Reports

Report
12/07/2011

I know that it may be a while off yet, but I will be
conducting talks at a number of different BCF shops. The first one will be at
the West Gosford Store.

To attend these member nights you will need to either go to a BCF store or go online to www.bcf.com.au and join.

To give you an idea of what I would be covering on each night I have listed it as
per each Store and date below.

WEST GOSFORD 14/9/11

Bait fishing for bream, trevally, snapper, leatherjackets and flathead from the boat
and the shore.

Bait fishing for bream, trevally, snapper, leatherjackets and flathead from the boat
and the shore.

Soft plastic and blade fishing for bream, trevally, snapper, and flathead from the
boat and the shore.

PENRITH 12/10/11

Beach and rock fishing for tailor, salmon, bream, whiting, snapper, drummer and
luderick.

Soft plastic and blade fishing for bream, trevally, snapper, and flathead from the
boat and the shore.

Warrawong 26/10/11

Beach and rock fishing for tailor, salmon, bream, whiting, snapper, drummer and
luderick.

Soft plastic, blade, surface and hard bodied fishing for bream, trevally, snapper,
and flathead from the boat and the shore.

Auburn 8/2/12  

Soft plastic, blade, surface and hard bodied fishing for bream, trevally, snapper,
and flathead from the boat and the shore.

Taren Point 22/2/12

Soft plastic, blade, surface and hard bodied fishing for bream, trevally, snapper,
and flathead from the boat and the shore.

Tuggerah 21/3/12

Bait fishing for bream, trevally, snapper, leatherjackets and flathead from the boat
and the shore.

Soft plastic, blade, surface and hard bodied fishing for bream, trevally, snapper,
and flathead from the boat and the shore.

Bankstown 3/5/12

Bait fishing for bream, trevally, snapper, leatherjackets and flathead from the boat
and the shore.

Soft plastic, blade, surface and hard bodied fishing for bream, trevally, snapper,
and flathead from the boat and the shore.

I hope to see you there on the next one. For more information on how to become a member of BCF and for when their
next member?s night is on go to www.bcf.com.au and join up.

LOCAL REPORTS

Scotty Lyons from Southern Sydney Fishing Tours www.fishingsydney.com.au reports that they
have had 2 great days on the water, Saturday had us off shore in flat seas and light west wind, trolling early produced good Bonito along the coast, the shallow that fished well last week proved tough only the odd fish and the Trevally had moved on from Wedding cake island so we pushed wide into 60metres and found the fish Snapper and Morwong on the bite great stuff.

Flathead and Jackets good across the sand in 5ometres just out from the Bay and the Whales were in good numbers again. Sunday and we headed out onto the Bay and found Trevally at the Oil Wharf and Trevally Alley in good numbers, trolling early along the coast produced Bonito.

To have a look at more photos of the fish they caught go to his blog report at http://fishingsydney.blogspot.com/ 

WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO.

Over the past 3 weekends I have been on the competition trail chasing bream. The first weekend saw Team Pflueger 2 at
St George?s Basin where we never caught a bream over two and a half days, but we did manage to catch legal snapper, dusky flathead, flounder, whiting, leatherjacket, tailor, silver trevally and even a toad.

The next week saw Dave and I at Lake Macquarie last round of the Berkley Bream Series where we caught plenty of
bream, salmon, tailor, trevally, dusky flathead, whiting, snapper, flounder, but only managed to weight in 4 competition legal bream for 30^th place. This meant we missed out on the Grand Final to be held at the Sydney Boat Show at the end of July.

Dave and I learnt so much from fishing this comp and hopefully we will be in the top 20 next year.

Good luck to all the top 20, especially Team Pflueger (Mitch Birt and Marc Huisken) and Team Pflueger 2 (Dean Hammond
and Neil Foley.

The third weekend had Dave and I fishing the Gamakatsu comp at Port Stephen where we caught plenty of legal bream and up
graded about 6 times to come 13^th overall. We also caught dusky flathead to 90cm, trevally, Australian salmon, flounder, leatherjackets and snapper.

LATEST REPORTS FROM AFAR.

