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Marlin fishing at Port Stephens this summer was simply spectacular. Many boats tagged in excess of 10 marlin per day. As usual, the fish were found among the huge bait schools located along the inside of the continental shelf, with many hundreds of fish caught from the grounds known as the ‘Car Park’.
Of the 28 reported marlin recaptures recorded so far in 2012 as part of the NSW DPI Game Fish Tagging Program, 26 have been striped marlin and two have been blue marlin. This is a record for striped marlin recaptures and it’s currently only May! This compares to the previous bumper striped marlin season in 2000, which recorded 20 striped marlin recaptures for the year.
NSW DPI has received release information on 17 of the 28 recaptures so far, of which 14 were either released, recaptured or released and recaptured from the Port Stephens area, as well as an additional eight marlin that were recaptured in the area, as yet without release information.
The furthest travelled of these were two striped marlin tagged off Coffs Harbour in December as they moved southwards with the East Australian Current. These fish clocked up a straight-line distance of 168 and 189 nautical miles respectively before they were recaptured among the crowds fishing the Port Stephens grounds in February.
Most of the tagged fish were recaptured in the same general location, presumably choosing to stay in the area because of the huge quantity of slimy mackerel and cowanyoung (jack mackerel) that had gathered at these rich bait grounds.
The two blue marlin recaptures that were reported to the tagging program were also of significance as they are the first and second blue marlin to be recaptured in NSW waters. One of the blues was released and recaptured at Port Stephens/Newcastle, while the other was released off Kiama in April 2011 and recaptured at Port Stephens in February 2012. Interestingly, the prolific charter boat Flying Fisher was responsible for the release of one of the blue marlin and the recapture of the other (plus an additional two striped marlin recaptures and the tagging of a striped marlin that was later recaptured!). The boat finished the season with more than 110 marlin tagged.
Other individual boats that were
involved with multiple recaptured marlin this year are: Broken Bay GFC boat Murrifin tagged four striped marlin that were recaptured; Victorian boat Happy Hour tagged a striped marlin that was recaptured, and also recaptured two previously tagged marlin – all on the same day in February – for a total of 15 marlin tagged by them that day!
This is a great time to remind everyone to return their tag cards to their local gamefishing club or back to the tagging program.
We are still awaiting the original release details on nine marlin from
Dominic Martyn with a tagged striped marlin recaptured off Port Stephens aboard Al McGlashan’s Strikezone.
this season, but also many other species from past seasons. Please have a look around and send back your completed cards, even if they are several years old as they may still match up with recaptured fish that we have on the database. Also, please keep us updated with fish that you saw were tagged but were unable to retrieve the tag from. It is still useful to log this information so that we can get a better overall estimate on the number of recaptures that are taking place.
The NSW DPI Game Fish Tagging Program issues tags to individuals and fishing clubs using funds from the NSW Recreational Fishing Trust. If you would like to participate in the program please phone (02) 9527 8411 or email [email protected]– Phil BoltonFisheries Manager, Tagging, NSW DPI
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Species Release Date Release Location Est Rel. Length/Weight
Recapture Date Recapture Location Est Recapture
Length/WeightDays At Liberty
Approx. Distance Moved (NM)
Map Ref.
Striped Marlin 1/01/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 70kg 5/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 70kg 35 0 SM 1
Striped Marlin 5/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 65kg 9/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 65kg 4 1 SM 1
Striped Marlin 14/01/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 100kg 5/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 95kg 22 9 SM 1
Striped Marlin 7/01/2012 Newcastle (East) 210cm / 60kg 5/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 90kg 29 1 SM 1
Striped Marlin 5/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 120kg 12/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 210cm/75kg 7 1 SM 1
Striped Marlin 18/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 120kg 31/03/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 240cm/120kg 42 3 SM 1
Striped Marlin 5/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 60kg 16/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 60kg 11 2 SM 1
Striped Marlin 24/12/2011 Coffs Harbour Canyons – 23/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 220cm/75kg 61 168 SM 2
Striped Marlin 10/12/2011 Coffs Harbour (Wide) 220cm / 75kg 26/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 220cm/70kg 78 189 SM 3
Striped Marlin 20/11/2011 Norah Head Canyons 210cm / 55kg 5/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 73.5kg 77 37 SM 4
Striped Marlin 29/12/2011 Tuross Heads (East) 210cm / 60kg 13/02/2012 Ulladulla Canyons 230cm/65kg 46 51 SM 5
Striped Marlin 28/01/2012 Tuross Heads (East) 210cm / 70kg 23/03/2012 Moruya Canyons 74kg 55 16 SM 6
Striped Marlin 1/01/2012 Merimbula (Wide) 220cm 24/02/2012 Sussex Inlet (Wide) 115kg 54 110 SM 7
Striped Marlin 25/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 75kg 15/04/2012 Old Bar (Wide) 80kg 50 63 SM 8
Striped Marlin 12/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 80kg 15/04/2012 Old Bar (Wide) 95kg 63 76 SM 9
Blue Marlin 9/04/2011 Kiama (East) – 29/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 240cm/130kg 326 117 BL 1
Blue Marlin 29/02/2012 Port Stephens (Wide) 110kg 11/03/2012 Newcastle (East) 300cm TL 11 5 BL 2
Summer of stripes
This article is provided courtesy of BlueWater Boats & Sportsfishing magazine. It originally appeared in Issue 92, 2012
www.bluewatermag.com.au
