A bit of a late report I know but I’ve had Internet problems or more particularly Telstra problems but that’s another story.

The weather over the Easter week-end was incredible I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such great conditions over the entire four days. Unfortunately the fishing wasn’t near so good but as is usual for this time of year there were some good Blue and Striped Marlin  about  and also as usual  it was hard work finding them with sadly a number of the Blues being lost, often dying or just being too big for the gear.

Most of the Blues were encountered around Browns and out to the 600 fathom line whereas the Stripes were found inside and just over the shelf where there was some bait. Friday was the best of the days for the Marlin with very little action on Saturday and Sunday and then again on Monday the action increased as the water changed over and increased in temperature.

On Monday I fished out wide looking for Yellowfin but a Blue would have done just as well. Significantly I found a couple of logs, I think brought down from the floods and if that’s so there should be many more, actually, one of which found me, it was so water logged I didn’t see it I only heard it when hit it. There were some good Dollies around the log but with no bait we used jigs hooking several but they usually jumped off. Then we started losing the jigs on the drop, after losing four we finally got a solid hook-up and landed a small, a very small Wahoo.

Throughout the break there were encounters with Yellowfin out wide from as far up as the Norah canyons and down to Wollongong. In true early season Yellowfin fashion they were fixated on whatever they were eating as well as moving very quickly and hard to approach.

Other than the Game fishing it appears the bottom fishing at Browns has gotten off to a good start with most boats getting some Gemmies even though they were all on the small side, there were some Blue Eye taken also.

As an aside with Browns being so heavily fished these days it is in everyone’s interest to report anyone seen obviously disregarding the bag limits. It is easy to spot boats with few on board using multiple electrics or those using illegal hook rigs. Note their registration numbers and even film them then report them to fisheries.

With what looks like another good weather week-end coming up and the water temperatures still up there it is still looking good for the Marlin fishermen with even a chance for the much anticipated Yellowfin.

Tight lines,
Ivan