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02-19-2021, 02:03 PM
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We decided to brave the swell yesterday and go scratch the itch. It was one of the more interesting days on the water I’ve had and way to much happened so I won’t remember for a play by play. The cameras weren’t out much so it’s almost not worth talking about but I can probably scare up one pic off porter.
First up since the last trip I tried moving the transducer about a mm higher and that was a terrible idea. I’m still looking for the right position and it’ll now be moving down until I get the picture I want at speed. By moving it up I’ve got nothing but noise on plane. At 6-7 knots if I kept the motor trimmed up we had a clear picture but it wasn’t very good.
I also removed the hydrofoil off the outboard because I wanted to see how it ran without it. Best move ever. The boat handles swell so much better without it. The trim tabs are more responsive and we made better time into every direction of sea with a softer ride then anytime in the past. I also get more response when I stand on it with no ventilation and much more instantaneous throttle response.
I also snapped a spinning rod at the gas station when I climbed in the boat to put my lunch and snacks in the fridge. I was hoping that’s where the bad luck would end but it wasn’t to be.
And back to fishing. The seas were big for a 21’ boat. From the live buoy out there we had between 2.5-3m swell on a 10 second interval but very little wind chop. The boat ramp was empty which is never a good sign and we fished the entire day without seeing or hearing another fishing boat. We saw a pair of trawlers and a few cargo ships but we had the ocean to ourselves. The swell was big but manageable and it was more comfortable then the last few trips because of the interval and lack of wind chop.
We started on the 21 mile. Within a couple minutes the shotgun went off and a marlin started tail walking, I was clearing the first line and porter was dealing with the fish. I was also shooting my mouth off about how good the day was going to be considering we had only started and already had old stick nose on a hook. Then he dropped it.
The spread went back out and about half an hour later I picked up a Spaniard around the meter mark. We then had several more strikes of which some were unidentified and two more were marlin. Two of the marlin were on the hook and being fought when the line was cut by teeth on the mono above the double. The end of the line that came back both times was frayed like it had been flossed in a set of teeth and about all I can think is that the mackerel were hitting at the Aussie plait where my double starts but I honestly don’t know. We lost all three of my favourite shotgun lures and had three skirted lures destroyed before deciding the Spaniards weren’t worth dealing with and we had to go to deeper water to shake them off. So we set off for the hards where we had that big day a month ago. We ran up there at speed and dropped seven lines in the water and took off trolling again. We did a lap without any sign of life then found a current line so I tucked into it and shortly after we were getting hit by marlin again. Porter was on the rod and dropped four in a row. At that point he decided I should try and hook one so I proceeded to drop another three that we saw jumping and several more strikes that we didn’t see the fish. We also dropped a wahoo up there and picked up a mack tuna.
About 15:30 we ripped back down to where we started and trolled a couple laps. All we got were two more Spaniards around the same size as the first and we put them in the kill tank before heading home.
All up we saw and lost a minimum of ten marlin and one wahoo plus another 8-10 strikes that we didn’t see the fish and don’t know what they were. We lost three lures, one complete topshot and I need to change six skirts on three other lures. The conversion ratio was the worst I’ve ever experienced. I reset the trip odometer when we left the ramp and we did 114nm so 211 km in 13.5 hours yesterday for three measly Spaniards.
The only good news is the fish are around and we are certainly raising them and getting strikes. Next week It calms down and I plan on taking the chance to redeem myself.
Last edited by Coiloil37; 02-19-2021 at 02:25 PM.
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02-21-2021, 12:47 AM
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Well Rosie and I are going to stick into them tomorrow. Rods, reels, lures and lines are all repaired from the last gong show. Reel drags are adjusted and set, the transducer is moved down and I also put about 30 squid and maybe 40 gar in the brine bucket today so we are going to try trolling the squid whole to see how they work. I think they’ll be like candy for old stick nose but we will know tomorrow.
If I was a little smarter I would put in a little effort to catch some flying fish, wire their wings out and run them as skip baits but we are usually to focused on catching real fish to put in the effort to catch flying fish out on the grounds. One day I’ll get my priorities straight.
Here’s the pic of the Spaniard we took a pic of the other day. Between the three of them there wasn’t a lbs difference between them, all school sized fish. Just a bunch of dirty lure thieves and almost as bad as barracuda.
