jjsydney

Hi All Have been desperatly waiting for the weather to improve, Mon/Tues both look like reasonable runs to Browns anyone else thinking of going, always nice to know theres other boats there Jon

Nice Fish Dave Glad u r still getting amoungst it. Iain and I went a cpl of weeks ago for some dollys at the wide fad but 2 much current and wind to cube or bottom bounce at browns have to wait for antoher wkend.. Jon

Hiya MAte great work, it is such an awesome fishery isn't it. I am going up this wkend for anther big fish Top effort and committment to do a change of plan drive, but how good is it to have a plan and have it work. Mate I am fishing up there this weekend witha cpl of guys if u r interested give em a buzz. jon

Hi Brad I have gone thought a significant tackle upgrade, and my 3 weapons of choice r 2500 twin power for light spin work to light peligic work on a king rod (bonito) awesome 4000 Certae with braid on a Mahi Mahi for heavy spin, live baiting for Kings, jews, shallow jigging. 10000 Stella, deep jigging, big live bait, receintly live biated a Marlin on it, paired to a stupendous Poper King Rods. Both the 2500 and the 4000 can b transfered to a cpl of different rods dependant on specieis. Jon

Hi Kelvin Mate congrats on the new boat, and your usal excellence in king catching, not calling what u do fishing u r just too good The noble looks like a sensational ride, Would b interested in a PM about the Yammie dealer. All good fishing going to Port this coming wkend want to bring it up and blue water fish it. Jon

Hi All Had a late afternoon fish on Wednesday, hit the water at 1pm, lucky for us at the ramp ran into Kelvin, not literally but he was exceptionly generous as usual and handed over a hard earnt squid. Consequnetnly Hakara and I put a poor effort into our own bait collection. No yakkas in sight which seemed odd. But onto the interesting stuff, we went over to the wave rider and connected to a number of good fish but nothing near the boat, wandered out to Blue fish for the largest patch of bait to show on the sounder in about 3 pixels, So back inside to the drum at Cliffton, over the afternoon we boated somthing like 15-18 kings and a trevor. All but one King was just under 60, the legal went 73. As most of the fish were rats Lance and I were fishing with our 2500 series reels, nice sporting fun. I had rigged a 2 hook setup, that i had picked up from Tonys shop the other day, and was thinking we would tow around for some fish, so flipped it on and a nice strip of squid, after a bit the rod slowly loaded up and I thought mm nice trevor??, lifted the rod to set the hook, and wham, thinking goes froma trevor to a definite King, slowly work it in, get it close to boat side and get a look, had been a long day so a blink to see if I had double vision LOL and zing............. away THEY went, a close to 60cm king on the top hook and a boated 73cm king on the bottom, WOW did the little twin power work hard. Was a great arvo fish, Then on Australia day decided to fish somewhere I had not fished before, with Pete off Angela we decided to after a couple of very slow days off Sydney and the mediocre reports down here recently. Headed up the F3 to Central Coast to launch with a plan to collect bait, hit the FAD and then look north for good water and bait. Managed a couple of nice bonito in close on the 2500's they r great fun on the light stuff, and one big yakka. The terrigal FAD was a non-event. At 20.2 we didn't look like catching a dolly and the boat already there when we arrived confirmed it was dead. crazy that unlike SeaJay I have had 4 fishes for Dolly s and have one littlee to show for it, We ran a long way north east out out to 90 fthms with more temp. breaks I have seen previously. 20.2 at the FAD quickly became 22.4, but then dropped back to 19.8. Was about to give it away when temp. started to lift again, eventually hitting 24 plus, with birds, dolphins and surface bait finally showing up. We got hammered by a feisty little black which wolfed the biggest lure in the spread, a massive pusher we had oout for a Blue. Nothing more after that, although with the long trip home by water and road we called it a day earlier than usual. All in all a successful day, albeit hard work for one fish. Thanks to Jon for another very enjoyable day on the water. Cheers Jon

Mate U must have S.S nuts, and they must b in lead shielding and packed away in a tungsten box!!!!!!!!!1 My better half almost killed me both times I bought a boat before I sold a boat LOL and now u have 3. Mind u is a nice addition to the Oftap Fleet, a nice little skinny water boat, for easy in and out by yourself. Jon

