Can it be done?

[theoh]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum and need some advice.

I have a 4.6m Stacer with a 4 stroke 60 hp Merc on the back. At the moment my brother and I have been fishing just off the heads, going out to the colours etc and generally been staying fairly close in and catching small pelagics etc aswell as fishing the harbour for kings and jews.

We have just sold our little previous little tinny and are thinking about buying a pair of TLD 50's and chasing a few little marlin and tuna relatively close in.

Is this going to be worthwhile or are the opportunities to catch these fish too few and far between. How close do the marlin come in and what about the tuna? It could be a lot of money for not much fish. What do you reckon?

Cheers

Theo

[beats]

It's possible. John knoll has done it twice, out of Broken Bay in a 4.3m savage jabaru. The key to success is warm currents in close & live slimies slow trolled.
I think Kris may have a photo of one of them, I'll try to get it posted for you.

[mr antenna]

Try going out to 12 mile reef ,it pretty close for your size boat,as long as you pick a good day,We hooked up to a Marlin at 12 mile last july.

[scottyj]

It can be done mate. We hooked up a small black drifting small yakkas around the bondi bouy last easter. It was on a week day, no other boats out there ( for a change). It hit a livey first and didn't hook up but came back in 10 seconds flat for the other one and hooked up. We only fish out of a 4.5m cuddy cabin.

[theoh]

Cheers for the responses, looks like we'll be heading out when the waters flat. Interesting about the slimies, I've read that live baits outfish lures on small boats as you can't get a decent spread like you can on a bigger game boat so you're more unlikely to tease them up.

Are yellowfin on the cards in the winter or do they tend to hang out a bit wider?

[aglover]

theoh

A small boat fin out of sydney is a long lost opportunity but It can still be done for marlin. Due to the lack of offshore ability in your small boat though you can waste a LOT of time trolling sydneys inshore waters for fish that simply arent there. Successful basic game fishing is based on some simple fundementals and the most important of those is to keep an ear very close to the ground as to where and when the fish are biting. Nothing is more vital to game fishing than fresh info and inshore small boat fishing doubly so.
The other trick you can use to bag a bill or fin from your small boat is to travel. Spots like SWR and bermi are famous not for some disproportionate abundance of fish but more so there accessibilty to them. A lot of spots hold good numbers of fish but if you need a 50footer to get to them not to many are going to get caught. but again info is vital also these spots are very depressing when they are dead.
Finally sydney small boat inshore game fishing is a patience game you WILL need to spend a lot of time effort and fuel to get one. Im into my third season trying to get one solo from my boat but even though Ive caught plenty off bigger boats in that time their simply hasnt been sufficient numbers run into waters where I can have a good shot at them from my 16 footer. Saying that my goal once acheived will be all the sweeter for the time spent trying.

good luck in your own personal quest its worth the effort