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STORY BY ROBYN HILLMAN

OUR TRIP TO CAPE YORK – SEPTEMBER 2008

September saw the return of Ian and Robyn Hillman, Paul and Rosie Ashman and newcomer Peter Hancock.
Off to the east coast saw Barramundi, Bream, GT, Queenfish, Mangrove Jack, Fingermark, Grunter, Cod and Nannigai, a good start. Then off to the stupidity of the Tuna, welcome back as line peels off the spools.
Everyone had great fun and it wasn’t long before we were reminded that we’re not alone, with some large sharks coming in to say hello (no swimming here).
Then, it’s boys verse the girls day (when are we lads ever going to win this challenge, you just have to delete all the photo’s etc so they can win - apparently)! It’s always a fun day we caught some nice Barramundi, Tarpon in the fresh then to go out and do battle with the Tuna, Queenfish and GT’s in the blue. We had some fantastic footage of sharks chasing a Tuna and hitting the boat broadside drenching everybody, then to have George do the same while we were feeding him.
Peter’s first time up here and he did not miss too much when an opportunity arose, it was indeed a very exciting day but the girls took it out apparently! Then back to the east and a very good session on Barramundi, Mangrove Jack, Fingermark and Salmon with everyone catching their best to date and on lures.
Robyn was on fire for a while and a little tickled as she out-fished Ian. The casting was on the money and the rewards were coming our way with plenty of rolls, strikes and hook ups. As always enjoyed all your company, looking forward to next year already – and the snow trip!

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yellowfin-1 “Tritons Tuna Tales”

The past few seasons have seen a gradual but steady return of Yellowfin tuna to the waters off Port hacking. Not the monsters of the 1980’s but nice fish all the same and certainly a challenge on most tackle.
During the 2007/8 season Triton had managed a respectable number of captured and tagged Yellowfin including a day when 32 tags were placed into fish of 10-20kg. These started as by-catch whilst looking for an early marlin back in November but soon became the target with 4 and 5 fish taking lures at once, making for a hectic day. These school fish soon departed once the warm waters pushed down so it was good to hear reports in May ‘08 of consistent captures around Browns Mountain of Yellowfin in the 25-40kg class with some bigger models sorting out a few unprepared anglers.
We took advantage of this late season bite to “trophy hunt” a couple and 2 days before the PHGFC season ended saw us laying a cube trail SE of Browns in perfect conditions. Boats all around us began hooking fish and it was frustrating to sit there with live baits and pilchards without a take. It was not until the sun had actually disappeared that all four rods loaded up. A bit of bad luck saw only one make it to the boat and we secured the heaviest Yellowfin on 15kg for the season at a respectable 33.7kg to Darren Mitchell.
Bad weather and business commitments kept us off the water for the next three weeks but reports were filtering through that the fish were still there in June, so when Andrew Ettingshausen called to see if he could use Triton to film a Yellowfin session for his “Escape with ET” TV show, I was more than enthusiastic.
We figured the bite could still be late but wanted to take live baits with us so we were on the bait ground at 7.30am loading up on big slimey mackerel. We then ran to 80 fathoms due east of Port Hacking and trolled through pods of Sperm Whales, catching three small albacore that seemed to be schooling with the Whales. Club member Glen Hunters “Billfisher” had been catching fish in around 450 fathoms in the days prior so it was there that we decided to begin to drift and cube. A live bait was set on the bow and another in the downrigger. ET put the first pilchard down the short trail and it was immediately taken by a Yellowfin and the two live baits soon followed suit. Not a bad start after 5 minutes! With a good supply of cut pilchards and tuna cubes we were able to maintain a steady trickle of cubes all day and this helped to keep the action constant, with tuna to 30kg regularly feeding at the back of the boat. The film crew were busy and we tagged and released 10 or 12 Yellowfin and 6 more albacore during an action packed day. We also put 6 Yellowfin between 20 and 30kg on the deck for a sashimi feed. Adrian Mikkelsen slipped up to the bow during the excitement with a 10kg outfit and was soon hooked up to a nice Yellowfin which later weighed 17.8kg and took almost 2 hours to boat. Triple hookups were common and bust offs just as regular but no one was complaining.
The two hour run home gave us time to clean most of the fish plus the boat, have a cold beer and reflect on a fantastic day of gamefishing. Cameras, film crews and guests generally have a bad effect on fishing results so it was great to have a successful day and have it recorded for TV. Keep an eye out for the segment to be screened sometime in November.
It seems that the winter season is shaping up to be a beauty with Yellowfin still there in late June and also reports of large Bluefin mixed in with them. Get out there and get amongst ‘em!

