I have found Sydney Marlin on the bite at present. Sydney Marlin at this time of year are Stripies and on a great putting on a great show.
Sydney Marlin…
Anybody who has been out game fishing over the last couple of weeks will know we are experiencing what is the best Striped Marlin bite I can remember off Sydney, especially for so early in the season. To make it even better the Stripies are all of good size. Listening to reports it is apparent that the bite is slowly moving South and maybe the best of it has already gone by as there is a good bite down the coast from Stanwell Park South.
Anyway, we were going out to what looked like an edge a few miles North of Browns. I went with Zac and some of his friends in what were ideal conditions, maybe even a little too calm. We caught some live bait intending to either use them as skippies or on Dollies if we went to a FAD.
Lures In…
We put the lures in at eighty fathoms where fishermen caught a few fish during the week and trolled North, zig zagging between eighty and a hundred and ten fathoms. We found heaps of bait, mostly in small schools as well as lots of Dolphins, not to be confused with Mahi Mahi.
It was on one of those zigs that we got a hit on the shotgun but no hook up. Steve and Ollie, my deckies saw the strike and said it was a small Marlin or maybe a Spearfish. Whatever it was hit the ‘Brad’ so hard the lure flew a few metres out of the water, damned if I know why it didn’t hook up.
We continued further on and as we went the bait started to disperse. I decided then to have a look out wider and head South towards Browns. Just over the shelf I ran into a school of what looked like Striped Tuna and worked the area for a while to no avail, so headed South again.
At the three hundred fathoms line and ten miles North of Browns We had a solid hit on Brad. We were on to a very nice Stripy which gave in after about twenty minutes. Zac brought it to the boat with some good angling.
We didn’t see anything else for the rest of the day. However the guys were satisfied both fish wise and beer wise so they decided to turn West and head for home.
As a conclusion it appears another run of Stripies has come down the coast. Reports coming in today of most boats encountering these fish.
It is so early in the season and we have the best Marlin months still ahead of us. One can’t help but be optimistic about the days ahead.
Tight Lines,
Ivan