# $300,000 Marlin!!



## Nitro (Jun 27, 2009)

Great story here- Congrats to Mr. Chris Temple!!

Stockbridge man reels in 715-pound fish

By Rana L. Cash

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Friday, June 26, 2009

Chip Temple is the type of Georgia outdoorsman commonly found in these parts. He hunts deer. Does a little bass fishing. Tracks down a few turkeys.

Well, he was that kind of outdoorsman. An eight-hour tussle with a 714.7-pound water monster can change a man. Temple knows, having hooked a mammoth blue marlin last weekend 120 miles off the Sandestin, Fla., shore to win the Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic.

Temple, 33 of Stockbridge, sat in the fighting chair on Jasper Time, the 60-foot Hatteras owned by fellow angler Mark Wallace.

And what a fight it was.

They started fishing around daybreak on June 19, a Friday, and at 1:30 p.m. hooked the fish on the 200-pound leader set for tuna — and at least 200 pounds lighter in test strength than a leader for blue marlin. Right away, the crew knew it was in for a delicate and long battle. Temple got help from mates Ed Gobel and Matt Pearson, and captain Tommy Braden.

“There was a little bit of worry,” Temple said. “That fish is worth a lot of money and you don’t want to mess it up. When I saw her, it crossed my mind, this is the one we came here for.”

Temple’s most notable catch before this day was a 200-pound tarpon off of Cumberland Island. He’d witnessed an even bigger conquest, though, in 2008 when he and Wallace went out on a leisure cast. Wallace hooked an even larger blue marlin, he said, but released it.

“He kept telling me, ‘I’m your good luck charm,’ ” Wallace said of Temple. “So I said, ‘Let’s go’ [to the competition]. He’d never caught one before, so that meant he listened to what [the mates] were telling him. I probably would’ve done something stupid.”

Because of the light leader, they couldn’t put any “heat” on the fish, playing give-and-take all day until the marlin finally wore out. They took eight hours, the crew pulling the record-breaker on board — at last — at 9:30 p.m. It shattered the tournament’s 2006 record of 692.6 pounds. After the 12-hour ride back to dock, they could finally bask in the accomplishment. By then, Temple was sore and sunburned, and it didn’t matter.

“I’d go again tomorrow,” Temple said.

Wallace, former NASCAR part-owner of the 77 car for Jasper Motor Sports, has seen plenty of excitement. But nothing like this. The marlin earned $300,000 for first, second and third places since no one else was successful. They also took third in another category with a 41-pound dolphin fish.

“These boats are owned by people who are really well off,” said Wallace, owner of Jasper Engines and Transmissions in Peachtree City. “We’re kind of like the underdogs, so it means a lot for us to go down to Florida and win. I can write this off my bucket list.


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## joshguest (Jun 27, 2009)

Talkin bout a fish of a life time ! "Thanks for postin the story also nitro"


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## Arrow3 (Jun 27, 2009)

That is a beast!


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## Gaswamp (Jun 27, 2009)

cool story


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## Hunter Haven (Jun 27, 2009)

Awesome..


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## germag (Jun 27, 2009)

Holy Smokes! That's a MONSTER. An 8 hour fight......I'm not sure I could have done it....I'd like to think I could, but I've had some 45 minute fights that nearly did me in.


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## Wisconsin Ben (Jul 2, 2009)

That's on my bucket list.  12 hours back?  How far out do they fish?


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## jai bo (Jul 2, 2009)

Wisconsin Ben said:


> That's on my bucket list.  12 hours back?  How far out do they fish?



It said they were 120 miles out....but that ride oughta be able to cruise 25-30 easy....even w/ that monster on there!!!


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## dfhooked (Jul 5, 2009)

chip is a buddy of mine, pretty awesome day on the water.


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## Parker Phoenix (Jul 5, 2009)

I've got mixed emotions here. Awesome fish, I just hate they had to kill it.


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## meriwether john (Jul 5, 2009)

Parker Phoenix said:


> I've got mixed emotions here. Awesome fish, I just hate they had to kill it.




same here. and with the ride back i'm sure she wasn't edible either.  i understand they are excellent tablefare but not after that amount of time. awesome fish just the same though, especially on that tackle.


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## Mark K (Jul 5, 2009)

Sorry, money wins out over life on this one.


