Well after almost 3 months of very mixed fishing especially after the frustration of losing three weeks of prime time due to a blown engine my stay at Port Stephens has come to an end, as much as I love it up there it is good to be back on home territory.

It was a very mixed season starting with a brief run of Striped Marlin which was put to an early end by the strong and very hot Southerly current that has persisted right up until the last couple of weeks. However nothing is entirely without benefit and the current brought with it a huge run of small Black Marlin which stretched all along the East coast and I believe there is still the occasional one being caught. There were numbers of Wahoo, Spearfish and even the occasional Sail that I haven’t seen for ages – but the most amazing capture to me was of a tropical Barracuda caught by Gale Force on their way up to Port. I would love to hear about any other rare northern visitors to out waters.

The numbers of Blue Marlin this year is just phenomenal I have never seen a run like it. There was the occasional big Blue, I mean over 200 kg., amongst them but the smaller fish probably averaging 130 to 150 kg. were just as explosive initially but a lot easier to handle with the benefit of being able to tag and release them.

Back here the Blues are still around though a little harder to find, I tagged one at Port before heading South and ‘Gale Force’ tagging two off Sydney on Saturday both around 150 kg. mark. The good news is the appearance of Striped Marlin with several being tagged and lost in the 80 fathom zone where there is a warmer current running – Micky Doyle from ‘Luna C’ having tagged two.

Sydney at this time of year is at its best, not necessarily with numbers of fish but their quality. In most seasons the biggest of species are caught at this time of year when the water is at its warmest. However with what has happened this whole summer who can say what will be. I personally would like to see the return of Yellowfin, there have been some schools sighted and a couple of good fish caught South of us so there is hope…

Tight lines,
Ivan