I took Tony and his wife Anne from Mackay out Game Fishing off Sydney on Monday. After my success the previous Saturday I decided to go South again. It was a mistake, it was a beautiful day but still a mistake.  The only fish I heard about when we got in  were  a  200 kilo Blue Marlin from Ed Aspden’s boat ‘Malekula’ and a 60 kilo Yellowfin by Robbie Antunes from his boat ‘Angelica’. I had gone the wrong way. I later heard about a Spearfish taken somewhere off Botany.

Ironically the reason for Tony’s visit to Sydney was to fulfil an ambition (no pun intended) to tag all the Billfish species found off Australia in one year. He only needs a Spearfish and a Broadbill to succeed. He’ll probably get the Broady in Tasmania, his next stop, but I don’t like his chances for a Spearfish but you never know.

Yesterday I went North to the area Ed caught his Blue. The water had cooled a little and as I went out developed a greenish tinge. I continued out to what I thought might be a Long Liner some ten miles further. At around 600 fathoms the shotgun went off and we were on. Tony took the rod and after a relatively easy fight of 45 minutes we gaffed a 60.5 kilo Yellowfin. We took photo’s taken and continued out.

It seemed to get more barren as we continued so at around 800 fathoms I turned back to where we had taken the previous fish. I had no sooner turned when a fish crashed the short corner and screamed off. My first thoughts were a Blue but it quickly became apparent it was another ‘fin. This one wasn’t so easy, poor Tony had to fight for every inch. Most of the fight was at ‘sunset’ and took nearly two hours to bring it to gaff much to a relieved Tony. The Yellowfin later weighed at the club went 72.5 kilo’s.

Notwithstanding the fact that Tony didn’t really want to get involved with another Yellowfin anyway, we had now bagged out. So  I headed in to safer waters to maybe find a Striped Marlin or two, which incidentally didn’t happen.

Over the last couple of weeks  I have found the Yellowfin over a wide area ranging from as close in as 250 fathoms and out beyond 1,000 fathoms. If the Long liners are still around they must be in good numbers too.

Apart from the Yellowfin there are reports of big Blue Marlin too.  The boat ‘Doghouse’ killed two weighing 198 and 202 kilo’s from further South. This has always been the time of year for big Blue Marlin off Sydney.

All this action augers well for the upcoming ‘Peter Goadby Memorial Tournament’  this week-end at  the S.G.F.C.

See you there,
Ivan

LINKS to…

Ripcharts
CSIRO
Bureau of Meteorology
N.S.W. Bluelink
Archived Fishing Reports
Article

Home…