Exmouth Trip Warm-up - Billfish

Well the Fishwrecked Invitational has snuck up very quickly on us and with all the talk from Gamex about the billfish caught we have been just a little excited about the chance to tangle with some big fish in the coming weeks. Problem was we have a very green team when it comes to chasing the sails and marlin, Webby is the most experienced in our team and i'm sure he doesn't count himself as any expert he just knows what he is doing, Tobi had never seen a Billfish before and my experience was limited to a 1 day charter off Broome 10 years ago, this was going to be fun!

We had the gear but did we have the skills and nerve to carry this mission out, it didn't start well. I repaired a leak in my bungs last night only to see the silicon takes 1/2 to dry and a week to cure fully, it was still tacky when we pulled out of the driveway this morning. We get to the servo and we are about to leave when a woman in a work ute backed into the car, no damage there just a dent to the bullbar and the spottie bent up, then find the brake still on the trailer slightly before we pulled away with me thinking if we shouldn't just shit-can the idea and go home to bed.

We arrived to the boat ramp with not a breath of wind in the air, the decision was made to press on and if the silicon didn't hold we head straight back so this had me worried but because we wouldn't stop for the whole day i was hoping the low pressure effect of going through the water would help, it did no issues.

Cruised out to the 30m mark and set the teasers and baits not really knowing what to expect, the bait was around and the bird where working the schools with small tuna jumping through the air hitting the bait, they are just such little balls of muscle but we resisted the urge to catch one and kept trolling the edges of the bait, 45 mins in and a Spanish Mackerel fly to the air and hit the right corner bait hooking up on the 15kg outfit, thankfully the circle hook did it's job and we got him in the corner of the mouth, a quick release and a new bait was set.

We headed to the back of the ore carriers and found a free jumping sail so we set course in his direction, sure enough we found a pod of sails and both baits copped attention, they hit the baits and we dropped them back, the knees started trembling for myself just being patient waiting for the fish to swallow it deep, both fish ran off and we put the reels to strike and nothing from me so i dropped it back again and Webby hooked up briefly but dropped off. A new bait was needed and rigged up. We didn't find anymore action from this area so we headed towards the furtherest ore ship. Once again we got some attention on the way over and the baits dropped back, line flew out of my reel and once again waited 15 seconds and hit strike, To our amazement a big black marlin probably around the 50-75kg mark errupted on the surface and jumped away from the boat at right angles, he spat the hooks early in the fight and i would have been lucky to keep him with the big belly of line i had out. This was getting to be good fun.

We concentrated on this one area for 6/7 passes with regular enquiries, Webby and I still manned the rods while Tobi kept driving for us, we thank her for that as she rarely likes to miss the action. The plan was to get Tobi in on the action once we had one released. Sure enough it diddn't take long as a Sailie swiped Webby's gardie and he dropped it back and waited, i left my bait in and hoped for another fish as we seemed to raise 2 or 3 every time but he was on his own, Webby hit strike and we were on!!! Tobi got the teasers in and i cleaned a path for Webby to fight it out, It took to the air early in the fight jumping several times away from the boat as we chased him down, tensions rose when he turned and swam with the boat so we frantically got tension back in the line and worked on getting him to the boat.

I was getting nervous as i was on deckie duty and i made it very clear to Webby i haven't grabbed a sailfish before, especially seeing his reaction when i dropped a queenie one day and the tone of his voice to Pickles when he was landing Webby's big GT last mont i didn't want to stuff this, i slowly leadered him in and when he was settled by the edge of the boat i grbbed that bill and hung on! he settled down and i swapped out with Webby so he could unhook him alongside and swim him, Tobi got the camera out and we got some happy snaps of the impressive fish, he swam away peacefully.

We had 90mins to kill and so we rigged again and Webby jumped behind the wheel and we started again but it all shut down, we saw one free jumping sailfish but not action which was a shame for Tobi so she will get first crack in exmouth.

Stopped for a quick pop at Nelson rocks with the new Saltist/MonsterMesh combo's Tobi and I brought but it was short lived as the screw holding the handle on for both reels let go and rendered the reels useless, fixed now mind you.

So for 2 virgins to billfishing we have a our tecnique down, we can rig the baits, set the spread and keep calm when it goes off. We rasied 7 sailfish and 1 black marlin, hooked three and landed 1, not a perfect day but one we can build on.

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Las Vegas - Rolling the dice and trying your luck. 1M+ Barra summer target. 100kg Black Marlin winter target


Posts: 55

Date Joined: 12/08/07

Congrats on the sailfish

Sat, 2010-05-01 21:45

Congrats on the sailfish Webby!
I didn't know you could get out of bed that early Brucesta?
What's happened to Tobi's luck, she's usually the one who catches the fish. Is she losing her touch?

Brucesta's picture

Posts: 1721

Date Joined: 29/05/09

I occasionally suprise

Sat, 2010-05-01 21:55

I occasionally suprise myself Dan and drag my sorry body out of bed before the sun rises for such occasions, very rare mind you, wanted to test the nav lights you see

we sent her to the wheelhouse for that exact reason Richo, she would have caught them all!!!

