Big Game in the Galapagos |
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Page 1 of 5 Big Game in the Galapagos
We met Allan Starr at the pier each morning before the hotel restaurant opened to offer coffee to early risers. But that’s the sacrifice if you want to make the long runs from San Cristobal in the Galapagos Islands as San Cristobal represents the nearest landmass to the best marlin fishing grounds. Our headings changed daily, which varied the arrival times from one-and-a-half to nearly three hours.
Starr masterfully maneuvered the boat, and told the crew to wait until his signal before releasing the fish. As the marlin neared the boat, my mind flashed to some 30 years ago when I’d fought a blue marlin in the Bahamas with Starr also on the bridge that day. After the crew immediately released it, I joked that the only pictures of that fight would be little specks on the horizon. Perhaps he recalled that as well, since on this occasion he made sure we could snap plenty of boat-side images before the striped marlin swam away. We fished lures with hooks on the riggers and hookless lures short so we could utilize switch baits if a fish came close to the boat. Dead bait isn’t readily available hereabouts and you won’t find a bait and tackle shop locally, so Starr and his mates started gathering ballyhoo a week before we arrived. The ballyhoo made my eyes pop out – they’re the biggest I’ve ever seen, about the size of a Spanish mackerel.
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All the fishing signs appeared to be favorable: Clean water, good color and lots of marine life. Right off the bat, a striped marlin just shy of 200 pounds took a hookless lure on a short rigger. We dropped back a horse ballyhoo and the marlin smelled it, lit up like a Las Vegas marquee, and switched right to it. I set the hook on my 50-pound standup tackle and the jousting began. The fish bolted above the surface, shaking its head furiously. After more jumps and a series of greyhounding leaps perpendicular to the stern of the boat, I finally started to gain line. 
