The weather looked too good to pass up yesterday. That, together with reports of Marlin and good-sized Mahi Mahi was enough for me to do a social day. I generally do these when I’m desperate to get out to sea.
We, Warren Knight, Elliot Wasserman and I headed out on a beautiful morning planning to try for Black Marlin and good-sized Mahi Mahi in close then work out wider to see what we could find.
For this time of year the water is remarkably warm, so I thought the Blacks should be here, showing 23.8C at the Heads. Out across the Whale and the Wave Rider there was heaps of bait, but nothing was tempted by the Pakula’s out the back.
We worked out over the 12 Mile and again so much bait that you would have thought this would be Marlin heaven. We continued out towards Browns and in 80 fathoms the bait was stacked up, showing all the signs of being under attack. However, after a fruitless half hour with no action I moved on. At Browns the water looked a little greenish and the temperature near 25 degrees Centigrade, so I headed back inshore to try and find the temperature break. There was no well-defined break but in eighty fathoms the water was a lot clearer and bluer so I worked North zigzagging between the shelf and eighty fathoms.
The first strike came on the shotgun. The Marlin ran about fifty metres and dropped the lure, typical Stripy. Frustrating indeed but at least there was one Marlin about. Continuing on, a short while later another hit on the shotgun. Elliot took the rod while Warren started clearing the lines. As luck would have it another Marlin hit the short corner while Warren was winding it in, double hookup. Sadly, Elliot’s fish dropped the lure after five minutes but Warren’s was going hell for leather.
Ultimately, we got Warren’s Stripy to the boat and it gained its freedom in what is called a ‘Çharter Boat Release’ sadly losing one of my favourite lures in the process.
Continuing on we had another strike on the rigger. It hit while Warren was putting the line up and received a nasty cut, probably lucky that the fish didn’t hook up.
We’d all had a good time and were feeling the effects of the sun and the humidity so I turned for home and just then we had another strike and another Stripy was greyhounding heading for the horizon. This fish fought like a demon and gave Elliot a really hard time but he persevered and brought the Stripy to the boat were Warren tagged it.
A great end to a good day.
Something I find intriguing with regard to bait and bait schools is that there is obviously a time when staying with the bait is the thing to do. But on many occasions the fish are well away from the bait decisions, decisions.
Tightlines,
Ivan
Weather and Sea State :
Buoyweather
Bureau of Meteorology
Radar
Seabreeze
Weatherzone
Weathercams
Ripcharts
C.S.I.R.O.
N.S.W Bluelink
Fishing Tackle :
Pakula Tackle
Global Tackle
Otto’s Tackle
Melton Tackle
Aftco
Campbell’s Pro Tackle
Electronics :
Furuno
Keogh’s Marine Electronics
Olectric Systems