Hey everyone, I have recently decided to have a go at game fishing to try and catch my first marlin, I got extremely lucky and managed to catch one on the very first trip, some people go 15 years of trying without catching one... here is a short video of the experience. I have set a personal goal to try and catch a marlin from my jetski, although this will be tag and release. Thanks for watching, there is more of a report on the day in the video description for those who are interested.
We are just approaching peak season for NZ at the moment and it has been a very good season so far with yellowfin tuna turning up in great numbers which has not been seen here for a long time. It is definately a striped marlin, on the video thumbnail you can kind of see the stripes from half way down the fish, it was dead at this time, striped were much more prominant when fish was alive and "lit up" with colours. Out of curiosity what part of australia are you from? and what techniques and water conditions are you catching marlin?
We are just approaching peak season for NZ at the moment and it has been a very good season so far with yellowfin tuna turning up in great numbers which has not been seen here for a long time. It is definately a striped marlin, on the video thumbnail you can kind of see the stripes from half way down the fish, it was dead at this time, striped were much more prominant when fish was alive and "lit up" with colours. Out of curiosity what part of australia are you from? and what techniques and water conditions are you catching marlin?
I'm on the NSW south coast mainly catching them from Bermagui. Best way to catch them is simply find bait schools and feed out big slimy mackerel or slowly troll live baits. Water temp is around 23 c and hopefully they will still be around for a month or two, then tuna. What water temps are you getting?
I like catching them on big spin gear (kingy gear) as I don't like using harnesses etc. I only use 120lb leaders with mustard circles and have yet to get busted off even on broadbill.
That's fantastic news on the yellow fin, haven't caught one for 4 years. We do get plenty of southern bluefin and I even managed a bigeye tuna not that long ago.
We are seeing high 23 degrees and sometimes just over 24, it seems to be a bit warmer than normal.
It would be fun using kingy gear for marlin, the setup i'm using is considered light in terms of game fishing but kingy gear would be awesome, the only concern I'd have with that is line capacity, there is a trend going over here at the moment where everyone is using really light gauge hooks in their lures to improve hookup rates but the downside of this is you can only use 5kg of drag while fishing the fish, so line capacity is a must.
I've got a few skirted lures rigged with big saltwater fly hooks for small black Marlin on ultra light gear.
My daughter landed (released) her first striped on a 300k jigging master outfit a couple of weeks ago, she had her drag set at 12kg and had a hell of a battle on a 100kg fish that stayed deep the whole fight.
How do you think you will go on a JetSki, wouldn't a good fish tip you over. Hopefully you have another JetSki or boat close at hand and stay away from harnesses (or carry a knife!!)
I don't think it will be that hard on a jetski to be honest, after catching my first one it has given me an insight as to what to expect so I think I can do it. To give you an idea, I catch kingfish with over 12kg of drag sitting sideways on the jetski without a problem and I can also hang my entire body weight off the side on a 45 degree angle and still not tip it over, the newer 4 seater jetskis have come a long way since the old 2 stroke days, they are a impressively seaworthy vessel. As for a harness, originally I was not going to use one for obvious reasons, but after using one on the boat I think it is a good idea to use one from the ski, but I will need a line cutter on me at all times. The harness keeps you from getting tired and also gives you 2 free hands when needed, I feel this is alot better than being tired and juggling a rod around trying to sort the fish out! time will tell though haha.
Was coming over this year to see family and scatter Dad's ashes but brother in law fell ill so looks like next year now, I hope the fish are still there then.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
World Sea Fishing Forums
9.2M posts
104.1K members
Since 2004
A forum community dedicated to fishing and boat owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about fishing guides, bait, safety, gear, tackle, tips, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!