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02-23-2021, 03:13 AM
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Rosie and I hit the water about 4:30 with a temp of 28 degrees and a forecasted high around 33. Water temp was 27 deg and we made pretty good time out wide. Lures in the water on the 21 mile and within five minutes I picked up a Spaniard off the shotgun.
While I was reeling him in another hit the squid that was still in the water but we failed to hook up. About ten minutes later rosie got one too but dropped it just off the boat. We then had another 14 strikes without a hookup. About 8:30 we trolled east for deeper water then started to cut north toward the honey hole from last Friday.
About half way there we had a strike and Rosie hooked into a marlin that took FOREVER to bring to the boat. We were in a stalemate for ages and when we finally got him up we saw why. Foul hooked in the dorsal fin. Let me tell you, they’re hard to control hooked in the back.
We worked that area for about an hour and had two more marlin on the line but somehow I dropped them all within 4 or 5 meters of the boat.
We picked up a little mahi and kept moving north. Eventually we found the spot but the current line was gone and it appeared to be a ghost town. We did two laps and didn’t raise a fish so cut east and started hunting.
About a mile or two out we saw bird action so moved towards them. Then we saw dolphins. Lots and lots of dolphins, hundreds of them. Then we saw the first surface bait ball. It was a thing of glory. Birds, dolphin, tuna, mahi and sharks attacking the swirling ball of soon to be dead bait. We trolled past for the first look and a marlin jumped ahead of the boat.
Then we started getting strikes. A few were skipjack tuna but most were marlin. I went six in a row and lost them all at the boat before we could get a hand on them. Plenty of video footage of them jumping all over the ocean but I couldn’t catch a break on the end game.
After dropping the sixth one I told Rosie to have a go. He looked recuperated from his dorsal hooked fiasco so he took the next three or four and lost them also. Either at the boat or mid fight. We couldn’t win.
I don’t know how many we raised or how many we hooked but I know we didn’t land another one. I lost count at 24 and I suspect it was close to 40. There were about four hours where I was so busy dealing with fish, bait or lines I didn’t have a chance to drink a beer or eat anything. Several times I would only get one or two lines in the water and we would have another hit. It was pandemonium until the tide change around 1500 when it shut down. We scratched around for another half hour after it turned off then trolled south across the 21 mile and just as we were going to pull in there was a boil on a skipping mullet and a reel screaming. No jumping so I didn’t assume marlin. Lots of head shakes and powerful runs. I had it nearly to the boat twice when it would run again so I wasn’t thinking Spaniard or wahoo because they don’t usually make more then two runs and then the line went slack. I’m almost positive that’s the first fish I’ve dropped on a circle hook once it was set but drop it I did.
So we went from not being able to hook them to not being able to land em but we are raising fish and having some success anyway.
Rosie took almost all the video and hasn’t been very forthcoming with it so those few pics are all I’ve got.
Today I was repairing leaders and noticed several of the hooks are bent so I replaced them all and hopefully that was some of the problem. I’m going to catch some gar tomorrow or Thursday and then be back into them Friday.
I also tried the skipjack tuna just so I could have an educated opinion. Bled, gutted and iced and I tried the shoulder for sashimi. Tasted ok (like a 6 out of 10) but the texture isn’t good for sashimi. To stringy and tough. Prob just use em for bait in the future cause they make great bait.
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02-26-2021, 03:18 AM
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We gave it another shot today and failed to find the bite. No birds, no dolphins, very little bait and precious few strikes. We picked up a 25-30lb Spaniard fairly early, no pics cause it wasn’t my fish and he didn’t care to have a picture taken but it looked a lot like the one in the post above this one.
At 8:30 my little man got the next strike which happened to be his first wahoo.
Then we went 0 for 6 on the billfish. Five marlin and a sailfish, failed to properly hook all of them and didn’t land any of them.
We got two mahi around the 10lb range and then just as we were clearing the gear to run home the long rigger fired. I was standing next to it but thought it was the shotgun. I looked at Rosie and he indicated the rod beside me and when I looked down Nolan was already there and engaging the fish so he brought that one to the boat too which happened to be his second wahoo.
