THE continuing hot marlin run on the South Coast made for some great fishing in the Bermagui Blue Water Classic that saw 83 marlin chalked up.
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The Bermagui Big Game Angling Club event follows the best-ever tally of more than 105 marlin in the Batemans Bay club’s Tollgates Classic.
Only one marlin was captured and brought back, the rest were released after being tagged, and the same was case in Batemans Bay with all but three fish released.
Other highlights were the hefty dolphinfish encountered including an 18.6kg beast, which didn’t make it on line class as it was caught on 24kg line, and a 16.6kg model caught in 10kg line.
There were two mako sharks tagged and while last year’s tournament was plagued with striped tuna and no marlin, this year the only tuna was a stripey landed by one of the Small Fry entrants.
Day 1 Saturday was by far the best day with the first fish caught 10 minutes in and many of leading boats on five marlin each.
There were a total of 51 striped marlin and two black marlin caught.
The weather changed on Day 2 and even though many boats returned to port early, there were still 21 marlin tagged but only two boats tagging more than one fish.
Conditions were again challenging on Monday with only nine marlin caught.
Bermagui Big Game Angling Club president Paul Blacker said the tournament had 79 and 302 competing and as such was great for the economy and local businesses.
More than 200 attended the presentation night Monday at the Bermagui Country Club.
“It was a good weekend and the weather held off,” Paul Blacker said. “While conditions weren’t favourable, they were fishable.”
One hard luck story was a lady angler that battled a 96kg marlin on 10kg line but couldn’t enter it as a record because of a technicality with the line and leader, prompting a reminder not to interfere with gear prior to presentation to the weigh master.
Another boat on day one didn’t see a marlin but had an inquisitive whale shark pop up and linger for a while.