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The crisp, early morning westerly winds cut through our many layers of clothing and numbed our fingers as we headed out to the shelf off Narooma, Australia (which is the next port north of the Bermagui. An area which the great Zane Gray made famous...Ed.). The ocean is flat and the sky is crystal clear. I love these Winter mornings, especially seeing the birds playing around with schools of baitfish and the dolphins rounding up sauries, then smashing through them. Winter is the time for big 'fin in this part of the world and although they didn't turn up in large numbers this year, quite a few good fish were caught. The weather played havoc with all of the keen anglers, with the number of days that the trailer boats got out fishing I could count on my hands. This season we'd seen the result of what happens when we try and tackle mother nature at Narooma bar, when a trailer boat with four people aboard ignored many warnings not to cross the bar. They did and as a result two of the men drowned when a wave upturned their boat. When we actually did get out we faced another problem....finding the fish! This season it was a constant problem as the currents were cold (less than 17° C most of the time) and just didn't hold fish like previous years. This was to be my last 'fin assault for the season and my fishin' mate (and skipper..Mr Sutho) and I decided to have an early finish, as we both had to return to work the next day. Midday we agreed to stop cubin' and head for port. It was 11:30am.......only 30 minutes left we were saying to one another, wondering if it was all worth it. We considered at one stage of throwing all our gear overboard, driving the boat up onto the beach, set alight to it and never go fishing again. With only a few minutes to go I allowed the skipper to have the last strip while I kept the 3 hour cube trail going. Another glance at one another and another big sigh of disappointment - thinking once again is it all worth it...the money for fuel, the money for tackle, the long hours keeping balance in a rocking boat under the hot Australian sun. As the wise old man said "Patience is the key to success". If this is true we'd be sick and tired of all that success. My hook was hanging about 6' from the back of the boat, just so my pilchard wouldn't dry out on the deck and not far enough out so the Albatross and other sea birds could get it. Suddenly my rod started bending at the fore grip and 50/80 Beastmaster began to screaming in protest as the 24 kg line peeled from the spool. The fish was taking a lot of line.......fast!! I quickly threw two handful's of cubes around the boat and attended my rod. I'll tell you all, it's a real battle in it's own trying to get the rod out of a rod holder when the fish is so close and ripping 8kgs of drag off the reel. Once it is out the real battle begins. The skipper was throwing cubes around the boat while cranking in his pilchard so he could do another strip. I was praying to the Fish Gods that it wasn't another Albacore. We'd caught a heap of these fish during the year but we wanted to end this day with a 'fin. The fish was still stripping line off the spool. Going stronger and stronger, faster and faster, without pausing. We turned to one another smiling and in unison said "fin!". The fish had taken a lot of line in it's first run but strengthened with the knowledge that it was a 'fin I pumped it back towards the boat. This tug-of-war continue for quite a while and the fish was slowly getting the better of me. I hadn't planned for a long fight....I've caught good size 'fin before and no fight had gone over 20 minutes. My left arm and back began to ache. I slowly became crippled and found myself hugging the gunnel of the boat to ease the pain. After about 25 minutes the fish began to settle into the characteristic arching pattern. I continued to gain line when the fish was on the upturn of it's arch and soon it's was along side the boat. The skipper placed the flying gaff through the 'fin head so none of the flesh was ruined and we both lifted the 50kg+ fish aboard. A few photos later, we realized that this is what we were doing out 30 km from shore and it's all definitely worth it.

After the best ever Marlin season on the Australian Southeast Coast, everyone was hoping that the 'fin would follow suit.....they never did. You were lucky just to get one this season. It's a strange world through. Even as I write this, the Marlin and 'fin have turned up off Bermagui and Narooma. September is supposed to be a quiet month for gamefish! FISH ON!
Roddo - Fisho from Hell - September, 1998

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