It was only a quick half day trip today for anglers Craig & Cheryl from Australia. What started out as quite slow ended in our angler Cheryl catching her bucket list Blue Marlin. The fish smashed the short corner lure but missed the hook up, having got the lure back into position the fish came back for another go and this time it was on! After a 30 minute fight and a quick initiation to Marlin fishing Cheryl did a great job, getting this one to our crew Alex on the leader so it could have the hooks removed and released to fight another day. About an hour later we raised another 2 smaller fish that ran riot through the spread but didn't want to hook up.

Terry Carter has fished all over the world armed only with his Fly Rod. Travelling all the way to Vanuatu from Cincinnati in the USA was nothing for a man on a mission. Terry wanted to chase Blue Marlin on the fly and that was what he got. Terry brought all his own gear including his Sage Fly Rod and Mako reel, along with an assortment of tippets and lines. The teasers had only been in the water around 15 minutes one morning when we raised a perfect sized Blue Marlin on the long teaser pole. The short teaser was quickly cleared and the fish teased beautifully to the back of the boat. When the boat was out of gear Terry made an almost textbook cast and the Blue Marlin inhaled the fly and was hooked. Completely perfect! But hey this is fly fishing, as the fish started ripping line off suddenly we were not connected anymore!!!! It turned out Terry's connection from braid to fly line had decided to fail us. Gutted is an understatement. We made good later in the trip raising another perfect sized Blue Marlin which smashed the short teaser. Having that temptation cleared out of his way he switched onto the long and the crew teased him to the back of the boat, the wind had started to pick up but Terry got the cast and the fish nailed the fly beautifully. Line started streaming and off we went chasing in reverse, everyone getting drenched in the process. The fish gave us an incredible show on the surface with countless acrobatics before finally sounding. Terry had to fight hard to lift the fish on the fly rod but he did an amazing angling job and was not going to give in. Terry had decided at the start of the trip that he wanted to release any Marlin he caught on the fly...this is easier said than done as it's not like you have a long strong leader to hang onto. This fish helped us out and the hook pulled boat side giving a perfect end to a great day. It wasn't our last shot either, the following day we raised another two Blue Marlin, the first fish was around 500lbs and really far bigger than you want to mess with on a fly rod. It teased and despite the wind the cast was made but thankfully it wasn't that interested in the fly. It was quite happy swimming around the transom lit up neon blue which gave us a great show. It was joined by a smaller fish that again teased several times but was not loving the fly. Any day you get to see multiple Blue Marlin swimming round the back of the boat is a pretty good day though! Terry is already planning his next trip and we are looking forward to fishing with him next year!

Its always nice when you can tick off some goals for your anglers. Tom and Kimberly from the USA had a couple of requests, a Blue Marlin for Kimberly and a Yellowfin for dinner! Kimberly had done a bit of fishing in Central America catching a sailfish but had never experienced the rush of fighting a Blue Marlin. The right fish came along and at around 150KG she got a work out in the chair. She did an amazing job and fought a stubborn fish. Unfortunately during its jumps the fish had got tail wrapped and didn't survive the fight. The beauty of Vanuatu is nothing goes to waste and the fish was gratefully accepted by the local villagers. Tom provided our dinner with a beautiful 50KG Yellowfin Tuna, which Russ did his magic on and did Yellowfin Tetaki 3 ways.