Secho

The Sydney Harbour FAD was deployed yesterday at its usual location: 33° 47.021' S, 151° 22.700' E The first DPI offshore artificial reef was also deployed off South Head this week. This steel structure is 12 metres high, 15 metres wide, and weighs 42 tonnes. The reef can be found in 38 m of water at the coordinates: 33°50.797'S 151°17.988'E

We were too busy scrambling around the deck for camera shots - but tell you what, I would have loved to have a snorkle and goggles out there.. unless there was a big Mako down under ready to give me the Al McGlash brush off !

Yeah, the magic carpet was awsome... I reckon there must have been thousands of them.. the two blokes that were feeding the pillies in and out were a few hundred meters out from the boat at the time so to get hit at the same time as the jigs and deep bait under the boat, must have been a massive school. Good thing about it is that we might start to see more schools of the 20kg to 25kg mark more often, as opposed to reports of one off big fin being caught from time to time.

Cubed wide of Sydney yesterday on Reef Magic and had the best show i've seen.. bit chaotic, but unreal! We were kicking back with a coldie, 2 blokes feeding the pillies in and out, one jigging, Mike and Dave taking care of the cube trail. Hadnt seen much action until 6 rods went off at the same time, each run kicking in seconds after one another.. mayhem followed. I got my one on the jig only to pull the hook then get hit by something bigger within seconds of dropping the first. My mate Hulme' who was retrieving a pillie went off, the deep bait off the outrigger went off, Davo who has feeding a pillie out went off, one on a balloon off the port side went off followed by same off the bow.. Hulme who was the first to drop his quickly dropped a jig and he was back on fighting a very green fish right beside the boat.. Mike called it for around the 40kg mark before it sounded for a long long run. Looking into the water as we ducked and weaved the rods there was literally a carpet of yellow fin running under the boat - they were literally everywhere which is something i've never seen in my life and wont forget in a hurry.. at one stage I think we were more consumed with the magic carpet than concentrating on getting our fish on board - which is probably quite obvious by our 6-5-1 result During the mayhem my braid on the jig cut Mike off, the one up on the bow was long gone, Davo pulled the hook on his, I got mine on the deck (around 25 - 30kg mark) which left Hulme fighting his for about 40 minutes.. at one stage he got caught up in the running gear only to be saved by a deep push of the deck broom, but the line was compromised from rubbing on the rudder and after getting him off, the braid busted on the next run - very dissapointing for him considering he almost had the leader boatside just prior to that. All in all a fantastic show, bit unfortunate that we only landed one during the mayhem - but a session to remember for a long time. Cheers Marty

Yeah they're still pretty hit and miss out there at the moment, here in numbers one day - gone the next and back the day after.. We're hoping to have a crack at some blues this week fishing Bermagui on Thursday and Friday however sea's are looking pretty crappy. If we get blown out down there (which is looking likely) we'll be trying to get out off Syd same days.. or maybe Kiama if seas are ok for a trailer boat job.. got a picture message from Damo on Reef Magic this morning of a cracker YFT.. off memory I think he called it for somewhere around the 72 - 75kg mark - not sure which day they jagged it. Cheers - Marty

We were out there Friday as well and couldnt believe we saw a marlin free jumper right on Browns then about 2 mins later we had one take the short corner... only had it on for one run and one jump before he spat it.. our sounder was showing hight 21's to 22 degrees... bizzare temp for this time of year - other than that we spent the day soaked, cold and nothing to show other than striped tuna too. Cheers - Marty

Hi Stuart, We'll be out there again tomorrow SE of Browns.. will be in a mates Haines tomorrow - give us a shout if you're out there.. I think he usually sticks to ch 22 and 71 Cheers Marty

As always, a big thanks to Mike and Dave for another awsome day on reef magic! We spent a little time around north and south head looking for some livies and managed to find a patch of slimies before heading out wide in search of the cold water. We were well wide of Sydney on the troll when we the first of the reels took off.. after a quick debate about who should go first Cammo jumped onto it and boated a YFT around the 30kg mark - great start to the day! Within minutes we were on again, this time on the shot gun which was well and truly way out the back - felt like a solid fish due to the distance from the boat however our hopes of a second fin dipped as we got an Alby onto the deck.. somewhere around the 6 to 8kg mark - still a good fish. Dave spent some time teaching us how to properly dress the fin which was fantastic to learn - much appreciated Dave! We found cold water well wide and laid out a cube trail.. I got straight onto jigging the trail and sure enough, first drop and we were back on. Passed the rod to Doc to have a go however after about 10 minutes he was happy to give it back to me - we were onto a solid fish... played it safe and before too long we had our second fin on the deck - around 25 to 30kg We put a livey out and continued to cube, started running pillies up and down the trail and kept someone jigging all the time as well.. got to about 3:30 and wind had kicked up and despite very little swell, we were seeing some decent sized water quite close together... Dave reckoned things were looking fishy.. Within minutes of Dave's call one of the pillies took a hit and we were back into the action.. we grabbed Dennis who had never caught a fish before, let alone been out to sea on a game boat and put him into position.. for a first timer he copped an experience that many long time fisho's have only dreamed of.. the most stubborn yft I have ever seen gave him the fight of a life time... some 45 minutes later we had the double within 2m of the boat about 15 or 20 times... this thing just kept going back - eventually Dennis won the fight and we had our biggest for the day - a 40kg fin. Things kept going and we fought another 3 fish yesterday afternoon, boating two more fin around the 25 to 30kg mark and having a 6th one bust off right at the boat. With 5 of us on board and 5 good fin on the deck we decided to call a fellow boat over to our spot to take over our trail... they'd been into it all day long and hadnt turned a reel.. within 15 minutes of us passing over to them, they had a big bust off and another 40kg fin on their boat - great way to end the day. Thanks again Mike, Dave, Damo - you never let us down! Cheers Marty

