Crescent City Marlin Fishing - A Mike Nolan Fishing Adventure

Crescent City Tuna Fishing - A Mike Nolan Fishing Adventure

There is a story that goes along with this fishing trip. Here it is as told by John E Evans first and then Mike Nolan:

Well it all started when Mike asked if he could invite a fishing buddy to go with us on a Tuna Fishing trip. Mike said," his name is Doug Oxford, and he's a former fishing guide turned Sheriffs Deputy". I said OK, he's welcome to join us.

Our first trip with Doug was very good and so when we planned another trip Mike couldn't go, but Doug was available and another friend John Conderaque (not sure of spelling). John owned the Smith River Motel, and I met him through Mike. It was around early Sept of 1997, and we headed out very early around 5 am one morning.

As we left the Harbor I noticed what seemed a carpet of small, round Jelly Fish all around us and as deep as I could see. John promptly took out his brand new camera and proceeded to snap shots above and then holding the camera under the water taking shot after shot. I finally asked him to save some film for the fish, at which time we continued on with our mission to catch Tuna. By now we were out about 15 miles and hadn't caught a thing. Conditions were very good and water temp was right, but no Tuna. We had been trolling for some time when I heard radio chatter about Tuna at 9 miles from C.C. I could see a couple of boats inside us, so we picked up the Lures and headed toward them. After we started trolling again, it wasn't long before we had jig strikes and caught a couple of Tuna, so we put the lines back in, and started trolling again. This time when we hooked up, a big seal grabbed the fish. I made a quick move to get away from the seal and started trolling again. We trolled some distance, but had no strikes. I turned back towards the area we had hooked the Tuna, hoping that the seal would be elsewhere by now. I retraced the the path shown on my Chart Plotter back to the area of the catches we'd had, noticing another vessel was also fishing the same area.

Doug said he thought the other fisherman was a retired DFG warden, and we waved and continued on. Now the entire time we trolled I operated the Helm, so i relied on Doug and John to spot any activity behind, and i would do the same ahead. Suddenly, I saw Doug's eyes go wide open and wondered out loud what's that! About that time one of the reels started to scream from a jig strike, and as I looked back to see, a Marlin jumped behind the boat with my lure, (a Mexican Flag pattern) and proceeded to take the line off the reel. I turned the boat around in order to chase the fish so that Doug could tighten the drag and get back some line on the reel, which by this time was almost empty. I put the engine in neutral and watched as Doug proceeded to pull on the Marlin. The fish put on a great show for us and attracted the other boater we had passed.

I was waiting for Doug to hand off the fish so we could all have a turn, since it was my boat and fishing equipment. I didn't think it was to much to ask, but Doug would not hand off. John was taking picture after picture with his brand new Camera of an amazing event. As the Marlin, a Striped Marlin, came to the boat, I put on my gloves and was able to grab it's bill and hold on. It was worn out by that time and put up little resistance. Now, while this was going on John was making a visual recording with his "brand new Minolta." I suggested that rather than kill such a fish, that we release it to live on. Having no voiced objections and the fact that we would have pictorial proof of our wondrous catch, I ordered the engine put in gear and proceeded to revive the Marlin by holding it in a swimming position. It wasn't long before i felt the fish starting to revive, and as I released it, the fish put on a visual glow turning different colors as it left our view. I felt extremely pleased that it was still alive and we were anxious to get back to the dock and brag about our Marlin. I asked John to get the film developed asap, so we could prove the catch.

I heard awhile later that Doug Oxford went to the Triplicate (our local newspaper) and told them how he caught a Marlin and omitted to mention me or my boat and fishing equipment. In the issue of Sept. 6 1997, an article appeared with Doug's version of how he caught a Marlin off C.C. To top it off, John seemed to have had a malfunction with his "Brand New Camera", and only the Jelly fish pics developed. I imagine that the camera ran out of film, but John has never said and I know how bad he felt, so it was best not to ask him. So Fran, by this time you probably wished you'd never asked about the Marlin, but I can tell you it was a thrill for me regardless of the lack of proof. Oh, and by the way, Doug was never invited again.

Here's what Mike had to say about that day:

Howdy Fran,

This pic was taken on a commercial boat, with my son Matt on left, and Ronnie Caron on right. It was the day I changed to drag boat with skipper Joe Caron to sport fish on drag boat instead of Johns boat when marlin was landed.

They never had a albacore on board the 80 year old boat and no gaff, just a hand pick to bend over the rail and pick up tuna. I brought a dozen feather lures and five rods and we lost most of the lures and most of the line as we fought tuna all evening and next morning as we trolled from Brookings to CC the next am. Barbecued shrimp that night, they had caught in their net the day we departed at 5pm from Brookings. All night was the sound of jumping fish attracted to the lights and fish underneath the boat at false dawn when we awoke.

We landed close to 100 albacore by the time we docked in Crescent City at noon the next day. The best pic and most fish I have ever helped catch in less than 24 hours.

That's my side of the marlin story.

Kind Regards,

Mike Nolan

Follow all of Mike Nolan's fishing adventures on my blog.