Port Stephens 11.04.2009 - 3x Marlin On Wasabi

[markn]

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

Edited April 14, 2009 by markn

[snag]

Great going guys, sounds like there are Marlin all over the place at the moment.

Some great looking action shots aswell.

[Rabs]

Hi Mark,

Nice way to christen the new boat. The last shots are of a striped, the high dorsal is the main indicator without seeing the remainder of the fish (lower jaw, length of bill and bodyline/shape). Juvenile blues can be similiar in appearance. The Riv you got there (a 56 or 60)has one hellva a marlin/swim platform. Prepare to get wet backing down in a descent sea and occassional line caught up fighting speedsters such as blue and good fin but you guys probably know that.

Cheers,

Rabs.

[sanger]

Well done on getting the first onto the boat!!!! It really shows what a little experience on board can do for you. Im sure it will be the first of many more to come!!!

[jahajo]

Nice marlins there and congrats on the first for youre dads boat!!

Also what a magnificent gamefishing rig you have!!!

Cheers hazza

[mrsswordfisherman]

Wow a great post and thanks for sharing that with us. Terrific to see that Mum and the gf got a strike too

Love that boat and you were very lucky to find a day full of such action. I understand why you took one look at that first marlin and released it - they do look magnificent up close don't they !

Cheers mrsswordfisherman

PS You joined fr in 04 - don't wait 5 years to make your next post

[Jewhunter]

Great stuff Mark & congrats to you & the crew of WASABI!!!

I'm sure with that effort under your belt that they will be the 1st of many more marlin to come.

Nice pics btw.

Cheers,

Grant.

[Gameplay]

Congrats on christening the boat with your first Marlin , it helps to get good advice while learning how it's done , i can't wait to land my first Marlin in my new boat, i'm still learning,

Joe.

[SSSquid]

Fantastic catch guys and love the boat! We also got lucky and managed to catch this nice fish off Sydney on Friday near Browns.

Out of interest, I was hoping you might be kind enough to tell me where you found that portable bait tank? Looks superb - it's exactly what I've been looking for.

Cheers

[markn]

@Rabs: Thanks mate. It's a 51 Enclosed Flybridge Riv. Yep - it's a hellova swim platform, submersible as well. I begged dad not to get it (and we've already lost a fish or two because of it), and the crew in the cockpit (i.e. me) get very wet when: (a) backing down on fish; and ( whenever a wave hits it & sprays up through the pressure slits... but Dad figured he wants to play on this boat for the next 25yrs of his life, and will need the submersible swim platform to get in & out of the water when his knees are finally gone. We had Riv put some extra reinforcements there for us. Fingers crossed we don't get too overzealous backing down on a fish & rip it off one day.

@mrsswordfisherman: haha - yes I joined back on 2004 when Dad bought his first boat, a Searay 315 Sundancer. We've been training on it the past 5 years - doing lots of harbour fishing and some light offshore stuff - and finally upgraded to the big 51 Riv a few months back.

@SSSquid: Congrats on your Marlin!!! Can't wait to get one myself off Sydney. Thanks for the compliment re the Live Bait Tank. I actually designed it myself!!! When we ordered WASABI from Riv, the built-in LBT was supposed to be permanently located in the transom. However Dad really wanted to have a big permanent BBQ there (as he thought we would use the BBQ more often, and so it was a more efficient allocation of space). So we tried to find somewhere else to locate a permanent LBT, but nowhere else really worked. So Dad & the guys from Riviera convinced me to settle for a portable one we could pull out when gamefishing. I couldn't find any commercial ones that really suited exactly what I wanted. Closest I could find was: http://www.bmackay.com.au/dp/lbt480samp.htm but it still wasn't perfect. So the boat builders at Riv offered to custom build one for me. I drew up a design sketch, picked out all the best qualities from all the LBT designs I'd seen (i.e. (a) oval shaped to promote water circulation ( inlet at base and outlet at top rear © 90degree elbow valve inside inlet to promote water circulation (d) window in front to view health of baitfish (e) tinted perspex lid to shade fish (f) elastic toggle to clip lid shut (g) handles on the sides for easy stowing into lazerette locker) and sent it off to the guys at Riviera with instructions that it needed to fit perfectly into the port lazerette locker under the cockpit floor. So the LBT you can see in the pics is the one that they built for me. They even built into the boat a special seawater pump, tap & hose especially for the LBT. I'm very proud of it!!! Apparently the guys at Riv who built it were pretty pleased with it too, and were talking about possibly producing more of them. Not sure if it ever went anywhere though. It has kept Sydney harbour yakkas alive for 3 days in it without any probs at all. Not sure if the big fat shelf slimys would fare as well, but they had no probs surviving for a full days fishing over the wkend.

Thanks everyone else for your kind words too. Will update you on here when we manage our next day out on the water.

Cheers,

Mark

Edited April 15, 2009 by markn

[lukeric]

Hey MArk, did your dad pick the boat up a coffs harbour last year?

IF SO I THINK I WAS HAVING A BIT OF A CHAT TO HIM WHEN HE WAS FILLING IT UP.

NICE BOAT. cONGRATS ON THE FISH.

CHEERS LUKE.

[markn]

Hey MArk, did your dad pick the boat up a coffs harbour last year?

IF SO I THINK I WAS HAVING A BIT OF A CHAT TO HIM WHEN HE WAS FILLING IT UP.

NICE BOAT. cONGRATS ON THE FISH.

CHEERS LUKE.

Hi Luke,

Yes - Dad, Matt (from Riviera Sydney) & I picked WASABI up from the Riviera factory in Coomera on the 28th December, then sailed it down to Sydney over 2 days (stopping to refuel in Coffs and overnight in Port Stephens). I can remember a couple of people that we chatted to while refuelling at Coffs. Were you sitting on a bicycle while you were chatting to us, or was that someone else?? I actually had a picture saved on my phone of us refuelling there that day:

Anyway - glad to hear you remembered the boat. Small world hey!!

Cheers,

Mark

Edited April 15, 2009 by markn

[lukeric]

Hi Luke,

Yes - Dad, Matt (from Riviera Sydney) & I picked WASABI up from the Riviera factory in Coomera on the 28th December, then sailed it down to Sydney over 2 days (stopping to refuel in Coffs and overnight in Port Stephens). I can remember a couple of people that we chatted to while refuelling at Coffs. Were you sitting on a bicycle while you were chatting to us, or was that someone else?? I actually had a picture saved on my phone of us refuelling there that day:

Anyway - glad to hear you remembered the boat. Small world hey!!

Cheers,

Mark

Hey Mark,

Yes mate it was me on the bike, you guys were just about to hoe down on some hamburgers.

Unbelievable how you just meet people once then end up catching up with them again.

Good luck, hopefully into some good tuna soon.

Cheers

Luke.

[blue marlin]

I hope the deckie's bald head didn't get burnt!

[dinnerbell]

Gday Wasabi.

Great Boat. Awesome feeling hooking and getting that first marlin to the boat. They are too beautiful to kill. I have had a few to the boat and lost them at the boat due to inexperience. Went out on a charter and the experience the pro guys give you is second to none. A few tips and my next one should have a tag in it.

Cheers and good luck in future.