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Late last week i was invited along on a trip to Jervis bay by a couple of mates Greg and Stewie to chase Marlin and Kingfish from the yaks, i have never fished for marlin before so i just had to go along for the experience at the very least. We arrived at the bay in the early hours of Monday morning and set up our yaks, Greg supplied pre-tied trace's for the Marlin so we geared up our combo's and set of to the bait grounds to collect some livie's.
Once we located a school of baitfish we sent out a burley trail and soon had hundred's of yellowtail yakka's underneath us, along with some rat kings that occaisionally took the small peice of pilchard intended for the baitfish and gave us trouble on our light hand lines. We got enough yakka's, but no Slimey Mackeral which were the preffered choice so we made do with what we had and set off. The Yakka's were bridled then sent out behind us while we trolled across the bay towards Point Perpendicular.
Once we arrived at the point, there were baitfish everywhere in big school's but there didnt seem to be anything else around them showing on the sounder. We trolled through the school's, then tried stopping the yaks and letting the livie swim down deep but the little yakka's received no attention so we continued our troll from Point Perpendicular down towards the landbased game spot, 'the tubes'.
We eventually made it down as close to the tubes as we could get with out disturbing the keen LBG anglers, still without any luck and hope was starting to fade. We all knew the Marlin were definately no guarantee but we were suprised we had not seen any Kingfish. We back tracked back up towards Point Perpendicular with the plan to leave the bay and round the point into the open ocean. As we neared the point Stewie's yakka got hit and for a moment i thought we may have found some Kings but disapointment followed shortly after as he pulled up a Salmon.
We worked that general area for at least 15 minutes hoping the Kingfish were around as well but it was not to be. Again we continued to troll, and as we rounded the point into open water, my livie got hit, but again, disapointment followed as a Salmon launched itself clear of the water. It was a fairly good size, but not what we were after and not what we had put so much effort into chasing. So once again, i bridled another yakka and continued to troll north along the cliff faces with the small amount of hope i had left of getting some decent fish.
After trolling north for a little while longer, we turned around and headed south to try around Bowen Island, and about halfway between the point and the island Stewie got hit again bit the fish didnt connect, and a few minutes after my livie got hit as well but without a hookup. Whatever it was hit good enough to kill the yakka but didnt eat it unfortunately, so another livie was sent out and we continued towards the island.
As we approached the island Greg commented 'ok, here we go, our last chance', and my spirit lifted as we got close enough to the island to see hundreds of baitfish close into the rocks, i thought that maybe some predatory fish may have been nearby and forced them in close, but again we passed through and then back again without a touch.We called it a day and slowly trolled our way back towards the ramp, i was disapointed the King's were quiet but thats fishing i guess.
Hopefully we get another shot at them soon, but with better results next time.
