Gamefishing Reports Latest Topics

Ballina update

Sat, 06 Jan 2018 01:28:37 +0000

Just an update from a raider in Ballina nice 90 kg beakie

record blue marlin

Tue, 02 Jan 2018 11:49:44 +0000

the first thousand pound blue has been caught at exmouth WA..494 kg on eddy lawlers PEAK fishing charters boat angler from coffs harbor...rick

Newcastle Canyons

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 11:03:22 +0000

We came up today from a Sydney to Newcastle in great conditions. While trolling the Canyons we had 4 bites but nothing stuck. Check the soundings

Marlin in good numbers - Reef Magic Charters

Fri, 29 Dec 2017 23:13:50 +0000

Well the fishing just keeps hotting up. Up north there are small blacks, stripes and blue marlin as well as some big summer dolphinfish. Reef Magic will be chartering out of Newcastle from the 5th of January. Newcastle gives us a great variation in places to fish. Norah Head to the south, Newcastle Canyons straight out and The Car Park to the north as well as all the in close grounds. You can get the train from Central to Newcastle for $5.95 which stops right near the boat. Get a group together and get aboard to fish some of the best available water on the east coast.
Cheers
Damo
0407113349

port stephens beakies

Sun, 26 Nov 2017 09:48:14 +0000

heard thru a reliable source of a nice bite occurring off port...from the shelf near carpark north for 8 or 10 miles .mainly stripes on lures and skip baits...a few boats had raised 5 or 6 each day over last three days ..rick

Sydney Bluefin

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 10:11:14 +0000

Well the bite continues off Sydney again today. The charts show the fish should hang around for a while that good patch of water stays. If your keen for a charter give us a call

Cheers

Damo

Grander caught

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 12:20:30 +0000

Offshore today

Sun, 07 Aug 2016 10:04:32 +0000

Gday all,went out for a cruise today just to look around. Well lovelly morning out there barely any wind and swell around 1M and a bit with a nice period between. Water temps well its all just f@%#$ up out there lol 22- 24 from the heads to 1000f. Current well thats as above, one minute 2.5 sth then no current and going west with wind. Water colour purply blue and a little dull.

Sealife non existent, birdlife 2 albies and 1 lone tuna bird.

Just saw a nice photo of 110kg bluefin from Eden way. Thats it.

Three years to get my first marlin

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 12:27:47 +0000

Hi, those who know me, will know that for the last couple of years my fishing habits have become a little obsessive. Once a happy bottom basher and fisho with a desire to catch a feed, I was introduced to game fishing. My life changed and the pursuit of a bigger fish consumed me. Hours and dollars passed until a couple of weeks ago I was the proud holder of a fat spear fish. Now this obsession doesn't end with a first fish and so a week later I'm back out crewing my regular lake Mac boat on the newcastle game fishing club comp.

I'd caught my spear the previous week so was on tag and bill for the next one and happy to see a different side from staring at the back of the boat and watching the lures for hours.

A day of trolling for zero saw us finally hit a big school of bait low down and all lines came in to change tactics.

We soon had a dozen livies in the tank and the biggest specimen you would believe. It was quickly rigged and dropped to 40 hands.

After 10 minutes the rod loaded up and my mate was on... I'm not going to draw this out but a 110kg black played with my buddy for 1.5 hours dancing around the boat. It was spectacular and only spoilt by losing the fish before we could get a tag in it.

My mate and the rest if us were gutted. It was the first marlin I'd seen next to the boat and a memory I'll never forget. But in true game style. Lines straight back in.... It took 5 mins for the next rod to go and as I looked at my exhausted friend he said you take it.

I counted 10 and slowly pushed the lever to strike and felt some weight.

It wast too aggressive and the wind in was easy untill... The fish realised lunch wasn't free. Tbh we got the fish to the boat pretty quick perhaps only 30 mins of me shouting who's ya daddy.

