Unexpected catch trolling - Sydney Offshore

[Scent Blazer Lures]

Had 2 trips in the last couple of weeks, Dolphin Fish and Stripped Tuna, at least 12 fish each time out most around 70-90 cm. We keep around 4-5 dollies for dinner and release the rest, we are not out there to F*cK it up for everyone so we always let most of our fish go. One of the days was horrible, 2-3m swell, 20kt plus winds, raining, but we still managed to pull fish and it did calm down later in the afternoon.

All the fish we kept had their stomachs full of Garfish and small Squid. So logically we filled our lures with Garfish and Squid and those lures got hit more than the others, go figure huh. Also the red/black lures look like a small squid so that worked particular well on the Striped Tuna.The lures with lights in them seemed to get hit more on the overcast days

We haven’t seen any Marlin in our last couple outings and the underwater cameras confirms no Marlin up on our spread, they don’t always appear on the surface you know.

Anyway, about 5.30pm about 4 NM, NE from Sydney Heads, we spot something harassing a whole bunch of small flying fish and garfish that were showering the surface to get away from whatever it was. Hoping it was a Marlin, I drove the boat so that the long rigger lure would pass over the top of it. The lure got the fish’s attention and I could just see a fin following the lure. It was bit overcast and late afternoon so it was hard to make out what it was. I was thinking it was a Marlin or a really big Dollie. The rigger clip cracked open and the 24kg rod keeled over with the line screaming off, so I gave the boat a bit of a gentle squirt to set the hook. I saw something jump out in the distance and I got a glimpse of a white underbelly, so I was still thinking a small Black Marlin. Reeling it in, it had a bit of weight around 40kg I guessed, it went for the occasional run and the runs where headed towards the surface as if it wanted to breach just a like marlin. So I was still thinking it was a marlin.

As it got closer to the boat, I guessed wrong, it was around a 30kg plus Mako Shark on one of our trolling lures. Not a Marlin but still bloody exciting and kind of better, I have landed small beakies before but this is my first Mako Shark on a trolling lure. It was a solid fight even on heavy tackle. We took some photos, videos, then cut the hook off and let it go. We got it on one of our Small Ballyhoo Slant Head lure filled with Garfish and fresh Stripped Tuna inside the bait chamber.

We might have got a bit of the fight on our underwater line camera, will be checking our camera in the next couple days, fingers crossed we got it.

There are a few videos on the way, solo marlin caught, we got another one of a dolphin fish than we ran into a fish trap which is pretty interesting, and now the shark footage. Pretty busy ATM with my real job so I will post them up just whenever we get time.

If want to try our lures then go to www.scentblazer.com. Lure packs are ok value and we deliver within 2-3 days to Australian customers. Put it this way one of lure packs are about the same price as one lure from a tackle shop in Sydney.

Have a good one

Peter - SB Lures

Edited April 10, 2014 by Scent Blazer Lures

[chocolate]

Nice day out peter again love those reports , Keep them coming.

[big Neil]

Well done with the shark

[rockfisherman]

I'm starting to like these scent blazer lures...

If it's to good to be true, it usually is...

[Scent Blazer Lures]

I'm starting to like these scent blazer lures...

If it's to good to be true, it usually is..

thanks mate, good to see I'm starting to win someone over

Edited April 11, 2014 by Scent Blazer Lures

[rockfisherman]

thanks mate, good to see I'm starting to win someone over

I always thought it was a good idea, but to put the stomach content of the fish in the lure is GENIUS.

Everybody knows that a lot of the time when fish lock onto a good source it's hard to get them to take anything else.

Harry

If it's to good to be true, it usually is...

[Scent Blazer Lures]

Thanks Harry, that's exactly right and that's we do that all the time. The other day when we were out we did exactly that. The first keeper Dollie we caught, we opened it up, it has small gars and small squid inside and we put that inside our lures and those lures got more strikes all day.

There will be times the fish will be feeding on a particular type of bait and they won't take anything else, this way we can match the hatch perfectly.

Size can also be a factor, once you open up the fish, pick a lure around the same as the fish inside its stomach.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Scent Blazer Lures

[tomBillfish]

Awesome, just awesome. Is there anything those lures won't.

Very impressed, and keep your reports coming, not enough posting good reports on here.

[Scent Blazer Lures]

Thanks

Awesome, just awesome. Is there anything those lures won't.
Very impressed, and keep your reports coming, not enough posting good reports on here.

thanks mate, yeah I think it pretty rare to get a shark on a trolling lure, I tried to find others on google, but I couldn't find much. I know in the tropics where there is heaps of reef sharks it might be a be more common, but I couldn't find anyone else getting one off Sydney on a lure.

[vo2c88]

Hey Pete,

How you doing? A couple of year back I hooked onto a small mako just outsise of the hawkesbury. Pretty rare I think. Everyone on board was dazzled it took a green halco straight out of the packet. The quickest way to loose a lure :-) Lost it right near the boat when no one was willing to grab it as we had no gaff.

Regards

Vic

[Scent Blazer Lures]

Hey Pete,

How you doing? A couple of year back I hooked onto a small mako just outsise of the hawkesbury. Pretty rare I think. Everyone on board was dazzled it took a green halco straight out of the packet. The quickest way to loose a lure :-) Lost it right near the boat when no one was willing to grab it as we had no gaff.

Regards

Vic

cool, I have heard one similar story, some guy with knife jig got one when going for kingies, It's a first for me and I have done a lot of trolling off Sydney for a number of years now

yeah don't go near the mouth, we tried get the hook out by lassoing the mouth with a rope, it bit through the rope in about half a sec, needless to say we said fu*ck it and just cut the hook off

[sorro]

Hi there

A couple of seasons ago while on a charter with Reef Magic of Sydney ,

I actually caught and landed a small Mako on a skirted trolling lure,everyone

on board including the crew was amazed that it did not cut us off.

[Scent Blazer Lures]

good stuff Sorro, yeah they have some teeth on them, back hook was in the corner of its mouth so we were pretty lucky

[thefisherman6784]

Great job mate

Heaps of good fish

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk