Port Stephens, First Tournament, First Marlin.

[smokinjoe]

Gday all, just returned from the first weekend of fishing The Interclub, My first ever. Have always wanted to try Gamefishing and now i know why. Have only had a few months preperation and can confidentlly say that i am at the lowest point of the learning curve!.

We arrived Friday and stayed at The caravan park in Shoal Bay, Our entry into town was amazing Vessels, Vessels and more Vessels some on trailers other bohemouths moored up around the various marinas, some 200 entered into the Tournament. We had a look around and attended the Briefing, wow 100s of people all there for one purpose. Our weekend started well we came up in the boat draw and won a mad prize pack, containing, 1000m 15kg spool Momoi line, Black Pete Lure Bag, Black Pete Large and small Tournament Rigging Kits, and a couple of Lures. Was totally overawed by the prizes on offer and their value, if i remember 60 vessels are drawn out of a hat. As well all vessels get a Riviera pack, Simano Bag and a couple of other things to many to mention. The work that goes into these things is amazing, scientists galore, fisheries and marine parks etc. Couldnt wait to hit the water.

Saturday morning saw us woken by a strong change about 4.30 am, all vessels had to be on water by 700am for the start of The Sail Past we got there about 730 but as we were numbered one of the last vessels we were lucky and took our place in the line up, Did anyone else notice the current coming of the Red channel marker approaching the Marina? 200 plus Vessels all parade in line along the foreshore watched by hundreds of spectators to the start line off the heads....mmm now why are all these vessels coming back in i wonder didnt realize the first day had been cancelled due to high seas and strong winds, but then we gathered what was happening and decided to go out and have a look anyway swell was easily 5 meteres and stong southerly winds after a couple of hours of looking around the islands decided to pull up lines and head in, we were then pulled up by Marine Parks and had it explained to us that we could loose all our gear because it was rigged up, with all gear except no lures were on the snap swivels. So after a quick chat and a now good education of the areas and the marine parks we were let go with a warning.

So that was the first days fishing. Sat night we just sat down, drunk beer and prepared and checked all rigs again.

Sunday we were up early this time and on the water by 630am we headed out greeted with a great day bit of swell and wind and the hopes of our first marlin, for us and the boat. We listened to the first radio calls of the day to gather a bit of info of what was going on and who was doing what and who was where with pen and paper in hand we took notes, our first stop was the fad, on our way out at about 70 fathoms we were greeted by a huge flock of birds working, so we trundled over to be greeted by a huge pack of dolphins that started to play with the boat all of a sudden i was reminded of the beauty of being offshore, the colour of THAT BLUE WATER mesmerises you, anyway off to the fad after working wide around the dolphins, there were already a couple of vessels there so we trolled round for a while with no luck, it was decided to head out to the carpark? Bloody hell "its a jungle out there comes to mind" lol, so many vessels its bloody stressful watching everyone, making sure your not running through a spread, make sure no ones going to run into you, everywhere you look you try to pick things up on whos doing what, how are they doing things compared to us, what rigs are they running , listen to the check ins to hear the scores and what radio zone they are in. It seemed some crews were doing well whilst others were constant 0 0 0 .

By 400PM it was decided to head in as we are only in a small vessel and as the seas had picked up considerably we encountered a 4meter set of green swell on the run home, by now our 0 0 0 started to stick and the boats mood had turned more out of happiness to the no luck feeling that haunts your first true outing. So all lines were pulled in.... Then we decided bugger it well still make it safely trolling back home with fuel to spare and to run a small spread, one short corner the other on the long corner.

The day truely was amazing, some of those Vessels that get around on the water are just floating palaces be nice to be able to own and operate one ( one day lol ). Just as im watching one come up on our port side heading in as well, at a great rate of knots, the long corner goes off, Ben grabs the rod none of us have harnesses or gimbles on lol, the boat breaks into a sh#$fight looking for gimbles and harnesses that had been put away because we thought nothing of the lures behind. The Tiagra 50 is screaming.The inexperience shows, suddenly i become the traceman, Sean who was actually meant to be on strike became the skipper, i get ben into his gimble and start to look for the harness, meanwhile we are all screaming at each other trying to get things done, (we looked back later at the video and had a great laugh) , Ok harness is on and i stand up to see this beautiful thing jump clear of the water about 50mtres back, Bens working hard on his first Marlin, im screamin at Sean, Seans screamin at Ben we are all pumped with adrenalin and dont really have a clue, everything it seems i have tried to learn goes out the window, weve got a hookup on a marlin, im stoked we start the fight.

