Vara

Cruisecraft 6.85M 2 Hondas

Well deal was you can fish be home by 3. Won’t stay out that long but gathered a few livies and hit a few marks. didn’t take too long. Only took 8 livies out cause we only wanted two fish. landed 7 from 8. Two on ice 5 over a metre including this beauty. the rest swim for another day - trolling now. the young bloke went out yesterday with brother and their daughter. got a nice array of quality table fish and the young bloke dropped a black marljn at the boat. 65mins on 20lb gear using livies for dollies…. Did a great job will add photo later merry xmas

Unusual when I read the topic not in my wildest dreams would I hve called you taking a rainbow trout and a flat head from the same waters. well done I think but seriously that’s nuts

Yeh I am an amateur up here obsessed fisherman. I have moved up Here and live locally two years ago this is my third trip. so given I have few tested marks or spots every trip is a learning wxperience and I am a novice. going to try the 48s next time. I can get to them but again won’t have any proven spots.

Great eating fish yowie ceviche tacos even sashim bbq tomorrow

Well after a very long wait I finally got back ont the water. Usual time pressures but was desperate and the bar and weather looked great. So time to dust off the gear and head out. Got through the bar around 7am. Easy today no stress at all. headed to the bait grounds. Never seen so many 5 inch bonito. anyway for the livies I wanted but changed plans and decided to head to the fad rather than the 32 fathom reefs. Not sure what to expect but the Dollies were immediately on. took three just under a metre and sent a dozen back to fight another day. Was awesome fun on 20lb gear. headed towards the 32s after a couple of hours of fun. Quickly put 12 good flatties on ice then home to the ramp by 11am. Whilst out there had a social visit from a rather large hammerhead, circa 2.5m. Never seen one that big. this fishery is simply amazing. Fellow at the ramp had a yellowfin caught 4km offshore - no fibs. can’t wait for the next month. Marlin, Spaniards, oodles bottom dwelling table fish, wahoo, marlin. hope all wel. Still learning about this amazing fishery. Stay safe.

You’re a freak. I have up that way twice for two days and never got close to seeing a fish like that. Well done - again.

Well done little flatty. It awesome you teaching your boy.

Lol I love the banana talk.

Congrats awesome fishing

Let me know when you are up. I am no expert up here but learning blaxland.

Frank this might help. I am with you.

This was a Spaniard I caught on a 12gr slicer on 15lb braid last June. Hooked it right on the side of the jaw. it was a different looking fish.

Interesting pickles that’s what I thought at first then I sent the photo to the local tackle shop operator. he suggested it was a wahoo. Anyway it tastes bloody good. I have only ever caught wahoo once before in Fiji. So I am no expert and I have only caught a few Spaniards at different times. i also check a lot of images and agree with the local tackle shop operator it was a wahoo but maybe we are wrong. First photo spansih second a wahoo third our mystery fish .

Great report and congrats on an awesome catch.

Well after having to head back to Sydney for kids school I managed an escape last week for a few days to get a few things done around the property. luckily a few things lined up and I managed a window to head back out for a trip to the 32 fathom reefs to try and grab a for table fish and then try again for marlin. After the last trip that is what excited me most. as a complete novice to the area I hope this report shows people how good this area. headed out at 8am and got the reef areas around 8.45am. After a couple of hours had a good looking esky with snapper, flatties and a tusk fish. with a tight deadline thought time to throw out the lures and tag them round for an hour or two. it wasn’t long before one of the rods went off. It was a pretty simply outfit. An egg beater filled with 80lb braid. It was obvious quickly that this wasn’t a marlin but a good fish none the less. A Spaniard, a big dolly perhaps, tuna. After 15 minutes up came a cracking wahoo. Back at the ramp at 12.30pm with a great esky. What a cracking area this is. with a bit of luck we are heading to the shelf on Saturday to drop the electric down chasing blue eye and groper. Will also throw a few livies down on the 48s and drag some lures around. so another first time trying trip but expectations are high. be well. Get up here.