All told it was a bloody slow day of fishing with nice weather and good company. The sashimi wasn’t to shabby either.
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02-26-2021, 08:02 AM
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Well when and if I get my sorry butt in your boat ya can take all the pics ya want
Awesome thread...keep'em coming.....you guys must be getting ready for winter?
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02-26-2021, 10:51 AM
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Love the colors and pattern on those Wahoo, beautiful fish!
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02-26-2021, 02:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 58thecat
Well when and if I get my sorry butt in your boat ya can take all the pics ya want
Awesome thread...keep'em coming.....you guys must be getting ready for winter?
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Winter shows up Easter weekend. No transition to speak of it just goes from stinkin hot to hot that weekend. It’s really only the UV intensity that changes and how much it cools off at night. Daytime highs now are around 30-33 and in the winter will be 24-27.
Water temps will drop by May and the pelagic’s will be gone again until next November. I’ll transition to tuna fishing first as their primarily a April/may/June fish then have to spend my time catching reef fish for a few months.
I’m also neglecting to catch prawns. They’ve been running in the river for the past two months and should be around for a couple more months. This is the third year I said I was going to do it and still haven’t bothered but I may drag the boat down tomorrow and give it a try.
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02-26-2021, 02:57 PM
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I missed this thread somehow until now!
WOW! Thanks for sharing! The pics and stories have got my heart racing a bit.
Looks incredible!
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03-15-2021, 08:55 PM
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Headed home tonight for another fortnight. Swell is up like usual but hopefully I’ll get out a few times.
More interesting then that, I saw a pic of a Spaniard caught off Mooloolaba yesterday that blew my hair back a little. I wouldn’t of killed this fish as it’s almost certainly a candidate for ciguatera poisoning but it’s one hell of a fish.
Last edited by Coiloil37; 03-15-2021 at 09:04 PM.
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03-19-2021, 02:48 PM
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We decided to brave the swell yesterday even though it was in the 3m range. Had a fairly good run out, set the spread and trolled for about 10 minutes before a good strike on the shotgun. I pulled it down and gave him 15lbs of drag. He came tight and within 2-3 seconds was gone. I pulled it in and had been cut off where the 200 lb mono wrapped around the hook, behind the crimp. It would of been a Spaniard or wahoo so we set another gar on an ilander into the shotgun (the only hook I’ll run back there) and kept trolling. About fifteen minutes later it went off again and porter brought in a 10-12kg Spaniard. It seemed it had been gaffed or speared through the back within the past few days but either way it ended up in our kill tank.
We then trolled around the 21 mile for a couple of hours without another fish. We had a couple of half hearted strikes on the shotgun but nothing aggressive and nothing hooked up. We marked a ton of marlin or sharks and a lot of bait but nothing would come up and strike.
We then cut out past the banks and trolled north in the 80-100m line. Up where we found the fish last time we found a current line and dolphins so spent a couple hours working the area without any action. We then cut out to 120-130m and trolled south to an area we caught a lot last year at this time. We found lots of swell and blue water but nothing of interest. We then started to cut back in toward the banks when the shotgun fired and I pulled in a little mahi around the meter mark.
We played around the southern end of the banks for a few passes and again marked bait but all the gamefish seemed to have lockjaw again. Just inside of the banks in about 55m of water as we were discussing pulling the gear we had a school of mahi attack. Four lines went down at the same time but only one hooked up. I brought it in and it was small, maybe 75-80cm so I grabbed the leader to flip it up in the boat. About half way between the water and the gunnel it flicked off and swam away to do some more growing.
Between the 3+m rollers, fuel burnt to run/troll 240+km yesterday and lack of fish it was a pretty brutal day but still better then sitting around home wondering how the fishing was. The water has also cooled off about a deg and a half which probably indicates the summer fun is drawing to a close. Last trip out it averaged 27-27.5 deg and yesterday the warmest I saw was 26.10 deg. Within another two months it’ll be tuna season or reef fish until the billfish come back. Rosi played the inshore game yesterday and picked up some longtail tuna (northern bluefin) so they’re around and perhaps one day soon I’ll take the kids out and catch some.
Next trip I’m heading the 37 nm south east to check that seamount that’s supposed to be down there. If it doesn’t exist I’ll troll back north in 4-700m of water and try my hand at a finding a yellowfin or blue marlin.