Mark Mikkelsen.

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John McIntyre Tournament Report - 2008
Click above to read......

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Sent in By Mikko

COFFS HARBOUR HOT CURRENTS AND AIBT COMPS.

It had been some years since Triton had visited Coffs Harbour and as major sponsors of both of these comps we were keen to return and test the “hot currents” off that port. After a reasonably uneventful run to Coffs (our GPS did die in Bate Bay) we spent a couple of days sorting out the boat and respooling 11 outfits with our new Orange Tiagra line and adding wind ons etc. Oh yeah and a quick snapper fish.

The Hot Currents comp is run over 4 days but the grounds are close which at least makes it a quick run home after fishing. 48 boats left Coffs in good conditions after a sail past and quickly spread out over the many canyons in the area. We opted to get live baits and then run lures until we found decent water. Slimies were easy to come by and we were soon chasing those hot currents. It wasn’t too long until our first strike and we tagged a small wahoo of about 10kg to open our account. Later in the afternoon a decent striped marlin came into the lures and Adrian quickly slipped a live bait back to it and hooked up. At around 100kg it performed well on the surface and then went deep for around an hour before angling back to the surface for the tag shot. Two tag poles went towards the fish simultaneously and both came back with the tags still in the poles and the fish back down 50 metres. Two crew who will remain nameless, looked dumbfounded as AJ worked the fish back again. No mistakes this time and we added 10,000 points to the tally.

Day 2, sitting in second place, we again jigged livebaits before the quick run to some serious dropoffs east of the port. Our first gameboat, “Shimano Blackfin,” was leading the comp. Had déjà vu watching her although she has been repowered with petrols and does 40 knots now. Working between Sawtell and Coffs Canyons we again raised a striped marlin and switched him onto a live slimey. Switchbaiting is without doubt the best and most exciting way to catch billfish. You get the ground coverage by pulling lures, the more positive hookset of bait fishing (we used circle hooks on all but the one lure caught fish) and the excitement of feeding a bait to a usually fired up marlin as close as a rod length away. Anyway Mark Dunphy slowly pushed the lever forward to slide the circle hook into the corner of the mouth and we were on again. This one was about 65kg and was tagged very professionally this time by that nameless crewman. Blackfin tagged another as well but we still held on to 2nd place at the end of the second day.

Day 3 and we were full of confidence. Terry had invited a local friend out for the day and his early comment was “would anyone like one of my bananas?” The looks from everyone said it all and his bunch was quickly dispatched overboard. However the curse had slipped onboard and the visitor was seasick all day (no sympathy) and we did not turn a reel for the next two days. Blackfin went on to tag 4 marlin plus wahoo and yellowfin to take out first place. Triton ran 5th.

There was a 230kg tiger weighed on 15kg and heaviest marlin was 147kg Blue. Two nice yellowfin also were weighed at 54.5 kg to a Junior and 47kg. Lots of Mahi Mahi but none that made line class. A juvenile white shark was also tagged along with several small tigers and whalers. There were 13 Blues tagged, 13 striped and one black marlin.

We had two days between the comps but opted to have a quick jigging session with the guys from the local tackle shop ie Fishing Tackle Australia. We headed up towards South East Solitary and quickly jigged and released around 40 small kingfish in a couple of hours.

