Blue marlin hits man during fishing trip near Orange Beach: ‘I couldn’t believe it’

Hannah O'Gara
·1 min read
4

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (WKRG) — A deep sea fishing trip took a scary turn when one of the crew members was hit by a blue marlin on Sunday. The crew was fishing off the Gulf of Orange Beach near Perdido Pass.

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Six men left out of Orange Beach aboard a 68-foot Hatteras Fishing Boat.  Part of the crew has been fishing together for years. Each man has a few fishing stories to tell, but not one of them will top what happened to one man last Sunday aboard their boat, Jubilee.

“Never saw the blue marlin coming at me,” said Thomas Arendall, who was struck by the fish. “I had no clue what hit me.”

Thomas Arendall after being struck by the blue marlin. (Courtesy of Arendall)
Thomas Arendall after being struck by the blue marlin. (Courtesy of Arendall)

It was around 4 p.m., near the oil platform known as Delta House when angler, Jon Houston Warr, hooked into a marlin. Crew member Arendall came face to face with the giant marlin as the fish came aboard the Jubilee and then fought its way back into the water.

“I couldn’t believe it, I was shocked, that guy is extremely lucky that it was not worse than it was,” said Tyler Creel, an employee of Zeke’s Marina near the location of the boathouse where Jubilee is stored.

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The video has gone viral on social media, reaching over 39 million views on TikTok.

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