MULTIPLE marlin have been hooked right off Montague Island off Narooma in the past week, which while not unheard of, is quite unusual.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It seems currents of warm water are bringing down a few more tropically inclined species, with long liners encountering wahoo and dolphinfish out wide as well.
One of the more spectacular catches and one caught on film was a black marlin that took a 75cm kingfish being played by a client on board the Narooma charter boat The Sheriff on Friday.
Skipper Andy Legg said a trailer boat skipper alongside noticed the big marlin swimming under his boat, and then a few minutes later one his clients had their kingfish hit by something big.
They soon realized it was the same marlin, and the fleeing fish meant that the charter boat had to suddenly start manoeuvring around the flotilla of dozens of boats that had concentrated over the kingfish.
Andy said the black marlin which he reckoned was about 90kg put up a great fight considering it wasn’t even hooked up but it was determined to hold onto the kingfish down its gullet.
“He wasn’t going to let go at all and it was only when the kingfish rolled over in its mouth that we lost it,” he said.
The black marlin came very close to the boat before breaking free and the 75cm kingfish he took was also brought back on board in surprising good condition for being down the throat of a marlin for that long.
For the record, it turned out to be an excellent day on the kingfish with The Sheriff bringing back 55 kingfish for that day.
Scott Bradley from Bermagui Bait and Tackle said had heard of just about one marlin being encountered each day at the island last week, with a professional hooking up another marlin on his lead line last Wednesday.
“It’s just about been one a day,” Scott said.
“They are just there and they’ve got to eat.”
Narooma game fisherman Brett McDonald said he saw the pro hook up to the marlin that took a slowly trolled bait.
That marlin ended up breaking free as lead lines are not really designed to fight game fish.
The experts say while striped marlin were more likely to stick to the edge of the continental shelf, black marlin were more likely to come in close and did not mind shallow and even dirty water.
Both Brett and Scott said black marlin would feed aggressively and had been known to take baits put down by unsuspecting recreational and professional line fishermen.
And it was not just marlin that are being attracted to the current push of warm water as Brett said the Narooma long-liner Fisco II encountered a patch of wahoo and dolphinfish last week.
While waters at Montague in the past week have been about 22 degrees, the hot water out where the wahoo are hanging is up around 25 degrees.
Brett was planning a mission for yesterday along with another local fisherman with the two boats heading out to the 51-degree line about 60 kilometres out to sea.
He said there had been one case of a wahoo caught by a fisherman out of Bermagui in recent years but other than it was about 10 years ago that he last heard of one of these tropical fish caught off the Far South Coast, and that was at Eden.
Earlier in the year it was reported that marlin were in close off Batemans Bay around the fish attracting device (FAD) anchored in that location.
While some spots like the legendary land-based game fishing spot The Tubes at Jervis Bay are known for marlin encounters, it is rare for these ocean-roaming pelagic fish to come within casting distance of the shoreline.
A marlin was hooked on a popper lure being fished off the Tathra Wharf last summer on very light gear and all the local youngster holding the rod could do was watch it speed off into the distance.
Montague Island meanwhile as recently as the 80s and 90s was a legendary game-fishing location, with many yellowfin tuna caught using the cubing method off the north-eastern corner each year.
These days are now however long gone with yellowfin of any size now an unfortunately increasingly rare occurrence in local waters.
It seems currents of warm water are bringing down a few more tropically inclined species, with long liners encountering wahoo and dolphin fish out wide as well.
One of the more spectacular catches and one caught on film was a black marlin that took a 75cm kingfish being played by a client on board the Narooma charter boat The Sheriff on Friday.
Skipper Andy Legg said a trailer boat alongside noticed the big marlin swimming under his boat, and then a few minutes later one his clients had their kingfish hit by something big.
They soon realized it was the same marlin, and the fleeing fish meant that the charter boat had to suddenly start manoeuvring around the flotilla of dozens of boats that had concentrated over the kingfish.
Andy said the black marlin which he reckoned was about 90kg put up a great fight considering it wasn’t even hooked up but it was determined to hold onto the kingfish down its gullet.
“He wasn’t going to let go at all and it was only when the kingfish rolled over in its mouth that we lost it,” he said.
The black marlin came very close to the boat before breaking free and the 75cm kingfish he took was also brought back on board in surprising good condition for being down the throat of a marlin for that long.
For the record, it turned out to be an excellent day on the kingfish with The Sheriff bringing back 55 kingfish for that day.
Scott Bradley from Bermagui Bait and Tackle said had heard of just about one marlin being encountered each day last week, with a professional hooking up another marlin on his lead line last Wednesday.
“It’s just about been one a day,” Scott said.
“They are just there and they’ve got to eat.”
Narooma game fisherman Brett McDonald said he saw the pro hook up to the marlin that took a slowly trolled bait.
That marlin ended up breaking free as lead lines are not really designed to fight game fish.
The experts say while striped marlin were more likely to stick to the edge of the continental shelf, black marlin were more likely to come in close and did mind shallow and even dirty water.
Both Brett and Scott said black marlin would feed aggressively and had been known to take baits put down by unsuspecting recreational and professional line fishermen.
And it not just marlin that are being attracted to the current push of warm water as Brett said the Narooma long-liner Fisco II encountered a patch of wahoo and dolphinfish last week.
While waters at Montague in the past week have been about 22 degrees, the hot water where the wahoo are hanging is up around 25 degrees.
Brett was planning a mission for yesterday along with another local fisherman with the two boats heading out to the 51-degree line about 60 kilometres out to sea.
He said there had been case of a wahoo caught by a fisherman out of Bermagui in recent years but other than it was about 10 years ago that he last heard of one of these tropical fish caught off the Far South Coast, and that was at Eden.
Earlier in the year it was reported that marlin were in close off Batemans Bay around the fish attracting device (FAD) anchored in that location.
While some spots like the legendary land-based game fishing spot The Tubes at Jervis Bay are known for marlin encounters, it is rare for these ocean-roaming pelagic fish to come within casting distance of the shoreline.
A marlin was hooked on a popper lure being fished off the Tathra Wharf last summer on very light gear and all the local youngster holding the rod could do was watch it speed off into the distance.
Montague Island meanwhile as recently as the 80s and 90s was a legendary game-fishing location, with many yellowfin tuna caught using the cubing method off the north-eastern corner each year.
These days are now however long gone with yellowfin of any size now an unfortunately increasingly rare occurrence in local waters.