Menagerie of marine animals surprise fishermen near Eden on the NSW Far South Coast

Unbeknown to the mates, they were about to come across more than 100 dolphins, 10 whales, leaping yellowfin tuna, seals, a one metre long squid, and a shark.

"Bugger it, let's got for a fish", Neil Wilson said, when he saw the forecast for Sunday, July 30, so he contacted Grant Cruikshank who readied the curried egg sandwiches for what would end up as a 12-hour marathon on the water.

'Lulu', Neil's small 5.5m white Cruisecraft boat almost glided over the waves due to the faultless weather as they approached the edge of the continental shelf.

Much to their amazement, spouts of water erupted into the air from humpback whales approximately 200 metres away, eagles and albatross explored in the vivid blue sky above, and more than 100 dolphins rode the waves at the nose of their vessel.

"You're just going along at trolling speed and then all of a sudden the dolphins just see and come over to you, and turn around and go on your bow," Neil said, excitedly.

Neil and Grant, who haven't been fishing out in the ocean together since February's big-game marlin fishing season, were treated to a spectacular menagerie of wild marine animals.

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"We saw about five to six different pods of dolphins, probably 100 in that pod when they came over to the boat. They were everywhere," Neil said.

"Seals were out there, saw a little bronze whaler shark about two metres, there was a big squid on the surface of all things.

"On a day like that, it was one of the nicest out at sea I've had, the colour was beautiful, the water temp was beautiful, winter, and the air temp. It was just delicious out there."

Among the wild guests, the pair reported 50 kilogram yellowfin tuna leaping out of the waves like synchronised swimmers, while baitfish sauries scooted across the top the water.

"You can't always catch [sauries] but they're a good sign of fish pushing up underneath," Grant said.

"All of a sudden Neil goes, 'Oh look over there, there's sauries', and then within half a second after that there was just a tuna erupting out.

"Probably jumped out of the water about two metres, you could see the whole profile of the fish, [and] the sickles so we knew it was yellowfin."

For two to three hours the pair used a method of fishing in which their lures were pulled behind the boat at varying speeds called trolling, unlike trawling which requires a net.

While yellowfin weren't hooked, albacore tuna were too tempted by the skirted and lumo diving lures.

"[You] don't let them go, mate, they taste too nice, delicious, still got some for tonight, [and I] gave some away," Neil said.

"After all that time out there, two albacore tuna, saw the yellowfin tuna jumping, and all the other stuff, we came back [closer inland] because we thought we'd need a few more fish.

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"Stopped at Mowarry, got some snapper and some morwong to share with family."

Having watched the golden light of sunrise and sunset on the ocean, Neil described the day as magical, and while Grant had packed up and was keen to return to shore, Neil kept on fishing.

"And that's the way it always happens with him," Grant said with a laugh.

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