Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has released a report to help guide future strategies to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in South-East Asia. The report, Net Returns, commissioned by the department and funded by AusAID’s Public Sector Linkages Program, provides guidance to fisheries agencies on strengthening marine capture fisheries management at regional, national and local levels.

Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Dr Mike Kelly said the release of the report comes at a critical time, as food security in South-East Asia is becoming an increasingly important issue, with coastal fishing the only available source of income and animal protein for many millions of people.

“This new report, designed to help overcome the challenge of already depleted fish stocks and to ensure that fisheries are managed sustainably, is a significant policy development for the region,” Dr Kelly said.

“The report was undertaken on behalf of the Regional Plan of Action, an 11-country membership that signed an action plan in 2007 to address emerging regional issues such as rapid fisheries development and overfishing.

“These countries recognise that the pace of fisheries development, coupled with an increase in overfishing and illegal fishing, requires urgent development of greater human and institutional fisheries management and
governance capacity.”

The report was informed by extensive consultation with member countries of the action plan, including Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.

The report Net Returns: A Human Capacity Development Framework for Marine Capture Fisheries Management in South East Asia can be found at: www.daff.gov.au/netreturns

The issue of when – how soon – an angler must remove a rod from a rodholder once a fish has struck has been very contentious for quite some years. The intent of the IGFA rule covering this has always been that an angler must bear the strain of the line rather than waiting until the fish has expended some of its energy before taking the rod from a rodholder.

Adherence to this rule was particularly controversial with the use of heavy tackle. With a 37kg or 60kg outfit loaded-up and pouring line into the wake, many anglers and captains felt that it was not only impractical, but also dangerous to insist that the angler remove the rod from the rodholder and transfer to the gamechair while the boat was still pitching and moving forward. They agreed that the rod should be removed as soon as possible, but felt that the rule’s wording requiring a fish to be struck with the rod in hand was not practical.

This rule has now been debated and reviewed by the IGFA Rules Committee, which has now modified the rule with new wording. The intent of this rule still remains the same, but the wording adds clarity to prevent any disputes in interpretation.
The Rules Committee decided to modify this rule to allow for the manual hooking of fish while the rod is still in the rodholder. This new language accommodates many common perceptions and simplifies the language overall,” said IGFA President Rob Kramer.

Former IGFA Angling Regulations, rule No.2:

If a rod holder is used and a fish strikes or takes the bait or lure, the angler must remove the rod from the holder as quickly as possible. The intent of the rule is that the angler shall strike and hook the fish with the rod in hand.

New IGFA Angling Regulations, rule No.2:

If a rod holder is used, once the fish is hooked, the angler must remove the rod from the rod holder as quickly as possible.

Neil Patrick, well-known Australian marlin fisherman and chairman of Halco Tackle, was recently recognised for outstanding angling achievement at the International Game Fishing Association (IGFA) annual dinner in Florida.

He was presented with the prestigious Gill Keech Heavy Tackle Award for the capture and release of an enormous black marlin, estimated to be more than 1200lb, on 50lb (24kg) tackle, while fishing off the coast of Panama. Only one such award is made each year and it has been won before by two Australians, Bob Lowe and Capt Peter Bristow.

With a wealth of experience behind him, Neil knew when he first saw the big black that he was hooked up on a potential new world record. A fish of that magnitude is something of a holy grail to serious marlin devotees, securing for the angler a place in gamefishing history.

Instead of playing the fight out to its ultimate conclusion on the weighstation gantry, Neil chose instead to release his fish with a satellite tag that had been standing by, ready for important research with what had been expected to be a much smaller marlin. Magnanimously, Neil decided that the scientific value that the satellite-tagged giant black would provide outweighed the importance of his chance for the world record.

As shown here, Guy Harvey’s photos of the fish being tagged mid-air by Whit Davis and Bill Shedd from AFTCO as it jumped at the transom have since become iconic images revered around the world. Guy also dove with the fish to record the capture on
underwater film.

Neil’s passion for gamefishing goes way beyond skin deep. He is an IGFA board member, co-chair of the IGFA Fisheries Conservation Committee and past president of the Game Fishing Association of Australia. He is a heavy-tackle billfish specialist and has fished all over the world for giant blue and black marlin, fighting 1000lb fish in the Pacific, Indian and
Atlantic oceans.

After buying the small Australian lure manufacturer Halco Tackle in the 1980s, Neil transformed the company into an internationally successful business designing and distributing world-class fishing lures to over 70 countries.

IGFA President Rob Kramer (left) presents Neil Patrick with the Gill Keech Heavy Tackle Award for his outstanding angling achievement.

