For the APS fishos, my first marlin of port stephens.

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Venomous1111

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2012
Messages
586
Reaction score
1
Location
Sydney
Just thought I'd share my weekend port stephens trip chasing marlin with the other keen fishos on APS.

After 4 trips up to port this year to chase beaky's and having little success finally on the weekend it payed off with my first successfully boated striped marlin.

Headed up to port at 3am Friday to start the weekend of getting the boat on the water and ready to head out by 6.30am after doing a whole day and only getting a few dolphin fish and small yellowfin and striped tuna hitting the skirts and the water inshore being not the best we decided the remaining two days we would be heading out a bit further to the continental shelf.
On the last day of the trip we got out their in near perfect conditions swell 1-1.5m and little to no wind the water was like glass, we dropped out the skirts on the outriggers and dropped the teaser and started to trawl, after about 20 minutes we had a little black marlin come up and swipe a skirt but no hook up (very frustrating as this had happened on the last trip as well as pulling the hook on another)
After another copule of hours with little interest from any beaky's we turned around and headed back in to chase tuna, on the way in my stella 20000 (only spin gear setup on the boat) started screaming off after about 5 minutes it showed it's self doing some crazy aerials trying to throw the hook about 100m from the back of boat and we then knew it was a marlin of some sort and it was game face time. After a 30 minute fight and backing the boat up on it we had it within 40 metres of the boat when it then decided to charge the boat and with some crazy winding to keep tension on the line.. After another 20minutes we had it tail rapped and in the boat it came. As it was my first marlin I mad the decision to keep it and get the head and beak taxidermied for the pool room and marlin steaks for friends and family.

578163_349122365193451_350690312_n.jpg
531503_349271008511920_362093351_n.jpg
398811_349270965178591_85087427_n.jpg
 
awesome stuff but you should have let it go. The meat tastes horrible anyway.
 
oh i dunno,marlin tastes ok,just depends on what you do with it...but yeh i would have chucked it back,too small lolololol.....good to see you got your 1st marlin m8 (thumbs up)
 
awesome stuff but you should have let it go. The meat tastes horrible anyway.

Cheers. It was my first ever marlin so I wanted to keep it, all next caught on my boat will be going back to give some other keen fisho a run for their money. Had it ceviche style and smoked last night and in my opinion it tasted pretty good.
 
And if everyone didn't keep there first ever marlin you most certainly wouldn't need to be making four trips to boat one. Putting that aside, nice capture on spin gear.

Regards

Wing_Nut
 
Awesome catch mate. It doesn't taste that bad if you can cook. ;) it's a beautiful place :):)
 
Good catch mate. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for keeping it. Marlin tastes great, and there's plenty to go around. Who cares what anyone else thinks you should do.
 
In the grand scheme of things, taking one marlin has a lot less impact than taking a 10kg + snapper or 1m flathead, but in the eyes of many those trophy fish are acceptable.
 
In the grand scheme of things, taking one marlin has a lot less impact than taking a 10kg + snapper or 1m flathead, but in the eyes of many those trophy fish are acceptable.

Couldn't agree more, all fisheries should have maximum and minimum size limits to ensure breeding stock is protected, and authorities need to be funded accordingly to enforce the regulations.

Given that striped marlin catches have declined substantially since the 1990's (K.Koph 2010 phD study) animals of that size which would be approaching breeding size would serve the whole fishing community better if they are released. 8-10% of Marlin captures are unable to be revived for release and those are the ones best kept for trophies.

It was a nice capture, I don't dispute that, I just disagree with trophy hunting. It is not what is best for fisheries.

Regards

Wing_Nut
 
I'll agree with wing nut here. I'm a keen fisher but unless it's dinner, photos are ther memories I take. I see no point in keeping them considering fish numbers are declining anyway as it is. Sport fishing just isn't my thing though. Enjoyment and dinner while camping in the bush. Now that's more my style 8) lol

other than that, a beautiful catch. Should be very proud!
 
does that mean i cant hunt deer or pigs for trophies???

Introduced vermin are fair game in my opinion, so long as the hunting is done in a environmentally friendly and humane manner. A balance between practical and humane is generally nessessry in these situations. Travelling (and spending money) into rural areas to hunt is benificial to struggling rural communities and humane destruction of ferals for little to no cost to the landowners or managers is a added benefit.

Regards

Wing_Nut
 
Great catch bro. If all the rest are all catch and release great stuff! There are lots of fools here who haul fish up from 30+ meters and "release them". Still, nothing goes to waste in the sea. Can't say the same about the suburbs though. I've never caught a marlin but it's not on my bucket list.

I recently found an inconspicuous plant that is rarer than hen's teeth. Rarer than gold. That does it for me, but a big fish, woo hoo!
Enjoy!
 
Releasing species caught in deeper water is definitely possible with the use of a release weight. A lot of research has been done on this here in Western Australia and I lucked out recapturing a tagged Red Emporer 9 months after release from a capture at 66m. Some species simply suffer to greatly from barotrauma and cannot be released and anglers need to be informed which species can and cannot be released. The Black Jewfish from northern waters is one such species that does not release well.

Regards

Wing_Nut
 
awesome catch is that a blue marlin? i'd love to catch one 1 day
 
First of all Congrats on your first... I think that the majority of Marlin that are caught by Recreational anglers are tagged and released, I dont blame you for keeping your first,

To all the Haters, Taking one Marlin for you/or your Family has no real ill affect on the population as a whole, Anyone who has spent time on a longliner/commercial fishing boat will know exactly what i am talking about... In 98 a legislative ban was placed in NSW prohibiting the commercial take of blue and black marlin, Wheteher dead or alive. How many fish do you think are released back DEAD by Commercial Fisherman, How many do you think are taken every year by Pro Fisherman....

Instead of Hating on Venomous for taking his FIRST marlin, How about you take that time to research commercial fishing your area, and write to the minister of fisheries, Perhaps express your disgust there, If this is the way you feel about someone taking one fish I could imagine you would be disgusted in the amount of fish taken from your local area.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top