It is summertime and the first Marlin of the season still hasn’t been caught or tagged by a SGFC member in Sydney waters. It was with this in mind that we went out last Saturday. The charts were showing good water wide and North of Browns so that was to be our destination.

I went out with Gerard Searle on his boat ‘Tshukudu’. It was a perfect morning. An unusually calm sea and no wind or rain in sight, a rare thing indeed in Sydney of late.

The water around 12 Mile looked good as we passed and several boats were there chasing Kingfish. I don’t know if they were doing any good but we were after Marlin so in went the lures  and we headed off to Browns.

Just inside the shelf we marked some bait but it was deep so we continued on our way. The water was getting warmer and bluer as we approached Browns. Groups of Mutton birds and Albatrosses became more evident the wider we went. The birds were definitely searching as opposed to travelling.

We continued on out searching with the birds but saw no action other than a couple of big Sunfish. I saw the occasional large splash in the distance which I thought were probably Sunfish too. We continued out to the 500 fathom line and saw a Long liner in the distance . Well obviously we had to have a look. We didn’t find his line but we did find a 0.3 degree temperature break.

In the distance Skip saw a school of Sauries take to the air. There were big splashes behind them as some type of reasonable sized fish, probably tuna, chased them. We spent some time in the area but found no other activity.

So that was the day. Other than the school of Sauries and the Sunfish we saw no other action. But it did look good and we felt something might happen at any second. The water looked good, the colour was good the temperature got to 22 degrees . The birds were definitely acting like something was in the area. The only thing I could fault was that the current was running North. I guess you have to blame something.

Tight lines,
Ivan

Next stop… Port Stephens…

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