BY Merit McCrea
SAN DIEGO – It’s not everyone that can claim they caught a fish so big it toppled the hoist on the way up to be weighed, but that’s exactly what happened at the San Diego Marlin Club late last month. Brothers Sean and Brennan Mulrooney with Capt. Mark Henwood managed to get the big fish to the dock in daylight, but it was 8 hours later that they were able to finally get it ashore for weighing. An informant who was there for the action said the fish likely topped 600 at the time.
An unidentified informant said they were out trolling a spreader bar for bluefin when the monster hit. Fundamentally that turned out to be the key to getting the fish, as those targeting marlin typically fish much lighter gear than the tuna stuff. They caught the fish in 68-degree water which is pretty cold for that species. There’s been a massive, massive amount of bait in the area, anywhere from North Island to the 425 to the 9, and just big, giant, just giant meatballs of anchovies and that had kept the fish in the area. It’s hard to know what the temperature profile is down at depth because we typically only see the surface water temperature.
It hit the spreader bar and they got it! It had an 11/0 hook on the back, with 300-pound on the spreader, that’s the reason they got it. It inhaled the thing and was hooked very solidly. The hook was still in it at the dock. They were fortunate enough to get a good hook-set, get it to the boat, get it on the swim step.
The next day Jeff Pape was out fishing on his boat, Lucas J fishing solo and got a massive swordfish, but that’s another story.
By comparison, the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament at Bisbee’s Black & Blue in Cabo San Lucas this past week posted their winning fish as 459 pounds with the second-best fish at 457 pounds, which earned their two teams over 2.4 million bucks each. The local blue, first blue in a decade landed locally, was over 100 pounds heavier than either of the Cabo fish.