The fish jumps again and stays close to the top, Sean backs up on him, Bens doing his best to reel this what we think is a 80kg Black in. Ben has him close to the boat but he decides to dive and comes straight under the boat, not real good when you have a 200 Yammy on the back, Seans trying to angle the boat away from the fish, but the swell and wind is combining to fight with the fish and we cant get the marlin from under the boat i look down to see him swimming directly underneath us, head forward swimming with a vengance it looked awesome underwater, we managed to get the fish behind the boat again but again he went down, finally after about 20mins, we think he was spent, trace came up, on the end our first marlin, grabbed tagpole whilst holding fish and tried to tag him missed, boats been put into a slow forward, Sean comes over and takes the tag pole allowing me to get a hold of his bill, im 200mm away from his eyes and hes looking at me with almost human eyes, Sean gets the tag in, i easily manage to dehook him, Ben gets to say thank you to the marlin for the fight, i get to hold and swim him, have a chat to him, give him a pat and say sorry m8 and send him on his merry way tagged and released.

What a spinout have had this marlins face on my mind all night and couldnt sleep cause all i could see was his face Its monday morning and i still cant get it of my mind. Cant wait to catch one myself now although just being on the trace was an experience, Bring on the second week

[mrsswordfisherman]

Top report smokin joe.

I know that feeling and still see the beautiful big eye of my first one as it swam away after release. I am sure it was looking at me intently. Magnificent fish arn't they.

The mood of the boat suddenly changes in an instant doesn't it

Lesson learned - never give up and don't put the gimble and harness away

Cheers mrsswordfisherman

[holmes]

was there many fish tagged on sunday? and also was there many fish captured?

[Polynemus_sheridani]

Hi all

Well as the first report from smokinjoe said the first day was canceled and we also headed straight back to our unit for some bacon and eggs and then we all went back to bed for a few hours to rest up and then had a great afternoon drinking and just relaxing, an early night by everyone and we awoke at about 4.30am and we where down at the dock and away by 5.30am

We headed out the bait grounds to stock up but not one bait could be found, so we headed straight out towards the FAD, we trolled around for about 10 min and then pulled the gear in and headed further east.

Come about 8.00am we had 4 37KG's out in the water and 1 24kg on the shot gun, we where trolling large lures, at about 8.30am bang right rigger goes off on the 37kg and the real is screaming, after about 30min fight the marlin come up and it was a black marlin of about 140 - 150kg, we stuck a tag in him and got the hooks out and reset the line again.

At about 9.30am i am sitting up on the fly bridge just watching the lures and all of a sudden I see the shot gun outrigger bending down and then an all mighty bang at the band breaks and the outrigger makes an mighty bang at it straightens back up and the line is streaming away, we clear all the lines and rods and the fight is on it took us about 20 - 30min and we had a small striped of about 75kg up at the side of the boat and in goes the tag.

Wow we all thought that this was a great start to the day 2 marlin in 2 hours, we worked some more areas and then we where hearing calls on the radio about mike 9 and all the fish being caught up there so we headed up, we found some bait and starting with the bait jigs and got some bait and sent them straight back in but nothing for the rest of the day, so not a bad start to the Interclub 2,2,2.

One of the boats in our team ICE it was out till 4.30am this morning fighting a shark on 15kg line they didnt see the shark take the bait and after 10hours and 20min fight it come up and as they looked down they seen what all shark fisherman want to see a 19ft Great White Shark about 1000kg so they cut it off and headed back in a very bad start for them, the guy on the rod is felling it today we just finished our club BBQ at our place up here.

Until next week.

Cheers

Craig

Edited March 3, 2008 by Polynemus_sheridani

[warnie]

Hi smokinjoe

Great to hear your first interclub started of as a memorable one for and as you say it is

an event that has to be fished to truly appreciate the number of boats involved.....

The beginning of this years interclub for me started of badly and this trend continued on

through the weekend starting off with me doing two tryes on the trip up leaving me stranded in town

resulting in me to have to make a please help me phone call to arrange to borrow a spare trye of one of the four wheel drives

that was parked at the boat ramp to get me mobile again so as i could arrange two new ones in town...

next day saw me putting the boat in the water and when preparing to set the outriggers up

to my shock and horror a gust of wind toppled them both overboard into the water were i saved one but the other plunging straight down into the depths. .....bugger

due to the cancellation of the first day this allowed me to arrange a diver to search the bottom at the area but alas to no avail....

Fishing on sunday started with me down on two of my crew and rod duties were handed over to the person

who was supposed to be there on seeing and learning on how it all comes together having only just

caught his first marlin 3 weeks prior to this....

This was a lot of pressure to ask of him in a tornament situation but he stood up proudly and we got to place the tag in a nice stripe of around 90kgs........

Unfortunently the next two fish that took the bait's both being blacks of around 80kgs

were not as obliging and never gave an inch........and he got to learn quickly that keeping pressure on the fish and getting line back can be hard work......with both fish winning there freedom and our intrepid angler

sore in places he never knew he had......

a quick discussion resulted in him asking....... would it be okay if i could take the next one

and with that the line screams off i pick up the rod and gently lean back on it and come up tight..........

resulting in a blue marlin of around 150kgs exploding out of the water........

