Marlin Are On Off Sydney!

[Le Pasha]

Gday boys, got out today in awesome conditions with Silvo (Bentstik) and a couple of the other boys out of Botany to give the beakies a go for the first time this season! We were met by beautiful cobalt blue water straight out of the heads and some nice 23.5 degree water. Dropped the lures in at 50 fathoms and within 10 minutes of trolling we had a little black come up on our short rigger for a look, he tailed the Mcgoo lure for a while had a go at it and stripped 100 metres of line before he dropped it. Promising start to the day and after putting the spread back in, 5 minutes later what looked like the same fish came back for another sniff on the short rigger, again he went after it and stripped some more line off before he dropped it Thats what you get with marlin fishing on lures I guess.

Anyway dropped the spread back in and continued SE out of Botany to the canyons, water temp hovering around 23.8 degrees with a bit of bird life, however there was no bait on the sounder (didn't see any all day).

After we rounded the canyons we headed north up the shelf line towards Browns, where we found the temp at 24-24.2 degrees with a couple of nice breaks. At around 1:30pm a few miles west of browns we had a bigger black come up again on the short rigger (McGoo lure was the star today) and engulf the 8 inch lure. The fish took a bloody long first run on 24kg before we started to back up on it, emptying more than half the spool. Put on a good show for us early on in the fight with some sweet acrobatics, before settling down deeper. We had her at the boat for a lot of the fight, but she was a very stubborn fish and would not come up easily, eventually we drove off her a little bit and planed her up and by this stage she was buggered. Danny was on the rod and the tag was in after 45 minutes and the hook was out before we swam her for a few minutes (she was not looking good for a while) but a couple of kicks and she was off. We measured her at around 210 short length which puts her at approximately 100kg. Nice fish.

Sydney seems to be fishing well with around 25 marlin being tagged/captured during the Bill Heyward tournament and there is still tomorrow. Blues, stripes and blacks which are sitting on the shelf and just inside. No bait but there are plenty of fish around with boats dropping fish on double hook ups, and one boat having three up at once!.

Anyway top day out, awesome conditions, good to get the first beaky for the season for our first trip

Here are some pics enjoy...

[offtap1]

Great Report, Congratulations with a Nice Black, looks like a great day was had on the water. Cheers Dave

[Le Pasha]

Thanks Dave, should be another good day for those who are out for day 2 of the Bill Heyward. Nice dollies taken as well and I think there was a 190kg blue weighed. Not bad for a usually quiet tourny.

Cheers,

Daniel

[clifford]

Great report there la pasha, looks like you guys had a great day out congrats.

clifford

[abiasin]

well done guys a great fish indeed.