Outdoors column | Giant blue marlin makes impact on anglers’ memories — and their boat

“Then the fish came alive, with his death in him, and rose high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power and his beauty,” Ernest Hemingway wrote in “The Old Man and the Sea.”

“He seemed to hang in the air above the old man in the skiff. Then he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and over all of the skiff.”

In Hemingway’s 1952 story an unlucky fisherman named Santiago went against an 18-foot long blue marlin, eventually losing his catch to sharks eating away at the flesh of the fish. That marlin gave its life a dazzling display that is unrivaled on the ocean.

Sixty-eight years later most marlin catches are finished on larger boats and heavy tackle. Rarely does such a majestic fish make it boat side for unsuspecting anglers on small vessels not prepared for battles that last hours on end. But for Jinger Leigh Gordon and Capt. Phil Pegley of Apollo Beach, a surprise blue marlin left not only a mark in their memories, but a major mark on their boat.

“We go to the Florida Keys every summer for lobster and to do some fishing,” Jinger Leigh Gordon said. “One day the two of us were free and decided to go out and try to get some mahi. We started in 400 feet and found some broken weed lines then went to 700 feet and found a good clean weed line. The first fish was a big 20-pound bull!”

Trolling lures on their 23-foot Dorado Pegley deployed a 3.5-inch Pink and White Islander on a 30-wide reel with 80-pound test. Not long after the pair noticed a large marlin jumping with their lure in it’s mouth!

“On the strike it went airborne and took a long run,” Pegley recalled. “It jumped and jumped again, probably 20-times. It was jumping like a mullet. It would jump and then you’d see a big bow in the line. Somehow it stayed hooked. It took an angle and was running past us so we sped up trying to catch up to it!”

Pegley manned the rod as Leigh Gordon drove the boat and brought in the other lines. Only a few minutes into the fight the marlin was already causing havoc for the pair.

“I don’t think it liked being hooked. When it got a good ways out it changed direction again and started coming back toward us. Jinger was turning hard right and we ended up on a collision course with the fish. It was skipping like a stone right at us!”

Leigh Gordon ducked behind the console as Pegley told her to get down. The marlin ended up crashing through their Sunbrella sunshade in the front of the boat and frighteningly followed through with its bill going 16 inches through the console, less than a foot from where Leigh Gordon was driving. Pegley ducked as the marlins momentum carried it over his head and back out of the boat.

“I didn’t see Phil when I popped up,” Leigh Gordon said. “When he did I said are you OK?”

Not missing a beat Pegley came tight on the line once again and the havoc causing marlin was still running at full speed despite i’s voyage through the boat. Over the next four hours they would see the fish only go airborne one more time as it instead took its fight into deeper waters.

“At times I would get it 15 or 20 feet below the boat and then it would sound and just rip out more line. I was pulling in line like on Wicked Tuna trying to get every foot I could,” Pegley described.

Eventually the fight turned more to dead weight. Leigh Gordon put the boat in gear causing the marlin to come more to the surface and Pegley palmed the drag to apply maximum pressure. Much like the ending to the fight in “The Old Man and the Sea,” the marlin came boat side lifeless as a result of sharks eating the meat through the majority of the tail.

“I was so upset that fish died,” Leigh Gordon said.

“If we knew that was happening we would have done the same thing we do with tarpon and let it run or break it off,” Pegley explained. “It was gushing blood and there were wounds up to the stomach down to the bone. It was so heavy when we tried to pull it into the boat.”

After getting pictures Pegley took measurements and at 105 inches it weighed an estimated 400 pounds. With no chance at revival the marlin was released back to nature.

The memory of the marlin will not soon be forgotten, and it’s mark on Pegley’s console will be a great story for years to come.