Hey guys,
Well we finally managed our first Marlin off Dad's new gameboat - WASABI.
We picked up the boat at the end of December, and have been trying to get a beakie onboard off Sydney every chance we've had since!! We hadn't had any luck, and so finally decided to take her up to Port Stephens for the Easter long weekend to give it a try up there.
On the way up from Sydney to Port Stephens on Good Friday we managed 5 striped tuna (including a couple of very fat ones) and an undersized dollie all off Newcastle. We were really just motoring up to PS, but stopping to throw out some lures wherever we saw some surface action along the way. Was a good warm up for Saturday
Saturday morning we set out from the marina at Nelson's Bay at 6am with Peter (skipper) and Shane (skipper turned deckie for the day) on board to help us out with their expert local knowledge!!! It proved to be invaluable - thanks guys, I learnt so much!!
Headed straight for the Carpark, and found some big baitschools, a carpet of leatherjackets, and about 15 other boats out there with us. We stopped over the baitschools for a couple of drops, and got a bunch of slimys into the live bait tank (I dropped the jig a bit too far, and pulled up a half full string of thumper leatherjackets... the cheeky (and heavy) buggers).
Slow trolled the live slimys for a while (1 off each outrigger, 1 down deep)... and saw a couple of other boats hook up around us. It was looking promising. Shane called "I reckon we'll have one on in about 10mins"... he was wrong - it only took 8mins.
We were hooked up to our first ever marlin (and also our first marlin off our own boat) - it was absolutely magic. Dad fought it for about 15mins, with a lot of aerial acrobatics from the fish, until his knees started to give out and he had to hand it over to me to finish off. A couple of minutes later and we had an approx 80kg stripe beside the boat. Dad had decided he wanted to keep our first marlin caught on the boat - but once it was beside the boat (and dragged up onto the swim platform by Shane) it looked to real and beautiful to kill, so we happily revived it for a few minutes behind the boat & then released it.
I would have been a happy man if that was all the action we saw for the day... it wasn't.
We reset the lures, and before we could get the 3rd bait out, we had another hit, and I was on to an approx 110kg stripe. The bugger jumped & thrashed & fought hard. He ran about 4-5 times. Went deep for a while. Jumped at the back of the boat. And finally was brought alongside. Shane grabbed the leader, and busted it off in the water, and I had fought & caught my first solo marlin!! Can't describe the feeling - it was amazing.
About an hour later and we were onto another stripe - my mum got a crack at this one, and the bugger threw the circle hook after a 5min fight and some great aerobatics right behind the boat (very unlucky to throw a circle hook like that I'm told).
An hour or two later, and my girlfriend got her chance at an est 100kg stripe. This one was only on for about 3mins (and a couple of tail walks) before it threw the hook & bait. Somehow the bridle rigged livie had managed to get the circle hook right through it's head... so the hook didn't set properly in the marlin and the hook (and slimy) got spat out. Again very unlucky on circle hooks.
An hour or two later and Dad was onto another small marlin. We weren't too sure if it was a stripe or a little blue?? It was electrically lit up!! (NOTE: I'm running out of room in this post to add pics - so I'll reply with a few more pics of this stripe/blue marlin - let me know what you think??)
It was an amazing day's fishing - one that I will never forget. Thanks again to Peter & Shane.
Final count for the day for WASABI: Marlin hooked = 5. Marlin caught & released = 3.
Am back in Sydney now, and looking forward to nailing my first "unassisted" marlin off Sydney. Fingers crossed.
Cheers,
Mark
Here are a few pics of that last marlin - let me know if you think it's a blue or a stripe.
Cheers,
Mark