 

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Las Vegas - Rolling the dice and trying your luck. 1M+ Barra summer target. 100kg Black Marlin winter target

Faulkner Family's picture

Posts: 17830

Date Joined: 11/03/08

well done guys and girl. you

Sat, 2010-05-01 22:09

well done guys and girl. you got to be happy to at least get the one sailie but its a pity you couldnt get any more. better luck next time out chasing the billies. great pics too

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RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together

carnarvonite's picture

Posts: 8619

Date Joined: 24/07/07

Well Done

Sat, 2010-05-01 22:37

Congrats on your first bilfish on your own.

God shot of the harbour lights on your way out.

mullows's picture

Posts: 738

Date Joined: 25/12/08

Top effort there guys.

Sun, 2010-05-02 05:19

Top effort there guys. Plenty of very experienced people been out there of late with no reward to speak of. Great pics too!!

Cheers
Mullows

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The Older I get the better I was :-)

deepwater's picture

Posts: 1921

Date Joined: 09/05/07

Well Done

Sun, 2010-05-02 06:55

the first one is all ways the best well done Brucesta

great photos

jeff

Lucky Tim's picture

Posts: 2536

Date Joined: 28/11/07

nice looking way to spend

Sun, 2010-05-02 08:32

nice looking way to spend the day there guys, I like the look of that weather too. Shame there wasn't a second fish for Tobi though.
As for the inexperienced billfishing team for the Exxy comp, forget about it. I won it last year and had only popped my billfish cherry a 3 weeks before so it's anyone's trophy up for grabs! Good luck when you get there, that prize rod of Matt's is worth the effort alone.
Tim

Webby's picture

Posts: 835

Date Joined: 24/09/08

I herd the key to your

Sun, 2010-05-02 08:56

I herd the key to your success was being the only one that was not too hung over to fish early the first day haha.

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I live with fear every day... sometimes she lets me go fishing.

Lucky Tim's picture

Posts: 2536

Date Joined: 28/11/07

yep that's probably right,

Sun, 2010-05-02 09:31

yep that's probably right, plus having to drop Hayley at work at 6am that day made sure I was out of bed nice and early. It paid off though, I got the 3 marlin, wahoo and dolly that won prizes in the first 3 hours, then landed nothing for the rest of that day and nothing the next!

PilbaraBrad's picture

Posts: 3628

Date Joined: 16/05/07

hahaha, nice work boys.

Sun, 2010-05-02 09:31

hahaha, nice work boys.

Posts: 4561

Date Joined: 01/02/10

Good work guys. Looks like I

Sun, 2010-05-02 12:54

Good work guys. Looks like I will be doing some k's down there for the next few months. Good to see they are around this early.

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Brucesta's picture

Posts: 1721

Date Joined: 29/05/09

Cheers lads, just to be

Mon, 2010-05-03 07:15

Cheers lads, just to be clear it was Webby's fish just the frist in my boat, i'll break my duck in two weeks when we hit Exmouth.

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Las Vegas - Rolling the dice and trying your luck. 1M+ Barra summer target. 100kg Black Marlin winter target

Webby's picture

Posts: 835

Date Joined: 24/09/08

billies are a team effort

Mon, 2010-05-03 10:39

billies are a team effort mate, it was team pavs first...

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I live with fear every day... sometimes she lets me go fishing.

Brucesta's picture

Posts: 1721

Date Joined: 29/05/09

May it not be our last Mr

Mon, 2010-05-03 12:07

May it not be our last Mr Web! hears to more billies in 9 days 

i'll take credit for the awesome camera work but Laughing

 

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Las Vegas - Rolling the dice and trying your luck. 1M+ Barra summer target. 100kg Black Marlin winter target

Webby's picture

Posts: 835

Date Joined: 24/09/08

you will have to fight tobie

Mon, 2010-05-03 15:23

you will have to fight tobie for the second last photo haha. but the rest are gold mate, well done. I really like how the parker point one turned out. thats desk top stuff haha.

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I live with fear every day... sometimes she lets me go fishing.

Brucesta's picture

Posts: 1721

Date Joined: 29/05/09

second last one was mine

Mon, 2010-05-03 15:45

second last one was mine just before you politely told me to to get off the eski and trace your fish, Tobi got nice ones of your in focus shirt then a blurry sailfish

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Las Vegas - Rolling the dice and trying your luck. 1M+ Barra summer target. 100kg Black Marlin winter target

Webby's picture

Posts: 835

Date Joined: 24/09/08

haha ok, she claimed it when

Mon, 2010-05-03 17:18

haha ok, she claimed it when i went round there last night. I put her onto this site so hopefully she might start showing up on these pages soon.

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I live with fear every day... sometimes she lets me go fishing.

Pete D's picture

Posts: 1681

Date Joined: 07/06/07

Top effort guys and seom

Mon, 2010-05-03 16:02

Top effort guys and seom nice pics to remember the experience.

Cheers Pete

Alan James's picture

Posts: 2204

Date Joined: 30/06/09

Surface Teaser

Mon, 2010-05-03 16:24

In the third pic it shows a lot of water being pushed up by what I'm guessing is a surface teaser.  Looks to be too much water for a bird teaser.  What is it?

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Webby's picture

Posts: 835

Date Joined: 24/09/08

It WAS two birds, two

Mon, 2010-05-03 17:38

It WAS two birds, two pushers and squid thing untill it got nailed. now its just a bird.

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I live with fear every day... sometimes she lets me go fishing.