The year 2017 certainly ended with a bang. The fireworks celebrated not just the end of a successful year but a great couple of days for me. Hopefully it will continue into my summer Chartering at Port Stephens. Funnily enough while I was preparing Ambition last week I received a deposit from a passing Gull. What is purported to be good luck certainly proved to be true. I took Dr. Cody Hanish and Nick Seaward and their friends out chasing their first Marlin last Thursday. Conditions were ideal. It took a while but as I crossed the shelf inside Browns we took a hit from a beautiful Striped Marlin. As with most Stripes it put on a great display before being brought to the boat, photographed and released. We continued trolling up to the 'Bait Station' but with no sign of bait or bird activity it looked grim. I turned to run down sea back to the '12 Mile' and hadn't gone a hundred metres when we hooked up another Stripy, this one smaller than the first but just as feisty. So with two Marlin under our belt we headed for home much to the relief of a seasick angler. On Friday I took Jesper and his friend from Sweden out. After the previous day's fishing we and they were all fired up. Again it started out slowly but at least there was a lot of bait showing but still little bird activity. As if to repeat the previous day just as we crossed the shelf inside Browns we connected with a nice Marlin. It went crazy and when it first showed itself I saw it was a Blue of around 120 kilo's. I was surprised to say the least even though there had been a couple taken previously. Anyway, Jesper handled it like a pro and soon had it boat side. I repeated my track of the previous day and just as had happened then after turning to run down sea we had another hit. We weren't so lucky with this one though. For some reason the wind-on failed and all we got back was the loop at the end of the double. Worse I lost my favourite Lumo, now I have to break in another one. As if to make up for this loss shortly after we landed a good sized Mahi Mahi. So, the next time a present comes down from up high go fishing...imagine your luck if it was a Pelican's present, the mind boggles. Most boats trolling are encountering Mahi Mahi and all good sized fish. They don't seem to be hanging around the traps and FAD's in numbers yet but they are a welcome catch while chasing Marlin. Port Stephens fired last week with quite a bit of action around the Norah and Newcastle canyons. Not long to go now before I'll be running Charters at Port Stephens. Tight lines and all the very best for the New Year, Ivan Home