Blue Marlin, Yellowfin Tuna and Striped Marlin are on the bite off Sydney. The Sydney Game Fishing Club got it right for the  ‘Peter Goadby Memorial Tournament’ last week-end. Though the weather wasn’t perfect the fishing more than made up for it. Over the last few weeks the fishing off Sydney has been the best in years especially for Blue Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna.

I don’t have the exact numbers of fish caught and tagged but all boats saw action. If you go to the SGFC web site you will find the numbers. Interestingly the action was spread out from the ‘Bait Station’ down past Port Hacking and out over the thousand fathom line.  All you had to do was cover the ground, find the bait, work the bait and if luck was on your side you’d find the fish.

On Saturday I was working my way down the thousand fathom line where I found a long liner laying  lines. I worked South down his line hoping for a ‘fin . It was looking good with patches of scattered bait fairly near the surface. As I made a turn around some bait the ‘shotgun’ with the ‘Pakula Brad ‘J” let go. A big Blue took off grey hounding, tearing up the ocean. I couldn’t believe such a big fish would take such a small lure.

By the time we had cleared the lines  this fish, instead of running straight and sounding must have covered miles going in circles and huge arcs never getting really far from us. It was all I could do to keep the line tight and not allow too much belly. By the time we had the lines in the fish had calmed, slowly swimming away from us down sea and probably stuffed.  Backing down wasn’t so comfortable in this sea. I even got wet in the flybridge, the transom regularly under water, poor Ron was drenched even his boots got filled.

After what seemed like ages we had the fish along side finally realising just how big it was. When David took the leader it barely moved so no point tagging. Back at the club it weighed 337.5 kilo’s, a potential Australian and N.S.W. record on 24 kg. line a great effort by Ron. Over the day the number of captured and tagged fish included several Blues between 150 and 250 kilo’s and Yellowfin over 70 kilo’s as well as many lost.

Sunday started much the same as Saturday weatherwise. I went to where I had seen the Long liner the day before. Unfortunately neither it nor the lines were there.  I instituted plan ‘B’ – since the warmer water had moved in even closer I also moved in. I found a small temperature break and followed it. In the meantime ‘Tantrum’ skippered by Glen Wright had caught a 204.5 kilo Blue on 15 kg. line a maximum pointer, only 133 points separated us. Meanwhile Jamie Ward of ‘Carnage’ was fighting a big Tiger shark on 15 kilo line yet another threat.

Suddenly in the middle of nowhere we had a massive strike on the shot gun and the reel again screamed, this time a Yellowfin. To complicate matters while Scott and Mark were clearing the other lines both had hits. Scott’s fish hooked up and fortunately Mark’s didn’t. Now we had a double on large Yellowfin tuna which could be disastrous. Consequently I told Greg to just keep tension on his line but not to bring his fish in and for Scott to go to sunset and go hard.

It worked, Scott after much pain got his fish which later weighed 73.5 kilo’s, to the boat and gaffed in 25 minutes. Now it was Greg’s turn, unfortunately his fish was more stubborn. After more than an hour  of pain he finally had colour but it took another twenty minutes before we gaffed it. Another good ‘fin  which later weighed 72.5 kilo’s, a nice buffer against Glen.

We continued on our way feeling pretty content that the Yellowfin had given us the lead we needed. Well, you know you shouldn’t count your chickens, Tantrum were onto another good Blue on 60kg. line. We desperately needed another fish with only 30 minutes to end of fishing.

“Fish on the rigger”, Ron yelled as a Marlin hit the long rigger, it broke the band but no hook-up. Tension was now extreme, Glen had landed their fish. We waited and watched I circled the area but to no avail. To add to the tension Jamie had landed a 300 kilo plus Tiger on 15kg.  Yet another maximum pointer to contend with.

I can’t tell you the final results because I really don’t know them, you’ll have to come to the Club’s presentation tomorrow night ( 1st. May ).

So that was the tournament, for more results go to the club’s web site.

The Long liners are still working off Sydney so the ‘fin must still be in the area. With the water 24C at the shelf, there is no reason why the Blue Marlin won’t still be here.

Looking for a bluefin fishing charter in Sydney? Join us!

Get out there and give it a go,
Ivan

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