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## dfhooked (Jul 5, 2009)

not to mention after 8 hours the fish was probably not gonna make it. There is mention of the owner releasing a larger fish last year, so yes it was brought it because they knew it was a tourney winner.


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## IdRatherBHunting (Jul 6, 2009)

Parker Phoenix said:


> I've got mixed emotions here. Awesome fish, I just hate they had to kill it.




OMG... I have a website that you should check out. www.greanpeace.com I think that this may be right up your alley.


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## howl (Jul 6, 2009)

meriwether john said:


> same here. and with the ride back i'm sure she wasn't edible either.  i understand they are excellent tablefare but not after that amount of time. awesome fish just the same though, especially on that tackle.



You're supposed to congratulate them on the success of their waste-for-profit fishing venture. That's the point of the thread. Geez!


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## florida boy (Jul 6, 2009)

Nice fish ! Might as well kill what you can now before they cut us all off from fishing in saltwater all together !


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## Capt. Richie Lott (Jul 7, 2009)

Thats as sweet as it gets.... you make it through that with out having a heart attack, you're good to go whether you're talking about fighting the fish or dealing with the fame afterwards... No stress test needed. VERY nice story and fish.


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## rock_solid (Jul 7, 2009)

I saw it in person, it was nuts. that was a heck of a fish.  Most of the boats from what i  had heard headed west towards new orleans. Blue water is a lot closer inshore farther west


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## Parker Phoenix (Jul 7, 2009)

IdRatherBHunting said:


> OMG... I have a website that you should check out. www.greanpeace.com I think that this may be right up your alley.



Sorry to crack your plaster, but you don't tell me where to visit on the web. I didn't say it was wrong, just that I hated to see a fish of that size killed. Go beat your chest elsewhere.


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## capt stan (Jul 7, 2009)

Good for him!!! Thats awesome!


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## redneck_billcollector (Jul 9, 2009)

Parker Phoenix said:


> Sorry to crack your plaster, but you don't tell me where to visit on the web. I didn't say it was wrong, just that I hated to see a fish of that size killed. Go beat your chest elsewhere.



Amen, I am an avid offshore fisherman, some fish I harvest, others I don't, I have never intentionally killed a marlin nor a sailfish.  I ain't a tree hugger, I hunt, trap and fish and take my good share of fish for food, not only for me but for family and friends.  With all that being said, I understand the format of the tournament requires that one that size is going to be killed, I have mixed emotions about it and I have fished in that tournament and was prepared to kill a big marlin if one was got to boat side.  The problem with mixed tournaments or kill tournaments is that the big fish are the mature females (bill fish at least) and the Northern GOM has been identified as one of the primary blue marlin breeding grounds (also for the western population of BFT) so I often wonder when I see a big female hung by her tail at the marina "how many marlin could she have produced if not caught?"

When a big one like that one is caught and there is a fight that long, logic tells me she should be harvested simply because she is going to more than likely end up shark food simply because it will be hard to recover from a fight that took that long.  I have caught some big marlin in my life with my biggest being a monster black I caught off of Cabo San Lucas and it took some serious talking to convince the capt and crew to release her, I won out by promising a much larger tip if we released her, she was in good shape and had good color, she was still   "lit up".  

With all the above being said, congratulations to the angler, captain and crew (big game fishing is truely a team sport and if you have ever done it, you know what I am talking about), well done.


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## Wisconsin Ben (Jul 9, 2009)

I'm a novice at Marlin but why can't you eat them?  Or is it the 12 hour boat trip back that makes them inedible?


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## Nitro (Jul 9, 2009)

Wisconsin Ben said:


> I'm a novice at Marlin but why can't you eat them?  Or is it the 12 hour boat trip back that makes them inedible?




You can eat them - and they are quite tasty....

Back in the day, before catch and release became the norm for Billfish, my Grandfather was tough on em off the coast of California.

We ate Marlin and Swordfish year round...


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## redneck_billcollector (Jul 9, 2009)

Wisconsin Ben said:


> I'm a novice at Marlin but why can't you eat them?  Or is it the 12 hour boat trip back that makes them inedible?



Marlin is actually rather good, the problem is that if folks get to likin' them on the dinner table, the commercial intrests start to target them, once that happens... Marlin take awhile to grow from lil fellas to big ones, there are enough of them that get killed as by-catch on long lines when they are not targeted, heck, scares me to think what would happen to them if they are targeted.


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