The Spaniard and the mahi fillets in the bowl.
And his scar. I’m thinking spear but it could be gaff
Last edited by Coiloil37; 03-19-2021 at 03:02 PM.
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03-20-2021, 11:58 AM
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Again very well done...better out fishing then wondering!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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03-25-2021, 04:40 AM
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Skip the ice, let’s go bill fishing.
Hit the water this morning at 04:00. It was the first (mostly) calm day I’ve had in over a year. We ran out at 30+ knots and were on the banks by sunup. Quick hit on the long rigger which felt like a Spaniard then got bit off on the 4” squid teaser ahead of the hook. A few minutes later we picked up a marlin on the same lure and promptly got bit off again. Bloody Spaniards.
So I rerigged the teasers on cable and deployed again. Wasn’t long and the shotgun went off and porter brought in a baby longtail tuna.
We got didn’t make it much further and he picked up a yellowfin.
We made another pass and three lines went down, all of them hooked up but we lost the one in the rod holder while we landed the other two.
They’re hardly bigger then bait but still good eats.
Then we went 4-4 on the blacks. Stuck every hook and landed all of them which is an improvement due to me rigging all of the lures differently after doing some reading. There’s a story or two to be told in there but it’s bed time. We are going to give em hell tomorrow too and 03:00 comes early.
I’ll write it up a little better after tomorrow’s fun.
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03-25-2021, 07:07 AM
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again very well done...man you got a little slice of paradise out there.....keep'em coming!
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03-26-2021, 02:33 PM
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Skip the ice, let’s go bill fishing.
Yesterday was a disappointment. The forecast was for .9m seas and 25km/h wind in the afternoon. The morning was supposed to be calm. We were on the water shortly after 4 and the ocean was flat. We ran the first ten miles at 30+ knots and then the wind started to pick up. I had to slow down to about 23-25 knots and we punched through to the banks. We got there just as the sun was starting to creep over the horizon and I stopped to put the outriggers on. The wind was howling. Think southern Alberta howling. Blow your hat off, make your eyes water, hard to hear someone talking type wind. By the time we had the spread out the wind chop was at about 2m with whitecaps and about a 2 second interval. We could only troll about 4.5 knots without getting pounded and there was still a lot of banging and spray being thrown into the boat. Lures wouldn’t run right so I switched everything to skipping gar.
Almost immediately Nolan was sick and throwing up. We did about two very uncomfortable laps of the area without a bite and Nolan was as green as a little leprechaun. The wind hadn’t slowed down and the chop was getting worse. We wouldn’t be able to run home much faster then we were trolling so I pointed the boat for land and started home on the troll. Just inside the banks we had a hit and Nolan was on the rod. It looked like a Spaniard or wahoo but he lost it about 20m from the boat. A little while later we picked up a longtail tuna about the size of the one the day before and a few minutes later a small mahi in the 80cm range. We were flat out controlling the boat and didn’t take pictures. We trolled back fairly disappointed and called it a day.
As for the day previous. The other two blacks.
And this was the second one but we didn’t get good pictures of. When porter grabbed him by the bill I got the hook out but the marlin went off (like they all do). Porter took the abuse for a few seconds before losing hold of the bill. The go pro was pointed a little to high to get all the action but he was a good fish. Much bigger then the other three, porter thinks bigger then the 160kg he caught a few months ago, I think maybe 130 kg but we didn’t get a measurement so we will never know. Doesn’t matter anyway.
And boat side with porter getting the washing machine treatment. It’s really to bad the camera wasn’t pointed down enough to get the action but that was the first time we ran the gopro so it’ll improve next time.
As for that fish where porter had his shirt off.
At one point his fish ran under the boat. I backed off it but the line was going under the boat and back out. He said the line was hooked under the boat. The only thing down there besides the outboard is the keel guard that the last 3” is peeling off the hull a little. I told him that, he handed me the rod and I tried to pull the line off it with the rod tip under the boat without success. Next thing I hear is “well I’ll go in and unwrap it”. He jumped in, swam under the boat, came back up and said yea that’s the problem. Swam back under and unwrapped it, got back in the boat and took the rod back and managed to land the fish.
