Spot X lives up to its reputation

On Tuesday 25^th January at 4:45am, Greg Edwards (aka Muddy) and I launched “ABF” off of the Gold Coast. This was the first time I had launched out of the Seaway so I was glad to have the guidance of someone who knew the area.

 The goal for the day was to target black marlin that were currently congregating on the bait shoals offshore. After leaving through the seaway, we headed due East towards Spot X. It would be a 30km run, but after 15km, the water looked really good, so we put out a spread of small billfish lures and continued on our intended course. Unfortunately, there was no action on the lures but when we arrived at Spot X, there were a lot of boats with several of them hooked up to marlin. This was great news!

There was a N – S current so I headed North through the boats, looking for bait showings. What I saw on the sounder was pretty spectacular. There were mackerel from the surface all the way to the bottom, 80m down. This huge shoal continued for quite a distance and when we arrived at the northern part of it, we stopped and very quickly caught a few mackerel. 2 of them were rigged up and we drifted over the shoal. It was a pretty quiet drift but finally, just as we were going to up lines, Greg had a pull on his livie. After a short feed, he hooked up. There was only a short run then it came in easily. Definitely not a marlin, but a skipjack. It soon become apparent that there were not only marlin on the bait shoals, but a lot of skipjack too. By the end of the second drift, we had caught 4 of them. To try and avoid them, I headed further north to a different patch of bait, hoping that we would have better luck.

A boat next to us went on with 2 dorado, so I put out a surface bait to see if there was another one for us to catch. The line was scarcely out when the line got heavy and the reel started running. I freespooled a bit but nothing happened. Just then, Greg’s reel went away. He hooked up and the line angled to the surface. I put up the drag and wound like hell to clear the line, but the line cut through the water towards where Greg’s fish was. It had eaten both baits. Luckily, mine pulled free and we could continue with just one rod. I had just cleared the last line when the fish stuck its head out the water. It was a nice size marlin of about 65 or 70kg. I chased after the fish, but it sounded and remained deep for most of the fight. After putting some big pressure on the fish, it surfaced and jumped a few times, in the process getting tail wrapped. The fish was close enough to the boat that we could get the wind-on leader onto the rod for a tip, but just then, a big shark appeared from the depths. The marlin must have seen it and took fright, going down deep. The shark faded off and eventually, a long 45 minutes after hooking up, it surfaced again for a few jumps where it luckily unwrapped. It still took another 15 minutes before I could grab the bill and remove the hook. It was a difficult fish, but it was still the first one on “ABF” in Australia.

On the next drift, the lines were just set when Greg and I both went on with skippies. They were both unceremoniously released and the drift continued. Just as we were coming off the end of the bait, we went on with a fish that took a lot of line in a hurry. We gave chase but soon realised that we were hooked up to an undesirable… Greg was on sunset drag with his fingers on the spool applying maximum drag, but the shark would not budge. After 35 minutes, I put gloves on and grabbed the line to try and pop it. Only after getting most of the line back, did the big swell and a surge of the fish meet, luckily resulting in a breakoff.  

We regrouped, had a cooldrink and headed back up to the top of the drift. Out bait stocks were low, so we decided to catch a few more for. As luck would have it, the bait shoals had moved during the long fight and it took us a while to find them again. When we did, we caught about 15 mackerel and one big maasbanker (yakka). With the pressure of getting a fish off our shoulders, we could relax on the next drift. Now that we had enough bait, we could put out a third rod, so I took a blind scoop out of the live well and caught the only yakka we had. I saw it as a sign to use it so I rigged it and put it out. The rod was hardly in the holder when it bent a bit and the reel slowly ran. With the rod still in the holder, I fed the fish a bit and then put the drag to strike position and wound into the fish. The rod bent over as the fish started moving away. Line was steadily leaving the reel and the line angled to the surface where another marlin jumped halfway out the water. I passed the rod to Greg and cleared the other line before starting up the motors and giving chase. This fish was also a difficult one, fighting deep for most of the fight. It only jumped a few times, enough for us to get a good look at it. After a 45min fight, I had the leader on another 70kg black. I wrapped it and held on while the marlin swam next to the boat with all its lights on. I leant back on the leader and the added pressure sparked a sudden surge from the fish. I wasn’t about to let go, fearing another extended fight, so the light leader popped without too much hassle. 2 for 2, not too shabby.

While I was chasing after the last marlin, I marked a few fish on the shallow side of the bait shoal so I stopped the boat up current of it to intercept. Just as the bait started marking, the deep bait went away. We were convinced that it was a marlin just by the speed of its first run and big head nods after hooking up. Unfortunately, it was like deja vu ending with another forced breakoff.

By now it was 13:45 and we were approaching the turn of the tide so we were hoping it would switch on. It seemed like the bait balls were a bit more condensed, and just as we were on top of the highest point, we had another slow but steady pull. I tightened up and the rod bent over. The fish stayed on the surface and headed into the current. When it finally did start taking line, there was a splash on the surface and a better size marlin stuck its head out. We were hoping for a quick shot at the leader, but again, the fish was stubborn and stayed down deep. Grep put big pressure on and after 20 minutes, before it came up. When it did, I had the boat right on top of it. It cleared the water like a Polaris missile. Moments later the leader came up and Greg wound it onto the reel, but as quickly as it came on, it flew off. The fish swam around the boat making spectacular jumps as it went. We chased it down and eventually managed to get hold of the leader. I wrapped it and held on until something broke. On closer inspection, the circle hook had straightened and then snapped. With that it was 3 for 3 on an 80ish kilo black.

We were on a bit of a roll, so it was back up to the top of the drift and sure enough, 10 minutes in, 2 rods went off. One was a skippie that was very quickly released. The second fish was definitely not a skippie and took a lot of line. We followed it for some time and when we got directly above it, it sounded and after half an hour still had not moved it so, not wanting to waste more time on another shark, we parted off and headed back to the seaway.

It was a great day off the Gold Coast and one that I’ll remember for a long time.