Secho

We trolled to the Canyons then wide and back up north - 7am till 7pm Temp was around the 17 degrees most of the day - water colour and clarity was pretty ordinary. My boat didn't turn a reel all day - my mates boat hooked up a yellowfin on sundown estimated 45kg - lost it on the gaff shot. Cheers Marty

We took 2 boats out of Kembla yesterday too - trolled to the Canyons then wide and back up north - 7am till 7pm Temp was around the 17 degrees most of the day - water colour and clarity was pretty ordinary. My boat didn't turn a reel all day - my mates boat hooked up a yellowfin on sundown estimated 45kg - lost it on the gaff shot. Cheers Marty

Check your PM box mate - catch up with you if you're heading out too. Cheers Marty.

Yeah mate - we're doing same. We were planning on Sydney wide but now heading wide of the Kiama Canyons until we find the break. Give us a call on channel 21 any time during the day - REEL GAME and also TINTOLA - both Sailfish cats. Cheers Marty

G'day Damo, I'll be out on mine on Monday and Cammo's taking Tintola out as well - will give Mike a call if we come across anything. Cheers Marty

Well done Mike and Damo - cracker start to the season for you guys. Big high five also to Cammo, Dave, Hulme, Grazer and Mark aboard TINTOLA - the boys nailed 4 today and lost 2. 2 Went over 80, 2 over 35 and one of the two that the boys dropped was called as being bigger than anything they had seen for the day. Well done Cammo - pretty sensational way to break in the new tub. Cheers Marty

Well done Mike, Damo and the crew on Reef Magic - lets hope this is just the start of a cracker season ahead!

Good news Damo.. do you know if there were on the troll or cubing? We'll be out there tomorrow having a crack - if anyone else is out there give Reel Game a call on channel 21. Cheers Marty

It was pretty sharp - less than half a mile. Where the two currents met the water stood up white capping in a long line along it - heaps of weed pushing along the middle of it, birds everywhere - bugger all to be found on it though. Strange two days down there - I had pretty high hopes... we went looking for the break again the next day but it was nowhere to be found for miles around where it was the day before. Lets hope Sydney turns it on soon - can't be too far way! Cheers

Just got back to Sydney from JB. We had been headed for Bermi but weren't happy with the forecasts so JB looked the better chance of getting out. On Wed we left the ramp very early and headed wide, local reports were indicating that the fin are patchy and that small lures in red or purple seemed to be working better than cubing. We found a big temp break just off the shelf where water rose from 16.5 to 18.9 degrees and trolled around it for hours. There were lots of birds about but not much showing on the sounder at all. After a few hours we left the break and headed wider - ended up trolling to the 2100 fathom kink east of JB - here we picked up three albies and a striped tuna along the way but no fin. Some friends of ours were further south of us, wide of Batemans and had an ordinary day too - trolled sunrise to sunset for little result. Had another crack at it yesterday... got hit hard by a gale before lunch then after an hour or two in it the winds calmed down.. during the lull we decided to head wider again and by the time we got into a couple of thousand fathoms the wind punched back up and reminded us who was in charge - wasn't pretty. Got back in last night to hear reports of Blue Fin being caught in big numbers further south of JB yesterday - wishing now we had stuck to our first plan! All in all we trolled about 350km in 2 days for a few Albies.. towed home today with our tails between our legs. That's fishing hey! Cheers Marty

Outside the heads mate.

Good work mate - just checked out a pic of the Southern Ray's Bream.. spot on to what we caught! Cheers Marty

Went for a run wide of Sydney on Friday, conditions were picture perfect with little swell and no sea. Managed a full tank of slimies before we headed out and ran straight to the thousand fathom mark in no time at all - 30 knots the whole way out. Cubed from about 2pm and had two very good fish show on the sounder at 80 fathoms within the first hour. We dropped a jig straight down to that depth and hooked up immediately.. almost spooled a Saragosa 18000 with a full spool of 80 pound jig braid top shot with 25 meters of 24kg mono.. on the second run the line popped and it was all over.. 24kg top shot had given in way half way up - not sure what happened there. After that we cubed till dark for three good albies and a weird fish that we've never seen before.. round as a dinner plate, looked like a piranha, copper coloured eyes.. any one got any idea's??.. went through the IFGA app for species.. doesn't look like anything there..?? Finished the day with a big blue shark and came back home in the same fashion as we went out - all in all a top day out and a great run on the water. Cheers Marty

Heya Damo - top job putting that one together mate - great footage! Thanks for a cracker Marlin season both Sydney and Port - looking forward to the Tuna run any minute now! Cheers Marty

We'll be out wide cubing and jigging on TINTOLA by 1 or 2pm tomorrow - Call us on 21 if any raiders are out there. Cheers Marty

Looks like Leatherjackets

Nick - jump on that Reef Magic Charter that is being advertised - everything we know about catching Tuna and Marlin we were lucky enough to learn of Mike and Damo onboard Reef Magic - those guys will be happy to show you exactly how its done. Cheers - Marty.

