Black Marlin Fishing Blog

Tourney Weekend and Fish at Port

Kelly March 18, 2013 No Comments

striped

A few tournaments were held over the weekend and hopefully the tournament reports from those events are not too far away. I did hear that Day 2 of the Broken Bay Invitational was cancelled due to bad weather, while similarly, Ulladulla‘s three days were reduced to one and a bit with the weather moving through on Saturday afternoon.

Back to Tanga 5 went ahead (results to come) and Gamex wrapped up with the presentation on the weekend topping off another great week in the west.

Overall Exmouth GFC report that 761 billfish were raised, 517 hooked and 246 tagged or captured. There were also 2 World, 4 Australian and 4 State record captures throughout the week. In the Tag & Release section, the leading boat in the Under 7m category was Skulldraggin who tagged 12 from Ruffunuff with 8. In the Over 7m category, Sunride tagged 14, My Vice II tagged 11 and Pelagic Hooker tagged 9. Read on past the jump for the full results.

Meanwhile at Port Stephens, patchy, but a few more fish making themselves known.

In close at the Gibber, the Cresta Afisionado had a great day Thursday with 4 from 6 on the little blacks. And then followed up on Friday with…. zeros! Capt. Tim Dean’s Calypso also reported a mixed bag for the last few days. Tim said they went 1 from 5, 3 from 3 and then none from none!

Meanwhile, out on the Carpark, Andy tells me that Fritto 1 release their first (yes, first!) striped marlin of the season on Saturday ending the day with a 2-2-2 (both stripes). Andy also reported a black and a stripe for Diversion, while Born Free had a go at another couple as well.

GAMEX at Exmouth

HPS gamefish other than billfish or shark weighed on:
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Black Marlin Fishing Blog, Fishing Reports, Tournaments

Exmouth Gamex Catchup & Sydney Blue

Kelly March 14, 2013 No Comments

Exmouth GAMEX Daily Results:

A running update courtesy of Exmouth GFC which marked the best day’s fishing of the comp yet yesterday with 51 billfish tags among plenty of other species both weighed and released:

Day 1: 28 billfish tagged; made up of 4 blue marlin, 6 sailfish and 18 black marlin

Day 2: 43 billfish tagged; made up of 27 black marlin, 6 blue marlin and 10 sailfish

Day 3: 23 billfish tagged; made up of 10 black marlin, 3 blue marlin, 10 sailfish

Day 4: 51 billfish tagged; made up of 33 black marlin, 5 blue Marlin, 13 sailfish

Sydney Blue Marlin

Anthony sent me a note about his epic day Sunday which resulted in a first marlin for his father on the Big Banana. After hitting the water at 5am (to beat the M5 traffic) they had a morning of hard work bottom bashing, for little reward. Heading back in to where they’d marked a colour/temp change earlier and within two minutes had a fish up on the long corner. Well, you have to read the rest of the story:

“Within a minute, we had over 800m out – slowest lure clear in history of game fishing! Dave is saying he can see the bottom of the spool…

I turn and chase, I was doing about 15 knots initially trying to get line back, Dad wound like a champ and kept it tight, belly all over the ocean, but we got half a spool back before it charged off again, this time north. Crept up the line and managed to get the spool ¾ full and then we had a stalemate. The fish was super unresponsive to change of direction, so thought it was wrapped or dead.

Took about 45 minutes, drove off the fish a few times and planed it up, Dave took the leader after about 1.5 hours and we got a bill rope on him. Hooked in the dorsal fin! There was some mouth damage so hook may (or may not) have dislodged but unsure how we stayed connected either way…

Hooked in about 250fa, ended up in about 80fa by the end!

The old man was absolutely stoked! During the fight, I marked at least 6 or 7 substantial fish, marlin or big ‘fin I suppose, the yellowfin were busting up all around the boat as well.

I measured with the tag pole, and thought sh*t, this is much bigger then I first thought. Get the tape out, and Dave (he’s a chippy so he’s all about measuring twice, cut once), lines up with the fork and short length measures 2.95, I can’t believe it, so we check again, same digits! Girth was unbelievable and the fish was well fed and had a bulging gut. Short length chart puts it at 250ish kg. Completely wrapped!

