Luxury yacht no match for fish

BY RICHARD WOOLVERIDGE

The ghosts of death and glory haunt the old walls of the Sydney Game Fishing Club (SGFC) at Watsons Bay.

Black and white prints show the outcome of so many titanic battles at sea, namely a small, smiling angler standing next to the impossible gaping maw of a dangling dead monster.

Game fishing may be favoured by the rich, but the SGFC - within a kipper's throw of Doyle's restaurant - has a humble scout hall feel about it, save for the corner bar and the preserved heads and bodies of once memorably living creatures that gave up the fight to decorate the walls.

It was with such Hemmingway-sized prey in mind that our small party set sail on Pisces, a sumptuous new 57ft Australian-built high-class hunting machine.

It was a glorious winter's day, bright like a diamond and just as cool as we cruised by the harbour sights in the sun and passed through the Heads on a gently rolling tide.

Hunting for game fish has changed over the years, along with pretty much everything else we do. Technology, of course, now plays a big part.

The prey may be under the waves but the hunt starts in space, with readings from a satellite informing Pisces skipper Michael Tess of where the hot and cold currents are running.

The temperature differences point to which parts of the ocean the marlin and the tuna currently favour ... at least in theory.

To help the process along here on Earth, the Pisces' bridge is equipped with a range of screens and dials that including sonar and underwater video cameras.

As the hull of this magnificent boat slices through the waves to the nine-mile mark off Sydney, our fish spotter Dave tells favourite fish stories ... of the time his dad snared a huge Mako shark with a Foster's can lure, of an epic afternoon when a paying guest fought for four and a half hours to bring in "the biggest marlin Sydney would have seen in 35 years" - except it got dark, the guest's hands were bleeding, and Sydney was denied the spectacle because the marlin preferred the company of its peers beneath the waves.

If, like me, you are unfamiliar with game fishing you would be forgiven for looking at the $10,000 high-tech rod and reel sets and the $25,000 glossy wooden swivel chair with its buckles and braces and thinking there was a powerful lot of technique and learning to all this catching of marine giants.

But Dave whispers behind his large weather-beaten hand: "It's not rocket science."

This is because once you and the rod are shackled to the chair, you have Dave up front and Michael behind. Both will be talking and executing hunting tactics while pointing the chair at the unhappily hooked fish, while you, in the chair, will be the equivalent of paying muscle doing the pulling and reeling and, apparently on occasion, bleeding.

For this, the thrill of the chase, some excellent food and whatever takes your fancy to drink, you and up to 10 guests will pay $5500 for a day at sea, courtesy of Motor Yacht Charters Sydney.

Fish finder Dave explains that once you pass the continental shelf and get to the underwater Browns Mountain some 38 kilometres off the coast, it can "get like Pitt Street on a Saturday afternoon" with all the fishing boats vying for prey. This is because the currents wash prawns and other small food up the slopes off the mountain, attracting the bait fish, which attract the big fish.

It's a fish eat fish world out here.

Except, for our particular party on this particular day in the height of the whale migration season, it appears to be ... completely fish free.

We get excited when we spot a small albatross. It's the first sign that something out here, at least above the waves, is alive.

Then we spot two mutton birds, who stop flying and land on the water to watch us go by.

"You wait," says Dave, "the low range of the diesel engines is like a magnet to the big fish who hear it."

But, on this day at least, the fish are deaf to such mesmerising music.

There are six lure lines chased out of the back of the boat, dancing on the slope of the boat wash waves. But as the hours tick by those lures remain chaste. Nothing will come.

Dave regails us with delightful descriptions of the unworldy magic of seeing a giant marlin or whale rise from the waves and take to the air nearby.

"It's unreal," he says.

Bring it on, we say.

As the heat in the sun fades and the wind becomes sharper, we all start adding layers, as Dave eyes the horizon, still wearing nothing heavier than a short-sleeved sports shirt and shorts. The man's a Yeti.

I go inside to get a coffee with a nip of something nautically naughty in it when a shout goes up. "Whale wave!"

"It was, it was," says one of our party, even though the whale declined to make an appearance above the wave.

At that, our fish-free expedition turns about and heads back to the harbour, where we board the Pisces bigger sister ship, the Ariston, a beautifully converted prawn trawler than can sleep 10 guests, and host small conferences.

The sport on board this ship includes deck golf and laser clay shooting - neither of which requires the co-operation of fish.

Even though the fish didn't rise to the bait on this occasion, the crew say that it is very rare. And in any event a day on such a craft is no hardship with the beautiful backdrop of Sydney.

- The writer travelled as a guest of Motor Yacht Charters Sydney.

- © Fairfax NZ News