The 400th Marlin
After postponing our last trip for the season, a week, we were fairly keen on getting out there. Our tally was precariously balancing about the mid 300s and the boss was hungry for the 400th marlin. All I could think of was the movie, 'The perfect storm' when the old fella at the bar talks about the 'Flemish cap' and how there's heaps of fish there, 'but was no place to be in October'(northern hemisphere).
So here we were with a small weather window for the Monday the 21st of June, the middle of winter! Heading for the Wanganellas. After a 2 day slog, in unfavorable conditions, we arrived at the wangies with not a breath of wind.
Thursday 24th
After pumping up our anglers over the last couple of days of stories of huge stripeys marauding around the back of the boat eating anything and everything in site. The 1st bite came well in to the morning, 0930hrs and up until then, I was wondering whether we were going to experience the fishing we had bragged about. But then in typical wanganella style, they climbed on in packs, and big fish too. The afternoon bite proving even better with aggressive bites on our lures. We finished the day with 18 fish, 3 trebles and 1 quadruple making up the bulk of the action. I love the look on angler's faces after a day of fishing, because I am sure no one really believes our stories.
Friday 25th
Very slow morning again, the fish were biting and killing baits, then just letting them go! Very frustrating! We had only 4 fish by lunch, which wasn't the slowest day we have experienced but damn it felt like it. The afternoon was much better, with lots of double headers and aggressive bites. 15 fish today.
Saturday 26th
Today was a real shock to the system, and there really isn't much to tell you about. We caught 1 fish by lunch, 2 just after and then lucky for us, the birds showed up late in the afternoon, and we released another 3 fish right on dark. You got to wonder what's going on with the marlin, when they do this to you…. They are still there….but they turn into bastards!
Sunday 27th
This morning we woke up to a grey sky with little wind and the swell was coming from all directions. Steaming back to the bank we had 2 bites, so we were expecting big things today. The fish were noticeably smaller, and were being typical striped marlin, with a very finicky bite. I noticed the some birds aimlessly flying around the one spot, so we headed over and dropped some baits in. After trolling our live baits around the birds with no luck, I headed for a mark on my sonar, marked a meatball and raised 4 fish. "But the birds were over there!" After catching 3 of these fish, we headed back. The baits only lasted 3 minutes. 2 more fish released. The fish were now up on the surface, charging through the meatball, I told the boys and we trolled our baits through. Now what happened here was interesting. We raised 4 fish to our two live baits and one dead bait, but all they did was follow them, then, all of a sudden, as if on queue, they turned, and along with another 4 or so fish, started carving up some bait immediately behind our baits. We obviously weren't matching the hatch, but only minutes ago, they couldn't wait to eat our baits? Go figure. It calmed off really nicely in the afternoon. We released 12 fish today, with possibly one of the largest stripeys we have ever seen. I would have loved to have weighed it. We estimated it at around the 180kg.
Monday 28th
Today was the 400th marlin day, and after catching it, the boss and guests let the crew catch a fish each. We then decided to go try for a puka. To say the least it was nothing short of spectacular. One rod, one drop, 6 hooks and 30 minutes later, 5 Bass all over 25kgs, perfect. 6 fish.
Tuesday 29th
It was my turn to catch a fish, and I definitely wasn't going to catch one on a lure, so the teasers went out. After a couple of 'spit backs' or perhaps it was my poor performance? I finally stayed connected to one long enough for a tag. Jerry stayed up in the tower all day and in the afternoon the fish started to bite aggressively, one was so eager to eat our rigger teaser, it spooled us! Jerry reckoned the fish had swallowed the teaser and was gagging on it. I had forgotten how much fun it is in the cockpit, feeding baits to billfish is definitely one of the biggest thrills for me. 4 fish.
So that's our season, 405 striped marlin in just 52 days fishing. We fished 37 days at the Wanganellas, and caught 377 marlin, with an obvious average of 10 marlin per day. The other fish were caught either on the coast or at the kings. I used to think catching one marlin a day was good, but now that seems hard to imagine. We have definitely been spoilt.
I am looking forward to next season, which is already upon us. We have plans for a trip to the Kermedec islands around October, November and hopefully a trip to the Wanganellas in December as well, so stay tuned also look out for Matt Watson's fishing show starting in October on sky sport one, he has some awesome footage.
The boat will be available for charter from January 2005, for any inquiries just give me a call, or email me.
027 268 3594 or
>ultimatelady@attglobal.net
Good fishing. Tom
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