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Maiden game fishing trip - Got marlin!


dhype

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Hey raiders
It been a while since my last post and in that time my mate Pete purchased a brand new Pioneer Sportsfish 197 boat. The boat is still breaking in and had not been out on a real fishing trip yet.

After going out many times in other people's boat and on numerous paid charters, pete and I were yet to hook and land a marlin in past 5 years... closest I have come was with brickman a few months earlier were I dropped a marlin

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Anyway, with Pete's boat only 1/2 setup ( no sounder, no outriggers, makeshift GPS!) we headed out Sunday morning with 1 x tiagra 50, 1 x tiagra 30 lrs, 2 x makaria 30 setups. Loaded up with yakkas in Botany Bay then headed north east towards the Peak and FADs and put out a spread of small to medium Pakula skirts.

A little past the Peak we get a double hook up of fat strip tuna. Plenty of blood!
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Trolled for a few hours before heading south to the botany wide fad that as full of boats . Heaps of dollies but most were under. Dropped a few livies and got some better dollies. Few keepers :)

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Trolled toward Botany Bay heads as we were following a massive pod of dolphins and birds when pete shouted marlin marlin! A stripy had hit the long corner running the smallest of skirts on the small makaria 30 setup... zzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzz oh yeah!

I picked up the rod and passed it to pete has he has never fought a marlin before. Without any game fishing experience between us it was a very quick learning curve for the both of us.. the next 30min was fill with massive marlin runs, marlin chases with the boat, smiles, pumping hearts and plenty of "what do I do now!" question! But we managed :)

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The fish was about 2.5m long to the bottom lip and was about 85kg... great looking fish. We agreed a long time ago we would keep our first marlin. This was the first and will be last marlin we keep...tag and release from here. The fish did not go to waste as it feed 8 families + will mount the bill.

The marlin took a tiny white 4inch skirt which matched all the tiny leatherjackets in its gut..the dolly was full of tiny jackets also!! The large skirts did not get touched all day!

We were extremely happy and it was more the special as we did it together, with our own gear, a few kms out from our regular fishing spot and on the first outing. After over 5 years trying we finally did it - could have not asked for a better day!

Thanks goes out to Gary from seriously stainless for giving us plenty of advice on game fishing over the past few months!

Can see myself hanging up the flatty and kingfish rods for the next few months while the marlin and dollies are biting!

See out there!

Trung

Edited by dhype
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Well done lads!!!! Always the best thrill getting your first "Stick Face"...... You have the Marlin itch now.....& you will have it for life!!!! Having been lucky enough to be involved in many Marlin Tags/Captures over thr last 28 years of gamefishing. I would take a good guess looking at your pixs that your fish would be a "good" 100kgs........Great fish!!!!

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well done lads what a rush your well and truly hooked now lucky pete was up because trung would have cryed like a girl hahahahahaha just a little info for you lads

the info i gave you the night before was supplyed from mr magoo [game fishing god ] and erroll above you will quickly find that there is a group off game fishermen that share info on and off the water with radio calls and phone calls i would strongly advise you get to know this group as there intel is gold and if you share they will to thats what i love about fishraider we love fishing but also love getting people on to fish cheers gary

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Congratulations thats got to be a dream result maiden voyage and first Marlin, no need to buy a lottery ticket you already won

Thanks for sharing your special experience

Still chasing my first

Regards Dave

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

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Thanks for all the positive comments fellows.. still buzzing about the whole event even though it was a week ago!... the 30 minutes it took to boat the fish went past in a flash!.

Was hoping to head out this weekend but the thunderstorms put a stop to that... aiming for next week now.

If Pete get the Simrad sounder + 1KW tranny installed we should be able to jig some kings at the peak & 12 mile on our way out.... looking forward to that + another "stick face" ? hahahah one can only dream!

BTW, marlin taste like sh1t!

Trung

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Mate! well done, congrats to you both! great read as well.

do they really taste like sh1t?

Hey Quintrex480... told you we would get a marlin this summer :P !!

How does marlin taste like? Very dry and course flesh... even when lightly grill... heaps better fish out there to chew on!

How is your barcrusher purchase going? There is a great looking, fully decked out apache barcrusher going around for ATM - might be good for you?

See you out there soon

Trung

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Hey Quintrex480... told you we would get a marlin this summer :P !!

How does marlin taste like? Very dry and course flesh... even when lightly grill... heaps better fish out there to chew on!

How is your barcrusher purchase going? There is a great looking, fully decked out apache barcrusher going around for ATM - might be good for you?

See you out there soon

Trung

and so you did tell me too! great call! I did a half arse attempt in game fishing last week, put 2 skirts out and man! so hard out of a small boat, and even tougher being solo LOL. but managed a few kings, so that was ok.

so marlin or the salmon? which one is worse?

yeah saw that apache listed, awesome looking boat! first I need to sell my one and then convince the mrs that 60K+ for a boat is worth it ehhe

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Hi all and congrats Trung & crew.

Just got a few questions as I am new to boating and big fish, I've been doing some research and wondering should I get a Tiagra or spinning reel like biomaster/saragosa.

Is a Tiagra a must have for big game fishing? can it be done with a spinning reel like Stella SW 20000 or something similar in the spinning reel range?

As I have no clue how to use baitcaster and heard its a pain to use for inshore or anything that doesn't require trolling.

Can baitcaster still be used on rocks/wharf/inshore lakes/rivers etc? as trolling is not the only type of fishing I'll be doing but would like to still catch some beast :)

Many thanks in advance for the tips,

Regards,

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