The biggest shock was the day we switch baited that world record 735lb black marlin on 6lb tackle.

Mention the name Port Stephens to most gamefisherman in Australia and straight away they'll talk about the NSW Interclub Tournament. Nowhere in the southern hemisphere does a gamefishing tournament generate so much interest or attract so many anglers and big gameboats.

This picture-perfect harbour on the NSW central coast, just north of Newcastle, has special memories for all who have fished there - but over the past seven years or so, something else has begun stirring the vibes among the fishing community.

THE BUZZ
The word got out about Port Stephens and its abundance of world record proportioned billfish. Anglers now come to Port Stephens from around the globe, either to throw their saltwater flies or to fish light tackle. Over recent times, the number of Australian and world records that have been broken here is absolutely mind-boggling.

But before this new wave of record hunters started venturing to these waters, you only had to look back through the IGFA World Records to see that Port Stephens had always featured - particularly in the shark categories.

For whatever reason, the grounds here produce the biggest tiger sharks on the planet, and the local anglers from the Port Stephens Game Fishing Club and the Lake Macquarie Game Fishing Club (a little further south) are incredibly skilled at catching them.

WILD CHILDHOOD
Lake Macquarie angler Trent Visscher, for example, broke record after record on these grounds as a junior - and when he was old enough to buy and run his own boat, the records kept on coming. His considerable talent has seen him win the prestigious champion boat award at the famous Interclub tournament, plus his boat has also featured in the Lake Macquarie club's champion capture team on six separate occasions.

There was many a time when his 20ft Haines Hunter Wild Child would come to the Interclub weighstation with barely a skerrick of room for him and his crew to stand because of the number of huge sharks, tuna and marlin they had on the deck.

"This place has always produced amazing fishing throughout the summer and autumn months," says Visscher. "The warm currents at this time of year herald the start of numerous gamefish species, and the abundance of baitfish here seems to hold them for months at a time.

"Although the continental shelf is a long way off Port Stephens compared to other parts of the NSW coastline, it's the offshore islands and miles of reef between shore and the shelf that makes the place so productive. As well as this, we have those spectacular grounds off Seal Rocks where a chain of islands and reef meets an unusually hard, steep shelf edge.

"To the southeast of the Port there's the Newcastle to Norah Head canyons that really fire when the warm cobalt currents swirl over this long series of steep ravines. When you weigh it all up, Port Stephens is surrounded with some unbelievable grounds.

"The days when I only fished for sharks, we'd always drift the inside edge of the Norah Head Canyon, around the 80 to 90 fathom mark. Here we consistently caught monster tigers, tough oceanic whalers and huge makos. The biggest tiger I've taken is still the world record on 50lb test, which weighed in at nearly 1300lb - and my biggest mako here went a thumping 750lb!

"A large percentage of the recent world record tigers have come from these Swansea to Seal Rocks grounds.

I have fond memories of my small boat - big shark days, but like anything you move on to another stage of your sport.

"These days I work the deck on the Port Stephens charterboat Calypso chasing record billfish. There's still records to burn for both sharks and billfish off Port Stephens and that's why I love the place."

BILLFISH BONANZA
The 40ft Black Watch Calypso is owned and operated by Capt Tim Dean, and Tim's fished the Port Stephens grounds for nearly 20 years now and knows the place like the back of his hand. He's caught and seen some huge marlin here and his vessel has been responsible for many saltwater fly and line class records.

Tim's a billfish fanatic and has only fished for sharks a couple of times, but once managed to catch a 650lb tiger while fishing with his mate Visscher on the Wild Child!

"In the early days before I had a charterboat, we didn't seem to worry too much about chasing records - we just caught plenty of fish and had a ball," says Dean. "We quickly realised the potential of these grounds for so many different species, though, and when we started charter work in 1992 the records started tumbling.

"The abundance of marlin here at times is absolutely mind-blowing, and they're the perfect size for ultra-light, light, and saltwater fly tackle. The striped and black marlin are often in the 200-350lb category and the blues usually average a little bigger - sometimes a hell of lot bigger! This is why so many keen gamefisherman are coming here from abroad these days.

"Most of my anglers want to fish light tackle, and we drag teasers around to raise the billfish. This way we can try to match the right size tackle to the right size fish, and its damn exciting stuff. I also get a few customers that still love pulling lures around on heavy tackle for a big blue marlin and there's some blues here you'll never catch on the light stuff.

"I've never really bothered with the shark fishing, but we see the big buggers on the surface quite often - particularly tigers. There's plenty of records still to be caught here for the shark fisherman, but it's usually only the Aussies that seem to have a crack at them."

Capt Craig 'Sparrow' Denham is another regular to the Port Stephens grounds these days, and his wealth of knowledge and experience from the Townsville and Cairns grounds with both light and heavy tackle gave him a real edge when he started fishing here.

When the word first spread about so many potential light tackle records off Port Stephens - as well as the fact it all happened during the north's off-season - it became a real interesting proposition for Sparrow. His first good look at the place was when he was passing through on the vessel GameFisher about eight years ago, and they fished for a couple of weeks to get a feel for the place.

