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NEWSLINESWhat a Sydney Easter!
It all started during the lead-up to the
Easter long weekend. With a hot blue
marlin bite off Port Stephens the previous
week, Grant Speed and I decided to
run wide off Sydney aboard his new 21
CaribbeanReel Deal.
The online satellite charts showed an
excellent patch of warm water pushing
down over Norah Canyons on the back
of a big current eddy, so that’s where we
decided to fish. It was a 70km run north
from Broken Bay to the 350-fathom line
at the southern edge of the canyons, but
once there it didn’t take long to find large
numbers of birds and flying fish.
I set a personally-made Strike Strong
lure on the long-’rigger and it soon
screamed off with our first striped marlin,
which Grant knocked over very quickly.Shark fishing is popular across Victoria, and following a suggestion from
recreational fishing group VRFish, the Victorian Fisheries Authority is
consulting with anglers while they consider introducing a minimum size
limit of 120cm for mako sharks.
Within the current Victorian recreational fishing regulations, mako
sharks fit within the overarching shark category, which has no size limit
but is subject to a bag possession limit of one shark per species.
The proposed 120cm minimum size limit would be measured from the
rear-most gill slit to the base of the tail fin.
Public consultation will close on 8 June, so please read more about the
proposal and leave your comment atwww.vfa.vic.gov.au/gamesharkVictoria proposes size limit for mako shark
With the spread reset, it took only minutes
to tempt our second striped marlin, which
almost jumped aboard when Grant took
the leader 15 minutes later.
A third fish piled on soon after we
resumed trolling and we raised another
two shortly after that. The canyons were
going off, but with the long run ahead
of us we started trolling home by early
afternoon. Then my ‘Big Bandit’ lure
got nailed, and we looked back to see a
blue marlin around 250kg going ballistic,
throwing the lure a short time later. What
a day it had been!
The following day I set out again aboard
my restored Cruise-Craft Regal, taking
my 7-year-old son, Sonny, on his very
first game fishing trip. Together with Greg
Vella, we gave Sonny an experience hewill never forget, releasing three black
marlin from four hook-ups. As a proud
dad, my Easter could not have been any
more special than watching Sonny hook-
up and catch his first marlin.- Brett Armstrong
On a big day off
the Norah Canyons,
to the north of
Sydney’s Broken
Bay, Grant Speed
takes the leader on
a hot striped marlin
that nearly jumped
into the boat.To top of a perfect Easter, Brett
Armstrong’s 7-year-old boy, Sonny, catches
a marlin on his very first game fishing trip.