captainbat

I use three different mono leaders only on the boat, our light is 150lbs, medium 250lbs, and heavy is 600lbs. I have my crimp kit set up so I only have the correct 3 crimps on board for the line. This eliminates any confusion whatsover and results in 0% terminal tackle failure due to missmatched crimps etc. I use Jinkai hand swagging pliers and buy the crimps from Wellsys in Bulk pacts of 500 or 1000. You then also need your amour spring etc but once again you buy only the three different sizes you need. Buy bulk and only buy the sizes you want and for around $200.00 you will have all your crimping needs sorted out for at least a few years. Cheers - Bat

Fairly said Mchale, I agree that old mate may need to qualify the claim that 'tonnes of Marlin were removed within that week', but to be honest we are really discussing is a bigger issue here. In my younger days I actually worked on a comercial boat out of JB on the deck for a while, and with my business 'Bats Boat Works' in Cairns we service the electronics of the majority of the long line fleet, so I have a reasonable idea of what viable catch rates need to be to sustain the industry. I like you have nothing personally against the commercial sector, they are operating within the legal boundaries set for them and they have every right and obligation to those that depend on them to do so. However I am biased towards the recreational sector, and genuinely belive that the return to the community from our minimal impact fishing is vastly greater than the return from the commercial sector. The return from the commercial sector is very limited to those directly involved in the operations of and the supply of goods and services, (which includes me), directly to the industry. The recreational sector onflows much more benifit to a greatly wider % of the community, without taking the huge numbers of the stock needed to support the long liners. Please remember that these boats work the entire coast not just Sth NSW, and are generally run by very competant fishermen and crews who really can catch these fish when they have the opportunity. For years people such as myself, Ross Hunter, GFAA and many others have been directing our concerns to our respective Govt authorities. The implementation of a green zone into area E on the reef being an example, (which however came back and bite us as well as we no longer can fish there either). Anyway in principal I agree with you that the recreational boys can at times, be very quick to quote fiqures that may be not so accurate, (By the way we can easily have this verified as the boats would have unloaded I assume either at JB or U/D and besides that they would need to have the records available for their quotas). The trouble here Mchale is that this IS an emotive subject and the people that care about it care about it very much, at the end of the day I believe that the greater common good is served by having millions of dollars world wide spent fishing for Marlin recreationally rather than decimating one of the most wonderfully evolved speacies on the earth to provide cheap protein to the worlds unendng demand. We can farm Tilapia and catfish and all that crap (which they do) to acheive that. The problem is that we dont learn from our mistakes. However let me say this to the recreational boys.. think yourself lucky that you fish in Australia, where we do have quotas etc. Have a look at David Attenboughs 'Super Fish' DVD - then you can get an idea how many billfish are taken worldwide every year. It simply cant continue. Sorry to rant on Mchale, but finally I would like to point out to you that Striped Marlin are not a 'By Catch' of the Long Liners, they are a targeted speacies, they fish for them because they cant catch the tuna anymore, not the ones they want to sell for big bucks to O/S anyway. Regards - Bat

I must agree here with the others - I'm sure Mchale believes in what he has presented infront of him unfortunately this isnt a fair representation of long lining statistics. Fiqures quoted are simply unviable - the boats wouldnt be working there for that return. I'm sorry mate but its that simple. Long Linners have targeted Marlin over the last decade because they destroyed the tuna stocks and they will destroy the Marlin stocks as well. A long line kills black marlin just as well as stripes. Up here when they are working out of Cairns fishing for tuna we see plenty of Blacks caught on them, fish which cant be sold, and are simply killed for no benifit whatsover. I'm a marlin fisherman through and through and I DO takes sides. There is no way to convince me that those boats are not knocking your stocks around. with respect - Bat

Yeh I'm with you, I dont fish for sharks either so it dosn't worry me too much. But I know a few people who might be a be sad to hear this one....

Hello Raiders, Last night I attended a presentation by Qld Fisheries regarding new size and bag limits for all speacies in qld waters. One of the new rules which may be of interest to some is that the bag limit for sharks - inclusive of all speacies, is 1. The maximum size limit is 1.5m. This of course will mean an end to shark fishing in any tournaments in Qld. Its also the end of weighing them for records or club points etc, simply because you will be commiting a crime if you do so. These changes come into effect 1 March 2009. I wonder if NSW is thinking about simular changes? It would certainly change the face of that interclub a bit..

Thats good fishing Glenn - well done mate. A lot better than it is up here at moment! Cheers - Bat

The only way to catch Marlin is to fish for them, and keep fishing for them. I dont believe that experience can come from anything but time on the water. Always remember that Marlin are top predators, they need to eat and they to eat a lot, get up to speed with where your bait source is down there and those Marlin won't be too far away... cheers - Bat

Have a look at the underwater pics of Sailfish feeding on the Australian Marlin Fishing group on facebook. Some of the best I've seen Cheers - Bat

Hey Rosscoe, hows things old mate? Yes I was a bit sad with this one, particually as I was a good female, but as said things happen. The season up here this year was in a word - Fair. Not by any means the best but not the worst either. We had a great little Black season though and hopefully you and the raiders should have some joy down at Pt. Stephens in the new year - I hope you do, cheers - Bat

Good on ya Schnepy, when are you up next? We will be fishing back on the little blacks and sails from December onwards. Cheers Bat

The berley Bomb idea is the go I reckon

It is a shame mate, its the first billfish I've put on a boat since 2001 when I was over in the Maldives, where the crew took them back to their village and shared them with their (very large) family. Heavy Tackle can and does have a high mortallity rate, circle hook or no circle hook - up here when that fish is released there is always the very real possibillity that waiting just below is a couple of tigers looking for the tired fish. This is why so few recaptured tags ever come from Cairns as opposed to other heavily fished areas such as Pt Stephens etc. Cheers - Bat

Hello All, I had the pleasure over the weekend to fish with my old mate Capt. Brett Davison, Capt. Tommy Siebler from Hawaii and Ricky from the Flying Scotsman. Joining us also was Brett's son Greg and his friend Matty 'D'. This was a purely social weekend with the intention to catch Greg his first marlin. We had 1 bite on the first day down near the bank but found the going a bit slow. On the second day we decided the head up north and managed to hook up this fish off St Crispans in the early afternoon. Greg did a great job on the fish and after 40 minutes or so we had our chance to get a tag into him. Unfortunately when I traced the fish the hook dislodge from his lower jaw and went back in through the roof of his mouth and entered the brain, killing the fish almost immediately. Sometimes things can and will go wrong in this game its a sad fact that we have to accept if we want to go out and fish for these big fish. I said to Brett there was no point leaving the fishing floating around for the tigers so we put it onboard, according to the formula with the length and girth measurements this fish is around the 700lb mark. It is a great fish, big congratulations to Greg, well done mate. Cheers - Bat

Thanks Rosscoe - what can I say - you taught me how to tie a hook, next January is 20 years, and look how much has happened, without you - it simply would not exist. The greatest gift I ever recieved....