But there she was. My first marlin.

I don't remember the last flathead I caught. But I'll never forget my first marlin.

First Marlin Broken Bay wide

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 06:12:34 +0000

Well we started out off Broken Bay wide as we have for the last two seasons with countless hrs in search of Marlin. Conditions were good easter monday and we caught some nice dollies that kept my young bloke happy to start with then we headed towards bait station. At about 100 fathom mark we had a strike and good run but it spat it and lost. We had lost our 7 previous strikes so we were getting used to that feeling. The at about the 140fth mark we hit pay day with a double strike. Being that there was just my mate ,myself and my young son on board there was carnage until we lost the fish on the shotgun and we could just concentrate on the long rigger that was screaming. Anyway I managed to fight the Blue successfully for approx 1hr and we taged it and measured it 2.8mtrs (approx 160-180kg) amazing day. See photos

Bermagui Marlin

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 10:37:02 +0000

Decided to travel to Bermagui in an attempt to christen my boat and bust my mates cherry on a marlin last Tuesday. We dropped into Bermi Bait and Tackle to get the latest on where to go and after egg and bacon rolls for breakfast we headed to the 12 mile to have a crack. On our arrival we found 40-50 other boats covering the area so we decided to have a bit of a troll and get a bit of an idea on what was happening. 15 minutes into it the long rigger gets smacked but the hooks didn't set, Bugger!!! We reset the spread and spent another half hour trolling the lures before I said we need to drift a couple of live baits. We caught 2 strings of stonking big slimes and bridled 2 up and sent them back into the cobalt blue water. 10 minutes later one of the 15kg outfits takes a big run. I tell my mate to wait for the second run then count to 5 and push the drag up to strike. He does and then all hell breaks loose. The fish takes 2 big runs and then goes deep. I say to my mate I think it's a good blue or a tail wrapped stripe. We spend the next 3 hours trying everything to get the fish up from the deep and after 5 hours chasing this stubborn fish we find we have travelled from the 12 mile off Bermagui to Tathra. With my mate beaten and bruised we finally had our hands on the leader and the fish boat side for a few moments before it screamed off again and finally winning its freedom. The fish ended up being a Blue and went 2.7 m short length at an est 170 kg. It was an awesome experience and a great way to christen my boat and break my mate 😂😜

First Marlin

Sat, 08 Apr 2017 20:45:14 +0000

After years of trying yesterday we landed our first marlin. After a 2.5 hour fight on 15kg TLD50 we sided the estimated 200kg Blue Marlin in 450 fathoms east of browns. What an epic fish these are after 2.5 hours this fish just didn't give up, while we had it up against the side of the boat it still had way to much fight left in it and while held the bill it thrash us around like we where riding a bull. It manage to wear though the 250 pound leader and break free slowly swimming away leaving us to contemplate whether we where ever on top of this beast or was it just playing with us.

While it saddens me that this site will close and my mornings reading posts will never be the same it seem fitting that my last post is about my catch of a life time.

dogbox

JB Report

Thu, 06 Apr 2017 10:24:00 +0000

Finally got some good weather, so went out to-day for a look. Glad to say there are a few fish about, ended up with two Striped Marlin. One on a lure about 90kg and dropped one as well.

Jigged up some slimeys (fair bit of bait out there) and got one about 150kg (maybe more) on a slimey. Somehow the line had lassooed around its shoulder (so not hooked in the mouth at all) i was wondering why it was so a hard long fight (about an hour and a half) and really had a hard time getting the fish up pulling it sideways like this.

Anyway i was stuffed when i finally released him, so i called it a day at about 2pm as i didnt have the energy for another, but i reckon i could have hooked a few more if i had stuck it out.

