Liquidfocus

I first realised that there was a potential to take a billfish by spear whilst working as a fisheries officer at Forster on the Mid North Coast of NSW. On sea patrols between Cape Hawke and Seal Rocks I would regularly see small Blacks finning on the surface and it was at that time that I started to refine my equipment so that it would be up to the task (speargun, float and line). Alas the season wound up and a transfer to Bathurst put spearfishing on hold for a number of years other than an annual Coral Sea trip. While landlocked I concentrated on my other passion at that time, bowhunting. In the four years that I was away from the coast I worked hard to achieve a personal goal with the bow by being the first to take a stag of each of the six major deer species found scattered around Australia from Arnhem Land to the Victorian High Country. Shortly after taking one stag of each deer species I completed the bowhunting grandslam of Australian game animals with the final critter a very feisty 550kg Buffalo bull from Melville Island.

Buffalo caught with bow in Melville

7 years ago I transferred to Coffs Harbour and fully revived my lifelong passion for spearfishing. Within a short period I teamed up with a likeminded bluewater spearo, South African expat Gavin Smithers. Our first successes were on Sailfish with 2002 being a cracker season for them off the Coffs Coast. We each speared a fish in the 40 to 45kg range that year while hunting for Wahoo during the Autumn. These magnificent fish are amazing to see underwater as they charge onto the scene and flare up their sails in an effort to impress. Unfortunately their eating qualities leave a lot to be desired but despite this we ate the lot to ensure nothing was wasted. Their incredibly tough skin ensures that the spear flopper toggles solidly and Sailfish will generally fight on or near the surface without the spectacular jumps performed by Marlin and large Dolphinfish.

Sailfish caught by speargun in Vanuatu

Late during the 2002 season we were drifting in 50 metres of water east of South Solitary Island amongst vast schools of surface bait when Gavin found himself surrounded by panicking Alligator gar leaping out of the water. A monster Saily came charging in on Gavin and he took the shot. 20mins later he wrestled the 63.2kg brute back to our 15 foot tinny – a new and still current world record Pacific sailfish.

Gavin Smithers with Sailfish

Our next serious Billfish encounter took place in 2003. While chasing mackeral off Coffs I got a call from a line-fishing mate who advised that a nearby 30 metre bait reef had produced a few Black marlin that morning. Gavin and I got there quickly and deployed a Rob Allen flasher while diving in the vicinity of the plentiful Slimy mackeral and Yellowtail bait schools. After about an hour in the water I caught a glimpse of a Black marlin on the edge of the 10 metre visibility as I ascended with no shot possible. Gavin took the next drop and I watched him from the surface as he swam slowly into the current. He casually glanced over his shoulder back toward the flasher then slowly brought the gun to bear in that direction as a Black glided into view, obviously checking out the flasher. Next thing Gavin’s taken the shot and the rig-line and float tear off on the surface with Gavin in tow. After a good fight he lands the 35kg Black marlin – the first marlin to be landed by a spearfisher off Coffs Harbour.

Black Marlin spearfished by Gavin Smithers

By this time both Gavin and I were motivated to spend a lot more time in pursuit of Marlin. Two years of learning the hard way, countless days at sea and talking to any game fisherman who would listen and we finally teased up a marlin on the edge of the shelf. Years of anticipation and determination all came down to this one opportunity. As I slipped into the water I submerged and scanned the surface layer. Half concealed behind the prop wash I could see the electric blue colours of a lit-up marlin . As I came within range I tracked the fish as it charged left and right looking pretty cranky. It was a solid Black of about 80kgs. Just as I am pulling the trigger the gun lurches back wildly in my hand and goes off, missing the fish completely. The Black has one quick pass and confidently swims off into the blue unscathed. I can’t believe my rotten luck. I come back to the surface and look back toward my boat. Sure enough there is my rigline leading straight to the stern where it is caught up with my RA float still aboard!!

Shattered is a complete understatement!. We had tried for years to make this happen and when it finally came together the most basic rule was forgotten - clear the rigline. I was thinking that this opportunity might not be repeated for another couple of years and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep for a week. Two hours later, 110 metres of water and my luck reversed – I just couldn’t believe it. A determined slashing attack on the teasers and over I go once again. This time everything goes smoothly and I placed a good solid shot from the 1.3m RA into the vitals of a magnificent Striped marlin. Sea conditions were near perfect so Gavin joined me in the water with the video and still cameras. A ten minute surface fight and it’s all over. I have my first marlin in my hands. Gavin and I then dragged the 55kg fish into my tinny and we called it a day!. This fish proved to be quite good eating compared to the Sailfish.

