My new lucky shirt
AUSTRALIA DAY 2021
Species 1 ✔
“The fish that I thought would be the hardest to catch, turned out to be my first species ticked off my 2021 list.”
Well I don't think my Australia Day could have got much better than that...landing my first sailfish, in our boat with my biggest supporter right next to me! This was my 4th attempt to catch a billfish this year and I think I am now hooked on bill fishing. Don't get me wrong, game fishing can be quite uneventful at times but watching that sailfish swim away was just magic and made every second out on the water chasing these guys totally worth it!
How it went down..
We spent the first couple of hours trolling using my new Black Pete Quality Tackle Skirts searching for bait and sussing out the area. There was only one other boat in sight and for bill fishing, that’s not always a good sign. We marked fish that were sitting deep on a school of bait and tracked back over our mark a few times, however we couldn't raise any fish. We decided to change tactics and jig up some fresh live bait to see if that would entice them to play. My yakka didn't even last 30 seconds in the water before I was hooked up and then it was show time...there was no shortage of reel screaming, aerial jumping, heart racing adrenaline and excitement!!
This sailfish didn't even play with my bait, it swallow it whole which set the hook perfectly in the corner of its mouth before shooting to the surface for the first aerial jump. It wasn't until about 3-4 minutes into the fight and when I managed to get some line back that I realised I was hooked up to a sailfish, NOT a marlin! That explained why the fish felt so much bigger than it was, it had its sail up underwater which creates a much larger body of force to fight against. The fight time was relatively quick, about 5 minutes in total which made for a healthy release of the fish.
“You may spend days on the water without a single hit, but it is all worth it once you land a billfish and get to experience how truly amazing these fish are.”
I couldn’t be more stoked! There is so much time and preparation that goes into bill fishing before you even wet a line from rigs to baits to setting drag. It truly is a totally different form of fishing that we are very new to, but super keen to learn and gain more experience. In my opinion, there is no better way to gain experience than time on the water and learning from your mistakes.
Tackle Talk
Once again we are very new to game fishing and are not fishing competition rules.
Reel | Shimano Tiagra 30W
Rod | Penn Bluewater 24kg
Line | 15kg
We are extremely lucky to have such an amazing and diverse fishery right on our door step.
Fish 1 done, bring on the next 20! Happy nibbles + tight lines.
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