FROM THE PRESIDENT
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Welcome to the May edition of the club magazine. In this issue, you will find a comprehensive wrap-up of the Peter Goadby Memorial Tournament for those who were unable to attend. I would like to once again extend my sincere thanks to all competitors, sponsors, and volunteers who contributed their time and effort to ensure the event was such a success. The continued support of our members is what allows these tournaments to thrive. Due to recent adverse weather conditions, the Broken Bay tournament has been rescheduled to 16–17 May. As a result, both the Summer Point Score and Central Zone rounds have been extended. The Winter Point Score will now commence on 18 May, followed by the Tuna Slam kicking off in June and running through to the end of August. This provides a great opportunity for members to get involved and compete for winter honours. On the club maintenance front, progress on the wharf redevelopment has been steady, albeit slower than anticipated. We are hopeful that plans will be finalised and released for tender in the near future. This remains a key priority for the club moving forward. We are also always looking to welcome new faces onto the committee. If you have the time and a passion for the club, becoming involved at a committee level is a rewarding way to contribute and help shape the club’s future. A reminder regarding NSWGFA tag cards: it is essential that we maintain accurate and up-to-date records. The club is required to report on tags issued and returned, so we ask all boat owners to ensure that completed tag cards and relevant paperwork are submitted promptly each month. Your cooperation in this area is greatly appreciated and helps streamline the process. I look forward to catching up with members at the next club meeting or down at the weigh station. Tight lines, Glenn Wright President Sydney Game Fishing Club
Calendar of Events SGFC May 2026 16th - 17th Broken Bay GFC Tournament + Central Zone Weekend 18th - Start Winter Point Scorescore 26st - Committee Meeting Tuna Slam Starts 1st June to 29th August 2026 June 2026 1st - Start SGFC Tuna Slam + Winter Pointscore 2nd - Club Meeting 30th - Committee Meeting July 2025 1st - SFGC Tuna Slam continues + Winter Pointscore 2nd - Club Meeting 28th - Committee Meeting
22nd 23th
Winning Boat Yellowfin Connoisseur 2025
Winning boat Bluefin WAWA 2025
The SGFC Tuna Slam runs from 1st. June until midnight 29th.August 2026. To enter you must contact the club secretary (0402 615 814 ) via phone call, txt message or email (secretary@sgfc.com.au), you MUST do this before heading out to sea. The Entry fee of $300 per boat covers the 3 months of June, July and August. To weigh a fish, a minimum of 30 mins notice must be given to the weighmaster during the week and longer if possible on the weekend. Karen Wright is the weigh master (0407) 557 705. If she is not available call the club secretary. All Tuna must meet NSWGFA minimum weights. Please note all tuna points go towards your winter pointscore and to SGFC totals for NSWGFA. Updates of fish weight will be posted on Members Facebook page Fishing boundaries... Northern Boundary : 33.05.000S Southern Boundary : 35.15.000S The prize money is comprised of the total of entry monies collected , less a twenty percent cut to the SGFC Club. The prize money (less 20%) is divided evenly between the heaviest Yellowfin and the Heaviest Bluefin. If either one is not caught its prize money is jackpotted to next year's Slam. To get the ball rolling the club has donated $1,000 to start the jackpot.
TUNA SLAM June - July - August 2026
164.5kg Blue Marlin, securing second place in the Capture division. Tournament Results Capture Division • Champion Boat Capture: Rampage (Broken Bay) – 25,650 pts • Runner-Up Boat Capture: Undertaker (Port Hacking) – 10,373 pts Tag & Release Division • Champion Boat: On Call (Sydney) – 26,000 pts • Runner-Up Boat: Reel Bella (Botany Bay) – 25,521 pts • 3rd Place: Shorething (Port Hacking) – 20,000 pts • 4th Place: WAWA (Sydney) – 15,000 pts • Champion Lady Tag & Release: Abby Wykes (Port Hacking) – 20,000 pts • Most Meritorious Marlin: Brendon Harris – 131.9kg Blue Marlin (15kg) – 17,397 pts • Heaviest OGF: Billy Anderson (Broken Bay) – 12kg Mahi Mahi • Most Tagged OGF: Taliyah Aslanian (Sydney) – 124 pts • Champion Junior Capture: Flynn Vernon (Sydney) – 6,143 pts • Champion Junior Tag & Release: Freddie Grindrod (Sydney) ________________________________________ Acknowledgement On behalf of myself and the committee of the Sydney Game Fishing Club, I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to all Competitors Volunteers and our valued sponsors for your continued support. Your contribution is vital to the ongoing success of this tournament and the broader game fishing community. We look forward to welcoming you all again next year. Tight lines, Glenn Wright President Sydney Game Fishing Club
