California fisherman Kei Vang was out fishing on the Pacific Ocean in early August when he acquired the kayak experience of his life. Fishing from a 12-foot 9-inch pedal-drive kayak, Vang hooked an enormous striped marlin and fought the fish for greater than 5 hours. By the point he grabbed ahold of the chief and lower the road to launch the fish, the marlin had towed him roughly 11 miles from the place he’d first hooked it.
Vang, who made a Fb publish concerning the catch, tells Out of doors Life that he and two buddies had left Dana Level in Southern California and headed offshore of their kayaks round 6 a.m. on Aug. 3. They had been planning to fish for tuna. Vang says August is usually a very good month for tuna on the West Coast, and so they headed to a deep-water canyon the place he’d caught them late final summer time. After pedaling their kayaks roughly six miles to the spot, they began trolling dwell sardine baits with heavy sort out.
“There have been no baitfish, not even birds,” Vang says. “We trolled with our heavy sort out for a pair hours and noticed nothing. We had been in about 600 toes of water.”
Photograph courtesy Kei Vang
The anglers saved trolling of their sit-on-top kayaks, and Vang says they had been about eight miles off Dana Level by 10 a.m. That’s when he determined to change to a lighter rod and a barely smaller reel spooled with 50-pound braid and a 30-pound chief.
Simply 10 minutes later, he heard an enormous splash behind him. Trying again, he noticed a marlin leaping and making an attempt to throw the hook. His rod was already bent double.
“The marlin jumped about eight instances instantly, and raced away,” Vang says. “It took nearly all 350 yards of line off my reel. I needed to tighten my drag and chase the fish to realize line. I pedaled as quick as I might and acquired again near the marlin in about 10 minutes.”
He didn’t keep near the fish for lengthy, although. Over the subsequent 5 hours, the marlin towed Vang and his Hobie Outback greater than 10 miles throughout the Pacific Ocean. His buddies stayed with him the entire time.
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“They by no means left my facet,” Vang says of his fishing budies. “They made positive I used to be secure and okay. The marlin by no means stopped towing me.”
Vang and his buddies saved observe of their location utilizing the GPS models mounted on their kayaks. He says they’d additional batteries for reserve energy, together with VHF radios and different security gear.
The marlin lastly started to tire about 5 hours into the battle, when it began circling beneath Vang’s kayak. He and his buddies had been about 20 miles from shore when he drew the fish near his kayak and grabbed the chief, and the three anglers had been lastly in a position to get a very good have a look at the billfish.
Photograph courtesy Kei Vang
“For some time we thought it was a blue marlin … however we checked out our photographs and movies later, and we now assume it was a striped marlin,” says Vang, who guesses the fish was round 200 kilos. “It was so long as my Hobie [which is nearly 13 feet long], and there was no manner we had been going to gaff it and take it dwelling. By then it was after 4 p.m., so we determined to chop my line and free the fish.”
The three anglers pedaled again towards shore for a couple of hours, however with dusk approaching Vang’s GPS unit estimated it will take them one other eight or 9 hours to get again to Dana Level. So, they known as one other buddy with an influence boat, who met them across the 10-mile marker and gave them a experience, towing their kayaks again to shore.
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“Each kayak angler’s dream is to catch an enormous fish and have a photograph product of it holding it up subsequent to their yak,” says Vang. “That wasn’t doable with my marlin. However I could have a replicate mount product of it, which can be higher than a photograph anyway.”