The deep blue waters of the central Pacific come within casting distance of the coastline of the Hawaiian Islands. At times, shore-based island fishermen are surprised by pelagic gamefish like sailfish and even blue marlin, but in January, Oahu shore-caster Kyle Horimoto shocked the fishing community when he pulled in an 81lb sailfish with the body conformation of a blue marlin.

Could this be some kind of hybrid? Not likely, but National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist Robert L Humphreys Jr examined the fish, took measurements and collected some fin clips for DNA analysis just in case.

BlueWater’s resident expert Dr Julian Pepperell examined the photo and said the odd shape was most likely the result of some kind of developmental defect. “It looked like a form of dwarfism where the spine is much shorter than it should be, possibly with fewer vertebrae than normal for the rear half of the body,” Dr Pepperell said. “Presumably this would be genetic,” he added. “I recently caught a sailfish in Western Australia that had a decided ‘kink’ in its body and had a photo sent to me of a blue marlin with the same sort of deformity. I also have an old photo of a yellowfin tuna of around 30kg with a badly bent spine. In all three cases, the fish had obviously survived to adult size, although their swimming abilities could not have been as efficient as a normal fish.”

– Jim Rizzuto

When saltwater gamefishing, you never really quite know what you’ll encounter. In New Zealand this past summer there were plenty of surprises, but none as startling as the one Nathan Adams received in late February.

Fishing from his 6.8m trailerboat Western Break, he was trying for a long shot by slow trolling a single bridled skipjack tuna in shallow water near Houhora at the top of the North Island. A large black marlin had been seen in the vicinity of the ‘Shallow Patch’ and he thought it was well worth a try.

After two hours of trolling, he towed the bait into a mere 50m of water. Two massive explosions erupted behind his boat and his 37kg stand-up outfit buckled over, rapidly losing 500m of line against a firm drag.

They gave chase, backing down hard. Some 20 minutes later they were directly above the fish and found it had died and was lying on the bottom. Exerting all the pressure he dared, Nathan slowly lifted the leviathan and finally brought the fish into view. They were stunned, hardly comprehending what they were looking at. Beside them was the form of a massive Pacific bluefin tuna, a fish so big that it revised New Zealand’s angling history and is now an IGFA All Tackle World Record claim!

They could not even begin to lift the massive tuna into their boat, so enlisted other nearby anglers to assist. They finally got the head out of the water for the short run back to the Houhora weighstation. When the scales were pulled down to 335.4kg, everyone was aghast! The current All Tackle World Record is 325kg.
This story didn’t end there, however. A mere three days later while competing in the NZ Nationals, Nathan and his friend Alan Langdon were trolling a colour break not far offshore from Ahipara, on the North Island’s West Coast, when they got a strike. Alan picked up the rod and was amazed when a large black marlin poked its head out 15 minutes into the battle! After an hour-and-a-half the prize was theirs and hauled into the boat with great effort. Again the scales were pulled down hard, this time to 358kg, easily scoring them not only the largest fish in the competition, but also the most meritorious!

They completed their week with a further 10 striped marlin and a broadbill swordfish. What an amazing few days on the Western Break, but their incredible form also begs the question – what next?!

While captures of blacks have recently averaged less than five fish each year, this season has been far more productive, with well over a dozen landed before Easter, including a magnificent 375kg specimen (documented in last issue) taken early in January. Most have been considerably smaller than that initial catch, but some larger individuals have been lost – several after marathon battles.

One of these slugfests came in mid-March at the Cavalli Islands near the famed Bay of Islands. Visiting boat Insight, skippered by veteran Duncan Gibbs, observed two large marlin feeding in shallow water near well-known Taheke Reef late one afternoon. After securing and bridling a live skipjack, the offering was taken almost immediately right behind the transom of the boat. Then the black marlin, estimated at over 400kg, took off on a blistering 400m run on 37kg tackle with its head completely out of the water, planing on its pectoral fins!

Thereafter it settled down and went deep, taking its would-be captors on a northerly course. The next time it showed itself was at 10pm, jumping close-by in bright moonlight. A drawn-out battle ensued for the remainder of the night, resuming in earnest the following morning. By then a 25 to 35kt south-easter had whipped-up a nasty sea and they had chased the fish for more than 25 miles to the north.

After 17 hours the wireman had watched the swivel break through the surface 10 times, frustratingly always just out of reach. Finally he was able to grab it, but the 500lb mono snapped as the boat rolled in the slop.

The team, having never seen anything like that previously, later exclaimed, “Gee, in comparison blues are pussies!”.

Capt Rick Pollock