The special events
that stay with us
for a lifetime
ADAYTO
REMEMBER
17 marlin in a day!
Doyoudreamofthoseraredayswheneverythingalignsandthefishbitesofrenetically
thatyoulookforwardtoalull,soyoucancatchyourbreath?Thissummer’scrazy marlin
bite delivered such a day for Guy Jamieson and his buddy off Jervis Bay.T
here are some days that you never see
coming... We all dream about the big day
when everything goes perfectly and the fish
bite like crazy. Some days come close, but
rarely do they quite live up to the visions of your
dreams. Then again, sooner or later, every fisherman
has his day. Mine happened just recently, and it far
exceeded even my most optimistic dreams.
When the marlin bite exploded down at Bermagui
this summer, Matt Wall and I had a tough decision to
make. Should we trailer the boat three-hours south,
or make the easy run out to our local waters off Jervis
Bay, in southern New South Wales? The thought of
competing with all the other boats that had heard the
reports from Bermagui made our decision easier –
we’d fish our home grounds.AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHY:GUY JAMIESONWe launched Matt’s 6m Predator,Double D, from
Greenwell Point, heading out under grey skies.
We managed to catch livebaits early and in close,
which enabled us to get out to the grounds nice and
early. The weather was perfect, with the wind getting to
about eight knots and staying out of the east all day. It
was interesting to note that the water had a greenish
tinge and was full of the algae or plankton commonly
thought to be coral spawn. It was far from the cobalt blue
water we usually find most productive, but since we found
marlin straight away we certainly weren’t complaining.
Water temperature remained around 23.2°C, and there
was a light current running from north to south.
We hooked our first marlin less than five minutes
after getting baits into the water, and as soon as we’d
released one fish, we dropped a fresh bait into the
water and hooked-up again. It continued like that all
morning. Even when we were already hooked-up, other
marlin were charging our baits as we cleared the lines.
We’d hooked five fish by 9:30am, and our tenth by
12:30pm. Mat kept me on the rod most of the morning,
so I was pretty exhausted by lunchtime. I’d fought eight
marlin, with little time for rest between fish. I thought
I’d caught all I could handle, but when I told Matt I was
finished, he asked, “When will you get the chance to
wind in nine marlin in a day?” Fair enough, I thought;
this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. However, by
the time he’d repeated that line after the fourteenth
marlin I had well and truly wised up to his ploy.
The hook-ups were coming thick and fast, with
fish seemingly everywhere. On one occasion, Matt
threw a livebait over the starboard side, which then
screamed under the boat to the port side where I was
standing. I was watching the slimy scrambling on the
end of its tether when a black marlin materialised
out of nowhere and nailed the hapless baitfish just
a metre from the side of the boat. The marlin then
turned, thrashed its tail and streaked off with the
bait. I wish I’d had a video camera!
By the end of the day we’d hooked one striped marlin
about 80kg, and 18 black marlin ranging between 60
to 120kg, of which we got 17 to the boat, along with
three whaler sharks between 60 and 100kg. All the
fish were caught on live slimy mackerel drifted over a
small pinnacle off Jervis Bay that both of us have been
fishing since we were kids – which made the day even
more special.
Neither of us had ever dreamed we would get the
chance to hook 19 marlin in a day, let alone be lucky
enough to get 17 to the boat and release them all. It
was a day we won’t forget for a very long time!“Neither of
us had ever
dreamed
we would
get the
chance to
hook 19
marlin in a
day.”
Over a reef off Jervis
Bay they’d fished since
childhood, Guy Jamieson
and Matt Wall experienced
a day better than their
most optimistic dreams,
releasing 17 marlin in a
single day.
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