I'm not sure if this is the story that goes with that video but just goes to show fishing can be dangerous!!
Man killed by Marlin
From the Washington Post.
By Angus Phillips
Sunday, July 21, 2002; Page D03
When Capt. Billy Verbanas, a well-known Delaware offshore fishing captain at Indian River Inlet, was yanked from his charter boat into 7,000 feet of water by a mako shark and drowned 12 days ago, it called to mind a similar incident off North Carolina in 1994 when billfishing mate Chris Bowie of Lisbon, Md., was pulled overboard by a blue marlin and dragged under, never to be seen again.
Both were skilled professionals who died in the most dangerous phase of big-game fishing, wiring a fish at the end of a fight to bring it close enough to either gaff it and bring it aboard or release it.
In either case, the "wire-man," as he is known, braces thighs against a gunwale, wraps the wire leader around one hand to control the fish and then bends at the waist and reaches overboard with the other to sink the gaff or free the hook.
This moment of eye-to-eye combat at water level is dangerous enough with a white marlin of 50 or 60 pounds, when the wire-man can be whacked or speared by the bill or knocked off balance by a sudden lurch of boat or fish. It's downright scary when the fish outweighs the man and can yank him overboard by brute power, as it appears happened in both these fatal instances.
"It's like a bullfight," said marlin fisherman Carlos Bentos of Ocean City. "It's just you and the beast. Sometimes you get the bad bull who doesn't do what he's supposed to do."
Verbanas, longtime skipper of the Reel-istic and perennial big shark record holder in Delaware, was doubly endangered by the fact he was working on a wild, black, windy night when trouble struck.
He and mate Chris Greigg were hosting a party of Amish anglers from Pennsylvania on an overnight trip near Poorman's Canyon. They hooked the mako at about 11 p.m. and had fought it about an hour when it came close to the boat a third and final time. According to onboard accounts, Verbanas grabbed the wire leader, wrapped it twice around a gloved hand as is customary and instructed one of the anglers to shoot the fish with a rifle as he pulled its head up.
But the fish instead leaped and gave a mighty tug that plucked Verbanas, a strapping, 41-year-old father of six, off the boat and into the water before he could utter a sound. With the deck pitching in 30-knot winds and seven- to eight-foot seas, unstable footing doubtless contributed to the reversal.
"He didn't do anything wrong," said Bill Baker, a fellow offshore captain and owner of Bill's Sports Store, the Delmarva supplier where for years Verbanas had outfitted his boat. "Sometimes, things like that just happen."
Something similar happened to Bowie, the victim in the North Carolina incident eight years ago. When the 200-pound blue marlin he was wiring leaped next to the boat and made a 180-degree turn in midair, he was unable to extricate his hands from the tangled wire. As skipper Alan Fields and a fishing party on the boat Trophy Box looked on in horror on a calm, clear day, the Howard County man was dragged into the clear depths and vanished from sight.
Verbanas also was dragged under but broke free and popped to the surface within a minute or so, according to Nate Beiler, one of the fishermen aboard.
"Capt. Billy surfaced about 150, 200 feet from the boat and he hollered to Captain Chris [mate Chris Greigg], 'Start the motors!' " wrote Beiler in an e-mail account of the ensuing struggle.
"The wind was howling and Captain Chris jockeyed the boat near to Billy and we threw the life ring to him but it just blew away. At that point my friend Mike stripped his clothes and dove into the water with no regard to his own safety or thoughts of the shark nearby. The seas were now seven to eight feet and we saw Billy watching when his head just went under. Mike had him within seconds and we hauled him into the boat and began CPR."
"All six of us took turns pumping; for two hours we never gave up."
But it was to no avail. A Coast Guard helicopter summoned by radio eventually arrived to airlift the body to shore, but Verbanas was gone.
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