Day 13 of 15 - Galapagos Islands - After the Tsunami

By Capt Andy LoCascio - 03/13/2011 - Short URL: https://neangling.com/?p=3603 - Views: 206112

We got a late start today because the port was not re-opened until 7am because of the tsunami yesterday. The damage was minimal, but I suspect there was some “red tape” that needed to be dealt with. Our planned destination was the Santini Bank which is a longer ride than some of the other banks. We arrived after the morning bite had ended. However, Mitch scored his first striped marlin of the trip about an hour into the troll. The fish was huge and after a very quick photo it was released unharmed.

Capt Andy & Mitch Wergiles – Striped Marlin

The bank was loaded with big marlin, but it was very hard to get them interested in the lures today. I lost count of how many “tailers” we saw at around the fifty mark. It seemed as though the tsunami affected them.

Exploding Reel (Video)

Late in the day Steve Palmo hooked a big blue marlin (over 400lbs) and midway through the fight the base of the Shimano TLD 30 failed and the reel exploded off the blank! Fortunately Steve was using Black Magic Fighting Belt and Harness and the clips were attached to the reel. With the reel still attached to Steve’s harness, Pete Santini grabbed and held the line off the tip of the rod and I used a uni-knot to tie the line into another reel. Steve completed the battle using a totally different rod/reel combo than when he started! Unfortunately, we did not get much of the fish on film as the mate pulled the lure out during the wiring process. Damn!!!