Australian International Billfish Tournament.

John Dunphy and Daniel Mikko had flown up from Sydney and Steve Tucker and Grant Grounds had driven up to join us and Terry Dunphy had jumped on board ET’s boat “Escape”. This comp is fished all around Australia (Port Hacking hosted it recently) and is fished from the same port two years running. It is run over two days and is mainly a trophy tournament ie no high dollar value prizes. This may have accounted for the reduction in boats from the Hot Currents to 28 or the impending 30 knot southerly may have had some influence. Either way Day 1 saw us in 2 metres of sea with 25 – 30 knots of wind against 3 knots of southerly set. Not nice in a 43 footer let alone a trailerboat. We opted to put hooks in the lures, forget the live bait and do our best. It’s funny how rough conditions can bring on the bites but we had a blue marlin chasing our lures downswell and finally hooking up on 37kg. John Dunphy hopped in the chair and we carefully picked our way through the swells to put a tag in a nice healthy blue of around 140kg. Good start, but a 28 Bertie called “Causin Trouble” had some problems when their liferaft opened on the bow. They quickly stopped the boat and sent a couple of crew forward to stow it when one of their lures sitting dead in the water went off to a marlin. They tagged it and shortly after tagged another by more conventional means giving them the lead with Triton second. Causin Trouble was back in port by 1230 pm while we slogged it out till the close of fishing

Day 2 and you could not believe it was the same ocean. Light easterly with a remnant of the previous days swell saw all 28 boats out. At 8.30 after catching bait we had hookless lures in the water for only 5 minutes when we had a fish up. A livey was quickly slipped back and the marlin swallowed it without hesitation. Grant pulled the circle into the jaw and we were hooked up and a nice black of around 80 kg was tagged. Once again a good start to put us equal in points to the leader. The AIBT is tag and release of billfish only so there is no point looking for that tuna or yellowfin tie breaker. We found a big patch of striped tuna and bridled one hoping to emulate ET who was filming for his show and had just tagged a blue marlin estimated at 180kg caught on a live stripey. We towed a perfect bait live for 3 hours without a looker and fishing closed at 3pm without the lead boat positions changing. The presentation back at the Fishermans club was well organized and attended. Causin Trouble was Champion Boat with Triton Runner Up boat on a countback.

I recommend these comps to anyone thinking of making the journey next year. The committee of Coffs Game Club are extremely helpful and the facilities for moored and trailerable boats are second to none. The AIBT is on again there next year and Triton will be there trying to improve on this years results. There were 6 Blues, 6 Stripeds and one black tagged over the two days. Tough fishing but still worthwhile when things are cool off Sydney.

Regards,
Mikko

Another story From Mark and Shayne Mikkelsen

Probably the best sound to wake up to is a ratchet on a Tiagra!
Having had a fairly big “night before” at the local Waterfront Bar and Iririki Island Resort Bar, I was sleeping fitfully on the daybed in the 40’ Blackwatch “Bolero” when that ratchet had me making strides for the cockpit. Shayne had assisted me in having a late night and she too was snoozing.
That was to be the first fish for our Vanuatu trip that we had won at Port Hacking’s 50th Anniversary Tournament. Kindly donated as the major raffle prize by Ocean Blue Vanuatu Sportfishing Adventures. We were lucky enough to have their representative Eddie select our ticket from the barrel and here we were enjoying the Vanuatu warmth and fishing.
We had been provided with airline tickets and vouchers etc from Ocean Blue in a very professional manner leading up to the trip and now their Vanuatu fishing crew were doing their best to locate something to stretch our arms. The fishing had been good prior to our arrival so we were certainly optimistic and had decided that with the possibility of that BIG fish being about we would fish 130lb tackle. Shayne had also given me first strike since she had fished our last full day in Vanuatu and caught her world record Wahoo on fly. That first bite turned out to be a Short Billed Spearfish and was a first for me having never landed one personally.

