boonga

Hi all, We have had 1 person already interested in this Friday 1. Gerrard Anyone else interested give me a call Cheers Damo

Happy birthday Mike & Ivan hope you both have a great day. Catch up with you guys soon. Cheers Damo

Hi bust off... Everyone takes it in turns. We have 2 people feeding out hooks with bait down the cube trail, someone cubing & 2 -3 people jigging. So everyone gets a go - we had a good day out today. Cheers Damo

We will be out on Reef Magic. What boat are you on? Cheers Damo

Well done guys that is a cracking fin and good to see you land one after losing the first one. Cheers Damo

Gday Emu.. yeah I heard that you got a long billed... its a big day heading to Heatons and back home. Next trip we do out there we plan to do an over nighter and see if we can pick up some of these fish that must be feeding at night hence not feeding during the day. Fingers crossed that the weather improves for the weekend! Let us know if your out and will catch you on the radio. Cheers Damo

There were a few fish caught but considering the conditions and the number of boats out it was very quiet. SGFC boys weighed a couple over 50kg and I heard & saw the photos of 1 Port Hacking boat weigh one at 70kg, heard of a couple of bust offs and the odd single fish from other crews. A lot of boats went wide to Heatons with the great conditions, a few boats saw fish feeding but wouldn't take baits. If the weather improves the next two weeks will be very interesting with the moon fading, the fish may start to feed a bit higher in the water during the day due to the dark nights. It would be good for that water temperature to drop a bit more, if that edge pushes in that is what should happen. Anyway we will keep our fingers crossed and hopefully be out on Saturday. Cheers Damo

Hi Stewart, the fish showed up in dribs and drabs. We spiked the area and first cube in the water got us an albacore. Generally we find them from 2 onwards hence we normally leave late amd come home late. Today we ended up having mike drive another boat today and they only wanted to pull lures. Didn't see anything but a mate of ours who was out in his centre console managed a marlin on a deep diver while trolling. Did hear of boats out at heatons that said they saw fish but didn't catch any. Very slow considering how many boats were out today in great conditions. Hence we have cancelled tomorrows charter. After looking at the charts again today and with some weather coming late next week should be better. Good luck next trip. Cheers Damo

Yes we are

Hi Sean, Mate its a bit hard to tell but we will be back out tomorrow wether we charter or not as we are pretty keen now after seeing them yesterday. We hope that this year we may even see the bluefin turn up out wide which would be great.. its been a long time waiting. They are getting some very wide down south. When ever you want to organise a trip just let us know. Cheeers Damo

We went out today for a look around on Reef Magic and left around 10am and planned to cube & jig till after dark for yellowfin & albacore. We managed to get some nice albacore on cubes & jigs & saw some big 50+ kg fin busting up after sauries around us but even with livies out they didn't want to feed. Anyway we got a good feed and had a great day out. Hopefully with the good weather & the moon fading we should get into them this weekend. If anyone is interested in a charter give us a call on 0407113349. We have Saturday & Sunday available this weekend Cheers Damo

Yes what a great time we all had on the trip Mike. This being my 4th trip to NZ chasing snapper on SP's and my second time to Great Barrier in 6 years I was a little worried at how hard the fishery had been targeted since we were first there. To my amazement it just seems to get better. I have never had so much trouble trying to get some big snapper to the boat and being bust off on numerous occasions. It was great to see Mike get his first big fish as I was worried he was going into depression as everyone else was into them! This trip will be one that I will remember for a long time with some great memories of the fishing as well as the laughing and catching up with Brett again. He will be doing an article for a NZ magazine about the trip and is hoping to score a cover shot as well. Cheers Damo

Hi Sean it was good to have you guys aboard for the day again. It was a great fish on 24kg and it was probably a good thing that he charged the boat early and didn't head in the other direction as he probably would have spooled you. Anyway now you can at least brag to Blake about your fish being bigger!! See you again. Cheers Damo

Cheers Marty it was another great day out on the water and it was good to meet yourself and your father. Can't wait to see the photos. Hope to see you both again soon. Damien

Hey Bob how are things? We got Reef Magic up to Port yesterday, dropped a couple of fish but managed a few small fin. Look forward to seeing you two up there. Boonga

Hi Ash, Yes mate they pull extremely hard. Even the best gear gets a solid work out!

Hi guys here is a link to some highlights of our snapper trip to NZ this year. Cheers Boonga

Yes drop in and see Bondy or Rob at complete angler. Check Aussie Fish Adventures website as stuey may have some recent reports in there. Make sure you get a map of the marine parks as up river from the power lines is a marine park area.

Hi Ash, It was great to have you on board for the day. It was a pity it was quiet but hopefully the fish will turn up in numbers soon. More reports came in yesterday of fish again being caught off Tuross by the longliners in good numbers so there is still a good chance that the fish will come our way. They are just starting to catch jellybeans & albacore down there as well which is a very late start for them so lets keep our fingers crossed. Cheers Damien

Well done Aaron & Ivan persistance generally pays off. Good to see you boys braving the weather. No news on the yellowfin at the moment as you know with the bad weather. Mike did a exploritory trip out last week with a couple of mates but didn't see any fin. The water is cooling down though so hopefully with some better weather they will turn up. T-shirts & DVD's will be posted out tomorrow as I just finished the second DVD last night and Mike is picking them up tonight. Hope you enjoy the DVDs. Boonga

Short corner I would agree that they would be under 20lb generally but as stated you can get some very thick fish over there. I have done 3 trips to NZ fishing for snapper with soft plastics & our biggest to date is 23lb with numerous other 20lbers and plenty in the 15-20lb range. You cant beat it it is a great fishery... where abouts did you fish & who with?

Hi mate yes they were all taken on Gulp 5-7 inch jerkshads! The fish in the shallow water (less than 8 meters) put up a great fight on light gear. Cheers Damien

Mike the snapper never seem to get the bumps at all over there. They definitely ram into the rocks as we go bust off quite a few times in the rocks & especially in the kelp that they like to run through. I would guess they are a slightly different species - I wish they would take a swim over this way as the numbers over there are ridiculous considering the amount of small longliners/dropliners that are working every day. Hopefully they won't ruin a great fishery! Cheers Damien

Yes it was great fishing over there and would highly recommend it to anyone. We were catching & releasing over 100 snapper per day along with that many salmon, king fish, pig fish, leather jackets, maori wrasse, trevalley you lost count. Aaron those jig heads (hard hats) worked well but I lost two big snapper when the hook snapped and also twice when the fish was actually lying on the deck it also snapped. Once when I was trying to remove it & once the fish bit one clean in half. I would not recommend them to anyone and will take what I have left back to the shop and show them how they break. At $3 dollars each they are rubbish! I will put up a couple of other pictures tomorrow Cheers Damien

well done Aaron sounds like you had a good weekend. I just got back from my NZ trip so i will put up a post. It is all quiet on the yellowfin at the moment out wide.