No “Fish Story” for this Honest Angler
Tim Bean
8/24/2012
Another story to make you feel good; or bad depending on your take of it – Enjoy.
Honest Angler
Honesty – there are times, I am sure, that any one of us feels that word is as dead as the dinosaurs. It isn’t hard to understand why many of us lament the apparent lack of honesty in this world, what with all of the myriad and sundry news stories out there of people, if not stretching the truth, then outright lying. Our collective lack of belief that there is any honesty any more is only magnified by the fact that this is also an election year, so we are getting pelted by barely truths, mistruths, and utter untruths multiple times a day. It gets exhausting trying to weed through all of it, hoping to find the smallest kernel of truth out there. Then, there are our own personal dilemma’s, when many of us have lied too, myself included. So, with all of this lack of “truthiness,” to quote Stephen Colbert, it is then far too easy to declare the word, “truth,” dead on arrival.
Then we read, or hear a story that gives us hope, and restores our belief in that lonely word “truth,” if even only temporarily. This is just one of those stories.
28 years old Molly Palmer reeled in a 12 ft. long, 1,022.5 pound marlin, while participating in The Big Island Invitational Marlin Tournament, and that fish would have been big enough to win the $129,000 grand prize for the tourney, and land Ms. Palmer in the record books, for largest marlin caught by a woman. Yes, it would have been, if she and the rest of the crew on the boat had only lied.
Molly Palmer and the crew admitted to tournament officials that she did not solely reel in this monster fish, she had help from the crew, and that is a no, no, according to the tournament rules, and the requirements to breaking the world record. (read more here)
I wonder how many other people would have been so honest…
I would just like to add that i was one of the teammates on the boat my good friend george liddle and myself got a call fron neal asking if we wanted to fish in the tournament we said you bet. i can say that we all new what to due when molly cound not get the fish in it was a not about the money are the tournament it was about the fish when we saw her jump it was one of the most moving moments of my life to see that fish jump also i would like to say that most marlins over 500 lbs are female and one of the guys therre said that she had droped her eggs before we caught her and that her heart gave out while she was down in the depths. thants for your kind article but we would due it again the same way phil duke capt. of the team
Hey Phil, Glad to Hear From You,
I used to live in a coastal town in Florida that hosts a similar tournament. I found that there too the anglers tended to be on the up and up, when it came to how, who, and what circumstances the various fish were reeled in. Maybe anglers are the last bastions of honesty in this world? I would like to think there are others, but given the current state of affairs, sadly I am beginning to believe that honesty may only lay on the deck of a boat on the open seas.
Keep it Pointed into the Waves, and Watch the Outriggers.
Sincerely,
Tim