James Clain

Excellent report Dave, great job getting the guests on some fish and teaching them about aussie bush!

Can confirm, I have caught numerous mullet on lures, not jag hooked (actually fully swallowed a lure). Always when they are running and really schooled up so they are fired enough to actually hit the lure. Got this one last July at Evans Head on a double clutch rolled through a massive school of them - Filmed this vid at Nambucca a couple years back -

Cheers @GordoRetired, I cannot agree more.

Thank you for the nice words Zoran, His new boat is certainly very nice!

Awesome Stuff @Pickles, some cracker photos!

Thank you @Larkin, definitely an arm burner as far as endurance goes.

G'day Raiders, On Sunday I got to go out with my uncle on his beautiful new boat for another shot at a Sydney Marlin out of the Hawkesbury. We have been on 2 trips already this year. In the first session, (early January) I got onto what we believe was a nice Blue Marlin early on in the session. It attacked the short corner rod and took a blistering run backwards and then sidewards around the boat. Something gave way in the wind on leader. Probably to do with bow in the line. In late January we had another crack but packed up after an hour of trolling as the conditions were awful, even in the 42 footer. I have never caught a marlin and with the plan to head out on Sunday I was extremely excited to try and get onto and land my first one!!! So, we headed out on Sunday morning with my mate Trent and one of my uncles mates hoping to get onto another big one (and land it this time). We left at around 7am and headed out east of the bait station to troll some skirts over the shelf. After letting the first rod out we had a take from a small 40cm mac tuna. This was a great sign that the bait was around and we quickly got the spread out and began trolling. After an hour or so of trolling we spotted a massive splash over the left rigger skirt far behind the boat and the reel started screaming, it was a marlin. Unfortunately this hookup pulled through and we were off. After resetting the spread we trolled for another 45 minutes and then the right rigger went off with a huge splash. My mate Trent picked up the rod to fight the fish right as the left rigger started screaming. Double Hookup!!! As I picked this rod up Trents one unfortunately pulled through but it wasn't over as my fish took a blistering run with some incredible acrobatics. Shortly after my line went completely slack after trying to wind the slack we believed it had pulled hooks however just as I had given up the rod loaded up again with another blistering run, it was still pinned!! This fish continued to make run after run with lots of incredible acrobatics before diving down and putting the hurt on. As someone who competes in powerlifting I still had my work cut out for me at this point as the endurance required to maintain pressure even on 15kg tackle was surprising. After 15 minutes I was begging to clip the harness in 😂. The fight continued for another hour. I got to the leader line approximately 10 times and each time the fish took another run away from the boat diving down deep. Finally the fish surfaced as a fantastic looking Striped Marlin. My mate Trent had his work cutout for him trying to leader his first big fish. We managed to get a couple nice shots before the fish unfortunately shook its head and spat the hook before we could get a solid grip on the bill. A shame to miss out on my own selfie with it but I am glad that it swam away strong as a result, definitely a caught fish as we did get to touch it briefly. After the fight my shirt was completely drenched with sweat and I was knackered. We trolled around for a few more hours before heading back! Please enjoy these Photos and my Youtube video showcasing the fantastic GoPro footage!

Great fish, well done!

For this years Penrith Panthers Fishfest competition my buddy Trent and I decided to target jewfish. Last year was spent spending an entire evening sitting on the beach at Wisemans ferry without a single bite. This year with the help of my boat we headed down to Spencer to try and get better results. We launched the boat around 7pm and stayed out until 12:30 this allowed us to fish a significant part of the high tide change out in the middle of the river. We used a 4 rod spread, 2 light rods (8lb line 1/0 circle hook) running small Hawkesbury prawns and 2 heavy rods (20lb and 50lb) running squid and butterflied tailor on double snell rigs. Early on we managed a couple small jewfish and a couple small flatties. As the night progressed with the full moon beaming down on us we managed to land 5 quality jewfish. All of these fish were caught on the light rods. Among pike eel and stingray bi-catch we also lost a number of good fish to hooks pulling and being sawn off by what we think were sharks. Trents biggest went 73 centimetres and my biggest went 70cm. Please enjoy these photos and the youtube video linked below! The youtube video showcases some of the incredible action we had! Ps: Trent won biggest jewfish of the com p!! - Tight lines

Fantastic report and great hookup video!! What a great read and viewing.

Well done @big Neil and @Blackfish. Some nice fish there and great raider camaraderie as Bob put it.

Thank you BN, best of luck next time you are our chasing them!

Great session Bob. 2m swell would not have been nice.

Cheers Bob!