 

FRIDAY 1st JULY 2011

OUTSIDE

Conditions through the week have been excellent and so has the fishing outside, down south off Nora Head Canyons up to Seal rocks there was a few Yellow Fin Tuna caught by local rec fisho?s with fish being landed up to 30kg?s on trolled deep diving minnows. The weekend saw perfect conditions for smaller boats looking to run wide with plenty of Kingfish being jigged off the mountain over Saturday and Sunday with fish being caught up to 10 kg?s. In close from Edith Breakers down to Anna Bay the snapper are hot on the bite particularly fish around the couple of kilo mark with fish being caught up to 8kg?s. Soft plastics are producing the best results in less than 20 metres of water. The popular reefs out the front are holding Nannygai and Squire according to local charter operators with good numbers of fish caught over last weekend.

ESTUARY

Inside the port at the moment it looks more like my coffee of a morning but the fresh water is slowly abating as the days go on. Despite the dirty water the fishing has still been good with plenty of good bream being caught up around the soldiers point area in the racks and around the islands and deeper rock walls. I fished over the weekend concentrating on the top of the tides in the
afternoon, I hardly turned a reel on Saturday chasing Bream and Tailor but Sunday was a different story with the water quality improving vastly over night. I managed a few good bream up to 800grams working plastics in deep water adjacent to rock walls up the rivers and got stuck into the tailor in the wash around the heads. Speaking to anglers at the boat ramp both days it seems they
did better in the morning than the arvo fish with plenty of cracker Bream caught throughout the system. The Anchorage and Nelson Bay Break walls are producing as normal, with quality catches of Bream and Blackfish every day. The blackfish shied off a little earlier in the week but there back on the chew now with cabbage being the pick of baits (although Al Drakefield assures me that
the weed is starting to work well). On the walls local customers have been doing well testing live freshwater farmed Yabbies which we have in store at the moment, casted into a small berley trail they are proving deadly on the bigger fish. They?re hardy on the hook and full of action.

ROCKS

Off the rocks this week there has been plenty of action as local anglers are cleaning up on Bream, Blackfish, Tailor, Drummer and Salmon. I?ve heard reports of fish all along our rocky coastline this week with some cracker fish amongst the wash. Drummer to 3kgs and Tailor up to a few kilos has been the standouts off the stones.

BEACH

On the open beaches at present the fishing has been great for a feed of Bream, Tailor or Salmon for fishcakes if you?re keen on them. Stockton, One Mile and Fingal beaches have been the pick of spots, spinning metal blades or a pillie on a set of gangs casted into a nice gutter is getting the best results. This weekend the weather is looking the goods so get out there and get amongst the fish on offer.

FRIDAY 8TH JULY 2011

OUTSIDE

Over last weekend and earlier in the week conditions were perfect and some good fishing was had out the front. Snapper have been the target species and they?re still on the bite with plenty of good fish caught around Fingal Island, Broughton and up at Seal Rocks on soft plastics. Out wider the Yellow Fin are still about with fish being caught on the shelf line. Boat Harbour local Mick
Wright nailed his first fin trolling skirts on surface that went 30 plus kgs over last weekend. The King?s are still on the mountain with a lot of smaller fish jigged over the weekend, if you could get your jig past the Jackets.

ESTUARY

Conditions in the Estuary are improving as each day goes by with the water clearing and the fish coming back on the chew. Over last weekend the wind backed off and the rained cleared but the fishing was a little slow. The GTS Bream team?s event was held on Sunday with great success. 33 boats entered the event in total, made up of local and visiting teams. First place went to last year?s
event winner Team Big Wigs with a total of 3.33kgs for their bag limit of five fish. The Bream were a little slow on the day as the pre fish indicated but for those that found the fish early they got their bag limit and the results. It was great to see half of the top ten made up of local teams amongst a good field of anglers. Myself and GOTONE team member Craig Thompson finished up 9th with 2.27kg for our five fish and caught our fish working 2 inch gulp minnow grubs and shrimp in Banana Prawn on 1/16th nitro jig heads, working deeper water adjacent to rock walls. With fantastic weather it was a top day on the water. Over all $11,500 in cash and prizes were won with a good turn up to make it a successful event. After the weekend the wind has been up from the west making fishing limited, out of the wind the pick of spots has been the good old break wall in the marina with good catches of Bream and Blackfish being caught through the week.

