Port Stephens Bills

[Flying Fisherman]

Myself and a mate wre lucky enough to get on a boat 37 Riv and fish the NSW Game Fish Interclub Tournament. No one on the boat all 5 of us had ever caught a billfish of any description so we were all keen as to get onto a few.

Final outcome Day 1 saw a Short Billed Spearfish Tagged and released on 8 KG lineclass est 25-30KG

Day 2 saw a Blue Marlin Tagged & Released on 15KG lineclass est. 150KG

Day 3 was cacelled due to bad weather

Day 4 saw another Short Billed Spearfish tagged and released on 8KG lineclass est 25-30KG

Everone onboard was stoked to land a few fish and send back in the water !

[fishing_teen]

that would of been great fun, it is a shame about the weather takin one day of ya

[Angus]

Some great shots there Ian well done!

Angus

[Shimanobwoie]

Good work mate. Looks like you had a good day out on a nice looking rig.

[dhess]

Awesome guys.

Great tosee no one but two short billed spearfish caught. From what I have heard they are far from common.

[Jords]

Absolutely love the colour of that second short bill, i rekon they would almost be more special to catch then marlin (well small marlin anyway, not a lot can ocmpete with a 600lb fish jumping everywhere)

[crazywalrus]

[attachment=30843]PhotosforIan003.jpg[/attachment]

Love this shot - absolutely awesome. U must have been reeling of the shots to catch this one.

[Perky]

Yeah got to agree with the above post that is an awesome shot mate congrats on the good bills you got.

[madmullet]

Thats awsom. Always wanted to catch one, got all the gear and have gone out but no luck. Good on you guys. Hope you guys get to do it again

[BassTracker]

've been on a boat off the ribbon reefs up nort when a thousand pounder has stuck his head out of the water like in your last photo and everyone on the boat just went WOOOOOOAH they are such impressive animals.

[Flying Fisherman]

Thanks for all the comments guys and yeh we pretty stoked in catching 2 Shortbilled Spearfish,good sized ones and they were the first ever billfish caught by the anglers,probably been a NSW record on 8KG if we had killed the fish - record is 26.5 KG.

My mate took the snap of the Marlin while I was fighting it,just a one quick snap, I had been fighting the Marlin for about 10 minutes when it came out of the water 50m behind us , time seemed to freeze as this awsome creature lunged out of the water and give me this look of "I'm going to beat you" whilst trying shake the hook from it's mouth. Another 10 minutes we had the Marlin by the boat, a tag was fixed, the line cut and the Marlin surged away.

Should have some more pics off a much better camera of the Marlin soon. Febuary and March are an awsome time of year to fish out of Port Stephens and definately lots of trailer boats getting amongst them at 22 miles to the grounds.

The Flying Fisherman polarised sunnies worked a treat out in the blue water !

Cheers

Ian

[Manni79]

Great pic if the fish coming out of the water, very cool - well done guys