Boats out on Saturday caught Yellowfin from way wide of Heatons, Northeast of Browns and down on the Southern Canyons. The fish were wide spread but you still had to put in the hard yards to find them.

So, we went out optimistic in knowing there were fish to be found. I put the lures out just inside the shelf where there was quite a bit of bait though it was quite deep. There is always the chance of an early season Striped Marlin.

Continuing on we saw a couple of whales and caught a few more Stripies. By then it was time to head for home. As we crossed over the one hundred fathom line the Stripie lure went off. It took a good run but since it was only a 15kg. outfit thought it was a bigger Stripie or maybe an Albacore. But then it stuck its head out and we saw it was unmistakably a Short Billed Spearfish. It took about 20 minutes but we landed the fish to the jubilation of the Sunni and his friends.

A rare capture off Sydney Spearfish are a tropical species usually you find them in the warmest water, water where you are more likely to run into a Blue Marlin and there was one of those taken recently too. The number of Spearfish caught over the last couple of weeks defies explanation especially to catch them in only nineteen degrees.

One could theorise that since the SST’s only reflect the top two or three millimetres of the surface there might be a much warmer current running a little deeper. Anyway just a speculation…

Tight lines,

Ivan