Hooked on The Thrill of The Chase

Marlin Fishing on The South Coast NSW With Richie Abela & His Boat Dreamcatcher II

Richie doesn’t run a generic charter. Dreamcatcher II Sportfishing is a specialised game-fishing outfit that targets the big seasonal players, marlin, swordfish and giant tuna, and that seasonality drives everything. These fish don’t hang around forever. In Richie’s world, windows can be two or three months long, and success comes down to being ready, staying mobile, and making the right call when the bite is on

The first thing you notice about Richie is his calm, switched-on, matter‑of‑fact approach. No over‑promising. No smoke and mirrors. Just quiet confidence built from years on the water. “We’ve got an action-packed day planned,” he told me as I boarded Dreamcatcher II and stowed my gear. “Hopefully the marlin are going to put on a show.” In game fishing, you can do everything right and still come home empty handed, but when the fish are on, it’s unforgettable.

Richie calls Dreamcatcher II his baby. She’s an 11‑year‑old boat that presents like it’s fresh off a showroom floor because Richie treats it like a tool of his trade, not a toy. On the transom sit twin Yamaha F250 V6 outboards. Richie’s loyalty to Yamaha isn’t about branding, it’s about hours on the water. When you’re running offshore day after day, often miles from safety, reliability isn’t optional. It’s the foundation of everything.

Safety, customer confidence and the ability to fish effectively are the pillars of Richie’s operation. He’s been a Yamaha man since childhood and his logic hasn’t changed: “You don’t fix what isn’t broken.” On top of the horsepower, Dreamcatcher II has been dialed in with technology that genuinely makes a difference. Richie walked me through a recent electronics upgrade, the latest Furuno package with advanced transducer capability that lets him read what’s happening around the boat with serious precision. In game fishing, information is currency. Knowing where bait is holding, how it’s moving and where predators are likely to sit on an edge can be the difference between a quiet day and chaos on deck.

Richie has also added a practical feature that says a lot about how he thinks: a rear driving station, set up with help from the crew at Port Phillip Boating Centre. It means he can run the boat from the back when he needs to, which is a big advantage in the middle of a bite.

With the day underway, we pulled up on the bait grounds and started laying the foundation. Phil from Port Phillip Boating Centre was onboard too, and he summed up the process perfectly. When you arrive somewhere new, you’re scouting, not just for marlin but for the thing marlin can’t resist: bait. Running skip baits while you search lets you cover more water and stay ready if a fish appears quickly.

Soon we were sitting on a massive bait aggregation. The birdlife was outrageous, bait in every direction. This is where Richie’s expertise shines, but it was also where I really saw Nick Lazarevski, the expert deckhand, come into his own. The guy did not stop the entire time we were out there. He was setting baits, clearing gear, scanning the spread and somehow staying three steps ahead of anything that might happen.

Suddenly we were onto fish. A striped marlin. Nick was already moving before anyone even called it, clearing the lines and keeping the whole situation under control. Even after decades chasing plenty of other species, I can tell you that the first time you see a marlin erupt from the water with the sun lighting up its colours, your pulse spikes. Richie wasn’t exaggerating when he called marlin one of the most beautiful forms of game fishing. They’re spectacular in the air and even more so when they come to the boat glowing like a chameleon.

I didn’t personally hook a fish on the day, and honestly, I’m fine with that. I came out to learn and understand what it takes. I walked away with a head full of new knowledge and a new kind of motivation. Game fishing is a discipline that rewards preparation. I left with a deep respect for what Richie has built, a specialised operation run by someone who has lived it since the age of ten and backed himself into making it a full-time reality.

He’s one of the few operators who trailers his boat and takes it wherever the fish are. He’s mobile, meticulous and obsessed with putting people onto fish. He loves seeing someone catch their first marlin, something he gets to relive often.

At the end of the day, as we cleaned up and pointed the bow toward shore, I gave a massive thank you to Richie and the crew aboard Dreamcatcher II. I’ll definitely be back, and next time I’m getting onto one.