Ross Hunter

I think that they are 14/0 ss non offsets Maybe Emu will confirm I am the skipper and I don't put the grubs on the hooks. That's what my dedicated crewman does over to you Emu. Ross

STRIPED MARLIN EXCELLENT BUT TUNA A LITTLE SCARCE ON SATURDAY The last three trips we have caught a striped marlin every trip. All have been caught in depths varying from 66 fathoms to 72 fathoms. That is now a total now of five stripes since Easter including the two caught over Easter we have caught them all on Broadbill on lures. Having gone back to the one hook rig our success rate has soared, but mind you I do feel that there is a lot of luck involved in that scenario. We will probably drop the next bunch. We both fished Saturday and did not get a bite from a yellowfin, even fishing after dark in 420 fathoms but alas, they may have been there and we were in the wrong bit of the creek. The water has cooled to 21.5 which for me is perfect for tuna, but they did not think so. The marlin and a few stripeys made our day and our team from The Botany Bay sportfishing Club, headed up by Colin Addis, were a great bunch who enjoyed the day immensely and that makes our job easier. Predictions the tuna will return as the next head of water flows through in a week or so and the stripes will keep on biting. See recent photos. Ross Hunter

Thanks Raiders For your kind comments I am looking forward to next year already. Although I spend many thousands of hours behind the wheel of Broadbill catching all kinds of fish during the seasons. I really do have apersonal passion for fly fishing and blackfishing, Maybe it's because of the serinity and the lack of pressure to find fish for my clients...........Anyway whatever it is I enjoy both facets of our sport immensley Roscoe

BIG YELLOWFIN CAUGHT BY PORT HACKING GAME FISHING CLUB BOAT “SPICEY SARDINE” The highlight of the weekend was President of the PHGFC Peter Talbot’s son Andrew Talbot’s great 63.5 kg yellowfin. The big fish took a lure in 300 fathoms and Andrew spent 3.5 hours on the rod in a see sawing battle. A truly great effort.It is the largest tuna weighed this season for the club. This all looks great for the upcoming Port Hacking 100 tournament held on 15th to 17th May, a few more big tuna will be caught as well as striped and blue marlin and some great sharks. For details on the tournament ring Peter Talbot on 0410 511223. It is run from the Port Hacking Royal Motor yacht club weigh-ins from 5 pm. Visitors most welcome. This tournament is one of the friendliest run on the coast. Pt Hacking is my club, having been a member since '78 and over the years I have fished many 100's .The club moved the tournament forward to co-incide with better fishing ie The chance of marlin and certainly some great tuna fishing. All that are intersted ring Peter Talbot for details or visit the Pt Hacking web site for an entry. Ross Hunter

Raiders, The tuna are running at present and we do have both boats available on the 31st May that is 5 days before the full moon excellent phase for tuna . As I said they are running at the moment so the sooner the better. Costs $250.00 per head That is a 10% discount for you guys. We would leave at 10.30 am and fish until dark that way you have max chance of everyone catching a tuna. Here is one caught last weekend on a Pt Hacking boat Spicey Sardine. It would be far better if one Raider could take over as team Captain and get the numbers rather than individuals ringing through in dribs and drabs. We take all c cards of postal note etc Looking forward to ouir day out soon Ross and Glenn Hunter Ring95342378 to book or visit www.gamefishingcharters.com.au for more info Go into contact us and fishing reports Raiders, The tuna are running at present and we do have both boats available on the 31st May that is 5 days before the full moon excellent phase for tuna . As I said they are running at the moment so the sooner the better. Costs $250.00 per head That is a 10% discount for you guys. We would leave at 10.30 am and fish until dark that way you have max chance of everyone catching a tuna. Here is one caught last weekend on a Pt Hacking boat Spicey Sardine. It would be far better if one Raider could take over as team Captain and get the numbers rather than individuals ringing through in dribs and drabs. We take all c cards of postal note etc Looking forward to ouir day out soon Ross and Glenn Hunter Ring95342378 to book or visit www.gamefishingcharters.com.au for more info Go into contact us and fishing reports

Well done fellas I was listening on channel 21 on Saturday to your struggle and figured that it was an epic battle..Great to see it ended well for you both. We caught a 297kg on 24kg blue in '92 and it too died, so I have an idea what it is like to get that lift going on a dead blue marlin Congratulations again. Ross Hunter

