Originally posted by bobad:
Being kissing cousins to the delicious swordfish, I assumed that all bill fish were good eating. [/QB]
They are, if under 100 lbs. Our boat would usually sell "Kajiki" or "Nautagee" (which are the under 100 lb billfish) for $1/lb or more
on the hoof to the wholesale fish market, or get that much at the daily fish auctions. Larger marlin would either be refused completely, or bought for .10 to .25 cents/lb and taken to the fish food processing plant where they were converted to fertilizer or pet foods.
The opposite end of the spectrum was "Ahi" or Yellowfin Tuna which could fetch $5/lb and more on the hoof to the boat, especially around Christmas and New Years when the demand for fresh Tuna for Sashimi skyrockets. That means a 200 Lb class Yellowfin was a $1,000 to the boat so believe me, we did everything possible to NOT lose any hooked Ahi.
Marlin usually travel alone or in very small schools which accounts for the fact that it's not too typical to get a "double" hook-up. Ahi, on the other hand, run in huge schools (often under schools of porpoise) and more than once we've had all six rods go off at one time when we drug lures through a large feeding school. Talk about a Chinese Fire Drill! Landing more than 2 of the 6 was usually cause for celebration.
Commonly adding insult to injury, large Ahi are capable of making a screaming dive straight down and stripping 1000 yards or more of 80 or 130 lb test line from Penn International reels. Trying to tighten the drag down enough to stop such a run will often seize the reel because of heat build-up, or break line or leader. Been there, done that!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/NevadaJim/March%202006%20forward/Ahi.jpg
