Brendan Monks

We had a small window of opportunity to fish the morning and launched from Gosford ramp at 4:00am on the 670HT Bar Crusher ‘Fraid Knot’ with 2 mates. Weather conditions were just as poor as forecasted, with the wind already gusting quite hard. It was going to be a long day! 🤔 We had no option but to fish as we were fishing in the CCGFC Skins Tournament. After a very slow run out across Brisbane Waters with only a few metres visibility in the dark, and heavy rain along with a few nears misses of sandbars and moored yachts we finally made it into Broken Bay. We struggled to get any slimies off the wrecks, so we pushed out wide to be on the fishing grounds by 7:00am for ‘Start fishing’. By now we were absolutely soaked with the wind even pushing the rain into the cabin. The morning was uneventful over the shelf as we tried to tempt a big Blue Marlin for the cash prize of $50k! (April is a much better time to chase these bigger ones). Sounding like a dead day over the first 2 radio skeds, we worked our way back into the 150m line into a ‘finger’ of warm water pushed north on the charts. Out of nowhere we had birds and dolphins working a large area, we stayed in this zone for an hour or 2 surely expecting something but didn’t turn a reel. Shortly after this we had the first short run for the day when a small Striped Marlin cracked long rigger, popping the band and dancing for a short while before throwing the hooks. While clearing the spread we had his mate scream up behind long rigger but wouldn’t commit, we tried cranking and dropping the lure back, but he glided away uninterested! 😐 Still fishing the same area, we quickly picked a nice Dolphin Fish that the 50w made short work of (Didn’t even have to clear the spread. lol) We decided to drop the size of the skirts again to try entice another Marlin bite. The wind by now was well over 13/15 knots with white caps starting to form, and along with the size of the swell it was starting to get a bit sketchy! Once again we didn’t have to wait too long! In the distance we could clearly see a pack of Striped Marlin free swimming on the surface, we slowly trolled around for no interest whatsoever! We even had one just slowly surfing the wave off the boat wash, the rigger lure only metres away from it. Moving slightly south we immediately came across another group of 6 this time! Again, the same thing! We had one split from the pack and charge into hit short rigger but dropped back behind shotgun before disappearing into the blue. By now spirits were at an all time low with all these Marlin around us, and been absolutely soaked since the start of the day before the sound of the Tiagra crackled over the noise of the wind. We quickly cleared the rods before I grabbed the one going crazy! By all accounts it hit just as hard as a Marlin, but quickly realised it was a Dollie after he didn’t come up for a while. We soon had another slightly larger than the previous fish gaffed boatside going 9kg. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful apart from getting constantly sprayed with waves breaking everywhere, and more Marlin free swimming by themselves and in pairs with lures pulled right over their faces for only one hooking for a few seconds. We still hadn’t given up and were determined to fish until ‘Stop fishing’ of 4 o’clock seeing we were still in the zone. Sure enough on cue, 3:58pm and 2 minutes of fishing left, shotgun rod went crazy peeling line off at speed. I quickly jumped on the rod as Skipper radioed base that we were hooked up! Sadly we only saw him jump once before once again dropping him. Don’t use rubber hooks. lol. As we packed up the Witchdoctor teaser became tangled in the prop with another lure. The wind was absolutely pumping by now and we were more than happy to head in for a few cold ones! A day I’d rather forget after we finally went 3-1-0 on Striped Marlin, seeing the 16 free swimmers with no live baits to pitch, dollies we couldn’t weigh due to the line size we were using, and losing my lucky hat overboard in the wind! 😅🍻 We easily had the most sightings of Marlin all day, we still can’t help but wonder what a different story it may have been if we managed to catch some Slimies that morning! The feed of Mahi soft shell tacos made up for it though. Time to do it all again this weekend up at Port Stephens! 🥳 Cheers, Brendo

Great report and some nice elbow slappers! You have a clear photo of the PB next to your rod, you could easily gauge where it finishes and get an actual measurement off the rod if you wanted the exact size!! 😁🤙

Good luck mate, it was hard fishing when we were there! Try find the same lure we were using (Pic in the report) - You may need to upgrade the assist hooks. The only other real tricks are be prepared to cast a lot! 😅😂 We found fish early morning, and late arvo. It was also very weedy when we fished it, try target the edge of these beds (Normally off the slow rolling hills). In saying that we also got a few bigger one around snags. Hope some of this helps. 🤙

Nice report! Some good flatty there. Always worth it for a decent feed

Cracker report and a nice fish!🤙 Sounds like our experience a few years back. hahaha. Marlin that we hooked a few trips but couldn't manage to land one, followed by a few big dollies. The Marlin luck changed after landing the dollies!! 😅😃 You'll have one boatside soon enough! Yeewww

Depending where you plan to fish after, you can normally pick them off 'Bottles' (North of Box Head) - Approx 40m deep from memory or the few wrecks off Broken Bay often hold them. All marks are on the boat in storage soz. 😐