ROCKS

Off the stones this week has probably been the most productive and fishable area?s to chase a feed with good reports of Drummer, Bream, Squid and Salmon coming from Tomaree and down south to Birubi Point. A local customer has been having a ball fishing off Tomaree getting stuck into the Bream and landing some thumper Drummer to 4kgs and getting done up by some unstoppables. Down off One Mile Point I have had some good reports of solid tailor swimming up and down the point smashing metal blades and fresh Pillies thrown their way. Some out of town anglers have been nailing some cracker green backs to 3.5kgs on dark. Off the Torpedo tubes amongst the boulders there has been some cracker Bream caught on mullet fillets and royal red Prawns. Below Drew Barry Park and further south off Boat Harbour the good old squid are about in the protected bays in clear water.

BEACH

The beaches have been productive this week with good reports of Tailor and salmon swimming up and down the beaches in good numbers. Fingal and One Mile beaches have been the pick of spots with plenty of good reports from anglers on holidays doing well throwing ganged brined pillies into the gutters on dusk or dawn. The south end of Box Beach is fishing well for Tailor and also producing some cracker Bream.

BECOME A GOT ONE PORT STEPHENS
MEMBER!

Enjoy the latest updates, tackle information, new products, special offers & savings, as well as this Fishing Report delivered to your email box every Friday! To become a Got One Port Stephens member go to the link provided below:

http://www.gotone.com.au/members/index.php
Tight Lines

Drakey

Paul Martin from Rock Marine Bait and Tackle rocksmarine@tsn.cc
8/07/11

The outside fishing scene is on fire at the moment with Grassy fishing well for some very respectable Snapper coming off the bottom, some up to 8 kilos. Trag are in big numbers around the same location but getting a big one is a mission. Pearl Perch have been around the 50 meter mark while Tusky?s have been on the bite with some good fish amongst them. There were a few Bar Cod caught last week with one crew past the shelf to get their catch. Fisho?s trolling for Tailor in front of the Gaol has been doing well with one cracker 4.8 kilo monster caught by Dave Abel. I had a few stories last week of big Kings busting guys of around Fish Rock. Bigger than normal Mac Tuna have also been about in various locations. Leather Jackets were not such a big problem last week but that can change like the wind.

Once again the Cut Through or Kemps Corner proved productive for Schoolies but it is hard to fish mid tide. Michelle and I fished that location last weekend for Bream and Flathead, but the catch of the day; I caught a thumper Blackfish on a 5? lumo Berkley Gulp plastic, jagged but still it ate well. Good Bream again were coming off the Breakwall where the water is slowly clearing.

Good results from the beaches last week with some nice Tailor, Bream and Salmon coming in. Rock hoppers are getting Tailor, Drummer, Blackfish and Salmon out of the calmer seas through the week.

The store has Whitebait for Bream and Flathead back in stock also some great green weed for the incoming Luderick.

Paul Martin

rocksmarine@tsn.cc

THE DOWN RIGGER SHOP

Andrew Hestelow is the managing director for Stelco Pty Ltd sends me a report nearly every week about what his customers and clients have been up to  when it comes to fishing. These reports come from all over the world and it is always a great read to keep you up to-date as to what is going on and been caught. Andrew will also keep you up to-date as to what new gear they have
available.

Andrew has put up some great shots of gemfish and blue-eyed cod that have been caught using electric winches and the southern bluefin bite has been going off its head. One of Andrews?s customers reports of a 93kg that was caught on 15 kg. Other reports that have come in are as follows;

Kiama GFC President Mark Way confirms:

Sorry mate forgot to forward my bulletin onto you last Monday (See info in previous e-mail under, plus another report on an est. 40kg Yellowfin). Latest info is the Bluefin rush is on, with boats going south down to Ulladulla and further towards Bermi, have a crack at them. Best fish I heard of was a 93kg Bluefin on 15kg!

