REEF MAGIC CHARTERS

Reef Magic would like to wish everyone a merry & safe Xmas. The early season bite has started on the blue and striped marlin off Sydney & to the north with some nice fish tagged & some big blues lost. We will be chartering off Sydney till the end of January and then in Port Stephens for 3 months. If you fancy doing a charter give us a call. We will do groups for Raiders who are singles. Just post back up on here and we will work out a day for you guys. Max of 5 people on a group charter at $370 per person. cheers Damo

20 keggers

Today was our first day out for a while due to the cold water currents but with a small push of warmer water we headed out today in search of yellowfin. The clients had a great day out boating 5 yellowfin. If you fancy a charter give us a call. cheers Damo

Plenty of Bluefin off Sydney at the moment. If your keen to catch one give us a call and we can organize a charter. cheers Damien

We have 2 guys looking to charter this Wednesday the 14th of March out of Newcastle. They are looking for 3 extra crew. The cost is $370 per person. Give me a call if your interested on 0407113349.

Only Newcastle unless we’re doing multiple days. We still head to the carpark if that’s were you want to go.

Another 2 great days chartering out of Newcastle. On Friday we had Craig & his brother who bought the Carlton coach Brendan Bolton along from Melbourne. Brendan managed a giant spear fish around 50+kg and Craig caught a blue about 130kg. Today we had a first time marlin fisherman who we thought could handle a big blue. It didn’t take long for a big angry blue around 200kg on 24kg to eat the long rigger. Brad angled like a pro and we managed to get a tag in after an hour. We also hooked a couple of striped marlin which we jumped off. The fishing is just unreal up here still and with a few yellowfin about we expect to see some big blues caught over the next few weeks. If you fancy a charter give us a call Cheers Damo

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

Run along the 110-140 fathoms line for the stripes

Friday is now booked thanks for the calls & messages. Weather for the weekend doesn't look great but improves for the start of the week. We have any day next week available for charter running out of Newcastle. If your keen give us a call. cheers Damo

Perfect weather for marlin fishing this Friday if anyone wants to do a charter out of Newcastle aboard Reef Magic. Give us a call on 0407113349 Cheers Damo

Plenty off Sydney at the moment Sean cheers damo

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

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

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

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

Hey Tim, water was only 23 and not great colour on the shelf but inside 70 fathoms got back up to 24.5 and cleaned up. Was like that into 40 fathoms. Plenty of bait but lots of it is pilchards with scattered slimies. Heard boats raising fish from Seal Rocks to Lake Macquarie. We will be bringing the boat up from Newcastle on Thursday Cheers Damo

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

Quiet for us on the way up with forever changing water on the way up but Newcastle area & south of Port fished well again today with heaps of bait about

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

Happy new year everyone give us a call if you want a charter. cheers Damo

Wanted to put a minn Kota on the front of my quintrex hornet but didn't have enough room between the rails so had to come up with another option. I had an idea and went and saw Dave at DM Marine. I didn't know he was a sponsor on here. What a champion bloke & did it for me straight away. We were both stoked with the outcome. I just need to tape it up and spray it - see below cheers Damo

Thanks mate

Thanks mate has been a long time preparing but all good for us both. The old boy is fired up for a big season.

Been doing plenty to make sure I'm up to it and everything has been going to plan. Getting the hooks out and bringing the fish on board and releasing it was no issue. Sure I will feel it tomorrow but doc says its all ok so full steam ahead.. with caution. cheers Damo