White Marlin

John Unkart has wetted lines in the saltwater environment for over 50 years. From angling for enjoyment on the Chesapeake Bay to chartering for a living in the canyons of the mid-Atlantic, he has spent a lifetime learning how to catch fish. However, when it comes to catching white marlin John has a rather unusual technique. "We had a young man on the boat who said he wanted to catch a white marlin and I said everyone wants to. We release white Marlin we do not take them into the dock. It came up to the side of the boat and they were taking photographs. Everyone on the boat was jumping up and down and screaming and the father said can we bring it into the boat, can I get a photo of it? I said sure and as I started to bring the marlin in over the gunwale of the boat it slips its tail, goes up in the air, everything that goes up must come down and the bill impaled right into my leg. We extract the bill from the leg, wrap the leg up, released the marlin and let them go find another form of food. The following year, almost the identical thing happened. We were fishing a white marlin tournament and actually thought we had a contender, a white marlin that might've been worth $1 million and we went to bring it out of the water and it was just déjà vu. I grab it, the tale goes up in the air, the bill points down and it goes right back into the same leg in a different spot." John has written a book called "Saltwater Tales."