Guest Big-Banana Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Hi all, With no fishing plans this weekend, I was a little annoyed. That changed when I got to BCF on Wednesday and saw an old mate who'd got me into offshore fishing a few years back. He'd sold his Bar Crusher a little while back and was keen for a fish. I checked the SST charts and there looked to be some good looking water off Sydney, so we decided we'd have a crack at a Marlin and if that was slow we would have a go at getting a Dolphin Fish. Plan was to take out the Big Banana wide of Sydney from the Harbour, with his brother and another mate. Had a late late night and didn't hit the sack till around 1am, plan was to meet at their joint at Thornleigh at 4:30am. Slight change of plans with NE, we decided a better proposition would be to go wide from Broken Bay Got to Thornleigh on time, to hear that two of the boys were crook as and it was going to be me and Mick only. Never mind :tongue3: Filled up on Pennant Hills Road, and made our way to the ramp. Off to Brooklyn, launched and did some last minute bits and pieces before we got out to the heads. As we rounded Juno, there was a slight breeze, but it was going to have to take something fierce to stop us getting out today. We didn't bother with live bait, I'd stayed up late and rigged up some skirts and other assorted lures last night. We pushed through some pretty sh*tty slop as we made our way to the Baitstation some 38kms from the heads. We thought about having a fish on some reefs on the way, but decided to stick to the plan and have a good crack on a Marlin. There was a heap of life around 25kms out, some Sauries we cruising and thought this would be a good place to start. Setting the spread was a bit ugly with the seas, but I persevered and got out 5 lures. 3 on 15kg outfits and 2 on 24kg. As well as a daisy chain. Threw some ACDC on the stereo, sat back and continued our way to the shelf. Was playing around with my PDA, checking out the forecast which predicted a stronger wind coming up at around midday. Looked a bit uglier then it did last night so rather than trolling from Longy down to Browns we decided to turn around and troll from Longy to BBW. I had first strike, I was keen to break the duck and without targeting Marlin much, things looked good. There was a heap of bait, some interesting birds and a bit of slop which Mick was very confident in. He was calling the strike, and although he got it wrong about 15 times, he got it right after enough cracks. I was in another world when he called the fish, FISH ON THE LEFT. He was driving and started egging the fish on, he reckoned it looked like a Stripe of around 80kgs. The 15kg outfit rigged with a Tuna Terror screamed as Mick gave the boat some gas and got a solid hookup. By the time he'd got to the first rod I'd lost around 80-100m of line and while he did a top job on picking up the rest of the rods, we'd lost a good 300m on the TLD30. This fish was hot but had settled down as we spun around and gave chase, I had my gimbal on and felt comfortable. Fight continued as we got him closer, a few more energetic runs and then about 50m, he went absolutely nuts on the surface, he was a solid Stripe and some awesome jumps were seen. After about 30-40mins, a lot of rodwork and some top boat driving, we had the fish around 30m away when he came onto the surface again, when another quick jump and dive saw him pull the hooks. I was a bit bummed not to get to land it and release, but geez it felt good to hook into and almost do so. Mick did a brilliant job in driving the boat, near the end, it would've been easy to lose the fish but everything stuck until the last minute. What a start! We put the lures back in and nailed a few small Striped Tuna but no more Marlin unfortunately. By around 11:30am the seas were getting a bit more rougher with the wind coming up, we shot back in. Found a nice little trap in about 100m of water, heaps of small Dollies and jackets, but they wouldn't touch the lures or small flies we trolled. Just as well, I was stuffed Bring on the next one :Tumb up: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh88 Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Sounds like a good day mate, bummer to lose the marlin so close to the boat though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VA911 Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Well done Anthony. Great to hear you cracked the duck You must be itchin for the next one!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olitay Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Thats great at least you hooked the bugger, doesnt matter if you didnt boat it! not many people ever get to feel the weight of a thumping Marlin on the end of the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whi7eindustries Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Great report, makes me wish I'd taken my boat out today, nothing beats the feeling of a Marlin huh? Only ever caught them on friends boats, so hopefully this year I'll christen mine. Well done again, great day out. Cheers Tobe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh191 Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Top read there Big-Banana,you did better than us today. JIM77,LALA and myself trolled for about 3 hours for zip, checked a fish trap that was holding small dollies 3 days ago but nothing there today.JIM spotted a floating log with small dollies but no takers, current was heading north again :1badmood:hope that changes soon. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outfisher Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Oh well it was not to be i guess better luck next time hope you land one this season. Its all bad when its that close to the boat but hey what they said its not every day you get to hook one and drop it. good effort big bannana cheers outfisher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boban Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Well done Anthony. Pity you didn't get some pics before the hooks pulled. Not enough hands sometimes. Cheers Mitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 Great read! Good to know some dollies are finally turning up.. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big-Banana Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Well done Anthony. Pity you didn't get some pics before the hooks pulled. Not enough hands sometimes. Cheers Mitch Yeah Mitch, still very disappointed we weren't able to get a closer look, but bloody satisfying knowing that we were doing the right things in the right area. It all just happened so fast... Spoke to my mates neighbour who was out yesterday and reported a few fish on the radio, mainly Stripes. So there's a few fish out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanger Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Mate you didn't boat it but at least you got the pleasure of the fight and a good areial performance!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reece2001 Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 good stuff mate.. the same thing happened to me and no one believed me. i just wish i had some more hands to take photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salami Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 well done on the hook up it sounds like you deserved it for a big effort mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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