Marlin on a Soft-Bait

Last month, Tyran McRae and his crew headed out west in search of a marlin. They ended up hooking their target species, but not quite how they, or any of us, expected...

The day started as it usually does for Tyran, his partner Michaela Chaillis, and mates Jordan Ashby and Ricky Massey – by taking on the surf at Muriwai Beach. Their 5.7m West Coaster, Ramble On, is used to navigating through the west coast swell, and they were soon heading out to deeper water to begin a big day of trolling.

“We spent six or seven hours trolling for a marlin and got heaps of albacore and a few skippies, but no marlin action, so then we came back into the 40m mark to target snapper just over the sand,” says Tyran.

Tyran and his mates are part of the minority who use soft-baits out west – and to great success – but on this day they were struggling to get their offerings in front of the target species.

“There were a few workups here and there, so we were getting plagued with kahawai.”

With all of the action around, the team decided to put a marlin livebait out on their heavy gear – “a good sized west coast jack mackerel,” says Tyran.

“I cast about 15-20m away from it and let the soft-bait sink for a minute or so, and the fish just started swimming upwards, and I was like, ‘Here we go, another kahawai.’ The bro Jordan looked at me and laughed. But then I looked into the distance – about 20m away – and saw a bill thrashing and going ballistic. It took us a while to actually realise this was a marlin… Then it turned into a shit show really.”

“I’d tightened my drag up because I just wanted to get the kahawai in and release it, so I had to untighten it a little bit. The line was just nutting out.”

“I could see the soft-bait in the side of the marlin’s mouth. We were just freaking out and it was a shambles. I’m very new to gamefishing so we didn’t have much of an idea of what to do.

“It took a few more jumps, still going ballistic, and then it finally shook the hook. The whole fight lasted about five minutes.”

This must have been one of the few marlin hooked on soft-baits, so thankfully they had some evidence of the encounter.

“It was pretty fortunate that I turned the GoPro on for the last minute of the fight, otherwise no one would’ve believed us.”

They didn’t ended up with a marlin that day, but with billfish still in 40m off the west coast, Tyran’s gamefishing season is far from over.

In case anyone else is trying to replicate his achievement, Tyran was using a Z-Man Atomic Sunrise soft-bait on a Shimano Twin Power 4000 reel/Ocean Angler Microwave rod combo.

The whole team on board are part of the ‘Chums’, a West Auckland group who have gained a following online thanks to their extreme outdoor antics. You can see the video of the marlin on their Instagram @chums.nz, and find out more about the group at www.chums.online.

- Ethan Neville