TONGUES of hot blue water raging down the coast have resulted in some fantastic bluewater gamefishing for NSW South Coast anglers. Last Friday I fuelled up the Fisho Bar Crusher and headed east from Greenwell Point with regular fishing buddy Mark Luscombe.
The reports were positive – multiple marlin had been taken by anglers in the preceding few days and the weather was predicted to be nothing short of perfect. After an ordinary session in sloppy conditions the previous weekend – which resulted in only a single hook up on a smallish black marlin which threw the hooks 10 minutes into the fight – both Mark and I were pumped and ready for action. Mark was yet to land a billfish so the goal was to get him one!
The water temp was a respectable 23 degrees at the river mouth and it continued to climb as we headed out over a calm sea. While marlin were the priority, a few mates had been catching quality dolphin fish at the FAD north of the famous Banks so we planned to get some livies and do a few drifts for dollies before heading further out for the beakies.
Word on the street was that the dollies bit best on small “pencil” slimies. We found a few of these but most of the bait we managed to catch was bigger slimies or XOS yakkas. I didn’t want to waste too much time so once we had a few reasonable baits in the tank I gave the new E-TEC 150 some juice and we headed out to the FAD mark at a steady 25 knots.
Only two other boats were there when we arrived – one had spearos aboard. I was a bit annoyed as I reckon the divers freak the dollies out. Regardless, we nose hooked a couple of lively baits with circles and sent them out into the clear blue water. The temp out here was 25 degrees, with only a knot or so of current. The first drift was fishless but on the second drift I positioned closer to the FAD and we got hook ups straight away. The dollies were nice fish of around 5kg – perfect for the table. We keep a couple and let a few more go. Fantastic fun on snapper gear … By this stage more boats were arriving so we packed the light gear away and headed east.
South Coast fisho Mark Luscombe with a couple of dollies for the table.
Local mate Ian Osterloh had given me the good oil that there was some really hot water at around the 80-fathom line. My plan was to head out there and troll the edge of the current as it mixed with cooler water. About six miles east of the FAD, in about 80 fathoms, I started marking stacks of bait down deep on the sounder. Two other boats were out there in the same location slow trolling livies.
The water temp had risen to 26 degrees – it all looked too good to ignore. Mark was pretty keen to catch a marlin on a lure – and I had a roll of brand new Pakulas rigged up – so we lowered the outriggers and set a spread. I had a Blue Lumo Pakula Hothead as the long corner, a Pakula Pacemaker in Evil Angel as the short corner, a purple/blue Guru as the long ‘rigger and a Mini Sprocket in a Blue Crystal colour featuring the new UVAten additive as the short ‘rigger. Another Guru was sent way out the back as the shottie and I had a Pakula Digger teaser positioned just in front of the short corner.
We started a trolling pattern around the bait schools. One of the other boats hooked up and we watched them fight and release a nice marlin. I couldn’t tell if it was a black or stripy.
We headed slightly east and got a rattle on the long corner. Mark was on the wheel so I kept a sharp eye on the spread as we trolled along. I saw the fish enter from the right, lit up and glowing purple with its white stripes gleaming in the clear water. It surged on to the lure, missed, came back, missed again and then smashed the lumo skirt. The rod bucked, the reel howled and I yelled at Mark to keep driving as I started clearing the other lures. The fish was going nuts at the back of the boat. Then all the other rods went off – we were pack attacked by rampaging stripes. Luckily none of these fish stayed connected but it was a blast seeing them dodging and weaving in the spread, tracking the lures and then attacking.
I got the lures in and took the wheel as Mark wrestled the loaded-up rod from the holder. By now the fish was a safe distance away and I started driving on an angle to it so Mark could get some line back on the 15kg outfit. It looked a nice fish, probably around 70-80kgs.
A nice striped marlin does a jump in flat calm conditions.
The fish put on a great display, jumping repeatedly and making some line-crackling runs. Mark was on it for about 40 minutes before it got close enough to trace. High fives all round!
The fight had taken us to the southeast of the bait activity. I was keen to head a few miles over the shelf to see if the water changed. We set the spread again and headed east. Before long we found ourselves in a hot yellow soup. The surface was covered with what I presume was coral spawn. It looked like strands of scrambled egg in the water. There were toads and puffer fish, plus other unidentified fish, floating and swimming around in the yellowy scum. The water temp was now 26.3 degrees.
We had another pack attack out here. A few “technical malfunctions” resulted in all those fish escaping – which probably wasn’t a bad thing as I dunno how the two of us could have fought four rampaging marlin. A short time later Mark hooked up to a slightly larger striped marlin which gave him a serious run around for about 30 minutes before he unfortunately popped the 15kg line.
I reset the spread and we headed east, back through the soup towards the bait. Just as we reached the 80-fathom line the long corner went off with a bang. What looked to me like a pretty solid black marlin grey hounded across the sea. Unfortunately it fell off before I managed to clear the lines.
Spread set again, we continued our troll run, passing over thick red clumps of bait down in around 50 fathoms. I rigged up a couple of livies and was about to pull up and deploy them when we were again pack attacked. This time all five rods went off! Two failed to hook up, one popped off due to a tip wrap, one jumped off and the other ended up being a nice little 50-60kg stripe which I released in excellent condition after a feisty 15-minute fight on 24kg gear. When we were releasing this fish we noticed it had a large and fresh sergeant baker in its maw. It must have gone pretty deep to snaffle the poor old sarge!
Mark bills a small stripe ready for release. Note the tail of a sargeant baker protruding from the fish’s mouth?
By this stage it was mid afternoon. The nor-easter was puffing and I had to be home by 6pm to look after the kids. We stowed the gear, pretty happy with getting two marlin and seeing/hooking/dropping plenty more. The sight of those lit-up fish tearing through the spread, iridescent in the blue water, their purple fins and white stripes shimmering – it’s something that stays in your mind. Even now, a few days after the event, I can close my eyes and see those glowing fish weaving through the spread …
A quick stop at the FAD resulted in two more dollies – an 18 pounder for me and a 12 pounder for Mark – before we pulled up stumps and blasted back in towards the river.
A larger than average dollie taken from the NSW Fisheries north of the famous Banks out from Greenwell Point on the NSW South Coast.
All up, not a bad day out. Exciting visual gamefishing, the satisfaction of releasing in healthy condition a couple of beautiful marlin, lots of lessons about small boat billfishing learnt, and some nice dollies on ice for tasty family meals. Apart from losing a couple of my new Pakula lures (bugger!), does fishing really get any better?
