The Get'n Nibz YouTube channel has built a following on long, no-frills offshore missions off Australia's eastern seaboard, and their Episode 64 from Bermagui on the New South Wales south coast captures one of the most personal milestones a game-fishing crew can chase, a first marlin. Skipper Michael Scerri and deckhand Lewis spent 11 days running out of Bermagui port, working four-rod spreads behind their new Bar Crusher 670 HT, before Lewis finally hooked into a striped marlin he later estimated at around 120 kilos.
The trip almost didn't deliver. Days one through four produced nothing but a tail-thump from what they thought might have been a frigate, choppy weather that forced them off the south end of Montague Island short of the Kink in roughly 300 metres of water, and a stomach bug that kept Scerri sidelined for much of the early run. Scerri also flagged the local pool competition the crew were chasing in town as the trip's secondary mission, ensuring they spent almost as much time ashore in the early days as they did on the water.
Day five, February 6, 2026, which Scerri noted on camera was his mother's birthday, produced the strike that mattered. Trolling Pakula jet heads on 24-kilo Shimano Tiagra reels behind daisy-chain teasers, the crew was preparing to lap back toward home when the closest rod thumped. "We had the daisy chains connected to the lures and we were teasing them out the back with the lure connected to it, and yeah, it worked for us," Scerri said of the spread, noting that virtually every other crew at Bermagui that week was rigging skip baits instead.
The fight ran roughly 35 minutes. Lewis kept pressure through several aerial leaps and screaming runs before the fish came tail-wrapped to the leader. "All right, Michael. Come here. Disconnecting the rope. Don't put the teasers in the boat," Scerri called as Lewis guided the fish boat-side. They cleared the tag, kept the fish in the water, and released it cleanly. "Let him go. Yes, she lived," Lewis said as the marlin pushed off.
The young angler reflected on the moment with a young angler's directness. "First striped marlin. We did it." Scerri added that the boat had been re-rigged after losing a Tiagra setup overboard the previous season. "This is the new one that replaced it," he said. "And this is the one I just caught the new marlin on. So yeah, she works. All my rigging that I did all worked. Nothing broke. Crimping I did, everything held together."
The crew also banked a bonus mahi-mahi on the final day, intercepting and releasing a small bull dolphin that crushed a lure half its body length. Scerri described seeing the fish flash colors through the water before the strike, a small consolation prize after a final morning that opened with a marlin sunbathing on the surface but ultimately produced seven hours of empty trolling. They covered an estimated 250 kilometres between Saturday and the final day, finishing the trip cooked.
The week was not without risk. The crew was caught wide offshore one afternoon when the wind built suddenly and the swell stacked up. They credited Scerri's new Bar Crusher 670 HT for getting them home dry through the chop, a reminder for southern-NSW marlin chasers that February conditions on the shelf edge can deteriorate fast. Daisy chains, Pakula jet heads and 24-kilo Tiagras remained the spread of choice through the trip and got a clean release for Lewis's bucket-list fish.
