Venturing far and wide to reel in that whale of a sail

Fingers crossed that the weather prophets have it right that conditions will be ideal for Darwin Game Fishing Club’s annual NT Billfish Classic, which starts this Saturday and continues for three days.

Fred Brooks and Robert “Greeny” Green with the estimated 75kg black marlin caught on the last neaps on the way to Bathurst Trench

Fingers crossed that the weather prophets have it right that conditions will be ideal for Darwin Game Fishing Club’s annual NT Billfish Classic, which starts this Saturday and continues for three days.

It looks like there are some billfish around too, and I can vouch for that personally.

On similar tides a fortnight ago, I took the new River To Reef Tommycut out to the Fenton Patches for a shot at some sailfish and perhaps even a small black marlin.

I had with me a secret weapon in the form of Phil Hall, who has plied the waters around Fenton Patches in search of billfish for at least the past 20 years.

Garfish were scarce so mainly we alternated between small, chin-sinker-rigged swimming mullet and skipping Hogy long-tail plastics rigged with double hooks.

The sea was calm and finding bait schools – mainly sardines – was easy enough.

More importantly, we weren’t the only predators which found the bait schools; there were sailfish on the job too.

They reckon that the worldwide average for the number of sailfish sightings converted to actual fish landed is 7 to 1.

Well, luck wasn’t with us as we raised four of the pointy fish, sticking hooks in two of them and watching one dance across the water surface (at the end of my line, God damn!); but alas the two that were on shed the hook.

When a catastrophe of this nature happens – raising four bloody sailfish practically in sight of Darwin and not catching one of them – it leads to a lot of theorising; Phil and I are still discussing the potential reasons.

Notwithstanding, it shows there are sails in close, but no doubt most boats will travel much further afield.

Ken Brown and crew will likely head to the Bathurst Trench off the west-east corner of Bathurst Island, and almost certainly check out Afghan Shoal along the way.

Also on the last neaps, Ken’s team fished Afghan and boated an estimated 18kg sailfish and a 70-80kg black marlin.

How good is that?

They eventually made it to the Trench where a much-bigger black marlin jumped on.

Pausing for a moment, just a month or so ago, one of Ken’s crew bought some rigged baits at the Darwin Game Fishing Club rigging night and auction.

The big black took one of those baits: a swimming milkfish rigged on 175lb stainless wire. Sadly, it broke the wire on one of its many jumps.

Tournament co-ordinator Peter Dienhoff told me that so far 21 teams would be fishing.

“The tournament again this year will encompass the waters from the Peron Islands through to the Bathurst Trench, including the Fenton Patches and the North Gutter,” Peter explained.

“Teams may once again choose to stay on the fishing grounds over the three days and not return to Darwin.

“The only change this year is that the teams that choose to stay out must have a satellite phone on board so that they can report back to Billfish Base at the end of each day’s fishing.

“Surprisingly, over the last couple of years, teams have not been fishing the local waters of the Fenton Patches and the North Gutter, which are easily accessible in 5-6 metre trailer boats, and have produced plenty of billfish over the years.

“One team that has taken the opportunity to fish the waters off Dundee on a regular basis is Doug Saunders and Ken Roderick, and they’ve been catching quality fish too.

“Doug and his team have won the NT Billfish Classic twice in six years and continue to demand short-price odds in the tournament.

“In saying that, the journey across to the Bathurst Trench is always taken with a great deal of expectancy. Last year’s tournament was won from these grounds, and The Forks – which is the start of the trench above the South Gutter – is a great place to start.

“Numerous sails and marlin have been hooked from this area in the last 12 months and this was the very area that the Team “Boss” had its double hook-up on marlin, giving them the outright honours for the 2013 tournament.”

Peter also suggested that competitors get hold of the seven-day wind forecast from the BOM site and see where the calmest waters will be; the wind can vary enormously between Dundee and the Bathurst Trench.

There’s prizemoney of $10,000 for the Billfish Classic. Phone Leigh and Debbie Halprin on 0412 848 267 or email info@darwingamefishing club.com.au if you’d like to be a late starter.