two of my good friends Tommy and Nasko never left my side. They pedaled out and followed me making sure I was gonna be OK. It never stopped until it was 5.5 hours later and 11 miles from where I hooked it.
We were now about 20 miles out, not far from the 209. The marlin got tired and was just circling around while I was fighting it. I was able to get it near the kayak multiple times and finally saw how big this fish was. It was as long as my Hobie Outback, and there was no way we were gonna gaff that thing and haul it back 20 miles home.
I asked Tommy and Nasko to get some photos and videos of the fight. By then it was about 4:15 p.m. and we made the decision to just cut the line and free it instead of killing such a magnificent fish. Time was running out as it was 4:30 p.m. We were peddling back as fast as we could as the GPS was telling us it will take us 10 hours to get back to land.
We were prepared for this trip, and I had extra battery for my fish finder for navigation, additional VHF radio and a flare gun, but two of us forgot our lights in the truck. We made a call to a good friend of mine, and he dropped everything and headed down to Dana Point from Garden Grove. Once he got to the harbor, we sent him the GPS coordinates and he got out to us in an hour at full speed. By then we were 10 miles in, he got to us and assisted us the rest of the way. Even though we didn’t gaff the fish for a photo, this was a trip to remember for the three of us kayakers.