At about 30 kg it was outgunned on the tackle but they are certainly pretty fish as you can see. It was quickly tagged, photographed and released. Spearfish are one of the billfish family but unlike most of their cousins they are usually associated with cold or dirty water that precedes or follows warm current fronts so it was not really a good sign. It did prove to be the case as we had one marlin bite over the two days and a couple of small yellowfin that were converted into sashimi entrees at that Waterfront bar. There certainly is something that keeps drawing us back to this place. A small but strikingly marked Wahoo and an even smaller barracuda were the only other fish we landed but Captain Eric Festa and his deckie John were constantly trying their best to find that big blue.

We are no strangers to Vanuatu, having been married there two years ago and this was our second trip for 2005. So obviously we would recommend the location as a great holiday spot regardless of our luck in winning the prize. The people are really friendly and you can safely go anywhere at any time of day or night. The Waterfront bar is our favourite place to have a cold drink, located right where the gameboats tie up. Food is always fresh and well presented and the local Tusker beer washes it down well too. There are loads of accommodation options but we chose to stay at Iririki, as it was where we had been married. It is an island resort just a short ferry ride (operating 24 hours a day) from the main capital of Vila and has a no kids under 12 policy.
Le Lagon is another resort we have stayed at and they really do cater for the kids with pool activities and kids clubs.

We want to thank both Port Hacking Game Fishing Club and Ocean Blue for giving us the opportunity to return to our favourite holiday & fishing destination.

Regards,

Mark and Shayne Mikkelsen.

This an excerpt from Ross's yet to be published book "A LIFETIME OF FISHING"
THE 2005 SEASON ON BROADBILL AND BILLFISHER
by Ross Hunter........8/7/05

As I now look back over a lifetime of fishing spanning 55 years it dawns on me that there has been so much joy , so many great memories, so many wonderful fishing acquaintances. Even at the tender age of 60 I still love what I do.
I guess I am lucky that I am still fit and don’t suffer too many aches and pains so I can still mix it with the young guys and generally hold my own, but then if I haven’t picked up a few pointers by now I should give it up.
There are times in winter when it is rough and cold where by I may think that sitting in front of a warm fire watching the football with a cool beer may be better than being creamed in a 30 knot westerly as I head back after a days tuna fishing .
These times, however it is the marlin fishing I love and live for .
The summer days with their light nor easters attract me more than tuna fishing in winter . Tuna are great ball busting fun and over the years we have caught our share but they are brute power and hard work …marlin are visual and are more of a challenge they are the fisherman’s fish….and I love the whole gambit of it all.
So here we are 40 odd years of marlin fishing on and I’m keener now than when I caught my first fish
The hours of trolling when the fish are scarce. the rush of blood when the cry goes out “fish on the teaser” the scream of the reel and then the superb jumps as a wild marlin flies high…….Yeh! that’s what I love.
The season of 2005 was shaping up to be a beauty whilst we were still fishing the waters of Sydney. This is quite normal that Billfisher and Broadbill fish the early part of the season from late November to end January from Sydney .

