GoingFishing Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Gday Raiders I hope all is well, i imagine many Raiders are glad that xmas shutdown and school holidays are over. Less crazy at the boat ramps though i must say if Foreshore Rd was any indication on the weekend, it doesnt seem to be that much better ! Due to a mixture of family commitments, bad timing of poor weather and work i have not managed a to go fishing since my last trip with @zmk1962 at Browns on the 10th Jan. Not being able to get out absolutely categorically sucked because by all accounts the Marlin fishing off the east coast the last month has been on FIRE. Every afternoon checking the dozen or so social media accounts to keep tabs on whats going on theres been plenty of fish caught. This weekend looked like it was going to be the same, wifes birthday on Saturday and she also had a bridal shower to attend on Sunday, but i could handle the thought of waiting another week to go out. Without sounding like a lunatic, it had consumed me. Thinking about Marlin 24/7, lack of concentration, getting reallly bitc%$y and short tempered around the house. I had to do something, so i organised (begged) my sister to baby sit the kids (all three of them) for the day, she would pick them up early morning and drop them off late afternoon. Thanks sis, bloody life saver. With my new found freedom, a plan was hatched with my mate Ralph to chase the elusive beakie. Then........late on Saturday arvo he had to pull the pin. F%#K. Now most of you will know i do 90% of my fishing with my dad, who loves fishing, but doesnt get too hot under the collar about endless hours of trolling for Marlin, so hes not a fan. Nonetheless he agreed to come along on the proviso we visit the FADs first. So that was the plan. Dropped the boat in at 530am, ramp was almost full. Heard a few blokes on the radio say it was full by 6am, but cant confirm this myself. I didnt bother with livies and we fanged it straight out the heads, the weather was perfect, a 1 or 1.3m swell but with 12 second separation we were just cutting over the top at 45km/hr. Arrive at the first FAD (8km), water greenish, circa 22 degrees. A few boats floating around throwing live baits, lures and pillies. We stayed 15 minutes and packed it up to head over to the Botany Wide FAD (18km or so). Great thinking by Fisheries this year, all FADs off Sydney are doubled up, with two FADS circa 200/300m apart. After doing a test drift (and bagging one legal dolly) i set myself up for another drift that would take me from one FAD to drift right past the other. Evidently the mahi were swimming back and forth because we caught fish at all intervals between the two FADs. Towards the end of our drift i noticed a boat drive over and park infront of me, like.....3m infront of me. So i politely asked whats the reason for this, he pointed towards a few spear fishos in the water. I explained that they're miles away from me and that they cant keep the FAD entirely for themselves. He sorta just shrugged his shoulders and ignored me. Now, had DPI only put out one FAD, it would have been verbal abuse time, but with another FAD 200m away and wanting to restart the drift anyway, i let him have his win and just motored away. No need to ruin my day. Shortly after about 4 boats visited that FAD and he cant fight off 4 boats so they packed up and effed off anyway.....suck it loserr !! All in all we had an absolute blast on the dollies ranging from legal to circa 80cm. Lost one that was easily over 1.2m when my rod buckled over, line screaming and i saw it jump once, jump again, third jump slack line. Didnt expect to fight 1.2m beasty on 30lb leader. Anyway, around 10am we packed it up and started trolling for Marlin. Now the plan was to troll from BB Wide FAD, to another private FAD about 13km north, then continue trolling to the bait station and then head back in. We had been trolling for about 40 minutes when i saw two birds ahead, just gliding and swooping, i thought.....could they be following something, or just searching. Not a minute later the JB Dingo in Blue & Pink got crashed. Line peeling off the Shimano TLD50 we cleared the deck and i strapped in to fight the fish. Now, this is the first time i fight a sizeable fish on an overhead reel where you need to "finger" the line to make sure its reeled in evenly. F&K me.....that is HARD YAKKA and my forearms and hands are still munted today. We established early on it was not a marlin as there was no acrobatics and the fish had a tendency to stubbornly float in the deep....but without the tell tale tail beats of a tuna i wasn't sure what i had. Finally got this fish boatside to see a nice sizable Mahi Mahi. Not the fish i was after, but not complaining ! Of course, there was madness at the end trying to find the gaff only to realise we left it at home *slaps forehead* but in the end i used my learned skills from my trip with @Scratchie , reach over, grab the fish, pull it overboard LOL ...... Fish measured 132cm, heres a nice snappy with my dad holding it as he is far more photogenic than i am Continued trolling for another 3 hrs and didnt find anything but dollies. Until next week, the chase for a beakie continues. Thanks for reading. 