Oh lucky me!!!!!!!!!!!

This thing took of greyhounding straight for a boat not to far away were quickly i made a decision

to sunset the stand up 37kg outfit and apply pressure to try and slow him up..............

well i did say try........ for the last jump resulted in scaring the bejesus out of the crew of the boat ambition

with the marlin cascading into the water no more than 5 mtrs away from the back transom....... doing a 90 degree left turn switched on the afterburners and greyhounded for the horizon.......

with lucky me!!!!!!!!!!! on sunset on 37 saying now would be a good time boys to go after him......

well that would of been the plan if i was driving the boat but it quickly came to light they both had no idea how to drive a boat...well one with twin throttles at least.oh oh!!!!!!!!!!

well for any one out there who has fought a fish on 37kg at sunset for an hour and a bit with nothing more than your trackies to protect your vital parts from the pressure that it can excert will know how i feel today......so bring it on next weekend for round two but just quitely...... im driving!!!!!!!!!

Cheers Warnie....

[smokinjoe]

Thanks Mrs S, still cant get that look out of my head and dont think i ever will, we learnt many lessons that day lol.

boutime we were listening to the sked calls all day with great intent, i dont think all crews faired too well, but i may stand corrected on that, the only capture i saw was when we came back to the ramp and a few guys were filleting some great mahi mahi, another crew had also begun to fillet a 80-90kg black, few yellowfin taken but only jellybeans around 8kg i think.

Craig how unlucky for the guys, being only new to the sport i dont understand why they cant tag whites its good for research, yes? or is there a reasonable answer to not tagging them?, congrats to you and your crew hope things keep for next week, our boat is called "three in one" if you see us say Gday.

Thanks Anthony( Keepin Tabs)

Warnie lol come say hello too

Edited February 25, 2008 by smokinjoe

[gambit]

Warnesy,

Grant said you are nothing but a big girl's blouse for not getting that last fish!!! Reckons he would have stopped it much quicker.....

Actually, I think he was still puffing from his previous battle(s) when he rang me all excited on the way home Sunday night.

Sounds like you are at least finding the right area and getting bites, which is more than some of our other boats managed. Now if you can only get your whole crew onboard at the right time.

Good luck for next weekend.

Cheers,

Bob.

(Still packing boxes at work......)

[Le Pasha]

Looks like Sunday could be the only days fishing for interclub 2008 if this weather doesn't fix itself. If they called Saturday off then we are screwed

http://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/nsw4.asp

[warnie]

Looks like Sunday could be the only days fishing for interclub 2008 if this weather doesn't fix itself. If they called Saturday off then we are screwed

http://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/nsw4.asp

Daniel....

i will be honest in saying that i for one was glad they halted proceeding's for day one

for it sure looked narley out there........

and if that projected forecast holds true i will most likely not even bother in getting out of bed..

Cheers Warnie....

[pappy]

Gday all, just returned from the first weekend of fishing The Interclub, My first ever. Have always wanted to try Gamefishing and now i know why. Have only had a few months preperation and can confidentlly say that i am at the lowest point of the learning curve!.

We arrived Friday and stayed at The caravan park in Shoal Bay, Our entry into town was amazing Vessels, Vessels and more Vessels some on trailers other bohemouths moored up around the various marinas, some 200 entered into the Tournament. We had a look around and attended the Briefing, wow 100s of people all there for one purpose. Our weekend started well we came up in the boat draw and won a mad prize pack, containing, 1000m 15kg spool Momoi line, Black Pete Lure Bag, Black Pete Large and small Tournament Rigging Kits, and a couple of Lures. Was totally overawed by the prizes on offer and their value, if i remember 60 vessels are drawn out of a hat. As well all vessels get a Riviera pack, Simano Bag and a couple of other things to many to mention. The work that goes into these things is amazing, scientists galore, fisheries and marine parks etc. Couldnt wait to hit the water.

Saturday morning saw us woken by a strong change about 4.30 am, all vessels had to be on water by 700am for the start of The Sail Past we got there about 730 but as we were numbered one of the last vessels we were lucky and took our place in the line up, Did anyone else notice the current coming of the Red channel marker approaching the Marina? 200 plus Vessels all parade in line along the foreshore watched by hundreds of spectators to the start line off the heads....mmm now why are all these vessels coming back in i wonder didnt realize the first day had been cancelled due to high seas and strong winds, but then we gathered what was happening and decided to go out and have a look anyway swell was easily 5 meteres and stong southerly winds after a couple of hours of looking around the islands decided to pull up lines and head in, we were then pulled up by Marine Parks and had it explained to us that we could loose all our gear because it was rigged up, with all gear except no lures were on the snap swivels. So after a quick chat and a now good education of the areas and the marine parks we were let go with a warning.