G'day Mike - thanks again for looking after us on Saturday - appreciate that you and Damo always go the distance to put us amongst the action.. it was terriaki albacore on the grill all round on Sunday! Thanks again - catch up with you again after Bermi. Cheers Marty

Anyone heading down to Bermagui for the Yellowfin comp this weekend? Weather forecast is looking pretty ordinary... we'll be onboard Tru-Dee - keen to see if any other raiders are heading down.. anyone ever heard of that comp being postponed? Supposed to be 110 boats entered.. can't see 110 boats going out in that sort of weather unless something changes between now and then.. Cheers - Secho

About 40 minutes

Both trailer boats under 6m.. we take all the gear though.. heaps of extra fuel, oil, auto inflate jackets, EPIRBS, person EPIRB sewed onto the back of the jacket, VHF, 27 Meg, ENA's with Marine Rescue etc... always pick our day and have never had too big a drama getting back in.. we generally dont go beyone the wide FAD unless we're confident of the current weather and forecast.. I saw a bloke out at Browns in a tinny not long ago - even had outriggers on it!

Pakula Sprockets and Roaches predominantly in Lumo as well as some jet heads of similar colour.. Pretty sure he landed his on a greenish coloured jet head.. both fish went the shotguns. We also both had a digger and witchdoctor out.. mine are lumo pink, his are green.

My mate and I went for a troll wide of browns just before easter and found some great action.. lots of bait and plenty of birds about! Thanks to our mate Gabe we were both running our brand new Tiagra outfits for the very first time and were super keen to Christen them with something. Due to the size of our boats we always go out together and generally fish within eye sight of one another... on this occasion we just happened to be trolling side by side within about 50m of each other when we both hooked up simultaneously. Unfortunatly on my boat the hook pulled after 30 minutes or so however my mate Cammo managed to land his one.. came in at 50.1kg - pretty impressive for a first Yellowfin! Being the lucky bugger that he is he also hooked a striped marlin on our way home and got it right to the boat before busting the wind on... I guess his outfits have now cut their teeth properly, mine remain virgins untill another day (perhaps when these sea's settle). All in all a great day. Cheers, Marty.

Hi Mike, Damo, We'll take next Tuesday 12th April if you are available.. probably be 4 of us this time Let me know if you are available Cheers Marty

It jumped onto a greenish yellow 6 inch skirt with a jet head... we had double hook up, other one was on same style lure but with a pink skirt.. lost the second one after it swam under the boat and the wind on clipped the prop... we weren't too impressed with ourselves!!

Trolled wide of Botany this week and landed this Mahi off the front of an oil tanker which was adrift at the shelf drop off.. also landed about a dozen healthy striped tuna, all around the 3 to 4kg mark, and all landed along the top of the drop off area.. also got treated to seeing a small striped Marlin freejumper at 12 mile reef on the way back in close - great day all round. PS: Managed to lose 2 brand new lures to the 15 feet of yellow nylon rope that some loser had used to tie their boat to the Botany Wide FAD.. had a fine job trying to cut the rope free so that we could get them back! They must think you need to be sitting on top of it to catch a fish or something???

Photo's from Reef Magic Trip Tues 1st March 2011.

Received some mixed reports of Blue Eye out at Browns so ventured out there last week (Fri 25th Feb), didnt find anything at all down deep however old boy sharkie here swam up to the back of the boat and asked if we'd mind tossing him and 1800 pound plastic wrapped steel cable with a dirty big hook embedded inside a fresh Bonito... naturally we obliged and the rest is history.. came in at 57kg's gutted and is an Oceanic White Tip from the Whaler family - never seen one before myself.. Kids thought it was great and made a heap of lovely fillets for the BBQ - Cheers.

