Elephants and Pea Shooters

Here's side story with dedicated billfish angler, Dennis Kilroy. Dennis asked me to fish with him on the Mi Pistola. I offered to us my gear but he was clear he wanted to use his tackle for our day on the water. Dennis has a collection of vintage Penn gear, 30t and a 50tw internationals and Pen rods from the 70s. Most of these real were only half filled with 50lb. line. I scratched my head as we put out the spread, all top-of-the-line Black Barts, Zukers, etc. Dennis had mention that he landed and release a blue the day before and, "I asked on which rod?" He pointed to a vintage Penn Senator rod with a 30t International that must have been 40 years old, half filled with 50lb. braid and a short topshot of 50lb. mono. I then asked, "how long was the fight?" He replied five hours. Well, off to the grounds we went and sure enough we hooked into a 300lb. blue on the same rod. The photos tell the story of vintage light tackle on blue marlin...enjoy.

Pain

More pain

Pain

More pain

DONE!

The vintage rod