b'THREE KINGS MARLIN ACTION Tom Bowling Bay was our evening anchorage before an early start in the dark for a run to the Kings and the promise of PB trophies and aching arms. A brilliant orange red sunrise greeted us as we trolled north. You can tell Andrew is a bit ADHD about marlin. Any captain worth their salt works hard for their clients, but Andrews quiet obsession about hooking a marlin or 10 was pretty obvious.Up in the tuna tower with walkie talkie in hand, everyone was instructed to keep their heads on a swivel and locked into fish radar mode whether we were watching for sign on the sounder, temperature breaks, bird activity, Five way hook up saw the boys splashes.anything that may signal warming up for the bigger stuff to come. our quarry. Hooks and leaders were constantly checked, dredges, teasers, down riggers, lures, live baits, dead baits, skip baits, daytime trolling and night trolling were all employed throughout our trip.Andrew was never content with six pieces of plastic bubbling behind the boat. We constantly switched, assessed then switched and trialled and switched again, searching for the combo or magic method that would yield a marlin. We came across boil ups with attacks on the lures but no hook ups. A free jumper was spotted by Andrew further on and then we were on the King Bank. Bait was everywhere and late in the day the bite switched on. We had three hits on live baits in the space of 40 minutes, you could tell it was marlin central, but the fish were suspicious and not aggressive. Bill rash showed where the marlin had swiped but not digested our skippies.A Bonze Trojan got whacked and finally this time we were properly hooked up. Sam Clemens got his gear on and started playing the striped marlin with a gallery of watchers, all offering free advice with varying degrees of usefulness. The fish wasnt a match for the 80W but managed to burn through Sams muscle stamina by the end of the fight we had it at the rear door for the cameras. Kiren Lennon did a great job leadering his first marlin and Sams brother George did the honours with the tag. High fives completed the event before parking up at the island for the night. On this charter, the boys were happy to do their own cooking. Sam did a stellar job with the evening meals over A marlin finally stuck on athe next few days putting hot food out Bonze lure after hits fromand his curried bass was probably the multiple fish but no hook ups. stand-out of the trip!12FISHING IN GODZONE JUL/AUG 2021'