May 25, 2013
A Virginia Beach man trolling for tuna Thursday found himself fighting a nearly half ton hoss. It took Jeff Waltz nearly two hours to reel in a 913 pound blue marlin, caught while fishing aboard the charter boat Pelican. Captain Arch Bracher says they were fishing about 35 miles offshore of Oregon Inlet in about 600 feet of water and were in the process of reeling in a 30 pound tuna, when this rare mammoth decided to make a meal of their catch. Bracher says it's the biggest fish he's ever brought to the docks, but says that about once a year, a fish of roughly this weight class will get hooked up along the Outer Banks. Oregon Inlet fishing center reports they only weighed two or three big fish at the docks last summer. Definitely not something you see everyday.