Mark. Aaron writes in: 

Hi Andy, need a sheet of the carbontex that you have as I worked over my spin arsenal on the bluefin out of bermi recently. biggest bluefin I got was on spin gear with 50lb braid, took about an hour to land and weighed in at 48kg. first run was amazing and nearly emptied the spool of 350m of braid in less than a minute with some serious drag pressure. When it finally stopped my spool was
literally smoking and hot to touch. Were an awesome couple of days out there with fish everywhere at the boat once located and cubed.

Report 11/06/2011

TACKLE AND TECHNIQUE TALK at BCF at Auburn.

A few months ago Greg Reid from www.bayandbasinsportsfishing.com.au and I gave a tackle and techniques talk at BCF at Auburn. The evening was designed for beginner and intermediate anglers and the areas that we covered were the following:

• How to use soft plastics and blades to target winter and autumn fish species like bream, silver trevally, whiting and dusky flathead.
• How to use baits and suggested techniques to use when fishing in Sydney.
• Deep and shallow water spots to try in the Sydney region.
• Suggested rod and reel selection.
• Types of knots used to join superlines (e.g. braid) to your leaders, jig heads and blades.
• Types of leader material.
• What techniques to use.
• Times and tides.
• Suggested types of jig heads, plastics and blades.

Listed below is a brief description of what was covered on the night.

Deep and shallow water spots to try in the Sydney region.

By deep water I mean anywhere between 5 to 12 metres of water. Even though I knew the areas that I was going to fish I used my Hummingbird 788CX COMBO GPS to help me, not only pin point my position, but to also help me locate the bait and fish schools. The first area that I concentrated on was at the entrance to the Lane Cove River in Sydney Harbour. The water depth varied from 7 to 13 metres and most of the fish came from a small drop-off at the 10 mark on a run-out tide. Both Vince and I used a ¼ oz TT Switch Blades and 1/6 oz Berkley Big Eyed blades, along with 1/6 and ¼ oz jig heads with 6 inch Gulp Camo Sand Worms (cut in half or use only thirds of the worm).

The technique we used was to cast as far as we could in the direction that we were drifting and allow the blade or jig head to reach the bottom. It was then just a matter of slowly lifting the rod tip so theta the blade or jig slowly bounced off the bottom and then sunk back down. Bream were caught on the lift as well as the fall of the lure.

Shallow water areas will range from half a metre to 5 metres in deep and can be in the back areas of bays or in the main channels. They can have weed, sand, mud, broken shells or a combination of a couple or all. They can also be rocky outcrops, rock bars and mussel or cockle beds. The size of the blade or jig head will depend on the current. For example if the current is running quite fast you may use a heavy jig head like a 1/6 oz or if it is fairly slow you may come down to a 1/20 or 1/16oz jig head. You may even use a deep or shallow diving hard bodied lures and don?t forget to try those surface lures as well.

Suggested rod and reel selection.

I have found that the best rod and reel combination for this has been my Pflueger Trion 2.1 metre/ 2 to 4 kilo rod, mounted with a Pflueger Supreme XT2500S reel spooled with Berkley 3lb Fireline Crystal and a 4lb Trilene Fluorocarbon leader. The reason behind this is that, not only has the rod got plenty of power in the bottom section of the rod; there is still enough sensitivity in the rod tip to feel even the slightest of touches. This flexibility in the rod tip will also give the angler a bit of a cushion when the fish lunges in the other direction while trying to get away.

Types of knots used to join superlines (e.g. braid) to your leaders, jig heads and blades.

This is where I keep it very simple and use only two different knots. The Uni and Double Uni knot. The Uni Knot is used to tie on the jig head or blade and the Double Uni Knot is use where I join the Fireline Crystal to the leader. What I also make sure is that when I am going to cast that the knot between the mainline and the leader is located somewhere between the bail arm of the reel and the first guide (stripper guide) on the rod. The jig head or blade will be hanging about 30 to 40cm down from the tip of the rod.

