Marlin Fishing.....1st for my son

[twoutes]

I just got back from yet another marlin fishing trip, but this one was very special for me. This time l took my 14 year old son Mathew with me for his first chance to do battle with a marlin. We ended up tagging and releasing 3 striped marlin rangeing from 70kg to 110kg. Mathew caught the largest one on 24kg Stand up. He did a great job.
We raised two other marlin on our teasers, but did not succeed in hooking them. I suppose that's why they call it fishing and not catching.
The fishing was a little tough out of Bateman's Bay this year so we travelled another 1 hour north each day by car and trailer, and then another 30 mile run by boat, further north to fish out of Jarvis Bay, where some fish were holding on large schools of Slimey Mackeral, which the marlin were feeding on

Check out this short 5 minute clip of all the action.

[skip]

Excellent Joe, you must be very proud and I'm sure Matt was delighted. When you tag the fish do you actually have certain information on the tag? Perhaps you can run us through how that works.

Would also be nice to know a little more about the rigs, rods, reel, line used, straight mono, or spectra backing etc. I see you had your trusty Shimano TLD 50II out

[twoutes]

Thanks Nick. I'm glad you asked. My trusy TLD caugh 2 out of the 3 marlin. Funny that!
It is spool with 950 metres of Maxima Tournament Silver Mono line. I re spool it after every 4 to 6 large fish, due to the stretch in the line, and because it has memory. This is good insurance.
On the end l tie a double with a 75mm long knot called a plat. To this the wind on leader is attached. 400 lb Moimi mono leader about 6 metres long.
The rod is a shimano beastmaster, which you can not buy any more, and wish l had 2 more. They are very soft and easy on the back when fighting those big fish.

The tag card is sent to NSW Fisheries who record all the info on tagged and recaptured fish. If you catch a fish with a tag you can ring them and they will send you all the info, and a nice certificate too.
THe tag card has info like Name of angles, estimated weight and length of fish, location etc....
I hope this helps, and please do not hesitiat to ask more questions.

Take Care.

Joe