315-pound blue marlin off 9-Mile Bank

As this super-season in the local fishery continues, San Diego angler Kevin Mattson didn’t expect to be battling a blue marlin when he launched his 17-foot Ranger bass boat out of Mission Bay Thursday (October 8). Especially after pulling jigs all day trolling for tuna or dorado for nada. He decided to “pull ‘em up” and head in as dusk arrived. As he made his way back in from just outside the 9-Mile Bank, he saw bird activity and flying fish, so he slowed down and dropped the jigs back in “just for the last bit of light.”

Soon enough, it was clear he wasn’t going to hit the launch ramp anytime soon. He hooked something big on a Catchy Tackle Spinner in pink, tied on 100-pound test line wound on an Okuma Makira 30 that was mounted to a Phoenix 7004X rod.

The “fish jumped twice and I couldn't believe how big it was. I chased it down with the boat first, and then it towed the boat. It soon became an up and down fight for the next two hours; a solo battle into the night. Unfortunately, the fish came up dead. I sank the gaff into it and wound up lashing it beside the boat. I had to go slow and finally got in the harbor at 11:30 at night. A two-hour fight and a 2.5-hour ride in the dark with it lashed to the side of his glitter boat. The fish was almost as big as the boat! So crazy!”

Kevin said he wound up spending the night with the fish at Dana Landing and weighed it on the scale in the morning at 315 pounds.