Striped Marlin, speared by Brett Vercoe

The seed was now firmly planted in my mind that it may just be possible to take one of each of the Pacific marlin species – the Striped, Black and Blue marlin. The Striped was already in the bag. It’s a mid-shelf to shelf edge animal generally. Juvenile Blacks are found closer to shore usually but the larger Blacks will mix it with Striped marlin in deeper shelf waters. The Blue is a very different species. They’re usually solo animals found in the true oceanic waters off the edge of the continental shelf. Their numbers are not great compared to the other two species and their fighting abilities are legendary. Blues are the largest of the marlin species with a potential maximum weight in excess of 1500lbs or 700kgs, although the largest found off the Australian East Coast are about 400kgs. The Blue was going to be the toughest challenge and I knew that I would have to do a lot of research to improve my odds of success. To add to the challenge I decided that I wanted to take all three species from my 5.2 metre tinny using my own gear and techniques.

I spent the rest of that 2006 Summer and early Autumn trying my hardest to get a crack at a Black but luck was not on my side and before we knew it the season had passed. We were getting much better at raising fish but every time I jumped in it was on another Striped marlin and Gavin would jump in on another Black! Murphy is a vicious bastard!

We were seeing some amazing sights along the way, like huge pods of Common dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins, Melon-headed whales, Minke whales, baitballs attended by Silky sharks, Cobia, Dolphinfish and tuna. A completely different host of seabirds and marine animals are found once you clear the shelf. On one occasion we witnessed a plus 5.5 metre White completely clear the water while chasing prey near the surface just 40 metres from our boat. I felt like a complete turkey as I stood there with mask and fins on and camera in hand. I had been just about to jump in the water as this happened! We gave that area a very wide berth! Interestingly the greater proportion of White encounters I have had have all been in 100 metres or more of water and on every occasion they’ve been spectacularly big fish.

Sea conditions varied from glass-outs to southerly busters and everything in between. Commonsense dictates that for this sort of shelf work your boat must be up to the task from a seaworthiness perspective, your motor must be very reliable, all the correct safety gear carried and you need a reasonable ability to read the weather.

For two years off and on I had been trying to raise a fish in deeper water off the shelf. At least twenty full days off the edge with not a scale to show for it was really testing my patience and that of my support crew. On a balmy day in March 2007 Gavin Smithers, Charlie Vassalo and I were once again well wide of the shelf. I had just been joking with the guys that I reckoned that there was really no such thing as a Blue marlin - it was just a vicious rumour spread by Caltex! 15 minutes later there is a slight flick of water near one of the teasers and I roll into the drink to check it out. Meanwhile Gavin says to Charlie that it’s probably a Dolphinfish.

As soon as I leveled out I could see the bulk of a marlin at the extreme edge of the 40 metre visibility. It looked subtly different in body shape to any other billfish I had seen but there was an element of doubt in my mind that this was really a Blue. The moment the fish saw me it lost interest in the teasers and warily swam in a big arc out to the east showing little curiosity toward me and in fact it appeared cautious and wary. I was very aware of the Blue’s legendary reputation as a tough and determined fighter so I was heavily gunned for the encounter with a four rubber Collins. I tried to close the distance but it would not tolerate a direct approach and I couldn’t get within range like this. I then tried a non-direct but converging angle but this wasn’t closing the gap any closer than about 15 metres. By now I’m thinking after all this effort I’m not going to get a shot. Okay, I’ll treat him like an oversize Wahoo. I dropped to about 5 metres, turned my head away from the fish and slowly swam at right angles. I snuck a quick glance over to it and sure enough it had come in for a quick look but was still outside maximum range. As soon as I made eye contact it spun around and started to tail away from me again. I tried to chase it but it just swam even further away from me. I knew I would only have one more possible attempt before it completely lost interest and left. I tried the same technique again but this time I showed a bit more discipline and kept my eyes averted for what seemed like ages. This time I swung the gun before turning toward the fish and as I made eye contact I could see that the fish had come as close as it was going to and was now slowly moving off. It was now or never, the marlin was at extreme range and moving quickly now from left to right.

I held the gun about 30cm over the marlin’s shoulder and took the longest shot of my life. An explosion of bubbles and the simultaneous release of the breakaway as the shaft pulled all the shooting line off the gun made me think I had missed. As the bubbles cleared I could see that despite aiming high I had hit him low and further back than I would have liked due to the long range. As I watched him turn up the speed I saw the stainless wire instantly tear a gash about 25cm long from the entry wound. That’s it - I was now resigned to losing the fish a short while into the fight. A bitter disappointment, a wasted opportunity and a tragic waste of a great fish. I grabbed the floatline as the first air-filled float rushed by me and I felt the 40metres of Riffe bungee load up. Behind the first float I had another 25m of bungee and then a foam-filled RA float. I had to stay connected to the floatline or the marlin would simply tow it toward the horizon leaving me in the middle of nowhere.

I found myself being towed across the surface at incredible speed. I was planing with my head out of the water with the tinny cruising alongside me. It was at this point that Charlie said to Gavin “That’s no Dolphinfish!” The Blue continued this scorching surface run for about 600 metres before suddenly sounding. I watched in awe as the air-filled float was pulled to about 15 metres depth, staggered there for 30 seconds, then very slowly came back to the surface where it bobbed vertically and mostly underwater. I couldn’t believe that the head had not yet torn free but I was still at this point resigned to inevitably losing this great fish. After about 5 minutes hovering over the vertical rig-line I made an attempt to bring it toward the surface but after hauling in a few metres I felt pressure on my ears. I looked up to see the surface 5 metres above me - all I had done was hauled myself down the rigline!

I was going to be unable to have much effect on the marlin until it knocked up and I could overpower it. A quick calculation of stretched rigline, stainless wire and shaft length had me guessing that the fish was about 100 metres below me. A struggling fish at that depth for any period would attract all manner of nasty sea monsters so now even if the head miraculously holds I’m going to lose it to a bloody shark! We had a marlin demolished in this fashion by a monstrously large shark only a month or two earlier.

Twenty minutes later and I made the first 50cm of line on the fish. Slide and clip, slide and clip. Metre by metre I gained on the fish until it came back into sight and eventually I found myself at the stainless wire. I loaded up my 1.2 RA for a finishing shot and it was now time to clip it onto my rigline and attempt to dispatch the still struggling fish. As I closed in on him I started thinking to myself “you just might land this!” I saw that he was much thicker through and solidly built than any previous marlin I had encountered. As it turned to the right I punched the spearshaft through both gills and the fish was dead in minutes. I couldn’t believe my luck. I wish I’d hit him there in the first place. When I checked the point where the slip-tip had toggled I saw that it hadn’t moved a centimetre on that side so in fact there was little risk of the head pulling out after all.

As I hauled the fish aboard I started second-guessing myself about the correct identification of the fish but all the differentiating features were there, plus the depth of water and location was typical Blue habitat. We got the fish back to shore where the identification was confirmed and we weighed it in at 78kgs. This fish was better eating than both the Sailfish and Striped marlin, probably because of its relatively small size. The average Blue marlin encountered off the NSW East coast is about 125 to 150 kgs.

Blue Marlin, caught spearfishing, on the beach

It almost seems that the more you want something the harder it is to get. I next spent 20 or so days trying as hard as I could to catch up with a Black marlin but the season was slowly disappearing before my eyes. I looked for them at South West Rocks, Port Macquarie, Port Stephens and Coffs Harbour. I did bump into one while chasing Wahoo at North Solitary but it was in very strong current and I couldn’t get back to it. The season had well and truly finished in NSW when I got a call from Luke Fallon, a professional game boat skipper mate from the Gold Coast. Luke said that there was a very late hot bite off Mooloolaba centred on some massive bait schools in the 55 metre contour. This was highly unusual as the Blacks should have disappeared from the coast and drifted out into the Pacific in a north easterly direction by this time.

I hitched my plate tinny up and towed it to a friends house at Coolum. Next day Gavin and I launched at Mooloolabah and motored out in search of bait about 20kms offshore. We knew we were in the right area when we saw 4 game fishing boats plying back and forth. Within 30mins we had action as a bill came out of the water and slashed at a teaser. I jumped in and closed the distance on a beautifully lit up young Black marlin. I watched as the marlin moved in on a whole striped tuna that we were using as burley and suddenly I was overcome with a sense of déjà vu. Just before I came within range my rigline pulled up tight. About 3 metres down no one could hear me scream as I tried furiously to tow the boat backward toward the marlin. I could do nothing as I watched the Black position itself vertically under the tuna before wolfing the 4 kilogram fish down. The marlin chomped on the fish while remaining in a vertical position and I could see blood and flesh billowing from its gills. Any minute now I’m thinking the rigline will be cleared and I’ll get my shot!

Next the young marlin decides that the tuna is a bit big so with a single tail flick it launches itself out of the water vigorously shaking it’s head. I see the tuna fly and splash back into the water immediately followed by the marlin. It then arcs around in front of me just outside my 1.3 metre RA range before casually gliding off. I surfaced and once more looked back to my boat to see the rigline caught on the port bollard. I indicated the hang-up to Gavin and he cleared it so that I could look for the marlin but it was long gone. As a consolation a school of bull Dolphinfish glided in and I shot the biggest fish of about 7kgs in frustration.

A couple of hours later and I jumped in on a majestic Sailfish that I let pass. The next encounter resulted in my teasers being trashed by a Wahoo with a mouth full of razor blades. Day two and the weather was deteriorating badly but we still managed two Sailfish encounters, some Dolphinfish but unfortunately no marlin. The bait schools were dispersing and bad sea conditions forced us to return to Port by lunch-time. Gavin had to return to Coffs next day but I chose to stay while the fish were still possibly about. The third day was a write-off due to a strong wind warning so I visited Tony Heugh for a good catch-up and to plan some future adventures. That evening I caught up with Steve Clark from Mooloolaba and we organised to meet the next morning for a final attempt at the Blacks.

It took quite a bit of work to locate a single school of bait being hammered by dolphins. The game fishermen had given up as the vast bait schools had moved off the coast and taken the predators with them. I got the gear ready and deployed the teasers and within 5 minutes we had action. As I slid into the water I was expecting a Wahoo or Dolphinfish but luck was with me once more as I came face to face with a young Black marlin. As it cruised around me I managed a shot through both gills with the RA. Blood was billowing from the marlin as it circled below me at 5 metres and I knew from the shot that all I had to do was stay connected and the fish would be mine. Very anxiously I started to haul the rigline in and without too much fuss I got my hands on the spearshaft. I then reached out to grab the base of its tail and that’s when the marlin went ballistic! It lunged out of my hands with surprising strength and dived vertically at top speed. I’d suddenly gone from nearly having the fish in my hands to potentially losing it when it reached the end of the 25 metre rigline and tried to pull the float under. Thankfully he reversed his direction at about 20 metres and came racing straight back at the surface launching free of the water with the spear still through it and crashing back into the water right near the boat. That last burst of adrenaline induced energy was too much for the fish and I was able to grab him by the bill and get him into the boat. Yeeha! It was done at last. We spent the next few hours trying to raise a fish for Steve but the bait had moved on and the bite was finished. I definitely got my Black marlin at the eleventh hour. The eating qualities of the young 30kg Black marlin was similar to the Striped marlin.

Black Marlin, spearfished by Brett Vercoe

All of the billfish featured in this story were taken from either my 15′ or 17′ tinny using techniques developed after many days at sea and plenty of trial and error. I found the learning curve immensely satisfying and every fish taken was consumed (even the saily!). Not only was it extremely satisfying to finally complete my Pacific marlin quest but it was almost a relief given all the time and effort involved. Now I could concentrate on having a bit of fun, filming future billfish action and putting some better quality eating fish on the table. Sincere thanks for the patience displayed by Gavin Smithers, Charlie Vassalo and Steve Clarke.

I understand that individuals often have very strong opinions regarding billfish with some people seeing them as too majestic to shoot and others seeing them as the ultimate spearfishing trophy. The majority of linefishers targeting billfish rightly practise tag and release with only the occasional fish being killed. I respect the opinion of others however from my 30 years experience with commercial and recreational fisheries I have no qualms in taking the occasional billfish by spear as long as it is consumed and not wasted. The current NSW bag limit for Sailfish is 1 per day and for the Striped, Black and Blue marlin species, 1 of each per species per day.

The marlin quest continues with an Azores trip planned in pursuit of the remaining marlin species, the Atlantic White marlin and the Atlantic Blue marlin.