Hi Mate Your leader is in the right range, I am pretty imprecise when measuring leader, sort of arm span wide and a bit, so somewhere between 1m-2m is fine. As for no fish, prob not the leader, have u tried the flurocarbon leaders and vary the weight, we usually have leader from 20lb - 120lb and fish as light as possile. But 40-50 is a good solid start, Jon

Heya Iain GOOD ONYA MATE Glad too see your hours have paided of witha serious fish, How good is it to get hooked up Looking forward to the story mate Jon

Hiya Mate I have the same issue, my pump sits right on the transom so on the plan it is out of the water. There is an off the shelf fix, which I am going to do as well. Basically it is a 90deg bracket, that has a small diameter pipe that comes down just below te hull at planning spped, it acts as a funnel to catch the water and based on traveling speed pushes it up thought to the tank, The only issue I have heard and maybe someone could clarify is that if u mount the pump directly over this and have have it running when u r motoring the force of water can b greater than the rpm of the unit and can cook the pump, ????? sounds plausible? I am planning to mount mine off ceneter and run a second pipe up the ransom with a value. Jon

Hi Kelvin Mate awesome stuff, 8 in the 30-40kg range that is some serious fish Glad u got into some good stuff over there. Still dying to get a king on a jig here, as the water warms will try to get out again. Jon

Hi MAte I recently bought a 2500 twin power and it is a awesome little reel. I have mine on a custom made rod built by Rohit, from King rods, (site sponsor) It is a magic stick that I have fished Bream to kings on. The price for a custom rod will not b much more thana store bought of the rack and will b worth every cent. Give Rohit a call and have a look at some of his light tackle gear well worht it. Jon

Hi rzep is right, national park so if u have a sticker it is free. The ramp is very good and cleaning table and hose wash r there too. Balmoral island for yakkas and the kelp for squid. Jon

Hiya Either Roseville or Tunks park, both good ramp wide lanes, good parking. Jon

Nudge u r a brave man good on u for getting out there. Hope that warmer water getts in close and stays there for a while so the trailer boat brigde can get amongst it too. Pleasing to see @ least some fish aroudn with the water as cold in close, I have not seen cold water this colose this long for the 10yrs I have been fishing? Jon

Heya Dave Congrats on the fishing and the skippering is always nice to learn how well your boat will do in adverse conditions, Good work on gettting out This should b just the start of an awesome fishing yr. Jon

Hi Steve Found the bait and the fish in 23.1deg Beut blue Jon

Hi Brownie Mate, just posted a report on Port in the reports section. Have not fished much inside up there as the inshore game is too good. But Lots of bait/food collection. Jimmys beach is great for squid, trevers, and bream. Up at the eastern end of the beach around 100m off the crn rocks u can sound out a cpl of big holes that r good for jews and kings. Shoal bay is good for squid in amougst the mooring, as well as the odd kingy and lots and breama nd squires though not usualy big ones. The big flats in shoal bay is good for flattys, There r some racks up around Soldiers point that I have fished some good bream off, and the Break wall @ Neaslon bay is good for Talior, salmon and bream. BUT the good stuff is outside, the headlands Sth r very good for big kings, the light house headland Harkara and I have fished well for Kings, Bonnies, spotties. The islands out the front r reputed to be good for snapper and kings thoguh have not had any luck out there, One the Nth east line around 60deg about 4km out the Mine Field starts, lots and lots of traps that at this time of the yr shoudl b holding Dollys. Mate is is a speactular fishery, enjoy the bay and get outside if u can. I have some marks, but they r nostly offshore marks if u r interested Jon

