Reply With QuoteYou will get them at the FAD off Port Kembla during January, live bait will work, either Yakkas or Slimies, even Dolphin Fish are good bait, lures are good too, but it takes fuel to troll all day, live baiting you can drift for free!
Hey guys anyone have any advice on catching little blacks when they come in close off Sydney/Wollongong? Once big boat is finished i would love to chase some
I have been youtubing how to catch them but undure how far out i will have to venture to get one or two
What is preferred method lures, stitched bait or livies or does it really depend day to day?
Do u think 50L fuel tank is enough to chase marlin?
I have a downrigger i have head of other members using them for marlin so that is a bonus
Will there be bi catch or a lot of days of hours trolling for nothing?
I only venture so far out about 5km's so still new to running out far, have never been to the fads or continental shelf
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You will get them at the FAD off Port Kembla during January, live bait will work, either Yakkas or Slimies, even Dolphin Fish are good bait, lures are good too, but it takes fuel to troll all day, live baiting you can drift for free!
Cheers Noel, I have only been out around the north island at port kembla i will have to check on the internet to see how far the fads are from the boat ramp, are the port kembla fads like land base fishing in p/k and absolutely packed during the warmer months?
dolphin fish is another one i'd like to catch too as well as a decent tuna
unsure how much fuel the Mercury will run on my boat untill its actually tested, i could probably carry the 50L tank im building plus a couple 20L jerry can's or even yet still make a deck up the front and install another tank to balance out the weight but fuel cost does play a part in going out 90Lof fuel will cost a bit of money
are the marlin there any other months other than january?
There should be plenty of Dollies in summer, get out early to get bigger ones, then drift or troll a live bait around the general area for a Marlin, the Marlin will be around in good numbers for a short while, so get out as soon as you hear about them.
The average Marlin will be 80-120KG, mostly Blacks and some Striped.
Thanks Noel, Was hopping for a little black the smaller the better just using light gear for fun and release even if i do hook up just a video or a quick pic boat side i will be happy, I'm not really into these big international penn overhead reels to catch a fish i want to use a bait caster just easier and more pleasurable to use
i remember a mate took me out in his tinny some years ago and we hooked a whopper Mack Tuna down there it was huge caught between the islands strait plus i have a fair few pics of big king fish from down there at the breakwall so i believe Wollongong will be my destination as its only 1 hour there, Not sure if the little 2 litre freelander will be able to tow the big boat up that big freeway hill but i'll try
kind of like the somewhat security there during the day too with the Maritime office in the car park and cop shop just up the road
the p/k fad is sixteen km's out
You dont need a Penn international mate....but landing your first marlin on a baitcaster is pretty ambitious...
For a smallish one just regular Tuna or Mackeral trolling gear, something like a TLD or Tyrnos, fully spooled is sufficient...
We don't get many "small" ones, they all seem to be around the same size, with the odd big one thrown in.
Was thinking of getting a cheap Penn bait caster/spin combo but looking on bcf web site they no longer sell it as a combo
https://www.bcf.com.au/p/penn-spinfi...=en_AU&start=1
Match that with a cheapish shimano 8-10kg rod, 30lb mono with fluro carbon leader could go braid but tangle tangle tangle and the spool needs a backing line
The reason i want to go penn i've owned this reel for almost 10 years
http://www.pennfishing.com.au/penn-r...specifications the 260 size i have caught heaps of kingys, salmon, a jew, everything on it and over that time only the bale arm mount has corroded i still use it today love those HT100 drag washers silky smooth and that range is cheap to buy
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Interesting Noel...that got me doing some reading..Originally Posted by Noelm
From a quick scroll of the internet, Apparently the Blacks head mostly to FNQ in the summer to breed and by the following year the babies born in late summer can be up to 1.8m in length the following winter....most of them caught inshore around the bait grounds up this way during the winter are those ones with some slightly larger...with the big monster granders caught out wide by the shelf during the summer as they are breeding...
So it sounds like sometime between that first and second year the youngsters must start heading south where they continue to grow before returning during summer when the reach breeding size.....
I'm sure its more complicated then that but interesting nonetheless.......for us they are just a bycatch when fishing for Macks and the only time we actually put out a dodgey homemade "Marlin" lure ..we hooked up within 5 minutes......I have even caught a small (25kg) one on a floating pilchard...
With the new boat I might even start to winter troll with a marlin lure out beside my mackky lures this winter.....might have some fun...
You obviously know far more than me about them Noel....I'll let you recommend an affordable setup for Gazza instead....that baitcaster may well be spooled before he can even get it out of the rodholder if they are mostly 200 pound plus down there.....
The Penn 850 here http://www.pennfishing.com.au/penn-r...0.html#start=6 holds almost 700 meters of 30lb braid but has less than 5kg of drag, not actually sure of how much drag one will need for a small-medium marlin
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Done some googling and found some info on a forum it varied quiet a bit from person to person, one guy mentioned 1/3rd rule set the drag at 1/3rd the breaking strain but people were debating it
Another one said 5kg to 6kg
One more said 8kg to 12kg
I dont want to be pissing in the wind all day with a lose drag or even over exhaust the fish to no return..
From what i have read bill fish are not real table quality and there will be to much meat to bring one home
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They are OK to eat, the Stripes are best, probably the best budget outfit would be a TLD25, you see them cheap all the time, the 1/3 breaking strain is kind of universal, with a threadline (Spinfisher) there is no way to preset the drag, so it's entirely a "feel" thing anyway.
Usually the 1/3 rule is so when you get a fish ie: such as a big Spanish mackerel that hits hard and goes for a blistering run the line will stretch a bit and absorb the shock a bit before the drag starts slipping and doing it's job. So if the drag is set at 1/3 that gives you a bit of breathing space, and helps the drag from shuddering which may cause the line to jerk and break. If you use much heavier braided line or mono then the drag will most likely release anyway, but better to be safe than loose the fish. Hence the reason lever drag over heads are better than spinning reels in that you can pre-adjust the drag and not rely of guesswork, plus overheads are much nicer to use in my opinion.
So if your intention is to hunt for blacks then my advice would be to gear up appropriately, plenty of used overheads with decent line capacity and drags available on Gumtree.
Here one I found on E-Bay, bit of overkill but will do the job easily and relatively cheap, I wouldn't mind getting it myself but have far too many large overheads as it is.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Penn-Squ...UAAOSwQvhd2kUx
Always thought those overhead reels would be heavy i have one overhead penn but it is the most basic combo doesnt hold much line and the drag is either running loose or almost locked up to the point kings were pulling max drag
The bait caster/ spin reel was more for comfortability its what i have always used but i think the 4.9kg drag is questionable for a marlin after looking around and reading
I will look into a few other models
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