ON January 25 I got the word from Andrew Finney aboard Voodoo that the marlin had arrived at the Banks, east of Nowra on the NSW South Coast. We’d both been eagerly waiting this moment. “It was on”, Andrew excitedly told me!
Eight fish had been caught out around the Banks, which lie about eight nautical miles east of Greenwell Point, and one exceptional black marlin had been caught off the Tubes in Jervis Bay. This fish pulled the scales down to 151kg; a fantastic catch from the stones and the a fish of a lifetime for any LBG fisherman. Stay tuned to the Fisho website for an exclusive report on this outstanding capture.
Anyway, as soon as I got the call from Andrew we were off to Greenwell Point to organise the boat and gear. Australia Day morning arrived with not much sleep for any of us because of the excitement. We hooked up the boat, loaded up the gear and headed to the bait ground early to get some slimies. We were thinking that bait might be difficult to get but we couldn’t be more wrong as bait was schooled from the mouth of the Shoalhaven River to just inside the Banks.
Slimies were rippling everywhere, the water was the bluest blue you could imagine and water temp was 23.6 degrees. There was about one knot of current heading south, perfect conditions for marlin.
We arrived at the Banks with a full tank of live slimies to find 10 boats already there, with one hooked up and fighting on a nice 80kg black marlin. This really got the blood pumping! After about 30 minutes of slow trolling baits, the marlin came on the chew with four boats hooking up. There were marlin jumping every which way we looked!
All of a sudden it was our turn – the line snapped from the outrigger and slowly ticked off the Tiagra. Then there was a great boil of water from the fish and when it knew something was going on it took off. Andrew’s sister Rebecca was on the rod. She pushed the leaer up to strike and the circle hook set in.
The fish revealed itself as a nice black marlin of close to 150kg to 160kg. At this stage there were seven other boats hooked up and fighting; it was complete mayhem! After twenty minutes on 24kg we had the fish boat side on the trace for a perfect release. Bec did a great job on the rod and it was high fives all around. We were stoked! We headed back up to the spot and, bang, we hooked up again. This time a thrity minute fight resulted in a 100kg bronze whaler being released boatside.
The arvo tide change produced a few fish and we were lucky enough to get another black around 100kg on 15kg line for Rebecca. This fish unfortunately came up tail wrapped and was dead, so it was taken home for a feed for many families. We love letting these immaculate fish go to swim free and it’s a huge shame when this happens but rest assured none of it went to waste.
About five or six miles further east of the Banks on the shelf, a lot of striped marlin were also caught off some solid bait balls. One boat had a cameraman jump in to check if there were any marlin on the bait. He was swiftly chased out by an angry stripe! This boat ended up getting seven fish off this single bait ball, a great day in anyone’s books.
Australia Day 2012 produced one of the best runs of marlin I’ve ever seen. About 30 fish were caught on the Banks and plenty more were reported out wide. Let’s just hope all this bait, warm water and the fish hang around so people who wait all year for this can have the chance I did on our national holiday!
STOP PRESS: Reports are that cold currents have seen the inshore activity around the Banks slow right down. The water out around the shelf line remains good. When the currents again push warm blue water inshore, the Banks will doubtless fire up again.
Rebecca Finney poses with a 100kg black that unfortunately died after being tail wrapped. The fish provided plenty of meals for local families!