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Yewwwwww Sam! That’s a beauty! Congrats on the PB. You put in the hours and the marlin will come. There has been plenty caught on the East Coast so far. The sound of the screaming reel is always in the back of my thoughts too! You’ll have to share that feast with your sister! Well done again mate and don’t forget the gaff next time 🤣🤣 cheers scratchie!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmk1962 Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Absolutely first class report and top fish Sam ... a worthy adversary to blood the reel. Congrats on your PB. BTW, how's your dad feel about trolling now ? Cheers Zoran PS - I read somewhere Scratchie knows what to do with spearos that get in the way? ... or did I misread that post... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 A long read, but explained it all. Good work on the dollies, plenty of feeds in the big one. Still plenty of people out and about, as there are no overseas trips for anyone. I know what it is like to not go fishing, with a dodgy knee for the last few weeks. Hopefully the specialist next week can help me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Monks Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Cracker report and a nice fish!🤙 Sounds like our experience a few years back. hahaha. Marlin that we hooked a few trips but couldn't manage to land one, followed by a few big dollies. The Marlin luck changed after landing the dollies!! 😅😃 You'll have one boatside soon enough! Yeewww 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smobaby Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Top report and a great catch need more constant water temp and weather the fish will come. Just keep at it do the miles get the smiles hard work though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankS Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Sam. Nice dollie, good one to add to your list of captures. The Marlin will come, first one always seems like it will never happen and you may get a few strikes and hook ups before finally getting one to the boat but it will come. My first was a sheer accident and wasn't even thinking about Marlin, then I started targeting them, 3 in one day is my best and I haven't been concerned with them since, that was 20 odd years ago. Frank 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscarthebeagle Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Good report, congrats on the PB. Keep at it the Marlin will come. Hopefully I will get out later in the week to have a crack. Ash 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingie chaser Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 (edited) Nice report A PB 132cm bull mahi as a consolation prize, I'd take that any day of the week 😁 Edited February 8, 2021 by kingie chaser 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Great report. Well done. Happy Fishing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordoRetired Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Great report and excellent Dolly. I have a spearfisher story that would be the opposite of your experience. I was out with a mate a couple of weeks back and as we got to the Wave Rider off Sydney saw that there was a boat with 4 spear fishermen swimming around it. As we pulled up the bloke on the boat call over to us and told us what was in the water around the mark, size of the fish and exactly where to drift to get them. Our drift took us within 10m of the swimmers and not a single one of them complained, in fact they were telling us when the fish were headed to our baits. They could not have been friendlier. So I know some are idiots but there are also some really friendly ones out there 🙂 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoingFishing Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 On 2/8/2021 at 3:46 PM, Scratchie said: Yewwwwww Sam! That’s a beauty! Congrats on the PB. You put in the hours and the marlin will come. There has been plenty caught on the East Coast so far. The sound of the screaming reel is always in the back of my thoughts too! You’ll have to share that feast with your sister! Well done again mate and don’t forget the gaff next time 🤣🤣 cheers scratchie!!! Thanks Scratchie - just gotta keep persisting and the reward will come i hope ! PS Yes, gave my sister a nice big slab of mahi steak. She loved it. On 2/8/2021 at 3:57 PM, zmk1962 said: Absolutely first class report and top fish Sam ... a worthy adversary to blood the reel. Congrats on your PB. BTW, how's your dad feel about trolling now ? Cheers Zoran PS - I read somewhere Scratchie knows what