Crabstar

Good to see the fish are still on the chew with the fresh. Ill let the tide flush out another week and then ill venture out.

Mate they are everywhereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, i think im now upto 20lbs in lost sinkers in 4 weeks..... now on the search for some cheap lead!

Yes it did! Crabs have been cooked, meat will extracted tomorrow for crab and corn soup

Evening All. My window is starting to close for fishing. I have approx 3 more weeks to go and the misses will be 36 weeks preggo, so im jamming as much as i can in now. Went out with my brother this morning and his son (my nephew) approx 4am from Grays Point. Decided to chase some squid until Sunrise to no avail. We knew conditions were going to be cracker and we were excited for a big session, We push out through Bate bay and stop off towards voodoo point, drifting along the reef edge and the sand we were able to pick up 2 Trag, good size snapper and few flatties. All started to go quiet so we thought we would push out wide to about 60m. Dropped the lines over within 2mins bang! Green toads. Couldn't believe it again, these guys are like piranhas! So we headed back to wards Voodoo and Merries Reef as we were not loosing baits around there. Solid trip, and 8 crabs picked up on the way in going home..... PS Rather disappointing with the about of traffic in Grays point who don't do the 6 knots. One guy was doing at least 15knotts, and his dad was congratulating him at the ramp for his stupid antics..... Then you have 3 of those over powered tinnies click 15knotss and going around in circles. Someone is going to be killed there sooner or later. Few piccies for those who like.

You could kinda make them out on the sounder once you’ve dropped your baits over. Then when you wind they just follow the rig up….

Afternoon Raiders, Decided to change things up and head south for something a bit different. Proceeded to head off shore to about the 90m east of port Kembla and wanted to bottom bounce…. 2 blue movies were on board in 10mins, beauty thought its going to be easy. No. 95m= Green toads 85m = Green toads 75m = Green toads 65m = Green toads 55m = Green toads 45m = Green toads 35m = Green toads 25m = Green toads. After loosing 10 pounds in sinkers and endless about of hooks I called it quits and beat the traffic back to the ramp home This has surely got to be the worst season for Green toads surely….

Good report. Pleasure meeting you this morning, had a feeling it was you. Least you nabbed some fish. Bigger set on you than me, I went out the entrance and turned around it was horrible, and it didn’t abate one bit. Those green puffers were everywhere the other day too, seem that they have set up camp out there. I’ll finish port Kembla tomorrow instead.

Great Report mate! Love Blue eye! Don't see myself getting out there ever, don't think the 420 renegade will ever make it!

Been hard to hit the mackeral this season, one day there on the next day the off completely. Where abouts on the coast were you trolling? Been some good fishing off SWR

Evening. Ventured out into Bate bay this past 2 days. Saturday 23rd March Headed out to Bate Bay and was greeted with OK conditions. Aim was to head to osbourne Shoal and give it a crack. Off we left Grays point approx. 530am and at the heads by 6am. Upon getting halfway out all my alarms started going off indicating engine overheating, with a temperature of 101 degrees I've turned around and there's white smoke it appears from the engine, Jesus! Quickly turned this off. Then there we sat as the sun started to rise i knew this was going to go down hill fast. Raised the engine up had a look and noticed there was a thick cotton on bag stuck around my engine so this was blocking the intake and no water was reaching the thermostat. (No idea how long this was on there for) This trip included my brother and his son and we really wanted to test my nephew out with his sea legs and he didn't failed. Landed a nice panny snapper 32cm while we waited for the engine to cool down. Fished in the bay for about an hour and decided to turn the engine over, started no issues engine temp back down to 51 degrees. Decided all appears ok, no smoke, so lets go? Off we drove to the far side of Merries reef to a new area. Drifted what seems to be a reef rocky patch in 21 metres of water. Here we were able to land a cracker of a snapper and a fat blue mowie. Absolute stoked. Was about 930am decided to head home. Sunday 24th March. Conditions were suppose to be a Bath and they were in the bay, but the further you went out it was a good 1.5-2m swell with 1m-1.5m chop. Yuck. Went with the old man for a quick bash before nightshift tonight as i write this. We managed to grab 3 good size ocean flatties however the green toads are thick as, every spot we moved to and from we had our baits ripped off, the green toads even followed the baits all the way up, the even wanted a go at the sinkers..... Weird. Punched it home about 1030am,

Great work mate! Crabs are always a bonus aren’t they!

Its about time! Been having a horrible summer. Good to have the freezer full for the next 3months with the bubs on the way in 8 weeks

Hi Neil. We were trolling Slimey Mackeral around.

Evening All. Finally back at work tonight after what i can say was the best trip in 6 years of numerous attempts of quality fish at Nambucca Heads. I must admit the River is rather dead, we Fished the river again All day Tuesday for nothing but Mud Crabs. Wednesday and Thursday was out with my friends the Didios and we landed some good fish. Couple of spotted macks and Northern Blue fins....