It appears the tuna have arrived so hopefully next month we can find a few of the 100+kg yellowfin and some 50kg longtails to load up the freezer for the winter. The junior models are good eating and not a concern for mercury but we need to find the big girls in the brief window they’re around.
Last edited by Coiloil37; 03-26-2021 at 02:52 PM.
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03-26-2021, 04:42 PM
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Big Sigh .... Bty's.
D.
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04-20-2021, 04:29 AM
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Word on the street is the inshore fish are gone. Rumour has it there’s the odd one lingering on the 18 mile but if we wanted a marlin we had to go heavy tackle (+200m). I’ve never been out there but we were willing to give it a shot.
We hit the water about 4:40 and found it bloody perfect. Nearly dead flat so we hauled butt like a pair of hoons out to the banks running the assumption we had more money for fuel then time. We dropped our usual spread and trolled north with no success. We marked bait and a few decent marks but nothing wanted to eat.
About 8:45 we were talking about heading wider when the shotgun went off. Porter hauled in a 8-10lb Mac tuna which was pretty melodramatic but made a decent belly flap bait for later in the day. Being as the rods were all in we ran east another 6 miles until we hit 200m of water. We also found a current line so we deployed the spread and trolled east in it.
Pretty quick we passed a floating bucket and had three lines go down. All three hooked up and three baby mahi found their way into my kill tank.
We trolled a little further and in about 320m of water we had a triple attack of marlin. The shotgun fired first then we saw two fish come and strike each corner. My corner hooked up, the port corner missed. Porter was handling the shotgun, I left mine in the rod holder and started clearing lines. Then they jumped and omg what a pair of horses we had. Big, big fish, both of them. They both jumped at the same time which was picture bloody perfect. Four or five meters apart and crossed each other in the air. They also crossed lines which wasn’t a problem because we saw it but we recognised we had a problem with a double. Luckily by the time I had cleared the other six lines one had unhooked itself.
I had turned the boat towards porters fish as I was clearing lines but by the time I was done he had about 800m of line out and the fish was jumping all over the place. We started to chase and the fish went deep. He then battled the fish for a little over two hours without seeing it. To say he was exhausted would be an understatement. I obviously couldn’t help on the rod but I kept myself hydrated with beer and encouraged him through his struggle. Man he was working that fish... or maybe it was working him.
Two hours and fifteen minutes in he finally came back up to surface and it appeared we just had to drive over and leader him. We were on the mono topshot and within 30m of him when the line popped. The 200 lb leader had worn through from his bill.
It was a tough break but I can accept a chaffed leader before a failed knot, straightened hook or pulled crimp. It was a big, big fish. North of 250kg easily.
We put the spread back out and kept trolling for the shelf. At 410-420m we had another triple strike and again two stuck. Once again the one in the rod holder got unhooked as I cleared the gear then I took the other rod from porter and settled into the fight. This being a smaller fish around that 110 kg mark the fight wasn’t to hard and I’m sure it helped being as hydrated as I was.
That’ll go down as my first striped marlin.
We trolled out to the 1000m mark just so we could say we did but we didn’t see any point in going deeper.
We then turned back and started for home. Around the 220m mark on the way back in after almost an hour with no action the shotgun fired again. Porter brought it down and I cleared the lines and teasers. He was in for another fairly gruelling fight although nothing like the one before. He brought in his first stripe which should of been in the 150kg range based on length and girth.
At that point, being as the gear was already in the boat we made the run back in and called it a day.
Oh yea, the chickens.
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04-20-2021, 07:45 AM
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just a thought...ever think of bringing out a kayak and attempting to fish out of it too? Would be a blast but a long rewarding fight
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04-20-2021, 10:40 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 58thecat
just a thought...ever think of bringing out a kayak and attempting to fish out of it too? Would be a blast but a long rewarding fight ![SHa Shakeshout](images/smilies/sHa_shakeshout.gif)
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Short answer, no I’ve never thought of it. Long answer, better have some live baits to troll around cause you would be exhausted trying to paddle around at 12-15km/h trolling lures.
Guys take yaks out all the time. Usually they’re within 2-3 miles of shore but when they hook marlin I’ve heard of them being dragged out a long ways. One guy got one here last year and it took him 16 miles out before he landed it. He got it on a spinning rod and it spooled him so he locked the drag off, clipped a second rod to the first and threw the first rod overboard. Once he fought the fish enough and got back to the first rod he resumed the fight on the original fishing rod. Fairly resourceful if you ask me.