We had a little success with half a dozen fish tagged but it was steady going, so we really looked forward to the ’05 Pt Stephens season hoping that it would be a good one
We set a course for Pt Stephens January 28 with our first charter around the second of February.
We like a couple of days in Port to rig gear, do a little boat maintenance for the 110 days of marlin fishing ahead of us.
I spoke to my friend Tim Dean a week prior to departing Sydney Tim said “We are catching a heap Roscoe it’s looking real good “he adds
Having spent 3 days on tackle and general tidying we headed out on our first days charter from the Port. As always we moored the boats at Soldiers Point marina approx 5 nautical mile from the Tommaree headland and the sea
The cruise to the heads is most enjoyable experience.. Often we are visited by the resident dolphins of the bay as we enjoy a morning coffee and a general conversation which can be anything from what happened at the club or pub last night to thoughts on weather and anticipation of how good the fishing will be to day , always an unknown factor.
The waterways of the port are pretty special and all were enjoying the scenery on the steam out seaward
The twin Cummins burbled lazily as we cruised down the bay past Corlette it was a near perfect summers day. The smell of sunscreen wafted to me on the bridge from the cockpit below every one was in fine spirit all looking forward to a day on Mother Ocean.
My anglers were a really nice family from Victoria They had never seen a marlin before let alone catch one so it was with great anticipation that we wanted to beak their duck.
The mother Jenny Hill booked the charter from Melbourne we had not met before. She was a lovely lady who had not fished before and wanted her husband Rob to experience the raw boned excitement of game-fishing as a special treat for his 60th birthday. Their son was famous footballer Essendon ruck man AFL footballer David Hill
Along with daughters and boyfriends we all were looking forward to getting hubby a fish to fulfil his life’s ambition and they had travelled 1300km to do it, but fish do not care about angler’s feelings …they are quite callous at times..
Upon reaching the shelf it was obvious that things looked great ,bait redded out the sounder ,feeding shearwaters hovered over the feeding fish .
We dunked a bait and within half an hour had tagged a big striped of 140kg
The action continued and we returned to port with four tag flags all big stripes. ……job done and done well our clients had a marlin experience that they would remember forever……….We were very happy that these nice people had realised their dream……………….. a good start

We new that if it remained like this ’05 was going to be a screamer but we also knew that it doesn’t take much for it to turn the other way.
I recall the previous year when the water got hot and ran hard and every striped marlin within “coo ee” ended up 200 mile down the coast in the cooler water.
They came back but it was a lean couple of weeks while they were gone.
The water remained the fishing just got better and better.
We had 22.5 degrees Celsius a light tide run into the north west … the weather generally remained superb and every day that Billfisher and Broadbill returned to Port we were flying multiple figure tag flags
Glenn on Billfisher tagged 17 one day whilst our best was 16 …
Bearing in mind that these were not small fish the average weight was around 85 kg whilst we had a personal best of 18 marlin tags in a day in ’97 they were small blacks that could be tamed pretty quickly….so these were very busy days with generally one or two double hook ups involved, bites were generally 10 minutes apart so we were pretty much playing fish all day. No rest for the wicked but we did not come here to rest .we were loving it.
We were representing our club Port Hacking Gamefishing club but sometimes there is a certain ammount of luck involved ....turning right when you should and all that
We were confident that our anglers were as good as they come For me Mike Rowe,Tony Ceccato ,Gavin Sharp and Paul Finnertty had caught a swag of marlin and were great anglers, in the case of Mike Rowe he alone has tagged in eexcess of fifty marlin over the sixteen years he has fished with us.
On Billfisher Joanne Nadin and brother Paul were up to the task and keen as mustard it was their second year with Glenn.
Joanne won Champion Lady on ladies day and they caught a heap of marlin in the Interclub in '04
Glenn excelled for the season winning champion boat day four in the Interclub also winning champion lady angler in the same tournament . This may not sound much but take into account that there are 280 boats fish this tournament so it really is quite an achievement He also won champion boat in the Northern Waters tournament and ended up champion boat for the season in the port by tagging 148 marlin for the two and half month stay…………a feat I was very proud of even if he did beat his old man by a few fish as long as it’s in the family I am happy