"Lord barron batsrum the third in capitulation and waiting" aka 'The Bat" Jeez Bat they are a couple of horses Well done to you and Pippie long stocking Roscoe

Joel, May the weather gods be kind to us as well as the tuna godfs and we'll have a great day Roscoe

Joel, Hopefully they will be running It's a great moon you are fishing s I guess it's now up to the tuna. Ross

If anyone doubts the serenity "tell 'em they're dreamin' We always enjoy Tassy and its peacefull easy feelin' Ross

Arthurs was open but very low Maybe it may have worked We caught fish there last year out of the boat Courtesy of local Shimano rep Paul Ellis. I guess there is only so much one can try in five days of fishing. You are right casting to rising and tailing fish is pretty special Ross

TROUT FISHING IN TASSY LAST WEEK Having just returned from Tasmania after a week’s trout fishing we are of the opinion that we have to rearrange our timing next year. We fished Little Pine, Bronte and Brady’s lagoons and managed a few brookies and one nice brown.Then Lake Augusta and Botsford, at these spots we fished in 15 to 18 knot northerlies making fly fishing more difficult. We also fished the Great Lakes at The Bee Hive and did no good there. We toured around in a motor home as we did last year, this is a most comfortable and efficient way of travelling Tassie. The fishing was tough with the brown trout being quite skittish, that’s not to say we did not catch any. The total was a dozen or so fish for 6 days and that’s just not up to Tasmania’s normal standard. Both Gordon, my companion and myself fished hard, sometimes 8 hours per day and every fish caught, was earned. The most memorable day was on Bronte Lagoon the weather for our entire stay was fabulous with temps at lunch time at 20 degrees this brought out a gum beetle hatch and the trout were feeding on the hatch. We both caught a few fish on the dry fly (red tag) leaving us with a great impression as to how good Tassie can be, given the right bite. That afternoon was enough to bring us back to Tasmania being attracted like iron filings to a magnet by that few hours of fun fly fishing. We also cast to tailing fish at little Pine without success but later on on the afternoon Gordon nailed a nice brown on the lee shore on a red tag fly. Many thanks to Tony Jacobs fellow “Raider” for his phone call and tips on Augusta and Botsford. We can’t wait to get back to Botsford on a calm day and Polaroid some fish. This lagoon you can wade across and spot trout on the way, but when we were there the winds did not allow us that pleasure. I hooked up a big brown at Augusta in very cold and windy conditions only to snap the tippet, probably from a wind knot. It was the best fish of the trip, maybe around 6 lb (the big ones always get away) We did not have a camera at times to photograph some of the fish but managed a few photos. It can be difficult to go to a venue and jag the fish on the bite especially Tasmania at the end of the season. We cannot wait to get back to this magnificent trout fishery but maybe a little earlier in the year next time The season closed last weekend and the fish are probably in spawning mode and have other things on their mind.

On ya Gaz, AS ALWAYS WILL LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR COMPANY THEN rOSCOE

Raiders, Thanks for your thoughts I am off to Tassie this morning so all is well ..Hope I can post a good yarn of our trip next week. The sounder survived and so did I all ended OK Ross

Schnepy, Thanks mate As along suffering deckhand on our boats you know what it's like somedays diamonds.....somedays stones Thanks for your kind words Ross

Steve, Great stuff mate..Love the music version Well done on your fish you did a great job Ross Well done lads It was agreat weekend Nice pic of Billfisher Roscoe

Me and Gordo are off for our annual fly fishing session to Tassy for a week... Any local reports from the highland lakes? Ross

Raiders , A bloke has to be an idiot..Having worked all weekend on the boats and having just returned from Pt Stephens the house and gardens needed a good clean up. My wife and myself did that on Tuesday and I then decided to clean up my work bench. You know put this and that away. My Koden sounder was placed up on a shelf on top of a plastc container Ah that's good I thought but as I walked away down came the 4kg sounder and crashed onto my head. I was all but knocked out and knew immeadiatley I was in trouble as claret flowed freely. Judy was there luckily and drove me to the Doctors where seven stitches fixed the problem. Talk about stupidity...but lucky it hit me in the head or it could have hurt me. Roscoe