Cheers Buddy, awesome fun on the leader!😁

😅🤣🤣🤣 Thank You! yeah, insane fun on a hectic bite for an hour or two. Yeewwww

Thanks mate, Hours on the water definitely helps!! 😁 Cheers, Thank you Guys!! 🤙

Hey Guys, I notice there is currently no record for a Striped Marlin on lure or Black Marlin on bait. This is one I got recently with a measured short length of 202cm and estimated weight of 60kg. And another Striped Marlin I got a week later, with an estimated weight of 70kg although didn't get a measurement boatside of him. And 2 Black Marlin I caught myself with a measured short length of 130cm and estimated weight of 20/25kg I don't expect these to last too long! 😁 Cheers, Brendo 🤙

Thanks Donna. I love this platform - And I guess it's something I will constantly come back to to see what we were catching at that time of year (So I try my best to write reports although I wasn't born with brains)! 😅🤞🤞 Then you have to add the Yeeeewwws and the noise of the ratchet crackling, and yes of course that big eye that follows you everywhere! I will put them up seeing there is none currently in these categories, although I don't expect them to stay standing for long! 👍😁

Froth all time high 😁🤙 Cheers mate, we have so much footage from the day I might have to eventually edit it 🙄🤣

Thanks Rob 🤙

I wouldn't say no to metre plus Kings!! 😁👌 I'm no expert at all but shoot us a PM if you want, I may have a bit of info that will help 😉

Cheers, Thank you Zoran! Yes, I did tell Sam yesterday live baiting is a lot better hookup rate! 😁

I had literally just got home around 9:00pm driving back from Seal Rocks for a family holiday when I got a message from a mate I fish regularly with telling me up north was going off with inshore Black Marlin near Point Plomer…It didn’t take me much convincing (I haven’t successfully live baited a Marlin yet – Or caught a Black Marlin for that reason) and before I knew it I was packing to head to Port Macquarie, leaving home at 1:00am🥴😴 After a slow start to the morning, and only getting on the water around 7:00am we were a bit put off by the colour and temperature of the water coming out of the Macleay River. With only a short run up to Point Plomer to what we are used to, we quickly marked bait and pulled full strings of slimies with ease! 30 minutes into slow trolling the lives Slimy Mackerel a boat hooked up to a small Black Marlin and put on a show for us all 🥳 Not long after that we had a squiggle appear by itself on the sounder and the rigger band pop soon after and the talica slowly tick away! Allowing the circle hook to do its magic, I slowly pushed the lever to strike while winding down. We both fully expected to see a little Black burst out of nowhere, but the fish stayed down, it had characteristics of a shark fight and sure enough we had hooked a small hammerhead! Not what we were here for! We quickly released him (And another line he was already hooked to) boatside and continued slow trolling North. Not much happened for the next hour or two so we tried trolling in closer to land from the boats that had started fishing on top of each other, we decided to push up current from the large group of boats and were instantly rewarded with an explosion on the surface. The rubber band popped out and we both waited for the talica to scream off! The line went dead, and we released the line must have somehow become caught in the rigger clip! F*@K!! We unsuccessfully kept trolling the same area for the next hour or so certain that we had lost our only chance for the day. With no more action, and the bait disappeared off the sounder we decided to move back South where we had first pulled our slimies. Halfway between the 2 large groups of boats we immediately marked more bait and sent out one livie, without even the chance to bridle another bait the rigger popped and a short scream of line off the talica. My mate quickly wound down and increased the drag…Yeewwww!!! A feisty little Black started dancing across the surface on its tail, after a quick fight and having him play up on the leader for a bit we had the little fella boatside for a tag and some happy snaps. Mission accomplished! By now the wind had picked up, but seeing as we had driven up from the Central Coast we decided to stick it out the whole day as it was forecasted to drop back to nothing in the afternoon. We literally moved back up to the mark we had found holding bait and quickly deployed the strip teaser and two bridled slimies again. We slowly motored around before the telltale squiggle of a fish had another lot of bait balled up…Exactly by textbook the slimie 50m back was quickly ripped out of the rigger and an angry little Black Marlin erupted 30m behind the back, jumping towards the boat! I quickly put the reel to strike and wound down as my mate punched the boat forward to come up tight. Yeewwww!! We had a few dramas with this one under the boat and requiring a bit of freespool as it came close to the motor before we had him under control. We quickly pushed back up North and by now there was only a few larger boats still fishing, the wind had picked up quite a lot but was by no means dangerous, just slightly uncomfortable in such a small boat. After quickly stocking up on baits again we had two out the back and were keen to get the numbers up! Only 25 minutes after landing the previous fish the rubber band once again popped from the rigger clip…This was very much the same type of bite as the shark we had caught at the start of the day and quickly called it for one after it went deep. After a little bit of boat work we had it coming rapidly to the surface, next second another Black Marlin started going crazy, bill whacking in every direction. This one played up, providing a lot of entertainment across the surface and completely clearing the water on a number of jumps. The rest of the day was very uneventful after a large current line moved in and the bite went dead, there was a lot of bait getting pushed up against the edge of it and we hooked an approx. 80/90cm Dolphin Fish before it jumped us off. As usual we marked a few more fish over the top of bait as light was fading…we gave it another 10 minutes before we called it for no luck. A massive day on the water finally getting back to the ramp at 9:00pm after a nice run in on glass out conditions. We ended up going 6-3-3 on Black Marlin (All 1.3m short length, estimated only 20/25kg) – with 2 more hitting the baits but not hooking up, 1-1-1 on a Hammerhead Shark, and 1-1-0 on a lively Dolphin Fish. No better way to finish the last days of 2020 and to finally land my first Black Marlin 🤙🍻 Tight lines, Brendo

