Ascension Island – We had a feeling our 2nd Grander of the Year was going to come from this famed big blue marlin fishery, but nothing this big. Capt. Olaf Grimkowksi put angler Kevin Gardener on an absolute beast of a Blue Marlin, weighing 1,320 lbs. Fishing had been slow most of the trip for Kevin, fishing with co-owner of the Harmattan, Phil Riley. I remember Phil commenting that there were so many small yellowfin around, the fish were not even hungry. Well, at least until today. This is one of the largest Blue Marlin ever captured in the Atlantic Ocean and is only 82 lbs off the World Record.
A BIG congratulations to all involved and we look forward to welcoming Kevin Gardner into the World Grander Club!
Here is what Capt. Olaf had to say about this catch:
We had a pretty slow season until now when it comes to marlinfishing but it seems to be true that when you have a long hard time you are saving up for something special. Well we had our special day today . Phil Riley (co owner in the Harmattan) and his friend Kevin Gardener went out with us for another day of trolling the deep. We fished the south west side of the island and around 1.30pm a massive fish hit the short left. In the distance we saw her lunging and she looked promissing. After 3 surface runs she went a bit deeper and for the last 90 minutes Kevin fought her on sunset.Emil Ruud had to let go the leader 4 times (wiring his first marlin ever) until the fish was controlable .After 3 hours the fish was pretty finished and we brought her in.
The scalemaster said 1320 pounds
The shortlenght of the fish was 149 inches
The girth was 83 inches and a touch less on the analfin but only 19.5 inches around the tail
The fish was caught on the Black Bart abaco prowler
