X marks the Spot

On Wednesday 9th February 2022 at 3:30am, Carl and I left Ormiston enroute to the Gold Coast. We were keen to try for a few more marlin while they were around. It took us just over an hour to travel the 75km to Sea World boat ramp and after prepping the boat, we launched and headed out through the Seaway at 5am. With the outgoing tide, there was a fare bit of swell, but we followed the local boats and were soon on our way to Spot X. It took us an hour to do the 30km run and on arrival, the water was a bit green with minimal current. 

I sounded around the marks from the previous trip but there was nothing on the sounder. I worked my way South, tacking the 80m depth line. There was another boat a fair distance away so I moved in that direction. Soon, James Holt from Reel Extreme Charters on “Chasing Tail” also arrived in the same area so I knew we were in the right spot. We finally started marking bait and Carl sent the jigs down. Almost immediately he went on with some nice mackerel. With the slow current, we stayed on the spot for quite some time, catching quite a few baits. When the showing stopped, I headed back up to where it started. I also put out 2 livies, one deep and one near the top. The deep line was just set when the reel gave a short burst. I fed it a bit then tightened up and went on. Carl took the rod while I cleared the other line and started the motors, ready to follow the fish. Luckily it didn’t take too much line but came up to the surface and made a few great jumps. It was a small black marlin of around 30kg. There were a few technical difficulties during the fish when Carl lost his footing and fell over board, but luckily it was just a bump in the road as he fought and finally released his second ever marlin. All in all, a great job. 

I headed back to the top of the drift and set the lines again. Carl went about catching mackerel so that we could stock up the freezer for the Spanish mackerel (cuda) season. Our drift line had changed a bit, so I put the motor in gear and headed north, slow trolling the baits. A few minutes later, we had a pull on the deep line, but after fighting it straight up and down for about 20 minutes, we were sure it was a shark, so I parted off and headed back to the drift. James was drifting next to us and had also had some action, releasing 2 marlin. This gave us an idea of the best drift line, so it was with little surprize when the deep line went only a few minutes into the drift. The line angled up immediately and another marlin tore up the surface. I had the fish on a 50lbs standup rig, so it was a pretty quick fight and withing a few minutes, I had released my first Aussie black of around 30kg. This was great fishing and it was only 9am. 

Chasing Tail

On the next two drifts, we had 2 big sharks eat the bait and waste some of our time. We also had one marlin tangle in the leader, missing the hook. But on the next drift, we got lucky. There was another small boat next to us and we were having a friendly chat when Carl’s string of mackerel was stolen by a marlin that we had marked near the surface. Moments later, the shallow line when away and I hooked up. The fish came flying out the water between the two boats and took off greyhounding. The lines were cleared and Carl gave chase. This was a bigger fish, around 80kg so I had my hands full. We stayed close to the fish and within 20 minutes, had it on the leader. As Carl reached out to cut the leader (with Greg Edward’s 1000Lber Tackle leader cutter) it cleared the water to go on a run. The leader just touched the blades and parted as planned with the fish still making a few jumps before realising it was free. That was #3 for the day! 

Our livewell was looking a bit empty, so Carl went about catching more livies. On his 3rd or 4th drop, he lost his string of mackerel to another marlin, so we were sure we were in the right spot. I looked on the sounder and sure enough, we were marking a fish. As I looked back, the deep bait revved and the reel went away. We hooked up and Carl took the rod. It was another small fish so chased after it and we managed a quick release on another small black. This was insane fishing. 

That's a wrap.

As the day went on, the bait showing thicker and thicker. Several boats were hooked up to marlin and there were also quite a few prodigal son (Cobia) and dorado caught. Over on our boat however, it was very quiet. We had not had a pull in 2 drifts, so I sounded around and stopped in the area that we had a few fish in the morning. Carl had just put the deep line out with quite a heavy sinker. I noticed the line had gone slack, so I told him to put the drag up and wind like hell! The line came tight again and the rod keeled over. We were hooked up. The line angled to the surface and another marlin showed itself. This was a better size fish, probably around 50 or 60kg. It gave a great show before tail wrapping and going deep. Luckily we had the right tackle to horse it to the surface where I could unwrap the leader and revive it. 

By now it was 1:30pm and we had a long trip to get home, so we could not spend too much time on the grounds. We did make another drift, but didn’t have anymore action so we called it a day.