I went out again today with one of my regular clients, Lee Morphy, he’d brought along two friends from the Philippines who hadn’t experienced Game Fishing before and were anxious to see what it is all about.

The idea was to have a shot at some Kingies of which there had been some big ones caught recently, one I saw weighed at the club went 20 kg. on the dot, in shore then head out to see what we could find. After quite a while at several different places we had only caught three baits so I decided to forego the Kings and head out wide and if we found any Dollies we would use the livies then.

I started trolling at the 12 Mile in beautiful water but it wasn’t until I’d reached the other side of a greenish coloured current that I found any action. There were birds scattered through the area and some bait showing at about 50 fathoms. By this time the sea had taken its toll on Lee’s friends who were hanging in but only just.

Finally I found something, a bait ball that must have been under attack for a while because when I found it it was only about 40 cm in diameter. There weren’t any Marlin around the ball but there did appear to be some small tuna giving it their best. Anyway after each time I presented our lures to the bait the ball had decreased in size a little until after my fourth pass I couldn’t find it anymore and the birds had scattered.

We continued on our way eventually turning for home making our visitors feel instantly a bit happier. I’d heard on the radio through out the day of a few Marlin tagged and some Blue Marlin lost also some Dollies and a Spearfish –  the warm Southerly current was settling in and bringing down the goodies. I came in over the 12 Mile with no result and I suggested pulling the lures in but my deckie, Pat, said five minutes more and then after five minutes had passed he said another five so in beautiful conditions and now calm seas we continued on.

Well we had just passed the Nine Mile when the long rigger went of on a screaming run, Lumo accounted for another one. After a good fight we tagged a nice Striped Marlin and all thoughts of sea sickness were gone, elation and excitement took over.

Two Marlin in two days of fishing, doesn’t sound like much but off Sydney at present with the conditions on each day so different I thought we had done pretty well.

Tight lines,
Ivan