adkel53 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) This could end up a bit long but hey – one only catches his first marlin once! I have just spent 4 days at Port Stephens with the owners of Reel Magic and another of their fishing accomplices. I’ve had at least 6 trips hunting marlin on Reel Magic and until Saturday we had seen one fish that took a swipe at a skipped bonito (one that I had caught and was intending to upsize), missing and peeling away never to be seen again. After a late start on Saturday and several hours of towing various lures around out near the shelf things had not changed. I was beginning to think I have marlin antibodies as the boys seem to catch plenty when I’m back on dry land. They know the ropes. A couple of years back they got 12 in two days when I was unable to accompany them due to family commitments. Sunday was a blowout so we prepared for a big day on Monday. Passing Tomaree Headland at around 8.am we headed east, east and east some more until we were about 40 km offshore. We found deep blue water of 23 degrees and set the blue marlin spread, heading still east. Not 5 minutes had passed before a free jumper bounded around some 500 metres behind us, immediately raising the adrenalin level of all onboard. We couldn’t interest him/her in our lures so continued on eastwards, seeing two more free jumpers within the hour. Alas, no interest from them either but the anticipation of a strike at any time rose. Ending up in 24 degree water at over 12000 metres depth, we headed southwards and back in towards The Carpark, arriving empty handed about 3.30 and observing a lady angler hooked up to a feisty marlin. Excitement rose as we skipped some slimies around amongst the clustered boats. We stopped to jig for some live slimies and as the skip baits sank one was taken by a marlin. We had a fish one and it was jumping not more than 20 metres away with our bait in its chops and plenty of slack line between us and it. Some quick rod work saw the line tighten and the fish power off into the depths. With me on the rod by now, we manoeuvred around the other boats until in the clear and a harness was strapped on ready for the fight. Just then another boat approached within 200 metres from the side, right over my fish. I just hoped the fish would stay deep, even though I wanted to see it careering over the surface again, until the boat got the message and moved away. Eventually it did - round 1 to me! The tug –o –war lasted 45 minutes until the fish popped up – tail wrapped and coming in backwards. No aerial acrobatics at the boat from this one. A tag went into an almost spent fish and we swam it alongside for quite a while before releasing it after some tail beats were detected. I just hope it was sufficiently resuscitated to survive as I have no desire to ever kill one of these marvellous fish. Mission accomplished - a TKO. We stayed around for a while longer, seeing three more fish being fought on other boats and another free jumper before heading in. Tuesday saw us north of The Carpark by 8.15 am, skipping slimies around some good shows of baitfish. Upon stopping to jig some slimies, we had a hook-up just like the one the evening before. Alas, this one ended differently when an incorrectly finished wind on leader parted and the fish was last seen bounding away with our bait attached. The most meticulous fisherman I know had stuffed up. Much swearing and cursing emanated from said person, along with a few self inflicted uppercuts. He hates losing fish, especially when human error comes into play. It is even worse when it his error. He’ll be over it by this time next year! We fished on, alternating between slow trolled live slimies and dead skip baits. No further action on our boat but we did see three boats fighting fish, another free jumper and a free swimmer. They say good things come to those that wait. It has been a long wait with many miles of water covered. But boy, was that wait worthwhile!! Thanks Dale and Greg for inviting me to fish with you. It is always a pleasure, even when the fish aren’t co-operating. Relatively few of us get the chance to fish in the deep blue yonder, and I for one feel privileged to be able to do so every now and then. No pictures yet, but I’ll add a couple when I get them, along with some video footage. Thanks for reading. Kel Edited February 20, 2014 by kel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Awesome stuff kel, I'm really happy you got that fish. I know how excited you were by the prospect and your right, the anticipation of a strike is so exciting! Well done mate and look forward to the pics! Cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boattart Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 It's the fish you miss or lose that make you appreciate the ones you do catch so much more. Congratulations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erroll Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Well done mate. That was a good read too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simda Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Congrats Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adkel53 Posted February 20, 2014 Author Share Posted February 20, 2014 Photos added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now