Evening All As the ad goes $329 one broken relax rigger in the drink $400 one pair of polarised prescreption sunnies in the drink $100 one stood on guide on the backbone rod $280 top 3inches of my beautiful Mahi Mahi King rod snapped off. 5 Marlin raised, 3 runs with the whole tail walking surface gallopping mad wild fish 2 80-100kg stripes tagged Watching Calasypo tease up and then fly fish 2 80kg stripes in PRICELESS Well now for some details, and pics to follow when the camera gets back to Sydney. After a cpl of long days withot a Marlin off Sydney and talking with Iain who has been putting the time in as well (mind u his by-catch was SOME catch ) he was going out of sydney as was I. Wednesday got a call from Pete who has Angela a lovely plate boat asking if I wanted to fish with hima nd his 13yr old son out of Port Stephens on the Thursday, The weather was looking very good here and tossed it up decided to go to Port. Up @ 3.30am to drive the 2hrs to Port, meet them at he Little Bay ramp, loaded the boat and out to sea we went. Fellas if u have not fished up there, it is so worht a 2 hr drive even just for bait collection, it is soo easy. We went out the head less thana km, and balls of bait everywhere, jigged a full tank of Dolly slimeys adn yakkas, and a Marlin tank of big slimys in no time. (I know there had to b big kings pushing the bait up but we were MARLIN FISHING LOL) So out we go to the Shelf, long way up there, due east for an hr, @ 18knts. set the spread, troll for 13mins and the short cnr has a huge bill come up and whack the lure just 15feet from the boat. I just sat there gapping before yelling fish fish. No hook up, gave 2 lure a whack in 10mins and disappeared. There was no bait arond after working the area for a cpl of hours and we heard a few boats sth of us talkig about the acres of bait, so aftersome consultation we decided two days of Sydney finding no bait we should pull the kit and and find these boats. So off we went about 11nm st along the 90 fathom line. There were around 10 boats working the most unbelieve bait I have seen. balls on the sounder that were 90M high and 100's long. BTW there was also millions of Dolphins around. We left the ramp @ around 6am, got to the bait around 1pm. At 1.20 we had the next fish in the spread giving a lure a whack it is just awesome watching this large head come though the back of a wave onto a lure, no hook up and in dismay we watch a boat some 100's meters hook up just a min later, spewing it was our fish we were sure. The bait was spread over about a 2mile area so we keep working the balls, 20min later I noticed the short corner was knoted on itself so I am off in fairy land winding it in and BANG a huge noise, I turn to see the rigger in the drink, and a mad fish who took the Port long rigger swim straight accross the spread and tangle the line I am casually winding in, in a chaotic min we harness Pete 13yr old whack the tiagra in the harness, untangle all the line (I am thinking u r kidding we still ahve the fish) and Seb fights his first 80kg stripe to the boat, what an effort. Then we access the carnage LOL as about glasses rods rigger, who cares. So accessing of what to do, run 3 rods and the single rigger, 3pm now and I have been closer to a marlin than ever before. Was just sensational watching this fish and Seb fight it. Pete is now determined to get me a fish, mind u I had been feeling very Nohahish (no fish) so off were go. @ 3.30 turn of the tide, again the long rigger goes and goes aND GOES. Less gear to get in and we look up to see this massive stripe Gallopping along the surface parrell to the boat. Incredible sight. Both went on the 24kg so strapped in away I went, thought I dropped it early as dead line and was winding like made got near 100m on and said to Pete shes gone, hes given me the wind %^$#, so off I go and sure enough come up tight and away she went agian. Now as a non marlin expert, (Petes the master) this fish was tail to tip going 12feet and thick, Was a great fish. The first one we had to swim pretty hard, so got some great shots, the second one had more toe and was a very easy release, so much so that witha big head shake she was off before we got a still pic, lots of vision on the video by Seb so will grab a still off it, and post later. Was all up well worth the fishless trips in the last moth or two, can nto wait to get Harakara on to a fish now and get one out of Obession. Jon

Hi David Ok now I am embarassed and will have to go the the garage and do some cleaning sorting and throwing of rusty hooks, bent swivels adn sundry crap that is all over my work bench Of cousre it is a cabinet to aspire to Jon

Mate in many bay there is a wait list and seriously this can b as long a ten years. The furhter west u head in any system the cheaper the rate becomes and the more likely u will find an open space. JOn

HI Mate I have a differnet rig but the prop on my boat is @ least a foot below the hull, might b worth running past a boat mech or shop, can recommd on if u don't know one and ask for some free advise, no expert but the motor seems to b mounted very high? Jon

Hi Domza As u note with out squid inside the harbour your chances are reduced, not zero, but alot alot lower. However if the day is ok then both Nth and Sth headlands and along both the cliff faces u will find balls of bait and sending a yakka down there is a good chance at a fish. Inside u really need squid or a good soft plastic action to entice the fish up. Jon

Hiya Kabz Mate Bluefish is just around the nth tip of the North Head wall, the fishable area runs from the nth tip all the way over to the Ferry Bower point. Good area for live baiting, on the slow troll or sound up a patchof balled up bait. Drop on and hang on. Seriously most of our baits were around bait and in the water less than 2 mins Jon

Hi Ross Congrats on raising fish were they lure caught or did u find bait? Two questions, what channels do u listern to on the radios was thinking of trying to call u yesterday as we found nothing, And When do u go to Port? Jon