We approached the big game fishing trips in a pretty casual way. After a large breakfast we normally fished between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., sometimes on the “Desteny”, a small boat powered by outboard engines, and sometimes on the “Nostalgie”, a brand-new 37” Riviera fully equipped with the latest gear and equipment.

We didn’t see a single fish for the first five days but then things really took off. Over the next five days we had six marlin strikes, one by a small black marlin of around 200 lbs. which was caught on our own “Superjet” lure and subsequently released, a blue marlin of 437 lbs. hooked on a “Grander 1238” lure and a blue marlin of 600 lbs. caught while tuna fishing. Unfortunately, after a five-hour fight we lost a big marlin in the +800 lb. class right alongside the boat. It had taken our “Big Smoker” lure. But our 600 lb. marlin put up a remorseless fight, too. We got the bite right in the middle of a school of tuna at about 4 p.m. After an hour the first length of double line was back on the reel for the first time, just the beginning of a long battle along the lines of “come hell or high water”. It got later and later but the marlin did not tire and was as solid as a rock underneath the boat. After four hours it tried to escape for the last time and then died deep down in complete darkness. In a joint effort we heaved it to the surface slowly and steadily, crank for crank – the elation was tremendous and we fell into each other’s arms. It doesn’t bear thinking about how we would have felt if we had lost this fish after such a fight.