BajaNews - 3-9-2006 at 05:15 PM
http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/sports/14054863.htm
BY ROD KLOECKNER
Nothing with the way the day started suggested a giant blue marlin would be in Shane Parks' future.
Parks and his wife, Margaret, were vacationing in Cabo San Lucas, Los Cabos, Mexico, last month when the O'Fallon couple chartered a boat to go
deep-sea fishing in the Pacific Ocean.
"There were a lot of guys that went out on fishing boats who paid a substantial amount of money to go out on a nice, big boat," Parks said. "My wife
and I opted for the 23-foot Panga boat, which was $250. It was the cheapest boat you could get. They pulled it out into the water with a 4-wheel drive
truck. There wasn't even a dock there.
"It was so small, it was me, my wife and the captain. That's about all the boat would handle."
At the end of the day, however, they found enough room on the boat for a giant blue marlin that was 10 feet long and weighed 475 pounds.
Parks fought the fish for 3 1/2 hours before landing the monster, which many of the natives said was one of the biggest they've seen. Cabos San Lucas
has a reputation as one of the top destinations for big-game fishing and is known as the "Marlin Capital of the World."
However, most blue marlin caught never exceed 300 pounds, which puts Parks' catch in rarefied air.
"Our captain has been doing this for 20 years and he said it was biggest fish he's ever seen on his boat," said Parks, 36, who owns Parks Construction
in O'Fallon. "People have been fishing down there all their lives and they were freaking on this fish. It's rare."
Parks, who was staying at an all-inclusive resort, became an instant celebrity once word spread of his catch. His story really took legs once details
of their inauspicious start became known.
Besides the cramped quarters on the boat, which was chartered from Los Cabos Sportfishing, the weather in the Sea of Cortez that morning wasn't
favorable.
"It was choppy, windy, we were soaking wet," Parks said. "The sun was shining but we were freezing cold. My wife was green and slightly sea-sick. It
was real, old-time fishing."
So choppy were the seas that Parks and the captain couldn't catch any bait fish. Parks baited his rod with a plastic lure, about 16 inches long, that
looked like a squid.
Wet, cold and miserable, the trio were heading back to land about 11:30 a.m. when the marlin engulfed the plastic lure.
"It was incredible," Parks said. "The fish never jumped out of the water. The fish sucked all the line off the first pole. I started running out of
line and freaking out and I was like 'What do I do? What do I do?' The captain hooked another pole onto my pole and threw it in the ocean."
Thus began a 3 1/2 -hour odyssey of trying to land the marlin, which put up an epic struggle.
"I was exhausted after the first 30 minutes," Parks said. "I was tired. I had blisters where the skin was coming off. I just kept on keeping on. It
was a giant fish. What are you going to do?
"If you see on TV most of those boats have those special seats and special harnesses and places to put your feet up on. This boat didn't have any of
that. I was hanging my leg over the side of the boat. There was nothing strapping me in. It was crazy. Now that we've seen other videos of people
catching marlin, it was extremely dangerous."
Finally, after the marlin had fought to its death, Parks and the captain drug the fish onto the tiny vessel.
"My wife was standing on the other side of the boat, trying to keep it from flipping over," Parks said. "We had the side of the boat so far down in
the water that all we had to do was drag it over the side. It was complete adrenaline."
Once back on shore, Parks posed for numerous photographs with the fish. He donated the meat to a local orphanage in the village and had the rest of
the fish shipped to a taxidermist back in the United States.
Parks is having the marlin mounted and plans to hang it from the ceiling in his new office, which is currently under construction.
Parks, who has two young sons, is part of a motorcycle club called "The 100 mph Club" that helps raise funds for local charities. He likes to fish but
doesn't get to go as often as he would like.
His previous biggest catch came when he was younger. Parks would watch his father pull 40- to 50-pound catfish out of the Kaskaskia River above
Fayetteville.
"I like to fish, but that was my first deep-seas fishing tour," Parks said. "It's got me hooked to the point where I'm going to go to Canada this
year. Maybe some walleye, whatever they got that's big."
Marinero - 3-10-2006 at 11:24 AM
What a great story! Where are the Hero pictures?
Bill
bajajudy - 3-10-2006 at 01:15 PM
Terrfic fish story.
The only similiar story I have ever heard was some guy that caught a 350 tuna in a panga. (Everyone was comparing it to a Volkswagon) Any of you who
have ever hooked a tuna know what a fight that must have been and getting that tuna into the panga took all they had left. I believe the fight time
was about the same...3 1/2 hours.