Big blue for a 12 year old

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 05:51:01 +0000

With the Newcastle competition approaching Mike and I were invited to fish about our friends Bertram 35 - Eagle VI based in Newcastle. Paul has 2 young sons who are both very keen fisherman. On Saturday Max got to fish the comp but Issac unfortunately had to play cricket. With the forecast not great we headed out at 5.30am to get on the Newcastle Canyons for the 8am start fishing. To say it was rough was an understatement but it was predicted to get a little better. We had an early bite but hooks didn't stick but there were quite a few fish being recorded and also a lot lost. Around 12 we had our second bite and it was a solid hit on the JB Dingo on the short rigger and the 24kg Tiagra outfit was screaming. The plan was to catch Max a blue bigger than his previous and he had no hesitation to grab the rod. Somehow he dragged the rod from the boards to the transom and he jumped into his gimble & harness. We cleared the deck & started the chase backing up but as we watched the fish head for the north directly behind the boat at an alarming rate of knots we were suddenly down to 100 meters of line and i called for Paul to turn and chase it otherwise we were gone. We got half a spool back and started backing up again when the fish took its second big run and again we had to turn and chase the fish. This time we got a lot of line back and the real battle began. Max was matching the fish and used the big swell to his advantage to get more line back than he was loosing as the fish sat deeper than we wanted. After 4-5 direction changes the fish decided to head straight back into the current. For her it was a big mistake as suddenly we were gaining line rapidly and little Max's was winding like his life depended on it. After and hour and a half got a look at the fish and we knew it would get us over the 150kg but still needed to get it to the boat. After some heartbreaking final winds i got the leader and put some pressure on to see how much energy was left and off she went at 90 degrees as i dumped the leader... my heart sank a little as i knew this was the fish of a lifetime especially for a 12 year old but was being very careful not to loose this fish. It didnt take long and i got my second chance... this time as i took some wraps she decided she liked the other side of the boat better and took me across the transom where she met Scotty at the corner and he popped the small flying gaff in as i grabbed the bill. We dragged her back around to the transom door and slid her on board with the help of the big swell. As i was pulling the fish trough the door I was sure it was over 200kg but after taking a short measurement it only went 2.7m which the charts call around 180kg. Either way we were stoked and i had witnessed an amazing fight by a young man and we had a great fish on board. We kept fishing and dropped another one after a short fight and it was time to head for home. We heard another boat near us call in a captured blue marlin 2.8m which was disappointing for us but i have never seen such a fat blue marlin as we were bringing in.

The other boat weighed their fish before us and it pulled the scales at 213kg at which point we knew it would be very unlikely that Max's fish would beat theirs. We backed in to the weigh station were the crowd waited with anticipation to see what this fish would pull the scales at. The weigh master hooked up the chain and started raising the fish. I was lifting by the bill and to my surprise i looked up as the fish hit 195kg and i was still lifting.... A quick call of how much you got Damo from Max's dad... with my reply... plenty. As i let go of the bill a big hush went around as we looked up to see 214.4kg. High fives all round and the relief for the young bloke was great but we still had tomorrow and anything could happen.

Day 2 turn on great conditions but the fishing slowed. We did have a stripe on as the 4th lure of the morning went in the water and 2 other bites through out the day but couldn't get them to stick... our little good luck charm Max unfortunately had to play footy on Sunday and couldn't fish with us. He did get on the handheld at first opportunity to see what had been caught and was very happy to hear he was still leading. We came in and there was one fish to weigh but we headed to the presentation not knowing if we had won or not.

Well Max did very well... we managed 3rd place in capture, Champion junior & heaviest marlin for Eagle VI. It was a great night and was fantastic to see his proud parents, brother & sister with huge smiles on their faces and Max with the fish of a lifetime. The competition was well run by Newcastle Game fishing club and there were plenty of marlin tagged and released and a few sharks as well with one tiger weighing over 400kg.

Cheers for a great weekend guys!

