Gulf feast draws in sailfish

“Sailfish, sailfish, sailfish” ... those are the words on most anglers’ lips this week as the gulf heats up with bait balls aplenty.

It’s just in time for the Billfish Bonanza, too.

Anglers wishing to see some of the great action can get among it within a short distance of the marina or Bundegi boat ramps.

Essentially, the sailfish come into the gulf to feed on the acres of bait that congregates at this time of year.

Gulf mulies and yellowtail scad can be seen in large schools, with the predominant species encountered being the mulies.

The bait will boil on the surface at certain times of the tide and can be seen rising off the ocean floor on your sounder.

Look out for the birds when on the grounds, because they are a key indicator for you to find the sailfish feeding near the surface.

Tuna can be in schools also in the gulf, with birds following them. These tuna birds are generally smaller terns, as opposed to mutton birds and the larger terns found feeding around the sailfish.

You will note the different action of the various birds with a little practice, so get out and remember to be observant of all those elements that assist in success.

Elements include tides, wind, moon phase, birds, bait, water temperature, water colour and fishing grounds/depths. Fish don’t just jump on your hook easily and a little more thought and planning will give you more success.

To learn more, the Sunday Session for the month next Sunday from 3pm is about fishing for sailfish in the gulf.

Spots are limited, so contact Tackle World Exmouth to secure a spot. There has been some interesting data retrieved from some satellite tags that were inserted into broadbill marlin off Tasmania earlier this year.

The two fish travelled north, in fact one of them showed the fish swam 2866km (in a straight line, so it would have been a lot further) in just 187 days. We are all waiting to hear further results of water depths and areas travelled.

In 2012, the EGFC inserted 10 satellite tags into marlin and we hope to do more satellite tagging in the future.

While most of the tagged marlin off Exmouth stayed in this region, one did travel more than 1000km north-west.

We also had one sailfish tagged in January off Exmouth, to be recaptured again in March during GAMEX, then captured a third time in October during the Billfish Bonanza. .This was all in one year..! Sailfish are one of the fastest growing fish in the ocean that can grow from the size of a pinhead to 30kg in just 12months. Amazing.