I read of another boat that had a double on marlin. They were at risk of being spooled on both so one guy put on a life jacket and bailed out of the boat holding one rod. The boat chased the other fish down and tagged it then went and picked old mate out of the ocean and they went after the second fish ultimately losing it. Porter and I discussed what we are going to do when we stick a proper double and decided we are cutting the smaller fish or fish hooked on the cheapest lure loose early in the fight before he gets off the mono topshot so we don’t lose to much line and preferably none of the braid. There’s no way we could handle a double without being spooled by at least one or have them tangle and lose both. On the big girl we hooked yesterday I was happy it was on the tiagra with 1200+m of line on it. Had we hooked it on a tyrnos with 900m of line he might of spooled us before we cleared all the gear.
I’ve got all my leaders swapped over to 300lb to try and prevent another loss from bill chafe. Two rods needed new mono after a single fish each and a few bent hooks were replaced. Taking a newbie out along with rosie tomorrow to try it again. Still looking to land the man in the blue suit and tomorrow might be the day.
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04-21-2021, 12:34 AM
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I love when this thread gets bumped! As usual, great story and pics! Very jealous
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04-21-2021, 02:10 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MoFugger21
I love when this thread gets bumped! As usual, great story and pics! Very jealous ![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
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Thanks for the feedback. It’s hard to tell with this thread as not many people say anything. I’m aware people look at it but it’s hard to tell if it’s worth putting in the effort to continuing the thread. Most days it seems I would get more mileage from a thread about catching a couple hammer handle pike out of pine lake.
If you ever make it to this side of the world hit me up and we will go get into em. It seems February is probably the golden month. I think next year I’ll take six weeks off through the best of the billfishing season and try and get out there a bit more. This La Niña event had the seas a lot rougher then usual and it was a tough year for fishing.
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04-21-2021, 07:44 AM
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Thank you for creating this thread. Love the content and always looking forward to new posts. Keep it up! thanks again.
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04-21-2021, 08:50 AM
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thx for the reply...we who have never really experienced this and have no clue as to what really goes on when you are hooked up...clearing the deck...making hopefully the best choice to land the fish and all the expenses involved too...I call it ah hard NO at putting on a life jacket and going overboard to fight the fish...there are sharks that would enjoy a meal too
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04-22-2021, 04:30 AM
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Skip the ice, let’s go billfishing.
So up at 0300 to load the boat. Rosie and Jordan showed up at 0430 and off we went. Jordan has fished the estuaries and off a yak. Never caught a marlin. So no pressure to get him one.
We were running in the dark so I left the cover over the sounder and followed the compass with a 60 degree heading for 17.5 miles. It seemed if there were some little blacks on the 18 mile it would be a good place to pop his cherry.
We deployed the spread and continued east at 6.5-7 knots. Within ten minutes we heard a little zzzzzztttt of a clicker. Rosie and I perked up and were trying to decide which of the 7 reels it had come from when one of the reels started howling and the rod was buckled over in protest. For those who haven’t done this the short zzzztttt of the clicker was the lure getting bill whacked.
Jordan took the rod and a micro black rocketed to the surface. It didn’t take him to long and he was officially a marlin fisherman. With the sun just coming up it was a pretty good start to the day.
We knew there were probably more around but had dreams of some larger models so continued east. We hit the banks and trolled north across a few areas that have performed well this summer without a sniff. We then cut east and trolled past the fad in 110m of water. A mahi hit and I brought it toward the boat trying to thread the needle between the other lines so we didn’t have to clear any gear. Just behind the boat I lost it before the gaff went in and we continued east.
We didn’t want to pull the gear and run the 6-7 miles so we trolled out. About half way there we encountered some bird action and saw tuna busting up. We rolled through and two rods buckled over. Jordan and I brought in two 7-10lb skipjack tuna. Yuk! One got flicked off and the other turned into strip baits. We did a second lap and caught two more which both got flicked off the hook without bringing them out of the water. We then continued east so we didn’t donate anymore gar to that glorified cat food.