Types of leader material.

95% of the time I will only use Fluorocarbon for my leaders, the other 5% of the time I will use a floating line when using surface poppers and lures. The breaking strain size will depend on whether I am fishing over sandy or mud bottoms, muscle or cockle beds, oyster racks or oystered covered rocks or whether the fish are a bit shy when taking the lure.

It was great to see so many anglers there on the night, and it is great that BCF put these special nights on for their members. Greg and I hope to see you there on the next one. For more information on how to become a member of BCF and when their next member?s night is on go to www.bcf.com.au and join up.

LOCAL REPORTS

Carl Dubois reports on the Squidgies Sydney Harbour Round - 15/5/11

What the? A clear, crisp morning with only slight winds and a measly 20 yaks turn up for the event. Come on Sydney, there should be at least 30 at a minimum. The boaters of course turned up in droves (92 boats, I think) to fish what has become one of the biggest and easiest going tournaments around. Really, if you want to give tournament fishing a whirl, this is the one to test your skills in. No membership needed, just pay your 50 bucks and get into it. Even if you don't catch fish, you'll meet heaps of like minded anglers and will learn more than you'll ever do scouring the forums and reading books.

For more information on the results you can go to the rest of Carls report at www.kayakfishingsydney.com

GOT ONE Outdoor and Leisure Centre at PORT STEPHENS.

portstephens@gotone.com.au

FRIDAY 10th JUNE 2011

OUTSIDE

Well hasn?t winter well and truly set in now and with the near freezing mornings it does take some serious dedication to get up for those early starts. But for those keen enough there are rewards to be had with Mark and Tom Schmakeit managing to get Draky out of bed early to head out to toss a few plastics around Broughton Island in search of a few reds. Well worth it because Draky caught his PB (pictured in this week?s Examiner) of 4.8kg clean. The boys did also manage to catch a couple of pan squire to add to the bag. Laurie and Joe from Boat Harbour managed to drag me out also on board ONE DAY to chase a feed of reds managing to remove 5 quality Squire up to 2 kg around Fingal Island. All fish were taken on Gulp. Further up the coast there are still consistent numbers of Trag coming in along with the odd Jewfish still being taken on the deeper reefs. I have heard reports that there are numbers of large Yellowfin out around the 1000 fathom line. For best results, fishing a spread of skirted and diving lures seems to work best, with Halco Laser Pros in 2m divers and Rapala X Rap 30?s being the go. With diving lures just remember to beef up the trebles as the standard ones do not fair to well when fished over 24kg. As for skirted lures, anything that holds in there in these rough seas will work best. Go for big cup faced skirts. I really like my Zac Attacks and Black Barts for this with the Tahitian Prowler and Canyon Prowler along with the Roach from Zacattack being my favourites. But these fish will eat your traditional Marlin skirts as well. If you are chasing a few lures pop in and have a chat as we have some great specials at the moment ? up to 30% off.

ESTUARY

Estuary fishing is still going really well if you can avoid the howling westerlies with plenty of Bream around the bay keen to eat anything from plastics, blades and hard bodies through to strips of Mullet and Prawns. Rohan Soulsby of Castaway Estuary Charters has told me he is braining them on a BERKLEY FAT DOG in hooch colour. The most productive areas are around Soldiers Point, the entrance to North Arm Cove and the rock bars on the north side of the bay, plenty of fish are being caught just about anywhere inside the port though. There are still a few Flathead being encountered inside the port as well but with water temps plummeting over the last few weeks I would be concentrating any efforts for these fish up towards the heads where the water is still a reasonable 20?. Best results have been with the Sebile magic swimmer plastics and hard bodies but plenty of fish are falling for drifted white bait and small pillies. I also heard during the week that there are still a few trumpeter whiting around so for those keen, these tasty critters are still about and are great fun for the kids. I have still been hearing reports of jewfish inside the port but with very strong westerly?s it has certainly limited the amount of people chasing them. Luderick are now in full swing around the port with bag limit catches taken often. These fish do require a bit of finesse to catch reliably, with light leaders, small fine hooks and good weed a must if you want a healthy bag of these tasty winter fish. My personal favourite hooks are back in stock the trusty 2171 Daiichi but for those who prefer the old school hooks we also have plenty of 540 mustad hooks in stock.

