South Carolina Marlin Fishing History

Have you ever held history in your hands? There is a great power in visiting the relics from our past. I was lucky to hold a piece of South Carolina’s sport-fishing history today. I still feel its impression in my palms—the delicate edges, the weight.

The marlin bill I held in my hands is nearly twice my age. It is fragile and brown, like slick, aged wood that could crack with just a touch. A rusted hook is lodged in its base, a reminder of how the blue marlin that donned it was eventually bested. The bill didn’t belong to any ordinary fish. It belonged to the fish—one that forever changed South Carolina’s bluewater fishery. What can better inspire those with the itch to venture offshore than the storied wildness of a blue marlin? The only thing that carries greater weight is the hard proof that she was even there, and that she could indeed be caught.