Sydney Easter Tournament
April 2001 NSW
Jeni fished the 2001 Easter tournament aboard the boat “BLACK PETE” with James, Pete and Karen Thackeray from Broken Bay Gamefishing Club. Due to a complication in Jeni not remembering the names and faces of certain people, she ended up on BLACK PETE instead of on the BLACKWATCH boat that invited her called SUREEL. The full story is long and involved, but quite funny. If you ever meet up with Jeni, make sure you ask her.
The first day for the event was quite rough and BLACK PETE stayed inside the heads as James rested his head after the Friday night celebrations. Sunday shone through with perfect swell, wind and sunshine to make for a great day’s fishing. The team hooked up to a marlin in the first few hours and Jeni was first on strike. The gunnels on BLACK PETE are very low and care is a must when on the back deck. The outfits they use are all stand-up with a mixture of 24 and 37 kilo Shimano Tiagras.
The first fish to come in to the spread was a striped marlin that played with the lures for what seemed a long time until it finally hooked up. Striped marlin are renowned for playing with the lures and this particular one took a lot of enticing to get it to take the lure. Jeni repeatedly wound up the lure fast and then freespooled it back. The usual advice from the experts is don’t freespool lures at all, but in this case it worked. It was the 37kilo outfit that hooked up and James strapped Jeni into the Black Magic gimbal and harness as the line peeled off the reel.
Forty minutes later James tagged the estimated 100 kilo striped marlin at the boat and released it back to fight another day. It’s always a wonderful feeling to successfully release a good fish.
Not many marlin were caught that weekend and Jeni won the prize for champion female angler. There were a lot of sharks tagged and a few captured for the weekend. One in particular weighed in at 384kilos. It was just recorded when the hung fish spewed up 10 kilos of food all over the weigh station. One way to surely clear a crowd!
The presentation night followed with good food, drinks and chatter amongst all the competitors. The long weekend had not finished and many of the crew kicked on in the city till daylight. Sydney is a good fun, picturesque city with an abundant supply of productive fishing grounds right at its front door. In fact it is one of the few places where you can catch a billfish in every month of the year. It’s certainly well worth a visit with a fishing trip included.