ROCKS

Now is the best time of year to get out there and chase a feed of the rocks with consistent swells and westerly winds offering plenty of protected areas to get a berley trail going. Some of the better areas are sunny corner, Fingal Bay around the stink pipe, Boat Harbour and Morna Point north to Fishy?s all producing the goods. I always enjoy my rock fishing this time of year as you never know what is going to swim into your berley trail with species like bream, blackfish, drummer, groper and leatherjacket all being common - but surprises do turn up. I have encountered snapper from little tackers through to very healthy specimens along with kingfish and trevally while fishing off the rocks this time of year. As always with berleying ?a little often? is the key to success as you do not want to feed them just get them interested and your berley. You should always incorporate some of what u are using for bait so in my case all those Christmas prawn shells are like gold this time of year.

BEACH

Once again conditions have not been ideal for the beach over the last week but the swell is at least giving things a stir up. I have heard that there are plenty of bream still being taken along Box Beach, One Mile and Samurai along with the odd tailor, though they seem to have thinned out a bit. Salmon are in plague proportions eating anything offered. I also heard that a few whiting were taken from the southern end of Stockton early in the week on pipis with the few caught all being crackers. There are still a few jewfish being taken with a few quality ones amongst em. Samurai and One Mile are reported as the most productive but you could bet your life that they would be along Box Beach, Fingal and Stockton as well. As always fresh is good, live is better, so if you don?t mind the odd tussle with sharks a small (but legal) tailor would be dynamite.

BECOME A GOT ONE PORT STEPHENS MEMBER!

Enjoy the latest updates, tackle information, new products, special offers & savings, as well as this Fishing Report delivered to your email box every Friday! To become a Got One Port Stephens member go to the link provided below:

http://www.gotone.com.au/members/index.php

Tight Lines
Blanchy

Paul Martin from Rock Marine Bait and Tackle rocksmarine@tsn.cc

Friday 10^th of June 2011

reports that they have been experiencing slightly better conditions last week brought more fisho?s out on the water to try their luck. There were some nice Pearl Perch coming in from the northern reefs with a few past the 2 kilo mark. There were no problems getting pan size Snapper to the boat but the bigger units are still elusive. Fishing in front of the Gaol, Morwong are in good numbers with a few Snapper as a bonus. If you are heading down to Fish Rock to get amongst some fair Kings troll a lure past the Gaol and Green Island in close and pick up some nice Tailor.

The Break Wall near the opening in the cleaner water, nice Bream have been coming in, there were no monsters but plenty over legal. The luderick are slow to move in with fisho?s only picking the odd one or two on the tides along the wall. Under the Bridge in Back Creek there have been a few caught in the afternoons. The water in the river is very dirty especially around the boatshed and upwards. There were a few reports from Jerseyville of a few Bream while Smithtown and Kinchela has been producing some nice Schoolies in the dirty water.

Rock Hoppers are getting into some nice Tailor and big Salmon while there has been Blackfish and the odd Drummer off the ledges. There were some promising reports from Smoky Beach last week with some good numbers of Bream showing up along the beach. If you are chasing Tailor off the beach you will get plenty of Salmon hooked before you get your Greenback. Gap Beach has some Tailor and Bream with the odd Flathead.

They have Whitebait for Bream and Flathead back in stock also some great green weed for the incoming Luderick.

Paul Martin

rocksmarine@tsn.cc

THE DOWN RIGGER SHOP

Andrew Hestelow is the managing director for Stelco Pty Ltd sends me a report nearly every week about what his customers and clients have been up to when it comes to fishing. These reports come from all over the world and it is always a great read to keep you up to-date as to what is going on and been caught. Andrew will also keep you up to-date as to what new gear they have available.

The next time you get a chance go and have a look at the web site www.downriggershop.com.au/Welcome.html .

I am sure that if you send Andrew and email sales@stelco.com.au