Ambition report 30th. July'18
June 30, 2018 Sydney 3 photos
Shark (Mako)
Shark (Mako)
Tuna (Yellowfin)
Tuna (Yellowfin)
Yellowtail Amberjack
Yellowtail Amberjack
Tuna (Albacore)
Tuna (Albacore)

Trip Summary

Winter and Spring are the time for Sydney's Tuna, Albacore, Yellowfin and Bluefin. Though it looks like the Bluefin have passed there are enough reports of Yellowfin both North and South to be optimistic. Sadly we are in post Bluefin season though I'm sure we all hope they'll return. It amazes me how they just disappear, here one day in numbers gone the next. Interestingly this year there were some good sized Yellowfin amongst the Bluefin. In this post Bluefin time fortunately for us there are other options. We can concentrate on Kingfish, Blue Eye, Gemfish and Mako sharks as well as hope the Yellowfin turn up. Last Saturday I took Dan and his friends out looking for the Yellowfin but still hoping a Bluefin might show up. We started by catching some live bait to have a shot on the outer reefs where the Kings were making an appearance. To cut a long story short we caught a few baits which were quite quickly converted into Kingfish. Not really large ones but good enough. However what they lacked in size they made up for in numbers. Dan and his mates shared my love for the horizon and whatever it may hold, they'd caught enough Kingies and wanted bigger game. I headed out toward Heatons with my usual spread and a lot of optimism. Around the thousand fathom line the temp started to rise and a few birds started to appear. Meanwhile on the radio I heard a couple of boats up North had found Yellowfin. They'd seen them breaking and even caught a couple on cubes. They were North of us but I didn't know how far so I turned left hoping they weren't too far. I later found out they were off Port Stephens. We didn't end up finding any 'fin but knowing they were there was interesting enough. I later heard someone caught a couple around Heatons and South around JB too. Meantime the mountain is fishing well for Gemfish and Blue Eye. To cap it off the Mako's are showing up too just in time for this weekend's Monster Mako Tournament held by the Sydney Game Fishing Club. Tight lines, Ivan
Ivan Bennett
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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Ambition Report 27th.May’25
Ambition Report 27th.May’25
May 25, 2025
I took Zakk and his friends from North Carolina out on Sunday. Zakk was keen to catch his first Marlin. However, after the weather we’d experienced over the previous week I had no idea what to expect. The charts only displayed the ocean currents which didn’t look very exciting, with no info of temperatures. So, we were basically going out blind, not that I that I trust the charts implicitly, however they do give a good overview. I put the lures in at the Twelve Mile where there were a couple of boats jigging and headed out. The temperature slowly increased to 20.8C at the shelf and as it turned out only increased to 21C at the thousand fathom line. On the way out we saw nothing neither birds nor bait. But I get ahead of myself. Just inside Browns I marked a bait school it wasn’t very solid echo but I did a circle and as I straightened up Ron let us no in no uncertain terms that there was a Marlin behind the *Blue illusion. It hit and took a bit of line but no hook up. When this happens, I always keep an eye on the *Brad ‘J’ on the shotgun. I have found that all too often if a Marlin hits one of the closer in lures and is not spooked it will come in on the shotgun. Sure enough, this one did too and was hooked up solidly, as it turned out the hook went right though the upper bill. It was a long hard fight, the Marlin hardly jumped, saving its energy until Ron took the leader as you’ll see in the video. There was a bit of tag teaming but eventually the Marlin, a quite big Stripy was brought along side and with photo’s taken released. With the pressure off now I continued out hoping to find the Yellowfin which should be here now. At the thousand fathom line I turned around not having seen anything, noting the current was coming from the East, not a very hopeful sign, hoping we might find another Stripy around the shelf. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any more bait, nor saw any birds and with daylight running out it was time to head for home. On the way in we did see a couple of Whales which performed for the charter but conversely also a caution for me. Tight lies, Ivan • All lure used unless otherwise specified are Pakula Lures .
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Ambition Report 27th.April’25
Ambition Report 27th.April’25
May 11, 2025
Today was an interesting day at sea. It actually epitomised Game Fishing…ninety nine percent boredom and one percent mayhem, a lot of the time anyway. I took out Kin and some friends from Hong Kong today. These guys had never caught anything bigger than the equivalent of a Black Bream and were keen to catch a big fish. By any measure it was a very slow day out there today but after hearing of Yellowfin and Marlin caught yesterday the motivation was there to persevere. After several hours of trolling we hooked a Striped Tuna which created a lot of excitement and photo taking. After which we continued on just hoping something else would happen. After several more fruitless hours and with time running out I turned for home. I’d virtually given up on Marlin but as we approached the ’12 Mile’ Ron let us know in no uncertain terms that there was a Marlin following the short corner, a ‘Pakula Evil’. It hit the lure but no hook up then turned away, I thought that that was it but then it or another Marlin came in and took the lure solidly, hooked up and was off running. At the same time the starboard rigger got hit but didn’t hook up. Then amid the mayhem the port rigger was hit and took off at a rate of knots. It was absolute mayhem on deck as you’ll see in the video. Meanwhile Ron was working to clear the shotgun, frantically trying to keep the Brad ‘J’ from being eaten by yet another Marlin. With these guys of limited experience and limited English the last thing we needed was a triple hook up, a double was going to be problematic enough. Fortunately the fish on the ‘Lumo’ dropped off after a few minutes so we could concentrate on just the one fish which after some tag teaming, and lots of motivation, some of which I’ve had to mute from the video, was brought to the boat and released. Thankfully the perseverance paid off and Kin and his friends ended up experiencing the excitement of Game fishing as well as the tedium. Tight lies, Ivan
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