Keppel Island Magic

[XtremeBoony]

I took advantage of a half day window with the wind dropping out until lunch time so I packed up the boat for a quick assult out around the Keppel Islands on tues 25th sep.
My wife had a friend staying and her young fella is about 13 years old and keen to wet a line so I put the hard word on him about fishing out of center consoles and being open to the elements. He was still keen which was good, and so we set about loading the boat and making a plan.
Everything was wrong about the day with neap tides, wrong moon and a westerly blowing but when an opportunity comes knocking u take it.
So we dropped the boat in at rosslyn bay about 5am and headed for humpy Island for a troll. After about half an our we had success but it wasn’t the mack I hoped for. It was a feisty little GT about the 3-4kg mark. We released him and kept on trolling. No luck so we ventured over to Hanna’s rocks for a quick troll. There was plenty of bait but the macks didn’t want to play the game so we kept on heading further out and made our way to Barren Island.
Trolling around Barren we found a monster school of bait and I thought “here we go” as I waited for the ratchet to scream.


To my surprise we didn’t get a sniff and anchored on the bait to put out some floaters and a bit of a bottom bash. Tristan hooked up first and a nice sized parrot was swung over the side. Tristan hasn’t caught a lot so he was now hanging shit on me with bragging rights but well done to him and its always great seeing newbies get onto a fish or 2.


I threw everything at the bait school, blades, plastics, metals but couldn’t raise a scale. There was a couple of blokes throwing big poppers and jigging and I bet they would have been sore the next day with nill result as well.
We ventured over to a wreck not far off Barren and dropped some baits and plastics. Double hookup straight away with mine coming to the boat first. A solid little tea leaf trev about 4kg that was released. Tristan on the other hand had the battle of a lifetime and with some quick coaching and had a good size golden trev boatside. It went about 8kg and was his best ever capture so well done Tristan.


We then ventured up the coast and had a play around a local spot called greasy ally. The bait was balled up so we drifted some baits and floated some dead baits aswell.




We caught a mixture of small red emps, nannygai and stripeys. Nothing to write home about but Tristan was having a ball. I wound in the dead bait and put a live stripey on the gangs (legal of course) and hoiked him out. We drifted and Tristan comes up tight on the bottom, we were leaning over to see what it was when all of a sudden there was a splash at the back of the boat and the drag of the stella started to sing.
We turned around to see an angry little marlin going beserk and thrashing the water to foam. My heart rate went from 60 to 260 in a second and it was game on. Tristan swung a dirty old trigger fish over the side and I told him not to worry and shoved the video camera in his hands. The fight was on and the marlin was still going crazy. The knees were shaking like a leaf.
After about 25mins we had him boatside. I grabbed the tail and lifted him on board. Celebrations were let out and it was high fives all round. Just as that happened the bottom rod went off so Tristan grabbed that. So here I was with my marlin and no one to take a photo. I quickly set up a self timer and got one shot of my prize. Time was running short to try get the marlin back in the water but I managed and he swum off which was a great site to see.


My First Ever Marlin
Tristan wasn’t getting anywhere with his beast and handed me the rod. With next to no braid left we had no choice but to follow. “Ever driven a boat Tristan?”, I said, “ummmmm no” was the reply. “well you’re about to learn” as we took off to try and get some line back. Tristan done well on the wheel and before long we had a dirty old shark boat side which was hooked in the tail. Bugger.
We called it a day after that and headed back to the boat ramp. We didn’t have much in the esky but who cares after a magic day like that . Cheers

P.S will have a bit of video up soon

[cobiaman]

Congrats on the marlin boony, conditions dont look too bad either!!!

[TREVELLY]

Awesome Boony! What a day!

The young fella did well too - showing you up on your boat.

You seem to be luckier too on the smaller boat than the bigger more comfortable model - stick with it it's obviously your good luck charm

Thanks for sharing and congratulations nice fish and great story - how did the missus take it - not being there?

[thelump]

Nice work Boony.

[Horse]

I bet you didnt expect that little feller to show up. Well done

[Fishwisher]

Great post well done on the marlin to

[XtremeBoony]

Awesome Boony! What a day!

The young fella did well too - showing you up on your boat.

You seem to be luckier too on the smaller boat than the bigger more comfortable model - stick with it it's obviously your good luck charm

Thanks for sharing and congratulations nice fish and great story - how did the missus take it - not being there?

Yep might have to stick to the CC like u said Trev the old girl does me proud.... As for the missus she was actually ok with me going out cause she had her friend here so they were catching up but the phone call went like this:
Me: hi babe, I just caught a f**king marlin!!"
Wife: "what's a marlin?"
Me: I'm going, bye....clunk

And cheers for the feedback fellas, got a bit of video up in the video section too

Cheers from boony

[theoldlegend]

Humpy Island??

How did Humpy Island get its name? Did you have anything to do with that Boony?


TOL

[Jeremy]

Thanks for sharing your report. I love the sounder shots. You got a bunch of good spots there. Great to have a few options like that to be able to move around if they aren't biting or for some variety.

[Goodoo haven]

Some nice fish caught there mate.

Thanks for sharing.

[TREVELLY]

Me: hi babe, I just caught a f**king marlin!!"
Wife: "what's a marlin?"

That is funny

I could really picture that! Kinda bursts your bubble doesn't it?

You got a pretty good pic of it though and it is a good starting size - well done!

[SWANO1]

great report and pretty damn good pis too
cheers swano

[netmaker]

well done mate. and congrats on refraining from making him a hopoate marlin

[fishfeeder]

well done boony... great pic for the pool room.
Whats a Marlin ??, hope you set the little lady straight when you got home !!!

Cheers
Brett

[madmackrel]

Good on ya Boony, a day the young bloke and yourself wont forget for a while.
Cheers Perry