Fished the Nipple area on 8 October and caught a Barracuda mid-morning. At 1215 just one mile NW of Nipple in 75 fathoms, starboard flat line hooked-up....line was coming off at a pretty fast clip and at first thought it was a Wahoo. With some 400 yards off the spool we then observed lots of white water and a grey-hounding Blue Marlin some 200 yards directly off the port beam and beginning to overtake the Venture....continuous white water as fish stayed on surface. After turning boat to get fish astern, another strong run and continuing to grey- hound, over half the spool was gone before finally stopping run. Fish then went deep and stayed down rest of fight. With double line on reel and a few feet from swivel, this Blue Marlin would not budge an inch more....Mexican standoff for twenty minutes right behind the outdrives. Finally, after one hour and ten minutes, was able to leader fish to surface and grab the bill. Pretty good hook-up with both 8/0 hooks of the purple/black Sevenstrand flathead. This was a monumental occasion for Venture as over the years, 8 October has always been "the day to go Billfishing"... 20 years ago to the day caught three Blues and one White before noon. This also marked the 200th Billfish caught aboard Venture. Was really looking to get into the White Marlin Fall Run, but who can be disappointed after a magnificent catch of a very active Blue Marlin. Several photos are posted on this web site of this fish. Steve Kaiser