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Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 2:06 pm
by Matt Flynn
Pro mack fisho Norm Hedditch was working his timber boat South Seas Daniela north of Melville Island when a black marlin left him with a souvenir.
The big fish speared his boat and left part of its bill stuck in the hull.
He told FFF this week: "I never heard or saw it happen. In the evening we dropped anchor and I went down to the engine room to do the daily checks.
"I noticed the bill straight away, and thought to myself 'that wasn't there this morning'.
"It had gone right through the hull and there was several inches sticking inside.
"The hull of the boat is about an inch and a half thick, and made from tough Jarrah wood, with a fibreglass skin.
"The fish must have been doing 50km/h to penetrate the hull like that.
"I find it incredible it went through at all - you would have trouble hammering a nail through the hull."
Norm said the hull was not taking water and the incident had not cost him much in repairs because he had to slip the boat this week anyway.
"It was due for its annual paint job," he said.
"I have only heard of this happening once before, years ago, in the Torres Strait, although I believe marlin-fishing boats are occasionally speared.
"We caught only three marlin last year on our mackerel gear, so we don't see a lot of them.
"This spear is not going to come out easy, we might have to cut it off and sand over it.
"It was an almost watertight fit.
"I was concerned that if it fell out at sea we would have had a big problem with water getting in.
"The bill portion left in the boat was 175mm long and 40mm in diameter."

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:16 pm
by ozdodge
great story, and good outcome, for the skipper at least...

do they grow back?

cheers

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:23 pm
by Skippadman
Wow that's incredible!

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:31 pm
by Matt Flynn
Dunno if the bills grow back, I doubt it. Dunno if it will survive without a bill.

Reckon it would have a ripper headache.

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:48 pm
by ozdodge
you mean tooth ache? ;)

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:19 pm
by mako
Send the marlin the repair bill :D

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:07 pm
by theodosius
Ouch!

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:25 pm
by Yknot
Hi guys no the bill doesn't grow back it rounds it's self of nearly like a ball and heals over eventually although have caught a few that the end of the bill has formed the shape of a if you can imagane a valve in an engine me and the missus tagged a sail and a small black same day with broken bill and another boat same day with a sail as well ,small blacks a known for this but the little stripes are very sensitive and snap easily you have to be very carefully when grabbing the bill on small Billy's always try to grab as close to the end of the bottom jaw as you can but when they rare up at times this is when they will snap if you aren't quick enough to let go.then also if a hook has gone through the bill also they will break soon as you grab hold of the bill and also snap of slapping themselves against you boat .So they seem to survive ok I've caught plent of Billy's at diffent sizes with no bill or half a bill it's definitely a better hook up rate that's for sure but they seem to survive ok and the bill doesn't bleed so all is good,

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:25 pm
by dannott
Worked on a game fishing boat a few months ago in Brisbane, hull had a bill stuck in the fibreglass. Pretty common apparently, once it's stuck the decky has to basically hacksaw it off to get the fish off. Shame to hear it doesn't grow back. One of the bills was so embedded they just fiber glassed over it

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:23 pm
by Hemi
Tomorrows paper...

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:25 pm
by Once Bitten
Wow, now that's pretty full on! I guess the owner of the boat got stuck with more than one "bill" on this occasion... :rofl:

Re: Marlin spears NT boat

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:40 am
by Kp NT
Id just glass it over and have it as talking point wih the boat. Like "hey have you ever seen my marlin bill" :rofl: