Decided to fish last minute. Buddy had to drive up from Savannah so we didn’t leave Edisto until 7. Put lines in just shy of the banks. Had one knock down but nothing else so started trolling out. Finally found nice blue water around 400ft with several good weed lines between 400-500 ft. Great looking water but no fish. Came across a log with three triple tail and got one to bite a squid, thankfully the big one. At least we had dinner now. Talked about pulling up and fishing shallow or bottom fishing but thankfully decided to stay. In 10+ years of fishing offshore we had never caught a blue marlin on our boat and I had never caught one on any boat, and with the hot Marlin bite lately figured this was our best shot. Just as I was giving up hope he came up and slashed up the bait beside the dredge teaser and then took the outrigger line. Made one big jump and then a massive run. Could see the yellow mono running out and started yelling at my dad to turn and chase. Before he could get going I watched the last of the mono leave the reel, but the Marlin gods were finally rewarding my years of frustration. The fish had hit the one international 30 that had braid backing I had added this winter to serve as a backup swordfish rig. Finally got lines cleared and started the tug of war. It never jumped or came up again. After 45 min my buddy touched the leader to make it official but he wasn’t quite done. After a little over an hour we finally got it boat side. Unfortunately a huge shark showed up so we cut te fish off before we could get the hook out. Hopefully that was the right call. With all the expensive lures we were pulling he hit a home made rig I made with a 25cent octopus skirt and super glue. The shark hung around so we dropped a squid over on a 80# outfit and caught him as well. I am not good with shark ID but maybe a lemon? Tried trolling shallow on the way home but nothing. The Marlin was the only hit we had all day, but I’ll take it.
[img]http://old.charlestonfishing.com/forum/uploaded/Fortunate Son/20156