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NEWSLINESWith such an outstanding marlin season
down the south coast of NSW this
summer, Georgia Poyner and her father
were eager to get out among them- even though they fish from a 5.2m
inflatable Zodiac with a 70hp outboard.
As well as accomplished anglers, they
are both experienced scuba divers and
frequently dive around Montague Island
and with large gamefish whenever they
get a chance.
Although there was a huge swell pumping
down the coast after a Queensland cyclone,
they set out across the Narooma bar and
Marlin from a rubber inflatable
nowhere to brace herself against the
strain. Standing with one leg on the floor
and the other on top of the side tube, the
pressure was difficult to bare.
Bringing a large fish with a spear on its
front end towards an inflatable boat is
always risky, but an even greater danger
came from the braid line streaking down
beside the gunnel tube whenever the
marlin dove.
By the time her marlin came alongside,
Georgia was an emotional wreck and her
limbs were shaking from exhaustion.
None the less, the opportunity to dive
with a marlin was too good to miss, so
her father tied a rope to the tired marlin’s
bill and swum it alongside while Georgia
struggled into her dive gear, then slipped
over the side and said goodbye to her
marlin after swimming with it until it had
regained its strength.
Every part of her body ached for the
next few days, but Georgia said that to
see and catch a striped marlin of perhaps
140kg from a 5.2m inflatable – let alone
to swim with it and then release it
underwater – made it an epic day and
well worth the pain.headed for the continental shelf drop-off,
where the sea flattened substantially.
They were hardly geared-up for marlin
fishing, but were keen to have a look and
perhaps drop into the water with diving
gear if they found some action.
What they found was a seal and two
large bronze whaler sharks swimming
above a deep baitball, so Georgia dropped
a sabiki jig and soon loaded-up on slimy
mackerel. On her second drop a marlin
swiped all the slimies off her rig before
she could get them to the boat. By then,
the initial mackerel were dead on thefloor of the boat, but Georgia scrambled
through the tackle bag and rustled-up
a 1.5m kingfish leader of 60kg mono
with an 8/0 hook on the end. Slipping
on a dead mackerel, she dropped it over
and was soon connected to a very large
striped marlin that greyhounded across
the wavetops.
Hooked-up on a spin rod with no harness
and not even a rod belt, Georgia fought
the marlin for two hours from the tiny
dinghy with her father chasing it as fast
as they could go. The inflatable gave
Georgia very little room to operate, andWhen Georgia Poyner and her father
set out in their 5.2m inflatable they
were hardly expecting to catch a huge
striped marlin, let alone swim with it.