Got a tag in, had a lot of colour come back and was biting my hand after about 20-25 minutes on the bill rope. Hopefully made it.

Very little Go Pro, a dodgy video of the fish boat side and only a few pics, but I won’t be forgetting this fish anytime soon!”

Black Marlin Fishing Blog, News

Exmouth

Stripes Showing Up

Kelly March 11, 2013 No Comments

Exmouth’s Gamex 2013 has kicked off with Day 1 fishing yesterday. The club is reporting 28 billfish tagged; made up of 4 blue marlin, 6 sailfish and 18 black marlin and including a big blue marlin caught by Paul Rowe on Mahi Mahi III. There is no clear leader this early with a few boats on two tagged fish a piece.

Also word is filtering through from Port Stephens and south that there is good water to be found with marlin in it, which is good news for the rest of the tournaments coming up – including the 2013 Broken Bay Invitational (Sylvania Marina Caribbean Tournament) and rescheduled Jess Sams Tournament Ulladulla 2013 both on this weekend! (More details in the tournament calendar.)

murrifin striped marlin

The Findlay brothers (Craig and Rod) took Murrifin home to Broken Bay for the tournament (from Port Stephens) on Friday and found the blue water going 4-3-2 on striped marlin. They missed a third on a double header, due to only being the two of them on board, which pulled the livie off the bridle 20ft of the transom. Rod says that the fishing on the improve down there with a bunch of boats finding a large floating rope yesterday and landing plenty of nice dolphinfish, rat yellowfins and wahoos.

John Satori tells me that Sydney game boat The Spanish Fly fished on Thursday wide of Sydney and got busted off by a nice blue estimate a about 180kg in 1000 fathoms behind Browns. John says it was a perfect 27 degree water and luckily they managed to convert a 90kg black on the way home, right on the shelf as well.

And I also heard the little blacks are showing up right out the front of Ulladulla harbour in time for the Jess Sams Tournament too. Anyone know any more?

Back at Port Stephens Akuma reported 2-2-2 (a black and a stripe) on Saturday with a few of the charter fleet converting fish over the weekend as well. Hopefully the fishing getting better there for the latter part of the season as well.

Black Marlin Fishing Blog, fishing photos, Fishing Reports

Tournement is now

Kelly March 8, 2013 No Comments

GAMEX is here and kicks off tonight with Rose Tattoo in concert. As for the fishing, the club (EGFC) says the baitballs have been wreaking havoc in the gulf on the rising tide and hundreds of birds have been milling in the area. Large mack tuna and long tail tuna have been the main species encountered here, although trevally and cobia are also amongst the fare. Large sharks have been patrolling as well and picking up anything that is slow or injured in the frenzy. The tuna are full of roe and can be seen jumping out of the water to land on small baitfish with mouths open ready to snavel. Its all set to go off.

Good luck to all who are competing!

Another tournament coming up, the Solitary Islands Heavy Tackle Challenge on March 23 and 24. Rick tells me that the incessant south-easterlies look like blowing themselves out, and there are reports of blue water out wide, with fishing on the improve just in time!

Skipper Mick Shadbolt couldn’t sit on his hands any longer, so took Kestelle out for a look around a couple of times over the past two weeks. He pulled a nice 15kg Spanish mackerel out of the floodwater pea soup that was masquerading as ocean off South Solitary Island, and managed to get a wahoo out of similar water as well. They hooked up a blue marlin out wide in better water, but lost it at the boat; however, it was encouraging to hear that there was good water out there! The commercial guys have also been finding swordfish in the better water out wide.

I’ve also added the 2013 Riviera Port Lincoln Tuna Classic to the calendar. Nina tells me the event, which is now the largest off shore fishing tournament in South Australia will be hosted the weekend after Easter – April 6 and 7. Already the season has been producing plenty of good fishing. One recent weekend they visited Neptune Islands where they had 5 Great Whites around the boat (for those that don’t know, the Great Whites are a tourist attraction in South Aus and you can swim with them…in cages of course!) Afterwards they went for quick fish for the southern bluefin tuna. Nina said they were everywhere and they bagged out within an hour. The fish were in the 15-20kgs range.