Winter turned to early spring as March arrived at the Cayman Islands. I had chosen my fishing days wisely in February, avoiding winter rough water conditions and being rewarded with the catch of a blue marlin on each trip. With the weather now improving, I was excited over the prospects of continuing my quest to catch at least one blue marlin each month of the year from my home waters. Even more exciting, as a proud dad, was having my two children Jessica and Alexander — my best fishing and dive buddies — as mates to help in my endeavor. Both attend school out of the country, and it is in March when they eagerly return home for spring vacation.
For Jessica and Alex, style and comfort describe not only dad's new boat, but the new junior's T-shirts they're wearing, part of the Guy Harvey Sportswear line
My children are now teenagers, but both have been fishing and diving — and traveling — with me since a very early age. In fact, Jessica caught her first blue marlin at the age of 5 on the first of many trips we’ve all made together to Tropic Star Lodge in Panama. It was only the week before, while I was completing one of my paintings in my Cayman studio, that she had told me how much she wanted to catch a marlin. Days later, we were on a Tropic Star sportfisher with old friend Stewart Campbell when a nice blue marlin ate the left rigger lure and began a wild dance across the surface behind the boat. Jessica made straight for the chair. “Daddy, daddy, that’s my marlin — please give me the rod!” With the fish going ballistic, she insisted again, so as the big blue calmed down, we got her in the chair. Stewart helped her get set with the rod, and with the skipper performing some exotic maneuvers, Jessica fought her prize for 55 minutes before the mate could finally grab the leader. Following a spectacular series of leaps at the boat, we tagged and released the 400-pound blue marlin. Jessica was thrilled and proceeded to finish off the day by catching and releasing four sailfish.
Guy's many close encounters with blue marlin, above and below the surface, reflect in the accuracy of his illustrations as featured on Guy Harvey T-shirts and sportswear
Alex, who at the age of 4 was catching salmon on our trip to Alaska, has some special memories of times spent in Panama, as well. Notable was his first grand slam in January, 2000, no doubt the first 7-year-old to catch a blue marlin, sailfish and black marlin on the same day in the new century. Alex bravely fought the black for 65 minutes before needing an assist to bring the belly-wrapped fish to the boat, where the 450-pounder was tagged and released. A year earlier, Alex and Jessica had a double hook-up on sailfish in the same waters, and the 108-pound and 75-pound fish respectively were recorded as IGFA Junior Angler World Records, two of the 23 such records the kids have held over the years. Jessica’s 198-pound yellowfin tuna, caught on Panama’s Hannibal Bank when she was 11 years old, is still the junior angler record, as is her 79-pound almaco jack.
So it goes without saying, the three of us had experience on our side when we set out to catch blue marlin in March. With Grand Cayman’s easy accessibility to the ocean, we often plan our days on the water with two dives on the North Wall, but have the marlin gear on board so we can do some surface trolling between dives. That plan proved successful for all three of our trips in March, resulting in blue marlin catches on the 2nd, 15th, and 20th. On March 15, we managed two marlin hook-ups at the same time, and I saw a third blue come up on the teaser as I was slowing the boat so Alex could fight his fish. Jessica caught and released a blue marlin of her own on March 20 as we trolled our way back from Twelve Mile Bank. My new 28-foot Scout center console was proving to be a hot boat, and I now had caught blue marlin during each of the first three months of the year.
— Guy Harvey
Check this blog next month for my adventures in April, 2008, as I continue my quest to catch a blue marlin every month of the year.
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