We only see them on the sounder mate.. its generally right on sundown or dark when we find that we run into albies. With a 1kw or better transducer and a decent sounder you can actually see your jig going up and down so it's pretty easy to reach the right depth. The current was still running pretty strong yesterday so we ended up running through 30kg of cubed IQF pillies before we hooked up the first fish with four people on rotation... two people running pillies up and down the trail, one cubing and one jigging. We caught just as many on the jig as we did on cubes - hope that helps.

Went out at sunrise yesterday on a mates new rig, no live bait outside Sydney to be found so we punched out to Botany wide FAD where there was an abundance of Rat Kings and Dollies. Managed a couple of nice fish before heading off to Browns where we dropped a spread of tuna lures out. Nothing to be found on the troll so we started cubing wide of the thousand fathom line around 1pm.. just on sundown we raised a big school of albies and had a heap of fun with double and triple hook ups on cubes and jigs. Unfortunately the weather kicked up sharply from the norwest while we were still about 70km out so it turned into a very long hard trip home - hit the ramp about 10pm. All in all a good day out - YFT cant be too far away now! Cheers Marty

Also - did anyone hear of any news from the Canberra comp at Bermi last weekend? Marty

Yes mate, we're a Sailfish 2400 Gamefisher called Reel Game, cheers.

Headed out yesterday, lots of healthy bonito to be found everywhere outside Botany Heads. Also found a big patch of bait so got into some slimies as well. From there we steamed out to Botany wide FAD where we managed to pick up two Dollies. After the FAD we punched it out to Browns and put out a spread in hope of some fin.. trolled wide of browns until we were about 35 miles out, pulled the lures in and started the trail. We had been cubing for 4 1/2 hours when we jagged a good albacore on the jig, came in just on 12kg's.. not long after that we had a shark out the back that we watched cruise away from the boat into the sunset.. thought it had lost interest and moved on however it was back at the boat in a matter of seconds and we were hooked up. Took about an hour to get it boat side where it made a fine mess of the paint job, chewed on the transom ladder and then bit down on the rear rail where it got lock jaw and stayed there all the way home. Not the best pics of the shark, might put up a link to the go pro footage - pretty funny episode. Cheers Marty

That's great news - the best time of year just got closer! Are these reports same ones that came from far south or are you talking Sydney? Would appreciate the heads up Cheers Secho

Had a great day on the water yesterday with Mike and Damo on Reef Magic Jumped on board up at Port Stephens for the trip back to Sydney with Nath, Cammo, Paul, Davo and Joey. Got into some Bonito around the headlands before heading out to the carpark where we ran them as skips.. managed to sound patches of bait but no fish on them. Mid morning we pulled the skips in and ran a spread down to the Norah Canyons where conditions were glassy smooth with water up to 26 degrees - came across some patches of surface baits along the way but didn't find anything on them. Into the afternoon a lumo on the long rigger took off and we strapped Joey in for his first - ended up tagging a healthy blue around 100kg within 20 minutes All in all a great day and a great end to Reef Magic's Port Stephens run where they managed to land fish on every single trip for the entire season up there! Looking forward to another big tuna season coming up - Thanks Mike and Damo!

Left Botany at first light on Monday, dropped a spread out from the top shelf line and headed wide. Conditions were a little uncomfortable with close / sharp sea on a relatively small swell - not what BOM or Seabreeze had predicted. Water temp was sub 19's right up to the shelf where it jumped up to mid 22's then 23's and back down to 20's when we got out to the thousand line. This was also unusual because the SST charts were saying that the warm water wouldn't kick in until we got out to 152 but it only got colder out there. Anyway, we were only about 6 miles passed Browns and headed for Heatons when the short corner took off.. we thought we were hooked up however after a short run it had thrown the hooks. About 20 seconds later the same lure (Hothead Beer Barrel in lumo) took another burst but once again hooks didn't stick, the fish lost attention in the short and moved straight over to the long corner where it took an extra large Pakula Smoking Jo in blue over green lumo. Hooks stuck this time and Clarkie got saddled up for his first crack at a Marlin... The first run was a screamer and stripped the Tiagra 50 back to about 20 meters on the spool. We thought we were gone for sure however we chased hard and managed to get back most of what we had lost. The fight continued for about half an hour but then the fish shot back under the boat and out the other side.. in the process we got caught up on both motors. With some tricky work Cammo managed to save the line and with a miracle we were still hooked up - lucky we were on 37kg or i'd say we'd have lost it. After 40 minutes we had the fish boat side and decided as it was his first, we'd take it back to the Club and weigh it. We called it for a blue of about 130kg to 140kg however the scales brought it in at 110kg's. The Club also called it for a stripey but no-one was too sure. Either way, a cracker first fish for Clarkie and we got the whole lot on Gopro for him this time. We cut the fish up into what seemed like a hundred steaks and shared it with all our mates - tastes great. Cheers Marty