Damo

Spearing the monkey

Sun, 26 Feb 2017 10:35:30 +0000

Around 2 years ago I was invited out to marlin fishing . Up untill that point I'd been a pretty dedicated reef basher and inshore boater. This first trip was to become a turning point in my fishing. I was instantly hooked (yes), on the beauty of the open water and the chance to catch something huge. We didn't catch a fish that day but I did catch a bug. Trip 2, 3 and more came and went with similar returns but the bug turning into an obsession. 2 years on, hundreds of hours on the water and more money than I care to remember saw me fishing the port Stephens Interclub My 3rd tournament this season. There's not much to say report wise, steady 27deg (hot) at 110f no signs of bird or life.

After a couple of hours I put a Bibless in the middle of the spread thinking it might help for a dolly of the bills went on, 30 mins on there was a big belt on the Bibless then nothing. No vibrations on the rod tip so rolled in against no weight to find the leader sheered. As I'm showing the cut to the skipper the shotgun fires... A few seconds and I'm grabbing the rod waiting for it to drop. But it just keep stripping line.

The next few minutes were mayhem. The reel just kept screaming whilst the rest of the crew pulled Teasers and cleared rods. I kept thinking is it going to stop? . The fish slowed eventualy and turned and suddenly I'm winding a 50w like a lunatic slowly getting enough pressure back on the fish for the drag to give again. It was like a gym session packed into 2 minutes. Fortunately for the family jewels the gamble went on and it was time to relax into the fight.

I'd managed to get back all the stripped line so the next stage was much easier than it could have been. The skipper maneuvered the boat like a pro and before I knew it my mate had a wrap on the leader. Called For a spear fish it wasn't my marlin but a very welcome break to my Zeros. . We were fishing tag so in it went. But for all the speed of the capture ( maybe 10 or 15 mins,) it was a very green fish and as I stood behind the crew having not seen the fish I could only wait whilst they tried to get a grip on the fish knowing a photo was essential. ( yes yes but everyone deserves that rare photo)

Finally a very angry electric blue fish was on board. It was in my lap and photos with the same speed and expertise that the deck had been cleared. What I thought was one photo was twenty quick shots fortunately cos it didn't want to be held but 1 or 2 caught the moment. Seconds later and she was back in the water and swimming away.

High fives all round and we gave ourselves 5 mins to crack a beer before the spread went back out.

The adrenalin genuinely took 30 minutes to slow dow

Job done, she was big for a short bill and I was high on the achievement..

There's not much else to say except I now need the next one.

If your thinking of game fishing a word of warning.. Its addictive.

I'm back out tomorrow

Report JB area 19/2/17

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 00:04:56 +0000

G'day fella's, just a quick report from yesterday.

Headed out from Crookhaven heads around 5 Sunday morning and in no time at all had filled the live bait tank with 20-30 mixed size slimies and yakkas. Got about halfway to the banks before we made the decision to head down along the cliffs until the wind dropped a bit. Dragged live slimies and yakkas both weighted and unweighted all the way along the cliffs to the drum and drum sticks with nothing seen other than the odd patch of bait marked on the sounder.

Once we had rounded the drum we decided to switch over to lures and go and chase the temp changes on fishtrack towards the JB canyons. Around 3 mile out the long corner got hit, the rod loaded but failed to stay connected. Only saw a splash so could have been anything. Most likely a stripey or dolphinfish id say. Shortly after we found a huge pod of dolphins and birds working tiny little bait fish. We stayed with them for a good hour without raising as much as a look in.

We continued to troll towards the canyons where we come across awesome temp breaks withing about a 3 mile area. Water changing from around 20.5, 21.5, 21.8, 22.3, 22.7 all the way up to 24.9. I was certain we'd pull a fish out of the washing machine but managed zilch. Not a cracker.

Disheartened we decided to head back up to the banks via the block and fad for a drift over the tide change. Normally i troll my marlin lures are 5.5-6 knots which is around 2100rpm on my motor. At those revs we were averaging about 3 knots meaning the current was absolutely flying. Around the drum canyons we had around 60 stripies take flight but that was all we saw.

After a trip that seemed to take a lifetime we got to the FAD which due to the current had a wake boiling off the back of it about 40mtrs long and was struggling to stay above water. A couple of passes wide and close resulted in nothing unsurprisingly with the water around 24.8.

Worked our way back into the banks and switched over to baits. We marked heaps and heaps of bait high in the water column so our confidence levels improved again. Trying to walk baits into the current actually saw us going backwards. We gave it half an hour either side of the tide change before we pulled the pin and headed home as i had a 2 hour drive back over the hill.

Interestingly when we pulled up to pull the gear in thousands of tiny slimies around the 3 inch mark appeared under the boat. Perhaps the fish are tuned in on those.

On Saturday we spoke to a couple of guys who had been fishing the ANSA comp. They had a small black 47.8kg and a 10kg king. The only fish we heard of on the sunday from the very limited boats battling the washing machine was a small 30kg fish.

Sorry i don't have more to add. Will have another crack the 10/11/12 of March.

Ive had a bloody terrible start to my season in truth

Saturday Offshore

Sat, 04 Feb 2017 09:03:07 +0000

Day started well with heaps of live bait at Bundeena, headed out with a spread to the Sydney Fad. nice glassy morning , a few boats at the Fad with a few small Dollies jumping but no takers on the live baits and after 45 mins of bugger all happening we trolled out to the Canyons , pretty decent current running had us at 10.2 knots at one stage , followed current lines , did anything we could but we didn't turn a reel, lots of coral spawn but it thinned out as we headed East, water temp average about 23 but patches out wide up to 26 . Listened to skeds coming in from a Sydney comp, but the only report was a mako, and a few small blacks hooked further North.

Sent some live baits in around Jibbon Bombie before we called it a day and couldn't even tempt a King lol , so it was just one of those days....but as always good company and some nice cold bevo's made it a great day regardless,

Cheers

A few small blacks around

Sun, 05 Feb 2017 11:26:02 +0000

Hey all, I got nothing to report myself but I got a report from a customer who got 2 small blacks and a nice Dollie a little while back on our lures around Norah Canyons. He said they hit patch of them and were hooking them up all over the place for around 2 hours, but most of them threw the hooks as marlin do!

I have been hearing a few fishermen are getting marlin up in their spread but they are not taking anything, just looking. If that is the case you can try some of our lures, but make sure you fill them with bait, pillies, squid or stripped tuna, the bait inside might get them striking and not just looking. Go to our website to check them out.

http://www.scentblazer.com/

I haven’t been out myself since winter. I’m flat out with work and waiting on my new boat which is taking forever and my current boat is for sale up at Gameboats in Pittwater.

http://www.gameboats.com.au/gameboats/boats-for-sale/used/power-boats/caribbean-26-flybridge-sports-fisherman/196884

We’ve been doing well overseas selling lures and managed to get our lures in Wal Mart through a distributor! The Yanks seem to love our lures and we are even making inroads in freshwater market in the US. They are trolling our lures for Trout and Salmon in the lakes over there with great success. Australia is still slow for us, but in saying that we have some really good core customers in Australia now who continually purchase lures from us.

We have also developed a really small lure with the standard Scent Blazer concept of putting real bait inside. They are 4.5 inches and the skirts can be cut down to 3.5 inches to make them really small, so they represent a small white bait, small squid or pilchard. We were testing them for about 6 to 12 months and we got Kings, Mack Tuna, Salmon, Tailor, Stripped Tuna and Dolphin Fish. With these lures you put a little bit of bait in the head of the lures. We got rat kings to a bit larger on them every time we trolled them in close off Long Reef.

Anyway, it's all good! Good luck to anyone heading out.

Peter
www.scentblazer.com

Reef Magic Charter specials

Mon, 23 Jan 2017 08:43:34 +0000

Well it's that time again to chase the marlin off Port Stephens for 2017 summer. With the little blacks turning up & the odd stripe about we have a few specials available.

Our regular day rate is $1900 but these special rates are available.

2 mid week days for $3100

2 weekend days for $3500

either Friday or Monday with a weekend day for $3400

If any raiders would like to get a group together post up on Fishraider and we can see if we can get a group of 5 together.

cheers

Damo

Newcastle/Port Stephens report

Sun, 22 Jan 2017 10:15:31 +0000

Good day out today off Newy looking for blues. We headed wide but only managed a nice mahi-mahi. Lots of reports of smaller Marlin in the 50-70 fathom area. Heard one boat on a sked go 6-5-0 & ended up with 11 bites for zero. That's a tough day out. Plenty of fish about if you want a charter we will be in Port Stephens as of Australia Day

First Marlin for me

Thu, 12 Jan 2017 09:47:57 +0000

Hey all,

After spending a lot of time (probably too much at work) reading here and picking up whatever tips I can, it has finally all paid off. I bought a nice boat a couple of years ago with the hope that I can one day find and catch my own big game Fish.

Went out today from broken bay to try again with higher hopes after some reports and a look at the temperatures.

Around midday the dream finally happened, the left rod went off screaming and I could see the bill smashing around out the back. What a rush!

My mate got the decks cleared quickly and efficiently whilst I held on. We then played it well and had it at the boat after about 15 minutes. Then got it off at a nice distance from the boat as I had no intention of keeping it or having the potential damage trying to bring it in.

Happy the gear and knots all held up. Caught on 15kg on a Shimano TLD 20. Was off long reef area in 105m of water. It was 23.2 when we got it. Fair few birds out and some big schools of bait around. Was kinda hoping for a big dolly to take home but no complaints.

We only managed a little bit of video as we were both a bit preoccupied. If anyone could help with a guess at what it is it would be appreciated. It was about 1.40m-1.60m long (not including the beak).

Anyway, thanks for the tips on this site. Don't think I could have done it without.

https://youtu.be/3QNGhbQ7_cE

Cheers

(now it's time to invest in some outriggers so I can run a better spread rather than my hacked together rod holders out the side)

Black Saturday

Sun, 08 Jan 2017 08:34:28 +0000

Hey guys fished out of bellambi yesterday on a mates boat, towed lures all day, headed north towards the hacking headinngnout towards the 75-80 fathom line, no birds, no bait, absolutely perfect weather. But no action.

Turned south and trolled between 75-80 fathom line with water temps around the 23.5° and still zip. No birds, no bait, then POP and BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ off goes the short rigger! Cleared the decks and a 20 minute fight with an estimated 80kg black Marlin, had it boatside and tagged, couple of happy snaps and let it go to live in and fight another day.

So stoked to have landed my first Marlin on my third ever trip.

tight lines ✌🏼️

Newcastle Marlin charters

Tue, 03 Jan 2017 09:35:20 +0000

Taking Reef Magic to Newcastle tomorrow. Fishing on the way up so hopefully we can tag a couple.
Give me a call if you fancy a charter while we are here. Easy train trip up & access to be best fishing
Cheers
Damo

Video of our Blue from Sunday

Mon, 02 Jan 2017 20:52:48 +0000

Here is a short clip of the Blue that we found inside 12 mile on Sunday in 23.4 purple water. After 1 hour fight the hooks pulled but we were still well away from winning at that stage, he was just too good.

Reports from previous few days had fish holding closer to shelf but water seemed to have continued to push in and more fish were found now moved to 50-75 ftms

Sydney rodeo open

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 10:31:58 +0000

Saddle up boys the Bulls are back in town

In 130 m off botany today

lost a big blue marlin just inside 12 mile also in 23.4 after an hour battle popped hooks but he was not even close and too good !

almost spooled us on first run before lines even cleared

water is purple blue