Marlin Fever

The water off Panama's San Jose Islands in Panama Bay was rough, but the Schmidt boys, Louis Jr., 32, and John, 35, knew their business and were ready for anything--especially marlin. Said Louis, Sailfish are just one, two, three compared to marlin. Marlin are big, scarce, make spectacular leaps clear out of water --and they're good to eat."

At 2:20 p.m., over 35 fathoms, the battle began. Said Louis, "I saw him coming to take bait and yelled 'marlin,' and before he snapped the line off the outrigger I was in the chair." Hooked on an 18-oz. lemonwood rod, the maddened marlin streaked ahead of the Schmidts' 40-ft. Cayman II flashing high in the sun. When John turned the boat around, the fish headed for the bottom. Said Louis, "For three hours I had my leg hooked around everything except the keel."

He played the marlin with back motion, changing his hand from rod to reel, until his kidney harness broke. The other boys tried a shoulder harness on him, but that was no good. Said Louis: "My arm was sore, my back was sore, my seat was sore. They poured water on me and on the reel and tried different shoulder straps until I bled in four places. I hate to give up a pole, but I finally had to give it to John."

That was after three hours, 57 minutes. Half an hour later, John boated Louis' fish--the biggest black marlin ever caught: 1,006 Ibs. It was 30 pounds heavier and more than a foot longer than the record-breaker caught in New Zealand's Bay of Islands in 1926.

The fact that two men handled the rod may keep Schmidt from becoming the new recordholder. But the International Game Fish Association might make an exception. Louis Schmidt, injured as a boy in Baltimore, has only one arm and one leg.

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