Having only worked ten days each boat our tally was around 80 marlin tagged and released ………………..a good season ...............shit yes!
However on the Eleventh of February we had the day of days a day that I may never see again in my career a day that left me with a memory that I will cherish for the rest of my days.
We had a rest break in between charters ,we purposely do this to recuperate after the long 14 hour days ,but the word had got around how good the fishing was and we picked up a job with a bunch of guys who had fished with us on occasions before in Sydney.
They had caught tuna and dolphin fish but the three were all marlin virgins so it was with great hopes that they turned up at 6 am at Soldiers point that to day would see them all going home with hopefully a marlin each.
Nick Vitalle, Carlo and Mick …were really keen anglers certainly a lot keener when they had heard the buzz about the red hot fishing at Pt Stephens .
I fired both donks up ,backed out of the pen as Soxie started on his duties, one being to take down the 11 tag flags off the rigger from the day before.
It was a light west wind that greeted us as I turned Broady past the break-wall, the sky was cloudless and as we headed to sea a flat calm ocean welcomed us.
I eased the throttles on pushing us to a nice cruise speed of 20 knots it would be an hour and 20 mins to the grounds on a course of 100 degrees.
I can recall my early days when I would gaze in absolute envy at my peers back then as they steamed home with two or three marlin flags on their riggers……those early days when boats barely had sounder let alone GPS, that invention was still twenty five years away.To catch three marlin in a day was a pretty special event but here we were taking it for granted that a dozen or so was almost the norm. Certainly in 25 years technology has come a long way as well as the quality and sea keeping and speed of the modern marlin boat.
There would have been a much greater population of fish back then but we were not as skilled and did not have the big sounders and GPS systems that we rely on in the year 2005 I guess in a way it was all a bit relative.
One thing for sure there was no long lining so our stocks of marlin were not plagued like they are to day so obviously they had little pressure and would have been more plentiful
As I mentioned before we drove out of Pt Stephens in ’97 having tagged 248 for the season including 18 in a day that season left me believing that we had fished maybe the best marlin season that I would fish…but records and milestones are made to be broken I guess and on the eleventh of February with three anglers we blew that one out of the water with a day and a record I may never experience again

TWENTY ONE IN A DAY

It was one of those days where you cannot feel anything but confident after all we had already caught a lot of marlin for the season and to day was perfect for it …no wind …flat calm ocean and very little company.
. I glanced southward and spotted a boat on the horizon apart from that it seemed like we had the ocean to our selves.
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 as a guide as 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 all the time, 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 to trolling speed as Soxie made ready bait jigs, rods ,bridle needles and tag poles . We trolled the grounds in looking for the bait schools, the sounder redded out with vast schools of blue mackerel under us
“Give it a jig here Soxie?” I suggested from the bridge…..Rob dropped the bait jig in and pulled a full string of beaut 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 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 and hook up two fish they were both over 100 kg … the day had started with a vengeance.
The big fish danced every which way as I tried to figure which one to target first the fish on the left side stuck his head up I backed over and we released that one.
One down, one too go The next one took twenty minutes and he too swam away with a tag for the trouble only one marlin virgin to go . As I glanced seaward I could see a bunch of shearwaters working a bait patch We steamed the 500 meters 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 50 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 hooked simultaneously two stripes up 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 all day.
We fished like we were in a frenzy and with in four hours had tagged 16 marlin inc several double hook ups....., it still only 3 ‘O Clock
One of the boys said “Hey Ross isn’t your previous best eighteen?”
“Yeh! 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 was other boats, the fish may have spooked but 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 21 st marlin for the day…we were all exhausted but the adrenalin rush and the wild fishing was keeping us fired up
When we caught the last fish they were still snapping we could have caught more but exhaustion was not far away and it was 6.45 pm
We backed the boat into the pen that night at 8.45 pm.
It was a tired team that night as we struggled down the ladder from the bridge , it was now 15 hours since we first set foot aboard this 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 and quite understandably
Milestones were only made to be beaten, wether 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 every thing was right ..the calm seas .the lack of opposition boats and a schooled marlin population like we had never seen before.
I refer back to my days as a wet behind the ears, lure trolling marlin fisho in the seventies,. those days 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 in 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 now however after all the years you tend to take things in your stride a bit more ...........we don’t have to prove ourselves anymore ...........without being blaze ..........generally people know that Broadbill will never be too far from the action, we have achieved much along the way.

However we still go out with the same enthusiasm and have runs of catching bugger all and that keeps your feet on the ground…………but isn't that what fishing is all about?