Billfish are biting off Dundee

BILLFISH are still biting off Dundee with many boats heading out over the last long weekend to have a crack

Lucky angler Ben Judd with his black marlin, landed after a 40 minute fight.

BILLFISH are still biting off Dundee with many boats heading out over the last long weekend to have a crack.

The numbers reported were down on the previous week’s, as the billfish seem to be moving away from the area.

However, it is still worth the effort, when the weather is good, to chase these amazing sport fish.

A couple of weeks ago, angler Ben Judd had an incidental catch while fishing wide off Dundee.

Ben said that he and his mates Lumbo and Didge spent three days out on the boat mainly targeting reef fish and other pelagic species.

“On the last day, we woke up with some wicked conditions so we started jigging again for some reef fish,” Ben said. “While I was on the cast deck I noticed something swimming on the surface so I cast my soft plastic gulp at it.

“The big fish engulfed my gulp, turned and came flying past the boat.

“I called it for a sailfish at first, but then after I applied some pressure on it, and it realised it was hooked, it went ballistic.

“At that point, we realised I had hooked a small black marlin and it was going mental — after fighting it for around 40 minutes on my Sustain 5000 reel, I landed it.”

Several black marlin have been landed off Dundee recently with most weighing about 15-30kg.

However, some larger marlin have been landed up to 70kg and they can be a real handful on lighter tackle used to target sailfish.

Black marlin up to 140kg have been landed in the area so it is wise to be prepared when targeting billfish in this area.

Have a few game outfits available, so you are able to handle a big marlin if it appears in your spread.

Many anglers will have one heavier outfit out the back just in case a big marlin is raised.