Merimbula’s Fishing Club Jetty was abuzz with excitement on Monday afternoon, June 29, when the Rathlin II arrived back from a successful day’s fishing.

The news travelled quickly and a crowd gathered at the Spencer Park fishing club rooms to welcome home local fishermen Rob Wood (Snap), Angus Chirnside, David Williams (Mex) and Stuart Green who had caught six Southern blue fin tuna weighing from 70 to 110 kilograms.

After hearing reports about some fishing success in Bermagui over the weekend, with three Australian Southern blue fin tuna records broken during the Southern zone fishing competition the group decided they had to go and try their luck.

“We have known about their existence around late June, July but after what happened in Bermagui we thought we had better go,” said captain of the Rathlin II Bruce Libbis.

Mr Libbis said the Southern blue fin tuna can grow to about 200 kilograms.

“There are also giant blue fin out there which can grow up to 500 kilograms,” he said.

“We lost a giant blue fin about six years ago which was well over 200 kilograms.”

Mr Libbis believes this recent fishing success is great news for the local area.

“This kind of fishing is generating millions of dollars in revenue for areas such as Portland , Victoria and Tasmania who boast huge fisheries now there is the NSW South Coast,” he said.

Mr Libbis said it was a fantastic experience to be out on the boat, however where others may describe it as a once in a lifetime event he believes it is just the beginning of what could be a really great fishery.

“I have not been out that far for a long time and we were over the moon with the catch.

“About 28 miles out we put the lures out and within half an hour we had found them and we didn’t move more than 400 metres once,” he said.

Mr Libbis said it was only about 20 minutes between landing one fish and hooking the next.

“Fight times went from 15 minutes up to an hour, it was an absolutely fantastic day,” said Mr Libbis.