Few anglers have ever caught a big fish solo, but Richard Abela has achieved an accomplishment that few anglers would even consider possible: catching seven marlin completely unassisted during a single day.

Despite residing in Victoria, Richard regularly tows his 6.7m Noosa Cat Dream Catcher to the NSW coast during the summer and autumn gamefishing season. After a successful start at the marlin hotspot of Port Stephens on the mid-NSW coast, Richard followed the bite south to the ever-productive Jervis Bay.

For two weeks he and his crew did well, but by April 1st his crew had to go. However, with favourable sea conditions and reports of fish out wide, Richard couldn’t resist heading out on his own. It’s something that he’s done before: several years ago he landed a couple of marlin off Bermagui while fishing solo.

Keen for a repeat of this success, he headed out from Jervis Bay for the ground known as ‘The Kink’ and trolled a couple of live slimy mackerel on 37kg outfits. Despite a late start he hooked-up almost immediately, and even though manoeuvring the boat was a big challenge, he was able to release the first fish in under 20 minutes.

He sent out two more baits and didn’t troll for long before he found himself in the daunting position of having to deal with a double hook-up. One of them escaped, but he successfully released the second marlin. The fishing scene was obviously red-hot that afternoon, so rather than risk another double hook-up he re-set just a single rod. Richard said he barely had time for a drink before he was on again. With the third fish released, he needed a well-earnt breather, but before relaxing he re-set another livebait. You guessed it – within seconds there was yet another marlin jumping behind his boat. This one was a black, which luckily stayed near the boat and was brought in for a quick release.

“With four solo releases my body was now starting to feel the pain,” recounts Richard, “but the bite was too good to be true and I just couldn’t resist feeding out more baits.” Sure enough, he was soon hooked-up again. “While fighting this one I marked a second fish on the sounder. I couldn’t resist, so while fighting the first marlin I fed out a second bait and was quickly hooked into my second double-header for the day.

“Excited about the prospect of actually pulling off a double-header on my own, I made short work of the first fish and was soon working on the second one. However, it was an hour before the second fish was finally boatside.”

By this stage it was late afternoon. Richard was exhausted, but has fished enough years to recognise that he was experiencing one of those rare occasions when everything falls into place. “The fishing was just too hot to leave, so I flicked out one last bait and, of course, it was nailed within five minutes,” he said.

Ten minutes later he’d released number seven for the day. His final tally was six striped marlin and one black from nine bites. To the boats nearby that witnessed the proceedings, Richie’s day was probably one to make them green with envy – not everyone shared the same success. As Richard says, “It is a day I will remember for as long as I live!” ?