I went out on Tuesday far from ideal conditions. The wind wasn’t bad but the residual sea from the day before left a crazy ocean. I had on board with Kane, his wife and three kids from Montana and they handled the conditions well. They hadn’t fished salt water and wanted to try for a Marlin. Since I couldn’t travel at any speed due to the bounce back from the cliffs the lures went in early. To both mine and Ron’s surprise a Marlin came up and hit the short corner within minutes but didn’t hook up. We continued on and the kids had a great time catching Striped tuna and the occasional small Mahi Mahi then just past the 12 mile a Striped Marlin came up on the rigger. It hit the lure, ran a few metres and again dropped off. I had recently decided to change over to single hooks but that isn’t going to last long. We continued out and as expected once we got out a bit the sea calmed. In about 150 fathoms inside Browns I saw a mass of Mutton birds working. So, we joined in and worked the area too. We were hoping for Yellowfin. And Yellowfin we found but only jelly beans up to 5 kilo’s in size. Though we didn’t get any Marlin it was still a fun filled day and one I don’t think those kids will forget. On Wednesday I was working in the club with the radio on and it was driving me crazy. Afew boats fishing between the Southern canyons and Kiama were catching what seemed like thousands of Blue Marlin, Spearfish and Yellowfin. I got so frustrated I had to turn the radio off. Later that evening Jamie Mackay ( Groundswell ) rang me after listening to the same reports and asked if I wanted to go out. Consequently, we left early this morning heading to the Southern canyons. We put the lures in at 150 fathoms and headed down to the canyons. Strangely there was virtually no radio chatter as there had been the day before when it was continuous. We hadn’t gone very far when the shotgun took off and after a good fight we tagged a Blue Marlin of about 140 kilo’s. Continuing on we found several flocks of Mutton birds working as I’d seen on Tuesday however today there were no Yellowfin. Working back up to Browns I saw Winston Smart’s boat ‘Reel Smart’ they informed me that they’d tagged a Spearfish and raised another. We worked the area for a while and raised a Striped Marlin which took the rigger and screamed off but again the line went limp. To our surprise in the distance the Marlin was jumping and thrashing the surface. What seems to have happened is that when it was running it dropped the rigger lure and subsequently got tangled in the shotgun, got hooked again and broke the line. We then started for home and later learned that ‘Reel Smart’ had lost another Spearfish and later on Elena Smart had lost a Blue Marlin after fighting it for two hours. Thought we didn’t find all the fish that we’d heard about the previous day there is obviously still plenty of action to be had out there. I for one can’t wait to get out there again. Tight lines, Ivan