Huge thanks to Mike and Damien for an awsome day out on Tuesday! We boarded Reef Magic about 6:30am, as always we were greeted by Mike and Damo with all the usual spoils of a big boat, plenty of food, drink and comfort to be seen all over. Had only been out the heads for about 40min when the band popped on the left outrigger and stripped what I think was about 1km of line off the Tiagra.. fought the fish for about 25 min all over the place.. Was nearly buggered when Mike called it for a large black from up in the tower - Damo rigged me up in a full harness to lighten the load and with new found strength and adrenalin the fight went on... at one stage we were travelling at 10knots to try and keep up with the fish, we drove forwards, backwards, circled left, circled right.. nothing we did could slow the fish up - at one stage we we could see the spindle and thought it was all over but then managed to gain a heap of line on him again only to see it all stripped back off and eventually after about 40 mins the fish managed to spool every inch of line off the reel! - exciting way to start to the day and I was left wondering if i'd even have the strenght left to pull in anything else we might come across! After that we pulled up at a spot that Mike and Damo had fished during the interclub and jigged up some live slimies... quite deep down, but they came up 5 at a time on the jig so with that it didnt take long to fill the tanks.. Damo taught us how to sew up and rig the livies for skip baiting and pretty soon we were back into the action.. left outrigger band popped and before I knew it we were tagging a 65kg striped Marlin along side the boat... lots of high fives all round. We continued skip baiting the live slimies at a relatively slow rate and kicked back to enjoy Reef Magic's hospitality over a generous lunch spread.. soon after that Damo called that there was a stripey back behind one of the skip baits and we were all attention... sure enough a Striped Marlin was swiming up to the bait and then up to the teasers, then back to the bait again.. we all waited in great anticipation and sure enough the reel screamed, line peeled but the fish spat the bait.. Our next encounter was relatively similar to the last.. a Marlin was spotted behing the baits, this one not interested in snipping at the teasers though.. straight to the slimey and whacked it.. the fish took plenty of line and Damo did a great job coaching me through the fight. Mike was manouvering the boat back and forth on the fish and I was winding like there was no tomorrow. The fish put on one of the best big air displays i've ever seen and luckily my old man was there beside me to take plenty of shots with his new camera (Will add them to the post as soon as I get the disc off him).. The fish put up a great fight and was pretty tired when he got to the boat so Damo tagged and released him with great speed and professionalism - Mike called it for an 80kg Striped Marlin - another great Reef Magic effort! The day was getting old by now and a big storm front was moving in so we had almost decided to call it a day when sure enough - Pop! Right outrigger band busts and another reel starts screaming - this time I coach the old man into having a go and no sooner had we gotten the gimble onto him the fish spat the bait back out.. all in all we had a fantastic day, a big black which got the better of us, two stripies tagged 60kg and 80kg and two others which gave us plenty of adrenalin and excitment. Thanks Mike and Damo - catch up with you again reel soon! Cheers Marty and Doc

My neighbour is a Japanese sushi chef and she makes the best damn bonito sushimi ever - i only used them for bait prior to her telling me that they pay hundres of dollars back home for them Not sure what all the flavours are that she adds to it before serving but to cook it she takes a fillet, skins it, takes out the blood line so you are then left with 4 skinned fillets per fish. She then prepares a really really hot pan, touch of sesame oil then literally gives each of the three sides of the fillet a 5 second hit - no longer than that No sooner than she's done that she puts the fillet straight into a bowl of water with lots and lots of ice in it This stops the cooking process instantly and when she slices up the fillets they are like a medium rare steak - cooked outside and rare in the middle. Add whatever you like to it after that but i can guarantee that you will never slice them all up as bait again! Cheers

Hi there, Does anyone know where I might be able to purchase sinker moulds similar to the attached picture? The attached pic is a pretty ritzy looking sinker mould that allows for inserts so that different length sinkers to be produced but i'm basically after any mould that can produce deep drop sinkers in a cylindrical or tear drop type shape. I've looked in plenty of tackle shops as well as online stores but struggle to find any moulds above the standard pound sinker range. Cheers Secho

Sounds like you had a half decent trip... we were at Browns yesterday o(Tues 13th) only to find about a dozen big orange floats already there and their keeper pulling up fish after fish after fish... not sure how long they had been soaking for or how many hooks those guys use per long line but it seemed like at least a dozen per string - one of the blue eye I saw them pull up was so big that the two blokes on board couldnt lift it over the side of the boat, they needed to swing out the boom to hoist it up and over the rail - I reckon at least 40 to 50kg. Not sure what they were but we also lost 4 sets of gear while dropping through the 300 to 350m mark - plenty of action on the sounder at same depth - bitten clean through the braid on each occasion. Tried holding baits at that depth but couldnt get them to bite anything other than line?? Cheers Secho

Gday, After three fruitless trips on Browns I finally caught a feed last week. Got to Browns for first light and landed this Blue Eye on my first drop of the day... went 8.85kg gutted and gilled Didnt get to spend much time out there as the westerly starting getting a little ugly - took over 3 hours to get back towards the Peak where I jigged one stripey before losing all to the jackets. Have to say, the Blue Eye makes for a bloody good plate fish. Cheers Secho

Warnie, Thats sensational... do you produce those images yourself from gear onboard or is that stuff purchased as software? Cheers Secho