Hi Ron. That is definitely on the plan. No thanks for the link Kingie chaser. On sorting a few things on the boat yesterday I found one problem on the lure that got hit 5 times. the plastic tube was not cut off properly and was still over the barb. oh boy. Reminds me of funny story. I remember many years ago fishing with a fellow called Greg Joyes. Bit of a legend fisherman out of pittwAter and now good mate. We went tuna fishing. Got a 50plus kg model to the boat. He tried gaffing it over and over. Finally the fish got off. After cursing and everything I said how could you miss you said it was a new gaff. Yep sure enough he left the plastic protector on the end of the gaff. lol

GDay All Having recently bought a property out the back of Byron Bay I thought I would provide a bit of an update from up here. Seas have made it almost impossible to fish regularly over the Christmas / New Year period. Getting over the bar is something I am treating with extreme caution. Thankfully the great folks in the Ballina Marine Rescue do an amazing job and lend their years of knowledge and experience whenever asked. Yesterday was pretty much the first break we have had for weeks, so took the wife and young fellow out. The plan was head to the 32 fathom reefs, try and put some reef fish in the esky and maybe finish with a troll around for a marklin. Headed out around 5.30am, got over a sloppy bar following a local fisho up here FOZZY. I feel so much better following someone. Bait was mullet strips, yakka, some squid and what we catch, sargent baker (I am told a great snapper bait) and tailor were quickly cubed and slabbed up. The action was pretty instant the moment the lines hit the bottom. Bagged out on flatties between 40 and 60cm. Got a couple of ripper tusk fish (amongst a host of smaller ones let go to fight another day) and some nice pan sized snapper. With an off the water deadline of 12.30pm we decided to troll up the 32 fathom reef heading towards the Ballina fad. Water temp 27 degrees and cobalt blue it didn't take long before the action started. Started with a slower troll hoping wit a couple of larger rapalas out and a skirt doing its think across the surface. First action, double hookup on black marlin. Yep the ammos we are lost them both, but for 5 minutes or so it was electrifying watching them skip across the water. Never mind, marked spot start trolling, three skirts out now. Within 5 minutes another on and lost reasonably quickly. All this continued for about an hour and a half. Total 9 marlin hookups. Score marlin 9 fisherman 0. So being new to this marlin game would love any tips that people have learnt marlin fishing. And when I say amateur I mean it - this is so new to us. What little tips does anyone have to increase the chance of success. Back at ramp met a couple of local guys. They had some 50 - 80 cm dollies. Great people and they tell me the next few months fishing should only get better. Be well. Vara

Nice Brendan to raise those sort of fish. Well done. Probably most you at some point out there.

Yeh that’s my mate and son. He was the lucky one his rod was the chosen one.

Decision made Saturday arvo that we would give the marlin a go. Weather forecast looked amazing so excitement levels grew. Crew was son and good fishing mad mate. Up at 5am and away we went. stopped at broken bay fads (I should say car park) on the way out. Plenty of boats no dollies sighted so we kept on pushing out. Headed about 2nm north of bait station. Started trolling in 180m of water and headed north along the 300m line. water temp was 25.2 and hit as high as 26.5 further north. we trolled to the southern Of the Norah canyons. around the half was mark line started peeling off a 15kg outfit. 15mins later my mate landed a big bull dollie going 115cms. was great fun and certainly peeped us all up. everything looked good for a marlin but nothing raised. so we wait till next time. was a long run back from the canyons to Pittwater but at 32knots it was pretty quick. good luck to all. vara

Yeh say gday if you see a cruisecraft 685 dark blue hull

Gday nuffy it was a pretty average run out and we didn’t thrash it. Probably we averaged 10 to 12 knots. took over an hour. Sounded some interesting marks on the way out and will try them out one day when I go exploring. the run in averaged 20knots. if you go I suggest taking a lot of options with you. I took live slimmies which I always like to trolling around slowly a little way off the fads say 200m. For some reason I often find the larger fish a bit further away from the fads. I also took live yakkas and some pillows. Plus all the other lure options. hopefully they thicken up after the next big blow later this week. always like changing angles on the way out when travelling slowly. never know what you come across. One mark looks very interesting .... there was a stack of bait on it in about 80m and there was a significant rise of the bottom. Estimated 18 to 10m.

Dolphin fish was what we caught .....

Decided to give the broken bay fads a look with the young bloke and said he could take a mate. Up at 4.30 to car with boat on it and ready to go. Of course a flat battery. So race to the servo get some leads. Hit the water at 6. Straight to our new bait spot and had 20 slimmies and the same number of yakkas in about 10 minutes. Seas were reasonably average but good as getting to know the new boat and how it handles in different conditions. Recently bought a 685 cruisecraft explorer. hit the fads there was another two boats out there. Pretty slow going current was running fairly hard. just as we were leaving our livie goes off. Phew finally. 5 minutes later number two lands on the deck. Fellow on the other boat was going and as he drove past waved him down to where the fish seemed to be holding. Slow for 30minutes. Tried a slab of slimmie and of it goes. A nice 80cm fish. Fellow in other boat had no slimies so threw him one to try. He landed a small fish - released. We then got a couple of rats so decided to head home. nothing major but was good to land a few. off to the shelf tomorrow to see what’s happening out there. best to all.