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Ambition report 16th.September'19
September 13, 2019 Sydney 2 photos
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Trip Summary

The offshore fishing off Sydney is all about the Fickle Yellowfin Tuna. Here one day gone the next. There are long liners working offshore so they must be somewhere. After the spell of bad weather last week I was keen to get out on Friday since there had been a few 'fin previously. The ocean still looked a bit lively on Friday morning but the decision was to go. So we set off. I planned to run out to the shelf before putting the lures out. Unfortunately with wind against current I was forced to slow down and as it happened, fortunately. The lures went out in about 70 fathoms, at least there was the chance of an early season Striped Marlin. Surprisingly it was only a few minutes after the lures went out that the shotgun, with you know what lure, screamed off. My first thoughts were of a Marlin, but no jumping and running too hard to be a Striped tuna. So you can imagine my surprise at seeing the yellow sickles of a 30 kilo Yellowfin in only 75 fathoms, something I haven't seen in many a year. The interesting thing about this fish is that we caught it on the 'Zero' line. Maybe we should take more notice of it even when it is close inshore. Photo's taken and gear reset we continued on our way. My original aim was to reach the other side of the 'Zero' line in a thousand fathoms. The further we moved offshore the greener and warmer the water, and also more lifeless . Then just inside the thousand fathom line we had a double strike. We saw no birds and no bait, absolutely no sign of life yet we were hooked up. We landed one of the fish, a Yellowfin about 30 kilo's but lost the other when it crossed one of the the lines as it was being cleared. After Friday's fishing I was keen to get out again on Sunday. Unfortunately at the last minute my clients cancelled their charter so I never made it out . However after talking to some of my friends who were out it appears as though the fish have moved on again. Though they found long lines and Long liners setting their gear I didn't hear of anything caught off Sydney but there was some action around the Norah canyons. Even the Kingfish are playing hard to get. One reef one day another the next. However they are still making an appearance in the harbour especially middle harbour. Until next time... Tight lines, Ivan
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Ivan Bennett
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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Looking to experience the best angling opportunities that Sydney has to offer? Hop aboard Ambition Charters, run by one of the most experienced captains in the area!  Captain Ivan Bennett has been fishing for over 50 years now, is a lover of marine l...

Other reports from this charter

Ambition Report 13th.July’25
Ambition Report 13th.July’25
July 13, 2025
I am glad to say those Yellowfin are still out there and in numbers. While travelling out to the grounds with Paul and his friends the radio was non stop reports of people hooking up. Hooking up with doubles and triples with Yellowfin varying from fifteen kilo’s up to and maybe over seventy kilo’s not to mention the occasional Marlin. It was to say the least a most frustrating hour. We finally arrived after what seemed an interminable amount of time and put the gear in. Even then the frustration continued. I seemed to be wherever the fish weren’t. Ron and I were getting restless, almost desperate for a strike. Well it did finally eventuate and you could feel the stress levels plumet as shouts of excitement rose from the deck. We went on to end up with five fish all between twenty and thirty kilo’s. We did lose a few fish when we had multiple strikes even a quadruple, luckily one dropped off before it became a real problem. Having a multiples with inexperienced anglers never having used our type gear and more used to catching Kingfish is quite an experience I can tell you. So, after an interesting day with plenty of fish to share and clean we headed for home. The wind had dropped off and an incredible sun set showed the way. Just had to watch out for the occasional whale. Tight lies, Ivan • All lure used unless otherwise specified are Pakula Lures .
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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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