Fishing – Finding big fish

As we get closer to the winter months, the larger kingfish are lurking around. From most accounts, live baits and deep diving lipped lures seem to work when trolling around the deeper reefs. Spearfishermen are also seeing a lot of great sized kingies.

This time of year there is always huge interest in the areas off Ocean Beach and out to the Hen & Chicks. The bait fish are everywhere to be seen in these waters. This means that there are predators around the bait balls. One of our clients managed to get out and, after seeing a striped marlin come up and take a peek at the lures, decided to put out a live bait and work the area around one of the bait balls. After persisting for some time, it was game on as a stripey took the bait and peeled off metres of line as he headed away from the boat. After a good steady fight, our client finally managed to land his first striped marlin, estimated at around 100kg.

The hard luck story of the day goes to a great couple who have taken to trolling for marlin as a pastime. They have been at it for some time now and have had many a hook up, however the marlin have always managed to get off the hook. This time was going to be different as each time they have learnt from their mistakes. After hooking up between the Poor Knights and Mokes on a huge skippy live bait, the man played the marlin for some time. He had it close to the boat, when it decided to breach right out of the water in a show of power. Seeing the size of the fish so close to the boat increased the excitement then suddenly … SNAP – the sound that every angler dreads. That’s right, the sound of your fishing line breaking when the big prize is almost at the boat. Has this not happened to you? The moral of the story is that the only thing linking you to your prized fish is your line. Old line is going to break, so why take that chance? It’s not worth it.