Still buzzing after yesterday's long but exciting day spent trolling for Marlin off the Goldy yesterday. Met JB at the Grand at 6am and lines were set and trolling by 7am. The first 5mins of trolling had a brute of a mac tuna (est. 9-10kg+) on my line and before long released at the boat. Headed E/NE of the Seaway and once reaching some nicer water in about 55-60m headed in a Northerly direction. First real action came east of the 'pin bar from a nice dollie on the short corner and after a good battle with some aerobatics mixed in the first dollie for my boat was pulled onto the deck. After some cheers, some pics and a nice fish in the esky out went the lures again. About an hour later on our way back South in about 63m we took our first shot from a sizey Black! I am far from knowledgeable when it comes to marlin size/weights but if I was to guess I would estimate that it would've been in the 40-50kg range. I couldn't believe my eyes when its beak, head and shoulders appeared behind the lure on the long-corner. I struggled to get my words of, "What the... We've got... Holy Cr@p... Marlin!" out before it monstered the lure, turned and took off. This thing didn't muck around, within seconds of it appearing behind the lure it had taken it and it was outta-here. As we (Cameron & myself) cleared the other lines JB picked up the now-screaming TLD 20 and watched his line disappear at a helluva rate of knots. As more line disappeared and more spool became visible JB upped the drag ever so slightly, then as the fish broke the surface again and turned, the 10kg line gave-way ending our hopes of landing our first marlin. We live and learn After ruing our chance gone begging we continued South, next action came East of Surfers after we had headed wider and found ourselves in around 80m of water (we don't really know how deep 'cos the sounder couldn't cope!); this time a BIG dollie, est twice the size of the first one, popped up behind the short corner. After tracking it for a bit, it took the lure for a 10m squirt then dropped it. We continued hoping it would appear again. It did. This time behind the shotgun, same thing, tracked it, took it, spat it - no luck. That was the last bit of action for the day, but what a day it was! I guarantee I'll be back doing the same thing a number of times this summer. It's such a visual form of fishing. Seeing these huge fish appear on the surface before taking the lure had my heart going - I'll be back
DC
JB and the dollie...