So that was the first days fishing. Sat night we just sat down, drunk beer and prepared and checked all rigs again.

Sunday we were up early this time and on the water by 630am we headed out greeted with a great day bit of swell and wind and the hopes of our first marlin, for us and the boat. We listened to the first radio calls of the day to gather a bit of info of what was going on and who was doing what and who was where with pen and paper in hand we took notes, our first stop was the fad, on our way out at about 70 fathoms we were greeted by a huge flock of birds working, so we trundled over to be greeted by a huge pack of dolphins that started to play with the boat all of a sudden i was reminded of the beauty of being offshore, the colour of THAT BLUE WATER mesmerises you, anyway off to the fad after working wide around the dolphins, there were already a couple of vessels there so we trolled round for a while with no luck, it was decided to head out to the carpark? Bloody hell "its a jungle out there comes to mind" lol, so many vessels its bloody stressful watching everyone, making sure your not running through a spread, make sure no ones going to run into you, everywhere you look you try to pick things up on whos doing what, how are they doing things compared to us, what rigs are they running , listen to the check ins to hear the scores and what radio zone they are in. It seemed some crews were doing well whilst others were constant 0 0 0 .

By 400PM it was decided to head in as we are only in a small vessel and as the seas had picked up considerably we encountered a 4meter set of green swell on the run home, by now our 0 0 0 started to stick and the boats mood had turned more out of happiness to the no luck feeling that haunts your first true outing. So all lines were pulled in.... Then we decided bugger it well still make it safely trolling back home with fuel to spare and to run a small spread, one short corner the other on the long corner.

The day truely was amazing, some of those Vessels that get around on the water are just floating palaces be nice to be able to own and operate one ( one day lol ). Just as im watching one come up on our port side heading in as well, at a great rate of knots, the long corner goes off, Ben grabs the rod none of us have harnesses or gimbles on lol, the boat breaks into a sh#$fight looking for gimbles and harnesses that had been put away because we thought nothing of the lures behind. The Tiagra 50 is screaming.The inexperience shows, suddenly i become the traceman, Sean who was actually meant to be on strike became the skipper, i get ben into his gimble and start to look for the harness, meanwhile we are all screaming at each other trying to get things done, (we looked back later at the video and had a great laugh) , Ok harness is on and i stand up to see this beautiful thing jump clear of the water about 50mtres back, Bens working hard on his first Marlin, im screamin at Sean, Seans screamin at Ben we are all pumped with adrenalin and dont really have a clue, everything it seems i have tried to learn goes out the window, weve got a hookup on a marlin, im stoked we start the fight.

The fish jumps again and stays close to the top, Sean backs up on him, Bens doing his best to reel this what we think is a 80kg Black in. Ben has him close to the boat but he decides to dive and comes straight under the boat, not real good when you have a 200 Yammy on the back, Seans trying to angle the boat away from the fish, but the swell and wind is combining to fight with the fish and we cant get the marlin from under the boat i look down to see him swimming directly underneath us, head forward swimming with a vengance it looked awesome underwater, we managed to get the fish behind the boat again but again he went down, finally after about 20mins, we think he was spent, trace came up, on the end our first marlin, grabbed tagpole whilst holding fish and tried to tag him missed, boats been put into a slow forward, Sean comes over and takes the tag pole allowing me to get a hold of his bill, im 200mm away from his eyes and hes looking at me with almost human eyes, Sean gets the tag in, i easily manage to dehook him, Ben gets to say thank you to the marlin for the fight, i get to hold and swim him, have a chat to him, give him a pat and say sorry m8 and send him on his merry way tagged and released.

What a spinout have had this marlins face on my mind all night and couldnt sleep cause all i could see was his face Its monday morning and i still cant get it of my mind. Cant wait to catch one myself now although just being on the trace was an experience, Bring on the second week

hi smokinjoe just like to no when the marine parks stop you were you travelling through a sanctuary zone or were you stopped because you only need to stow fishing gear if travelling through .if you are anchored,moored or aground in a sanctuary zone then your lines must be unrigged .thats whats in the marine park zoning user guide.nothing better than seeing marlin swimming away with a tag in them good on you all .good fishing

[smokinjoe]

OH MY GOD just had alook at the forecast

Pappy1 we had finished fishing and were just cruising through of Cabbage tree on the eastern side about 20 meters past the rocks looking at the scenery, all our fault as to not knowing the regs properly, like i said after a great exchange with the marine parks officers we explained our rigs and lures and set ups and what we were doing etc and after numerous questions by us we all shook hands and all left the more wiser.

Edited February 25, 2008 by smokinjoe