Salmon Fishing Scotland Marlin on the Tay, Perthshire, Scotland.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Marlin on the Tay, Perthshire, Scotland.

Marlin caught on the Tay, Perthshire, Scotland.


This incredible photograph of only the third marlin ever recorded in the UK is made even more amazing by the fact it was landed by an angler on the River Tay near Stanley.
The fish was caught on Thursday morning and verified by an expert from the UK Marine Fish Recording Scheme managed by the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth.
At the request of Aquarium officials the marlin which weighed 119 lbs was driven to Plymouth the next day by its excited captor, farmer Alan McCaig of Bridge of Alan.
Experts declared that it was an Atlantic black marlin which somehow had strayed from its normal habitat in the more temperate waters of the Atlantic.
The first UK marlin recorded in the British Isles was a monster compared to Mr McCaig’s fish. It was 3.7 metres long and found dead on a beach on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly in March 1982.
In 1983 a 1.8 metre long specimen, a bit smaller than the Tay marlin was found alive, but dying in Morecambe Bay in August 1983.
The amazing Tay fish was caught by rod and line from a boat trailing a bait called a Rapala in the Hell’s Hole pool of the Catholes beat near Stanley.
Head ghillie Bob White saw something furiously chasing the blue and silver bait as it came to the surface in fast water and thought at first it was a young seal.
Seconds later the bait was seized and to their amazement it jumped clear of the water.
Mr McCaig who has caught marline off Venezuela immediately identified the fish.
Said Mr McCaig: “It was almost certainly exhausted by the freezing water which was only 38 deg.C , and we got it to the side of the boat after a short 20 minute fight.
“We had to go ashore and landed it on a shingle bank.”
Said ghillie White: “We were both absolutely amazed. Alien fish have been landed by salmon anglers in Scotland namely humpback salmon which come from the Pacific, but nothing like this has ever been seen before.
“We have had exceptionally good spring salmon fishing this season and the marlin must have been following them into the river.”

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