Raiders, Sorry about the late report I have been waiting for the last photos from our anglers. What a wild weekend of big blues and healthy stripes as well as a smattering of yellowfin and big mahis For a full report on Easter and the last week of Pt Stephens visit this link www.gamefishingcharters.com.au It was Captain Glenn Hunter on BILLFISHER who, whilst fishing next to me hooked up a giant blue marlin, the big fish screamed off at an alarming rate as angler and 40th birthday boy David Hilne just hung on, as line poured off the big Shimano. One and a half hours later a 240 kg blue marlin was traced and then released back to nature, as all marlin are on our boats. On BROADBILL we found a tree floating down the currents which was loaded up with mahi mahi so we caught a swag on the light gear and the crew took them home for the table. On Sunday we caught two striped marlin both around 90kg One for first time angler and local Peter Hession and the other for first timer “Fishraider” Steve Mc Cabe both anglers released their marlin. We also dropped a sizable blue marlin earlier in the day. Then on Monday we caught a heap on striped tuna and two yellowfin to 40 kg All these fish were trolled on lures Other boats scored tuna to 70kg on the wide grounds…The tuna frenzy has begun PREDICTIONS FOR THE NEXT FORTNIGHT We will see some really exciting yellowfin fishing as well as blue and striped marlin on the wide grounds. BOOK NOW FOR SOME WILD TUNA ACTION The word is out that the tuna are running and last season we caught some horses in May, June and thru to September. Scroll back to this time last season for some great reports and proven results. Glenn and myself on our boats BROADBILL and BILLFISHER have been successfully catching tuna all our lives and you cannot be on more experienced boats that constantly produce fish. COSTS $1550.00 FOR SIX ANGLERS OR $260.00 / HEAD

They had Scotty Williams out who only fishes for blue marlin and they caught one around 150kg Ross

Flightmanager, Thanks mate it is most appreciatted Ross

Dave, Thanks mate we enjoyed the experience as well. I have passed your regards on to Emu. He is about to go fishing on Billfisher today. It is a special thrill for us crew to see guys catch their first marlin/ tuna. Well done and we look forward to having you back on board another day Ross and Emu

We had a busy day yesterday on Broadbill catching two stripes over 100 and a black marlin. We had Raiders Dave and his mate Travis ( not sure of their Raider names but I am sure that they will see this post and reply) The previous trip Glenn on Billfisher caught two, so we new that given good weather we were in for a good day. First day on the Sat. we encountered southerly winds of 20 knots making it difficult to get to the grounds. On Sunday,having arrived at the grounds at 10 am it wasn't long before our first strike was encountered The big striped came up on our 8kg teaser ( a kingfish caught wih the first crew of raiders at the Almark in early Feb) We switched the marlin first go and away went Dave his first marlin after a long fight of an hour we released astriped of 120 klg then it was another marlin virgins turn, John from Woy Woy This time only half an hour and a 90kg striped released another one down .Then it was Travis on strike he was another virgin, but not for long when the deep bait went off to a sizeable black. Two hours later Travis is covered in sweat and wondering if he would ever catch this fish. He stuck to his guns and we eventually traced up a 80 kg black that had tangled in the trace. We were worried about the fish but we towed it for 15 minutes and when released swam away, hopefully to fight another day. We would have caught everyone a fish yesterday, but take over three hours out of the day playing fish and that's a lot of lost time. However all credit to the anglers on a couple of really tough fish. However three from four in a three hour fishing day will do me every day. For a better update vist our web site www.gamefishingcharters.com.au Go into Fishing Reports and Fishing Stories and Hints

Lord Barron Batsrum the third in capitulation and waiting (aka The Bat) My long suffering deckie for 10 years on Braodbill and great mate. Mate I do remember the mullet days well on Broadbill and yes! and they do work well as long as the fish doesn't eat them first. I do remember a big striped drilling our striped tuna teaser and playing 130kg marlin on a teaser rod was intersting and the big fish did not want to let go, in the end all we got back was the wax thread stitching. We prefer lures 2 lumos and a brace of squid and sauries of the half rigger seems to work OK The fishing has gone red hot up here but weather has kept us home all week Glenn's out today on BILLFISHER so we'll see if they are still snapping. Visit www.gamefishingcharters.com.au for a full report.