Evening. Have tried the search bar but havent found too much.. Heading to South west rocks next weeks for 3/4nights, Might even give the Nambucca river ago again... Not asking for exact spots but hoping someone could help me out with some live bait areas within the Macleay river via PM? Not to keen on offshore as i don't know the bar to well and the weather looks to be el crapo for it.... Poddies my aim, but happy with herrings also Appreciate any help

Bit of a dull report but…. Headed out early this morning just before sun up. Proceeded with 2 crab traps and some mullet strips. Not much to report on, took home 1 flathead and 3 crabs. Tried soft vibes a plastics but the flathead preferred the baits this time… Ahwell! South west rocks and Nambucca next week.. giddy up.

Its a shame when conditions turn sour like that, but a massive plus it turned around for you! How does the ski handle that type of swell? Good size squid too, i believe the next 2-3months the fishing will be hot! Cant wait to get back out! Greg

I wish i could attend this. (Nightshift) This is outrageous, surely not!

A feed is a feed! Good size king and the whiting are nice and sweet. Having a terrible season finding any poddies, i wonder if the rains we had ;last year have turned them off?

Cracker report mate! I was up there last week myself. Seems you had better results then what i had occurred. Looks like the livies are the go, will send a few out next trip up in 4 weeks!

LOL your telling me. Probably would of been a lot more productive! Not to mention the fuel and KM's i done over three days 😁

Evening. Usually i only do this trip once a year, but will be heading North again in 4 weeks but after this report my mind is telling me not too. Departed Campbelltown NSW approx. 23:30 on Tuesday 30th January and with lack of sleep due to excitement levels we left. We drove through the night to arrive in Macksville 630am. Nambucca River 31/1 Through 4 crab traps out in spot X to see if any muddies were about., Shortly after soaking the pots we decided to flick lures along the river to see what fish was about. We fishing for approx. 10hours that Wednesday for Zero fish in return. We flicked hardbodies, Soft Vibes, Gulps, paddle tails and bait with assorted colors and sizes. Couldn't believe our luck. We checked the Pots that day two have approx. 15 muddies in 4 traps. return a lot of smaller ones with a few stonkers left. Coffs Harbour and Nambucca River 1/2 Conditions were meant to be mint off shore so we darted up the pacific highway and launched the boat to go offshore, Got to the break wall and Muttonbird island to be greeted with messy chop. Boat was back on the trailer and thought we would back the Nambucca river again. This time we fished from Macksville Highway bridge all the way up to Tewinga. (Some serious KM's there) Again we used hardbodies, Soft Vibes, Gulps, paddle tails and bait with assorted colors and sizes, we worked both sides of the shore and middle of the river with various depths and drop offs with no success. What a deflating the trip. Checked the traps again this time we had 15 muddies across 4 traps. returned all the small ones and kept another 2 or 3. Coffs Harbour offshore, Nambucca River and Kalang River 2/2 This was the day where i thought the pressure is on to get some fish. Like offshore from Coffs Harbour, blue water 26 degree water temp with a 0.5 meter sea and swell. You'd think the fishing gods would be kind? Right? Wrong! We launched approx. 7am and pushed out approx. 1km and were in 20m of water, hooked up to a few rock cod (returned) proceeded to push out further into 25m, Finally 2 flathead! To which we thought hey we are on a "patch" , but nope wrong! All went quiet for another hour so we pushed wider, we were drifting in around 30m of water with nothing around, had the police visit us offshore for a safety check, wind got up around 11am went back in (long drive in when the wind gets up to 20knotts in a 420 renegade) Once we arrived back inshore we decided to go back to macksville to check the traps, again more muddies. Took was we were allowed, we decided not to fish Nambucca river that day after 2 days of absolute 0 results. So we went to Kalang River and Urunga, I've never fished it before so we focused around the railway and road bridge, managed to pick up a flatty on a massive paddle tail. I have been fishing the Nambucca River for the last 5 years, 4 of those was either during the floods, or after the floods. This year so far has got to be the worst ever time. I'm due to head back in first week of March but i don't think ill be risking all those KM's and time driving. Forster or Harrington could be a better option....

Solid session there Bob, yet to hook a Trag!

Afternoon Raiders. Fished Botany Bay again two weeks straight. Went on my old man’s boat, recently brought a 460 renegade. Was greeted with a 20knotts NE in the bay approx 6am and only got worst. Absolute terrible conditions to fish, several wirly winds blowing around. Recently I brought a soft vibe swim 75mm from not allowed here rule 6 and wanted to gift it a bash, tell ya what it’s either the new lure was hectic, or my skills were on point or the fish were hungry. I think the third option was better. Landed 8 flatties between the two of us in 2hrs and dropped another 6. 4crabs for a bonus on the way home.

Epic detailed report mate! Seems you covered a few km’s! I’m due to hit macksville in 2 weeks can’t wait!