to do with spearos that get in the way? ... or did I misread that post... Thanks Z - he certainly was a worthy adversary. Lucky i got to fight him in lieu of the beakie this time because i tell you now in hindsight, theres a few things i learnt on the way that could have cost me the Marlin ! PS - have not seen Scratchies advice on how to deal with spearos ! Link me On 2/8/2021 at 4:48 PM, Yowie said: A long read, but explained it all. Good work on the dollies, plenty of feeds in the big one. Still plenty of people out and about, as there are no overseas trips for anyone. I know what it is like to not go fishing, with a dodgy knee for the last few weeks. Hopefully the specialist next week can help me. Thanks Yowie - i hope you manage to get your knee sorted and back on the water very soon On 2/8/2021 at 5:47 PM, Brendan Monks said: Cracker report and a nice fish!🤙 Sounds like our experience a few years back. hahaha. Marlin that we hooked a few trips but couldn't manage to land one, followed by a few big dollies. The Marlin luck changed after landing the dollies!! 😅😃 You'll have one boatside soon enough! Yeewww Thanks Brendan ! cant complain a about a nice big dolly. Still an amazing fight and amazing figh. On 2/8/2021 at 6:57 PM, Smobaby said: Top report and a great catch need more constant water temp and weather the fish will come. Just keep at it do the miles get the smiles hard work though. Cheers mate - warm water getting in very close now. especially down south On 2/8/2021 at 7:33 PM, frankS said: Sam. Nice dollie, good one to add to your list of captures. The Marlin will come, first one always seems like it will never happen and you may get a few strikes and hook ups before finally getting one to the boat but it will come. My first was a sheer accident and wasn't even thinking about Marlin, then I started targeting them, 3 in one day is my best and I haven't been concerned with them since, that was 20 odd years ago. Frank Thanks Frank for the encouragement. They are a very frustrating yet rewarding species for sure. Lots of money to be spent on gear and fuel. On 2/9/2021 at 7:28 AM, Oscarthebeagle said: Good report, congrats on the PB. Keep at it the Marlin will come. Hopefully I will get out later in the week to have a crack. Ash Thanks Oscar, and goodluck. let us know how you go? On 2/9/2021 at 8:13 AM, kingie chaser said: Nice report A PB 132cm bull mahi as a consolation prize, I'd take that any day of the week 😁 Cheers KC - Absolutely, great eating too On 2/9/2021 at 9:52 AM, Rebel said: Great report. Well done. Happy Fishing. Thanks Rebel On 2/9/2021 at 11:12 AM, GordoRetired said: Great report and excellent Dolly. I have a spearfisher story that would be the opposite of your experience. I was out with a mate a couple of weeks back and as we got to the Wave Rider off Sydney saw that there was a boat with 4 spear fishermen swimming around it. As we pulled up the bloke on the boat call over to us and told us what was in the water around the mark, size of the fish and exactly where to drift to get them. Our drift took us within 10m of the swimmers and not a single one of them complained, in fact they were telling us when the fish were headed to our baits. They could not have been friendlier. So I know some are idiots but there are also some really friendly ones out there 🙂 Thanks Gordo. Yes i agree lots of spearos that are quite friendly, my remarks werent intended to be broadly applied across all spearos, just that boat on the FAD that Sunday. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmk1962 Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 (edited) 35 minutes ago, GoingFishing said: PS - have not seen Scratchies advice on how to deal with spearos ! Link me Well as I said I may have misread the report but it’s the one where 4 of them ended up in the water hanging on to eskies .... maybe they were too close to Scratchie’s whiskas drift 🤔 cheers Zoran Edited February 10, 2021 by zmk1962 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoingFishing Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 1 hour ago, zmk1962 said: Well as I said I may have misread the report but it’s the one where 4 of them ended up in the water hanging on to eskies .... maybe they were too close to Scratchie’s whiskas drift 🤔 cheers Zoran Explains how the boat sank in 90 seconds.....Scratchie under there with a scuba mask and 25mm drill bit 🤣 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Top report Sam - Iunderstand the smile on your face - says it all, well done 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoingFishing Posted February 12, 2021 Author Share Posted February 12, 2021 On 2/10/2021 at 9:42 PM, Pickles said: Top report Sam - Iunderstand the smile on your face - says it all, well done Thanks Pickles - was a fun day out on the water ! PS - thats my old man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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