Peter Goadby Memorial Tournament 2026 – Event Wrap up The Peter Goadby Memorial Tournament once again delivered an outstanding weekend of game fishing, with 24 boats competing under beautiful conditions off Sydney. In the lead-up to the event, there had been considerable discussion suggesting that local waters would be quiet, with most of the action expected further south. However, Day One quickly proved otherwise, as the radio skeds came alive with consistent hook-ups, particularly around the 11:10 sked and tide change, where multiple boats reported strikes, tags, and active fish. Day One Highlights • Rampage (Broken Bay) set the benchmark early, capturing a 131.9kg Blue Marlin on 15kg line. • Flynn Vernon (Sydney) achieved a personal milestone, landing his largest fish to date, a 126.6kg Blue Marlin on 24kg line. • Abby Wykes (Port Hacking) successfully tagged two Blue Marlin. • On Point (Sydney) enjoyed a memorable family outing, tagging OGF while fishing with his two daughters. • Billy Anderson secured Heaviest OGF with a 12kg Mahi Mahi on 10kg line. • Kalistaa (Broken Bay) recorded two Shortbill Spearfish tags, highlighting the diversity of the fishery. • Day 1 First Marlin tagged Prize Shorething (Port Hacking) • Day 1 Last Marlin Tagged Reel Bella (Botany Bay) • Day 2 First Marlin Tagged My Molly (Sydney) • Day2 Last Marlin On Call (Sydney) Saturday evening saw a well-attended and enjoyable raft-up, setting the tone for Day Two. Day Two Overview The fleet was again greeted with excellent weather; however, fishing proved more challenging, with fewer successful tag conversions. Despite this, standout effort came from Undertaker, with angler Ibby capturing a
GOLD HOOK
Stomach Content Analysis Blue Marlin (Makaira nigricans) Analysing Researcher: Tristan Guillemin Capture Date: 21/03/2026 Capture Location: Watsons Bay Weight of Fish: 126.6kg Total Length: 293cm Short Length: 252cm Sex: F
Main Result: A total of 1.67kg of stomach content were found in your fish. For the weight of the fish, this gave a stomach fullness index of 1.36. This is a high value and suggests the stomach was quite full. Of the 1.67g of stomach content, we found the following (pictures below): • 11 slimy mackerel (Scomber australasicus) ranging from 20-30cm long. Many of these were perfectly intact, and had likely been consumed shortly before capture. • 2 long toothy big eyed fish. I’m waiting on a friend to confirm ID’s, but these are most likely frostfish. First time I’ve found them in marlin. • 2 tiny oceanic pufferfish. These were less than 2cm long. These results provide an insight into the feeding of marlin and help us identify the prey they depend on for survival and the areas they feed in. With further marlin samples, we will be able to get a big picture understanding of the species.
Tiny oceanic pufferfish.
MARINE ECOLOGY GROUP School of Natural Sciences
Total stomach content of the marlin, mackerel in right tray (some in left tray), potential frost fish to the left.
following (pictures below): • 2 unidentified fish. These were both highly digested with only bones left. One looks a bit like a frigate, but due to the digestion it may be impossible to ID. • 1 small bill tip. I’m not sure where this came from, it looks like the tip of a marlin bill. It was found in the mouth of the fish, I was hoping the rest would be in the stomach, but alas it wasn’t. • 2 trematode/hirudinellid parasites. These are related to leeches, and relatively common in blue marlin stomachs. Disgusting things. These results provide an insight into the feeding of marlin and help us identify the prey they depend on for survival and the areas they feed in. With further marlin samples, we will be able to get a big picture understanding of the species.
Lochan Pitchfork Marlin fishing at Interclub Onboard Tantrum
Two hirudinellid parasites.
Gamefish Results MARINE ECOLOGY GROUP This letter is to notify you that gamefish samples you have donated to researchers from the Marine Ecology Group at Macquarie University have been analysed. The results of the analysis are attached. These results can be shared on social media, if shared, please tag the researcher who undertook the research (@fishoscience). We hope these results are of interest and look forward to sharing further results if/when samples undergo further analysis. We thank you again for contributing samples to research!
Stomach Content Analysis Blue Marlin (Makaira nigricans) Analysing Researcher: Tristan Guillemin Capture Date: 21/02/2026 Capture Location: Port Stephens Weight of Fish: 81.7kg Total Length: 253cm Short Length: 224cm Sex: F Main Result: A total of 59.5g of stomach content were found in your fish. For the weight of the fish, this gave a stomach fullness index of 0.074. This is a very low value and suggests the stomach was almost completely empty. Of the 59.5g of stomach content, we found the.