Much appreciated @Little_Flatty

Cheers Dave, see you next time!

So many species to target up there! Thank you @Yowie

Much appreciated @XD351

Just arrived home from a. fantastic week with mates on the Mid north Coast staying in Nambucca Heads. The 4 of us rented a fantastic air BnB with the goal of spending 1 week smashing the awesome fish of the Mid North Coast and hopefully landing a jack on my new boat. My mate Trent keen to catch his first GT and my mate Aidan was keen to catch his first Mangrove jack and GT. Day 1: We arrived around 2pm and unloaded after a fantastic 5 hour run from Sydney. Launched the boat around 5:30 in macksville with the plan of loading up on live bait and then hitting the snags up river. It didn't take long to sound some bait under the old highway bridge and fill up the live bait tank. These livebaits were presented upstream under some juicy looking snags to no avail. The water was very murky and dirty and didn't look too promising. We needed to come up with a better plan. Day 2: The following afternoon we decided to try and fish the part of the breakwater known as the V-wall. The idea was that with cleaner water we would be able to get onto some better fish. I launched my boat with 1 mate and motored downstream as the other two setup shop land based. Once again, we found it extremely easy to load up on the valuable herring for livebait. With my friend Aidan even catching a bluefin trevally on a sabiki jig (photo below) Not long after, Aidan was on again. This time - the heavy gear! This brutal jack went 51cm and put up one hell of a fight on 50lb. Last year I lost numerous jacks at this very spot on even 130lb leader. (Before you know it, they have snapped you off). Unfortunately, there were no takers on the vertically dropped live-baits from the boat into the structure. Day 3: We ended day 3 with the same plan. however, this time I decided not to take the boat out. I noticed my electric motor suffering in the strong currents of the river mouth. After livies were secured and I caught my first flutefish. It was not long until my mate Trent was onto something absolutely enormous . We called it for a big Jack but to our surprise an absolutely enormous estuary cod which had me thinking he was onto a baby QLD Grouper. (Photo Below) Day 4: Changing it up once again Trent and I decided to take my boat out in the morning up into the deep, skinny and mysterious waters of deep creek. A place were my 3m polycraft feels right at home. The plan was to fish topwaters and then soft plastics for trevally and Jacks. After numerous surface strikes on topwater with no hookups we switched up to plastics. after chasing what looked like trevally bustups and sounding what looked like a decently sized shark I placed a nice cast deep into a lay-down and hooked up to a nice Estuary Perch....... Sorry, a Mangrove Jack that thought it was an estuary perch. (It hardly pulled string on 8lb!!). After reviewing the footage however I have come to realise that it still almost dusted me by running out and attempting to snap me in another snag upstream. (Watch the youtube video to see what I mean) I didn't measure It but it was around 40cm mark. Finally, a jack caught in my own boat. This meant that i was able to put the Mangrove Jack sticker on the boat that was given to me by @Pickles during our last bass session when he wished me the best for the Jack sessions. We ended the day with another breakwall session. It must have been my day as it was my turn to land something big land based. This time, a fantastic flathead going 68 centimetres. This fish provided an excellent meal for the 4 of us. (Photo below) Day 5: A reasonably uneventful day. Aidan and I launched the boat into deep creek again, missing more surface strikes and landing a small flathead. Day 6: Our final day we decided something needed to be done about the lack of trevally caught on this trip. The plan was to head up to Coffs harbour and fish the Marina. After spotting and missing sight casts on a few uninterested GT which were moving around in the marina we decided to change locations and try Coffs Creek. 3 casts in at one of the few land based accessible spots my buddy Aidan hooked something small, and really strong. Which soon surfaced as a small GT. Not big but certainly a memorable catch for him to end the trip. We finished the session missing some strikes and follow ups from some much lager trevs. Next time the boat is going in here! I am certain some morning topwater action is on the cards. Trent still needs to get his first GT. last year the Jacks were on fire, I believe I lost 16 and only managed to land one. This year Aidan and I went 1 for 1. Maybe the dirty water turned them off? Please Enjoy my youtube video of this amazing trip and the photos below. @dirvin21 you live in a beautiful part of the world, lets get out for a fish next time I am up!

Thank you for the fantastic day out Bob. Will have to get out on the kingfish another time.

There are definitely some interesting species in the saltwater part, downstream of the dam. Unfortunately there have been lots of fish kills due to golf course run off.

Cheers BN, It is nice to get out on the water and do something fun.

Thanks for the great day out on the water Bob. Brady Just let me know that he really enjoyed eating the bream! We will be having our flathead steaks tomorrow night and looking forward to it.