We trolled out through the areas we hooked up on Tuesday but couldn’t find any current lines. The sky was overcast and everything was grey which made it hard to spot the coral spawn which indicated current lines. We worked the area for a few hours without success.
I was checking the bait on the ilander that runs shotgun and was feeding it back out when it was smashed. I set the drag and felt the fish but he dropped it pretty much instantly.
We trolled until about noon without any action and then we finally had a strike. I was standing next to the rod and took it. A striped marlin shot to the surface and rosie cleared lines while Jordan drove the boat.
This marlin fought different to any I’ve seen yet. It spent as much time in the air it could of been a bird. It took many long hard runs but spent the entire fight at the surface. I was rocking the go pro for about half of the fight and got one good footage. We got it to the boat, Rosie leadered it and had a hold of it then lost its bill. Being as I had beat the fish I passed the rod off to Jordan and he got to fight it again for another 10-15 minutes. At that point I got my hands on the leader again and got it unhooked. It measured 2.45 meters and should be around 140-145kg.
We continued trolling toward home as we were 37 nm from the boat ramp and it was starting to chop up from the wind. At about 160m we were still waiting to get Rosie a billfish when the tiagra on the shotgun let out a howl. He pulled it down and dropped it back a bit. Pumped the rod a few times and managed to hook up. It was evident we didn’t have a billfish on the line and Rosie brought in some quality sashimi for us.
As the lines were in and the wind chop was getting gross we pulled the pin and ran back in. Not the most successful day but we’ve had far worse.
I was planning on getting a couple pics of the big parasites that live in a wahoos stomach but I forgot when I was cleaning it. I’ll try and remember on the next one.
The sashimi was as good as it always is.
Last edited by Coiloil37; 04-22-2021 at 04:39 AM.
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04-22-2021, 06:56 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2007
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Sounds like your having a blast!! Keep the reports coming,
In central Ab right now its -5 windy as hell and snowing.
Mike
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04-23-2021, 12:04 AM
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Skip the ice, let’s go billfishing.
Last edited by Coiloil37; 04-23-2021 at 12:12 AM.
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04-23-2021, 09:32 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Edmonton
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That is just amazing fishing. Keep it coming. We are all dreaming here in Alberta.
Thanks
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04-23-2021, 03:14 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2011
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You are really living the good life!
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04-23-2021, 04:19 PM
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living the dream ... awesome thread
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05-17-2021, 02:51 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2009
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The weather hasn’t been playing fair but had to give it a try cause it’s only going to get worse. I asked a buddy who’s a charter captain how the bite has been and he said somewhere between slow and non existent. He said the best advice was to drive two hours south to the Gold Coast cause they’re into “blues galore”. I don’t like the Goldie and don’t feel like learning new water so instead we ran out to the banks and trolled east. At about 120m we had a mahi hit, porter brought it to the boat and I missed with the gaff but managed to unhook it with the missed shot. One point for the mahi. At about 170-180m we had a marlin come up to the short corner lure and take a swing at it with his bill. He missed and didn’t strike at anything else, just faded away. At 400m we marked three marlin on the Garmin down at 40m but they didn’t come up to the party either. We continued to troll east until we hit 1200m of water under the keel without any action then turned around and started trolling back in. Finally we had a strike but it was just another mahi. I had it called for a bull but instead it was the biggest cow I’ve landed at 22lbs.
We trolled a bit further and had another strike. Nolan was up on that one and landed a little skipjack. When it got to the boat he took one look at it and said yuk then hopped back into the chair. I told him to come hold it up for a pic and he refused. Said it wasn’t worth it cause it was just cat food. That six year olds a chip off the old block. We kept it for bait though because we will need some when we head north for the overnighters at lady musgrave and Fitzroy lagoons.
A little later another baby mahi committed suicide on a skipping gar and made its way into the kill tank. We trolled back to the banks, pulled the gear and ran home. For the first time this year we didn’t have a billfish strike. Such is life in the winter though. We are slaves to the fishes migratory habits.
Steaming back into the boat ramp.
And home sweet home.
Maybe next time. We just need those blues down on the cold coast to swim 150km north to paradise.
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05-17-2021, 06:35 AM
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and some say how can you blow 60mil...well I would start by booking with you
awesome thread!
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