Yeah I run exact the same hooks on 50Ws (8kg drag) and haven't had them straighten yet as heard from others. I presume it was a Striped Marlin you hooked which are always messy eaters - And some say only expect to land 1 out of 3! You can never win though! 😅 We had a 150kg + Blue Marlin hooked solid on Pa'a hooks over the weekend only for it to jump across then back up through the spread to land on the leader!! 🙄 Then a small Striped Marlin in the afternoon that was hooked perfect only for it to jump us off just after we had cleared the spread and had started fighting. We've had a real bad run this season landing only 2 from 7 Striped Marlin although 4 of those bites were from a pack attack! Sorry, didn't want to take away from your report but when you think you have it sorted chasing Marlin, another thing will always pop up!!!🤬 P.S. I should add, if you can fish livies you'll get the best hookup conversion rate! 👌

Nice video Zoran and cracker Blue Eye! 🤤 Totally out of interest, just wondering what hooks you were running on your Marlin lures?

Condition were amazing out wide! Cracker dollie as well!! 🤙 We also fished Southern Canyons and dropped a large Blue Marlin early, and a small Striped Marlin in the afternoon.

Yep, just on an extendable pole 👍

Thanks guys! 🤙 Definitely don't know how to do it! Just get out at any opportunity I can. More time on the water = More chance of catching one 😁

Thanks guys! Now's the time to get them @danielsydney You've got me keen to chase squid outside! 😁🤤

The weather was looking okay for a morning sesh fishing solo and I was thinking of chasing some dollies at the FAD, or trolling some lures down the 140m line from Terrigal to Broken Bay. I decided to message a mate to see if anyone else was heading out. He invited me to jump on his small Haines ‘The FAD’ which I took up the offer straight away (Beats fixing the flat tyre on my trailer!). 🥳 We mucked around all morning trying to get his boat sorted and were finally on the water by 6:30am. The water stayed cold until we got to the edge of the shelf and we put out a spread of 4 lures and a bird teaser without any real plan for the day (And expecting to be blown off the water by 11/12 o’clock) we trolled up towards the Southern Canyons. The morning session was quite uneventful apart from a hit from one Marlin that popped the band from the rigger but didn’t stay hooked up! We worked the area for a bit as he wouldn’t have felt the hooks but had no luck raising him again. We kept pushing north marking no bait but seeing dolphins everywhere, we tried trolling around a drifting container and coal ship as this has previously worked for us! We came across a large current line and right on the tide change the Coggins lure running in short corner was annihilated by a healthy Striped Marlin, I was quickly into the rod and harness as we didn’t want to let it run too long in these rod holders (Running 8kg drag). My mate quickly cleared the spread and teaser before chasing it down! We soon had the fish at the front of the boat on the leader 4 times before popping in a tag, it looked slightly larger than the Marlin we had caught the week before and estimated it around 70kg. It had become wrapped under the tail and belly, so we tried driving off it to get a few quick pics before release, next minute the dacron off the wind-on leader had become caught in a roller on the rod! 😑 In the matter off a few seconds the line had pulled out and the Marlin was slowly gliding back to the depths with my brown/red Coggins lures still attached. My mate quickly reversed down and I dived in grabbing the wind-on that was still attached, the water was cobalt blue and looked to never end. Up in front, the Marlin was thrashing underwater as I tried to get the wind-on to my mate in the boat, next second the snap swivel wore through the chaffing tube and 200lb leader – I’ve never heard or had this happen before! We quickly put the spread back out and continued trolling the area, we could see the dolphins chasing the bait across the surface – One even repeatedly hitting it with his nose in the air before eating it 😲, but there were no iridescent blue fins amongst them. A day I’ll never forget going 2-1-1 on Striped Marlin, as well as seeing my first free swimmers on the surface 4 different times! (Pulled lures across their noses for no interest at all) and a little swim chucked in over the shelf. If anyone finds that Coggins lure… 😉 Cheers, Brendo

Thanks Pickles! Yeah, that's it. Confidence levels were still high though that we'd get one! 😁

Cheers 🤙 Thank Zoran! haha, yeah I think that report was of our Bluefin Tuna trip down to Jervis Bay! That's it, you won't catch them at home 😁 Kept the theory alive when we managed to land 3 Black Marlin from a recent trip where we travelled to Port Macquarie for the day! (Report to come). 🥳