"I couldn't believe the number of marlin here that fitted the bill, so to speak, for real light tackle work," said Sparrow. "Getting so many shots a day on the perfect size fish is a huge advantage for my anglers. If you popped one off, you'd just go back to the edge of the canyon or shelf line and tease up another, select the gear and have a go!

"We've caught world records every season we've chartered here, and most of them are going to be damn hard to beat anywhere other than this place. When well-known sportsfishing guide Dean Butler moved from the tropics down to Port Stephens, his expertise in saltwater flyfishing really paved the way for other followers of the long rod to fish here.

"Butler started the ball rolling by breaking a number of SWF billfish records himself, and his involvement with myself and other captains over the past 7-8 years has contributed immensely to this sport.

"After working these grounds hard now for seven years, I've got to know the place pretty well. It doesn't seem to matter whether you go north or south along the shelf-line - you can find some awesome fishing. My favourite area is definitely the northern end of the Newcastle canyons, but if the current's favourable on the inshore grounds, Broughton Island and the Big Gibber can be mind blowing as well for blacks and striped marlin.

"I've seen some damn nice billfish here in my short time, but the biggest shock was the day we switch baited that world record 735lb black marlin on 6lb tackle back in 2000. This fish was part of a trifecta of world record blacks on 2lb, 4lb and 6lb tackle for Italian angler Enrico Capozzi. To top this off, he also caught a world record striped marlin going 218lb on 4lb line that very same trip. It was incredible fishing."

MORE RECORDS
Another charterboat operator that works Port Stephens annually these days is Capt Billy Billson, but Bill fished here as an amateur New South Welshman long before he moved north to Cairns to work as a deckhand, and then a Captain.

Like Sparrow, the lure of record-breaking opportunities during the north's off-season was a big drawcard for Billson, and he has now run the Woodnutt-built Viking II to Port Stephens for the past five seasons. During this time, Billson has also participated with some local anglers in the Interclub Tournament and has been successful in winning the champion boat trophy in the capture division twice with billfish.

"Port Stephens is a great spot and I have fond memories of the place because I first fished here as a 14-year-old kid with my dad on a vessel called the Starfish," Billson said. "Later in 1986 I fished on the colourful Sydney GFC vessel Splashdown, owned by Keith Whitehead, and we were successful in winning the Interclub capture trophy on billfish, which was unheard of during that period because the big sharks usually dominated."

"A number of guys such as Craig 'Sparrow' Denham, Dean Butler, Tim Dean, Paul Whelan, Darren 'Biggles' Hayden, Brett Thomas, Perry James, Col 'Wombat' Grimes and Justin 'Flash' Reid just to name a few, have really helped the area gain international recognition for record billfish captures.

"When I started making noises about chartering down there, many of my local and overseas clients seemed real interested. Even my first season there I had over 30 days booked before I knew it, and these days I work up to 50 or 60 days.

"Although I love that north-west corner of the big Newcastle canyon, I believe the wide grounds off those canyons could hold the key to the place because there's some real prominent underwater features out in 800 fathoms or so. When I started trolling around out wide with my big colour depth sounder, I found extensive grounds I never knew existed.

"This is the area I have consistently caught and seen some nice blue marlin, and it was just inside these grounds where we caught the World SWF record 288lb blue on 20lb tippet for Tom Evans. This was one of three World SWF (230lb striped on 16lb & 150lb black on 16lb) records that Tom has caught at Port Stephens on the Viking II."

MEMORIES
As for this writer, Port Stephens has always been a fabulous place to fish, and all the Interclub tournaments, Billfish Shootouts and even the early ANSA tournaments I've participated in over the past 30 years have been memorable. I've caught most of my biggest gamefish here and lost plenty as well, including a blue marlin around 800lb on 80lb tackle after a two-hour struggle.

One particular day I'll never forget, though, was late March back in '96 when the top Newcastle canyon absolutely turned it on with big striped marlin. There were four of us on the Kanahoee that day and we didn't get a bite till midday. The bait was marking down deep all morning, but by lunchtime the massive schools of juvenile frigate mackerel and slimey mackerel were blowing up on the surface everywhere. The striped marlin were carving through the schools of bait like a pack of sharks, absolutely gorging themselves.

We were pulling four lures in and around the bait schools, and we had hook up after hook up, losing count of the shots we had. We all took turns of either fighting, tracing or tagging, and we ended up with 11 tagged and released for the afternoon.

The smallest would have been around the 200lb mark, but many of them were 300lb or better. It was the best lure fishing we've ever had on the boat and we were all shot ducks by the end of the day - being dragged around the cockpit by such large, tough, well-conditioned stripeys tends to have that result!

The very next day, Tim Dean took the Calypso out to the same spot and tagged 14 on lures as well. I guess this could happen at other places on Australia's NSW coastline, but I'm tipping nowhere near as regularly as it does around these record-breaking grounds off Port Stephens.