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If you were planning a trip to Australia to go marlin fishing, where would you head? If you prefer heavy tackle and want to catch a giant black marlin, the obvious choice would be the Great Barrier Reef off Cairns and Lizard Island in north Queensland. If you’re looking for adventure and an untouched, off-the-grid destination, the remote town of Exmouth in Western Australia would be for you.
However, if you want to catch lots of black, blue and striped marlin in a location that offers many modern amenities, it would be best to head to Port Stephens in New South Wales (NSW). The other billfish hotspots in Australia that offer such billfish diversity are difficult to get to. Meanwhile, travel to Port Stephens is a breeze thanks to its proximity to Sydney.
The Fishery
The magnificent waterway of Port Stephens is just 90 miles to the north of Sydney, and it’s larger than our world-famous Sydney Harbor. It stretches out over 18 miles inland from its Pacific Ocean headlands and covers a massive 52 square miles before filtering out into two major river systems.
The port boasts 15 pristine, white sandy beaches, making the whole area an extremely popular holiday destination. All kinds of boating activities thrive here year-round, and one of the biggest attractions, of course, is the incredible fishing, both inshore and offshore.
The vast offshore grounds are famous for big-game fishing, and many light- to medium-tackle world records have been broken here over the years, including Enrico Capozzi’s three black marlin records taken on 2-, 4- and 6-pound tackle. The one on 6-pound tackle weighed an astonishing 735 pounds.
Saltwater fly-fishing enthusiasts are also attracted to Port Stephens, and one look at the IGFA record chart will show you why. Renowned saltwater fly expert and Hall of Famer Tom Evans holds a number of records on all three of the targeted marlin species: black, blue and striped. Experienced lady angler Jody Pate also holds several fly-fishing records on billfish caught off Port Stephens.
Plenty of other species are also available, including mahimahi, wahoo, spearfish, yellowfin tuna, longtail tuna, and even the odd sailfish. The inshore grounds between Port Stephens and the town of Newcastle, just 18 miles to the south, have been recognized for decades as a nursery for great white sharks. Before great white sharks were protected and banned from capture, many record-breaking monster whites were caught and weighed-in here.
These days, sport-fishing anglers are interested in the incredible amount of marlin that turn up in Port Stephens every year. Throughout the warmer summer months from early December through the end of May, offshore currents from the northern Coral Sea push south and tropical species turn up, including good numbers of black and blue marlin. The mixing of these warm tropical currents with the cooler, more temperate waters from the southern Pacific Ocean also produces vast numbers of striped marlin. Anglers don’t have to venture too far offshore to find large bait schools of slimy mackerel and yellowtails (yakkas). In turn, plenty of black and striped marlin are caught here around the many inshore islands and reefs.
Heavy-tackle anglers looking for action with larger blue marlin always head to the deep canyons out past the continental shelf, more than 25 nautical miles offshore of Port Stephens. One of the interesting techniques many anglers use here when trolling lures for blue marlin is to include a minnow-type lure down the middle of their spread. The Halco Lazer Pro and Shimano Assassin 125F are two favorites because they perform well at 8 to 9 knots. These minnow lures can be deadly on what we call “marlin bycatch.” Tuna and wahoo are suckers for these lures.
Word Got Out
Port Stephens didn’t truly become a known hotspot for great billfish diversity until a couple of decades ago. One particular area on the offshore grounds was found to produce not only blue marlin, but also blacks and stripes in big numbers. Many of the local anglers who discovered this area tried to keep it quiet at first, but the radio sheets in tournaments and club days soon gave away the positions of many vessels when they were hooked up to marlin.
As interest grew, many anglers started probing the area with their modern depth recorders and found that 80 to 90 fathoms was loaded with huge schools of slimy mackerel. Season after season, the same region saw baitfish turning up in massive schools. To this day, no one really knows why this phenomenon happens when there’s no obvious sign of the bathymetric features that usually attract and hold bait.
