INTRODUCTION to ROSS HUNTER'S GAME FISHING CHARTERS P/L
(Established 28 years)
EMAIL gamefishing@bigpond.com
Web site www.gamefishingcharters.com.au
An Australian charter company who specialize in marlin fishing (blue, black, striped, sailfish and spearfish) yellowfin and mako sharks Father and son team Captains Ross and Glenn Hunter will report regularly from the land of OZ.
CONVENTIONAL TACKLE, SPEARFISHING AND FLY-FISHING ALL CATERED FOR:
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
Captains Ross and Glenn Hunter have been charter fisherman most of their lives, they have little to prove in fishing achievements, having won pretty much every tournament over the many years of competition. Their Sydney/ Pt Stephens based boats BROADBILL and BILLFISHER have a reputation that is synonymous with excellence in their field They simply are the most respected and most knowledgeable skippers around.
They operate their charter business out of Sydney and Pt Stephens (January to April)
The seasons .. Marlin .. Late November to June then gut busting yellowfin and makos of frightening proportion are their target in the winter months.
For a great read and some fabulous photos and some useful hints, visit their well maintained web site on www.gamefishingcharters.com.au Look in "Fishing Stories and Hints" and "Fishing Adventure Packages" especially for any visiting international angler's wanting to fish one of the most productive marlin grounds in the world .. Pt Stephens
Read a Story on how BROADBILL caught 21 superb blacks, stripes and blues in one day, fishing these amazing marlin grounds.
This is Ross's first report of many on the most productive " OZZIE WATERS"
"TWENTY-ONE MARLIN IN A DAY" by Captain Ross Hunter
FEB 11TH 2005
It was 2005 and we were into February, about half way through the season. We were fishing our charters out of our second home Pt Stephens, an area 100 nautical mile north of Sydney, Australia. Little has to be said about the most productive marlin grounds of Australia and this yarn is about one of those unforgettable days in a Captains lifetime of marlin fishing.
It was one of those days when you cannot feel anything but confident; after all, we had already caught over 150 marlin for the season and today was perfect for it no wind flat calm ocean and very little company. .After a 20 knot steam on a compass bearing of 120 degrees we were within a mile or so of the "Mosh Pitt" This is a spot we nick named, a spot where we have caught many hundreds of Striped, black and blue marlin over the years To date our seven "Grand Slams" have all come from this amazing marlin ground. The average size marlin is 160 lb but we have caught blues to 550lb and had a couple hooked up on 50lb test that would have been 800lb These grounds are one of the most productive grounds in the world, an area where multiple hook ups are expected by us skippers and the place rarely lets us down..
Having arrived I glanced southward and spotted a boat on the horizon, apart from that it seemed like we had the ocean to ourselves. Sometimes that can be an advantage, sometimes it is better when a few of the mates are around as we swap info via the radio; such conversations as "We've got a truck load of bait in 03 and just let one go", and so on can help guide us to the most productive spot.
The good thing about fishing at the Port is that the skippers are all good friends and help each other, after all the better the reports and results the busier we all are.
Upon reaching the bait grounds in 75 fathoms, I eased the throttles back on the Hummin' Cummins to trolling speed as my deckie "Soxie" made ready bait jigs, rods, bridle needles and tag poles. We trolled the grounds looking for the bait schools, the sounder redded out with vast schools of blue mackerel under us. Good, high bait so thick you could walk on it. I was growing more confident that we were in for a pretty good day. Striped marlin love to hang around the "Tuck Shop" and this shop had plenty of goodies to offer as the vast schools of mackerel started to ripple the surface.
"Give it a jig here, Soxie?" I suggested from the bridge Rob dropped in the bait jig and pulled a full string of big mackerel baits. The boys helped Rob take them off the jigs and despatch them into the live bait tank, three more drops and we had a tank full of giant blue mackerel baits.
On the fourth drop, three striped marlin followed the bait jig up and swam around the transom of the boat. We quickly bridled two baits on the big circle hooks and hooked two fish, both over 200 lb the day had started with a vengeance. The big fish danced every which way as I tried to figure which one to target first; and the fish on the left side stuck his head up I backed over and we released that one. One down, one to go an the gas again in reverse as waves crashed over the transom.
The next one took 20 minutes and he too swam away with a tag for the trouble, only one marlin virgin to go in the crew . You see none of the anglers, of which there were three, had never caught a marlin before in their lives.
Glancing seaward, I could see a bunch of shearwaters working a bait patch. We steamed the 500 metres to inspect; when we arrived there was a massive bait ball thousands of yellowtail balled up on the surface by a school of striped marlin like I had never seen before. There were perhaps 40 to 60 marlin tearing around the panicking bait, balling it tighter and tighter, until at a given moment they would attack the frenzied bait.
We backed over to the ball, threw in two baits and simultaneously hooked two stripes straight away. We would then chase them down, release and then back the bait for two more.
We could have thrown five baits in and hooked up five, but that would have been too messy and busy Two was still a challenge; these were all big fish and did not always head in the same direction. Many times we slewed Broadbill on its keel to change direction in order to chase the fish, one around the bow then one to the stern, it was a Captain's dream to back up on this sort of action. We fished like we were in a frenzy and within four hours had tagged 16 marlin, it was still only three o'clock.
One of the boys asked, "Hey, Ross, isn't your previous best 18?" (They had observed that record from one of the boat plaques on the brag wall in the cabin, we had caught 18 in a day in the wonderful season of '97 A season when we tagged 248 marlin in two months) I replied, "Yeh!" He added, "Let's see if we can beat it." I agreed, knowing where they were coming from..
We had the ocean to ourselves so there was virtually no-one else competing for the bait ball so it made it that much easier.
If there were other boats, the fish may have spooked, but on this day we just kept going back to the baitfish and just kept hooking them up the lads certainly were not virgins anymore and by 6.30 pm we released our 21st marlin for the day, we were all exhausted, but the adrenaline rush and the wild fishing was keeping us fired up. When we caught the last fish they were still snapping, we caught have caught more, but 21 was going to do us. We had hammered Broadbill backwards all day on hot fish at times spinning her around in her own length two and three times in the battles to stay connected to the doubles we had on We were a tired lot, so home and a cold beer in the pen then early bed was going to be a priority
We backed the boat into the dock that night at 8.30 pm.
It was a fatigued, fish weary crew that night as we struggled down the ladder from the bridge, it was now 15 hours since we first set foot aboard that morning and that is an honest days work, but no pain no gain some fool once said. Soxie and myself had to wake the anglers who had slept all the way home, quite understandably.
Milestones were only made to be beaten, whether or not we will ever achieve such a feat again is debateable. We had fished the best marlin day of our career, a day when everything was rightthe calm seas, the lack of opposition boats, and a schooled marlin population like we had never seen before.
My mind drifted back to my early days as a wet-behind-the-ears, lure-trolling, marlin fisho in the seventies, when I longed for the day that we may be lucky enough to catch a multiple of marlin in a day. I had seen a boat that caught three in a day and just gazed in awe at the flags and dreamed that one day it may be my boat with that many flags on the rigger!
In the cockpit below, 35 years later, Soxie is putting 21 flags up the rigger.
Putting it into perspective, I must admit that I was personally very proud: I consider that I have served my apprenticeship well over the years, I also needed the best crewman to help me achieve the result and in Soxie I had that.
It's sort of funny how after all those years you tend to take things in your stride a bit more. We don't have to prove ourselves anymore; generally people know that Broadbill will never be too far from the action, we have achieved much along the way but we still go out and have runs of catching bugger all and that keeps our feet on the ground But isn't that what fishing is all about!