Tip of bill found inside throat. Potentially ate a smaller billfish.
www.tantrumlures.com
Total stomach content of the marlin, fish above, parasites to the right.
The joys of Game Fishing, you never ever know what you might catch. During this years Shellharbour, I was the angler for Day 1, first up we had a double hook up of 50kg Yellowfin, then Long corner went off I was back in the chair this time hooked up to a nice marlin after a short fight of just on an hour, Myself, Giles and Glenn found ourselves struggling to get this Blue Marlin onboard. At the weigh station we celebrated as the scales showed 191kg on 60kg A pending NSWGFA record, now after submitting the paperwork we can now celebrate the achievement of catching a record fish.
We have a winner in the Mahi Mahi Comp. Hypertension has landed a nice 138cm dolphin fish . Caught by Henrik Isaksson on 37kg onboard hypertension Tightlines
NSWGFA RECORD
Now before I get on to discussing the schooling nature of the prey, you might be thinking that 3.7% for slimy mackerel and 2.7% for yakkas seems a bit low. You’re probably right. Bait can shift greatly year to year based on a range of factors including currents, water temperatures and recruitment. It’s possible that I sampled on years where bigeyes were abundant and slimies less abundant. Some of the latest stomachs I’ve done (that haven’t been added to analysis yet) have been chokkers full of slimies, and will almost certainly increase the numbers for slimy mackerel. What this tells us is that striped marlin are flexible. They don’t seem to care what size, shape, species or colour the bait is, as long as there are big schools of food. Flexibility like this tends to make species more resilient to change (rather than species that depend on just one or two species for food), which is good news for the sustainability of striped marlin off NSW. Let’s get back to discussing schooling though. Why do striped marlin love schooling prey? Whether it’s a heard of gazelles evading lions or a school of mackerel avoiding marlin, prey group up to overwhelm predators. For a single predator, it can be almost impossible to single out and catch prey when it’s in a large group. However, some predators have evolved a behaviour to counter this, pack hunting. Unlike black or blue marlin, striped marlin commonly form packs and hunt together in a coordinated manner. This allows them to target large bait schools far more efficiently than the other marlin species. In the context of this specialised behaviour, the dominance of bait-balling and lack of non-balling prey in striped marlin makes sense. As many fishers already know, if you’re out fishing for stripes, you can probably drive past skipjacks or dollies and keep going until you find bait balls. Diet results suggest it doesn’t matter if that’s a ball of toadfish or slimies, as long as there’s a school of them!
“Find the bait, you find the fish” – the age old adage is certainly true for striped marlin (Kajikia audax). Striped marlin, like all marlin in NSW, are a tropical species which spawns in the tropics (likely in late spring) and descends along the EAC to feed. But what are they feeding on? As any keen marlin angler will know, striped marlin are often found on or around bait balls, sometimes just one, but very often as a pack seemingly working together to ball up the bait. But why are striped marlin more common around other baitballs and do they like all types of bait equally? Understanding this can be key to finding and catching striped marlin. As part of my research, I’ve chopped open stomachs from over 30 NSW caught striped marlin. Opening these stomachs, I’d expected to find nothing but slimy mackerel (Scomber australasicus) and yakkas (Trachurus spp.), though this was not the case. Striped marlin had the greatest diversity of species in their stomachs, with no species making up much more than 20% of the diet (in comparison, nearly 80% of blue marlin diet was comprised of just 2 species). Interestingly, the two most common groups were the red bigeyes (Priacanthidae) making up just over 23.7% of their diet, and toad/puffer fish (Tetraodontidae) making 15.3%. Slimy mackerel surprisingly made up only 3.7% while yakkas only made up 2.7%. Among the dozens of the other interesting finds were argonauts/paper nautilus (Argonautidae), small dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) and small leatherjackets (Moncanthidae). Interestingly, I did not find a single skipjack tuna (which were common in the other two marlin species) and frigate tuna were very rare (again, common in other marlin). While this assemblage may seem random, almost all prey was “schooling”, with common non-schooling prey species absent.
Striped Marlin: What do they eat and how does it influence catching them? By Tristan Guillemin
Figure 1. A typical lunch for a striped marlin – a big school of toadfish, and a small paper nautilus (bottom right).
Figure 2. An absolutely full stomach from a striped marlin, mostly of red big eyes (you might see a few non digested ones in the right most tray), but also the odd frigate tuna and toadfish.
Mon to Fri: 6.30am - 3.30pm Sat: 7.00am to 12.00pm
SAINTLY WHISPERS