Before long, on any given summer fishing day, especially during weekends or tournaments, the gathering of boats of all sizes was insane. The locals who had fished the spot regularly were blown away at what had suddenly happened to the place. Often it was packed out like a suburban shopping car park. And so, the Port Stephens Car Park was born.
With such an amazing array of species available for the capture or tagging categories, it was no wonder that the NSW Game Fishing Association chose Port Stephens to stage the inaugural Interclub Tournament back in 1962. The calm protected waters of the port also offered plenty of safe anchorages for all the visiting vessels long before the three modern marinas were ever constructed. Considering the large number of gamefishing clubs in NSW alone, this amazing tournament quickly turned into the biggest and best gamefishing event in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.
The Interclub Tournament has always been a special event, attracting all the battlewagons and experienced gamefishing anglers from around the state. In its heyday before the popular Cash Jackpot Tournament was introduced a decade ago, more than 200 vessels and 1,000 anglers participated. These days, the numbers have dropped off somewhat, but the hundreds of anglers still fishing the Interclub for its prestigious trophy love it.
Add It to Your List
All the little towns around Port Stephens boast great hotels and many fine-dining restaurants. The main areas of Port Stephens are located on the southern side of the port. Starting near the headlands is the magnificent Shoal Bay and shopping center. This is also where the Port Stephens Game Fishing Club is situated. Nearby is Nelson Bay, the largest town and shopping center in Port Stephens, and where the biggest marina in the port was constructed. Farther up the port is Corlette and Salamander Bay.
The popular eateries in these parts are the ones serving fresh seafood with the finest local products. All the professional trawlers in the port supply these restaurants straight off the boat every day. One of my favorite local products are the large Port Stephens oysters. The oyster leases here are famous in NSW for their succulent “Sydney rock” variety. One of the oyster leases I visit regularly is Holberts in Salamander Bay, where you can watch the oysters being shucked before you purchase and eat them.
Perhaps one of the more famous restaurants in the port is Bannisters at Soldiers Point, owned by well-known English celebrity chef, writer and television presenter Rick Stein. He also uses only the best local seafood and swears by the quality of the many types of fish available here. Sashimi from the large yellowfin tuna caught off the port and the red snapper taken from the offshore reefs are two of his favorites, along with the large Sydney rock oysters.
The influx of gamefishermen here has led to a number of excellent professional charter operations. Many of these vessels also work the east coast, from Port Stephens all the way up to Cairns for the heavy-tackle season. Capt. Tim Dean of Calypso Fishing Adventures is highly regarded in the area, as well as Capt. Adam Jordon on Iona Game Fishing and Capt. Scott Thorrington on Haven Fishing Charters.
One trip to Port Stephens will blow you away because it’s the kind of place you can come to with friends or family to enjoy the outstanding fishing as well as amazing onshore activities and other safe watersports. The clean, clear, unpolluted waters in the port are breathtaking, and the cobalt offshore currents never disappoint any keen angler, whether their passion is light, medium or heavy tackle.
Fishing the Car Park
Thanks to the influx of angling activity and the ever-questioning anglers, the Port Stephens Car Park has been fished just about every way imaginable, from trolling lures and live baits to drifting around with live baits set on the surface under floats, all with success. However, the anglers that seem to produce the best and most consistent numbers of billfish employ a simple yet unconventional method for targeting billfish in this area. Using their depth sounders, anglers mark the schools of bait and the billfish feeding on them, then deploy their live baits down deep.
Although downriggers are attempted, the most common method is to attach a lead sinker to the trace (leader) with a rubber band, well away from the live bait. The job then is to rig up a live mackerel bait on a circle hook using a little bridle through the top of the head and then feed it down slowly so the bait doesn’t get tangled up around the trace or the double.
The hookups at the Car Park are always exciting because you don’t know what is going to happen next when you’re attached to a marlin of some unknown size or species.
