Bermi Bluefin June 2012
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Fishing on Seafari on Saturday 16th June by Daniel Lopardi.
While trolling lures wide off Bermagui for bluefin a few temp changes
were seen and fish were starting to mark up on the sounder. Not long
after the first fish smashed the lure on the short rigger almost coming
?out of the water in doing so. After a lengthy fight with the fish not
cooperating aroung the boat, a large Southern Bluefin tuna was
landed to a friend of ours. A few photos were taken as it was his first
?Bluefin at Bermagui and we then resumed trolling around the area where?the
fish was hooked which??now with a gathering of around15 other boats. It did not
?take long before a bow wave appeared behind the lure on the short rigger
and again we were hooked up. Taking our time and easing the fish in, a bit
of commotion on the gaff saw the second fish boated, noticing the considerably
?larger girth than the first fish. Later back at the gantry, the first fish weighed in
at 73.4kg and the larger of the two weighing in at 103kg to angler Alex Lopardi.
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A great, enjoyable day had by us in the excellent conditions with other boats
enjoying success also. (Please note that the?date is not set in camera)
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Broadbill
Broadbill caught by Paul Blacka with Chris Sedgewick on 1st June
81.4kg on 37kg
The Marlin Have Turned Up
The first marlin for the season has been tagged and guess which boat was out there to find it :- Mr Hooker!!!? On Friday 23 December 2011 I was fortunate to be on board with Paul Blacka, Reg Pauline, John Parbery, Jim Joans, Brock Lazzaro and a very appreciative German backpacker Mattieous.? We had a glorious day on the water with the wind not getting over 10 to 15 knots all day. The coverted title of the first marlin of the season was one that I am lucky to have had the experience to get (sorry Brockie!)
We dragged lures around to start with, and when Brock's 15kg tiagra went off Paul told Mattieous to wind it in expecting it to be a stripie, but was surprised when he had a small yellowfin.?
We found some bait eventually and our crew John expertly bought in 5 mackerel at a time beating the seals to a free feed.? The teasers were then put out and a skip bait, with a livie rigged up ready to switch baits.? I was on the deck answering Mattieous questions on what to expect if a marlin comes up when one hit the daisy chain and pulled it out of the? rigger.? As quick as I could I wound the daisy chain in while there was a mad scramble from the fly bridge of John, Reg, Jim and Brock to get the rest of the gear in to switch the livie, but the marlin disappeared as quickly as it came.?
A short time later one came up on the stripie lure, which John reel in whilst Reg got the daisy chain in and I grabbed the livie.? After much confusion, shouting of instructions and abuse from Captain Cranky above, I somehow managed to hook this marlin on the livie with the line on strike.? Don't quiet know how but I did it,? much to everyones surprise (hey, maybe I stumbled on a new approach).? Anyway I had it on.? Then there was the debacle of trying to get the harness on me, and half the fight with the fish was without a harness, or the 4 men on board trying to get it fitted right.? But the fish laid on a performance for us, and our elated German backpacker Mattieous was thrilled and luckily was the only one on board with a camera to capture these fantastic photos.
Paul found a bait ball later on that afternoon with seals and marlin working it.? But even with John's tempting it with a live mackerel thrown into the bait ball we couldn't tempt it to give Brock a chance at his first marlin for the season.
Click here to view footage:
WHAT A CATCH
How about this, a broadbill swordfish caught by George Aquilera on
HOTSHOT during the Canberra Yellowfin Tournament at Bermagui
in May 2011. As you can see the fish was tagged and france returned to the
water to see another day.