REEF MAGIC CHARTERS

Finally after all the bad weather and the water temperature off Sydney being more suited to marlin we saw the cooler water start to push in late last week which would hopefully hold some of the gold barrels that we have waiting for. We had a charter booked for the Monday and with the weather looking like it would back off I gave a call to Y from Global Tackle in Kensington who along with his mates Michael, Frank, Tim and Jay had been dying to get out and chase some yellowfin. When we picked up the guys from Rose Bay wharf at 8am they were armed with more jigging gear they Y has in his store and were keen to get stuck into it. With the wind blowing solid out of the south west we did some jigging at the colours and then headed for the 12 mile. Both areas were very quiet so we headed wider and set a spread of lures. The radio was very quiet with no reports of fish in closer so after picking up a couple of striped tuna and a lone kingfish and listening to Jays stories of recently being in Tasmania and catching a 102kg Bluefin we were keen to find some big fin so headed wider and set a cube trail over the 1000 fathom line. Before long we were marking some solid fish on the sounder and had some smaller fish in the trail but they were very shy even with the light leaders we were using. We got Jay to drop a jig down and was straight into a fish which pulled the hook shortly after hook up. Again he jigged and straight into another fish on the Saltiga 5000 with 30lb braid which was screaming line off only in one direction, Jay had full drag on the fish and thumbing the spool to try and stop the fish it managed to win its freedom after busting the braid. Shortly after Frank who had never game fished before was drifting a pillie out on one of the boys jig sticks and it soon began to pull some line very slowly. Frank was winding him in like childs play as the fish continued to swim up our cube trail munching on cubes until he saw the boat and all hell broke loose. Frank was hanging on for dear life as the little reel was screaming and the rod being able to bend no further as the fish headed for the depths. After 30 minutes poor Frank was hurting and with Jay coaching from the side he passed the rod over for Jay to continue the battle. After his recent battle with the big bluefin he knew this was a good fish. After an hour we had colour but the fish continued to dive and pull more line off but Jay was battling on and giving it everything (even with the gimbal that didn’t fit him). We had to start the boat and to keep him along side and numerous times we had him up on the surface only to get him to the 50lb leader and whilst trying to lead him to the gaff he would dive again and I would have to dump the leader as it streached to breaking point. After an hour and forty minutes and with the sun setting Damien sank the gaff in as the fish again dived under the boat and he hung on, he forced the fish out and with a big lift hauled the beast over the side which a smile on everyones faces. We took a few photos and cleaned up and headed for home. We got to the Sydney Game Fishing Club at Watsons Bay at around 7pm and Glen the club president happily weighed the fish for the boys. The fish pulled the scales at a respectable 46.1kg, a great fish on light tackle. Enjoy the pictures! Glen was opening up for the boys on Strike Zone who were also bringing in a fish to weigh. Their fish a bigeye tuna ended up pulling the scales at 63kg a great fish again for Alistair & crew. Also we had reports of 100kg+ Bluefin off Kiama yesterday so the fishing should continue to improve off Sydney. It was great to have you all on board Reef Magic and I hope everyone had a great day and it is great to see some yellowfin back off Sydney. Cheers Mike

Here is our report "Short Corner" on the NZ trip

Hi all, While the fishing has been quiet off Sydney I have had a chance to get the boat on the slips and get some yearly maintanance done as well as installing a new sounder & transducer. The water continues to hold at 24 degrees off Sydney and very few fish to be seen. Mates of mine fished last Thursday and trolled wide for nothing all day. However they did stop on the 12 mile on the way in and the current was raging and they were having trouble keeping the live baits on the fish, but when they did they managed some nice kings. The reports from Narooma & Bermi keep coming in today with mates of mine bagging out on kings at Montague then continuing wide to the 1000 fathom line and cubing for some great yellowfin up to 60kg over the weekend. The water down there has dropped to below 21 degrees and the longliners working 40 - 50 miles out have been having great success in the cooler water. Hopefully we will start to see our water temps off Sydney drop this week as a finger of water from out wide is starting to push in. If this happens if sure we are going to start to see some good fish up here. Anyway good to see the reports coming in and for the Stuie & the boys that fished with us last month I am getting my new t-shirts back this week and will send them out to you. Cheers Mike

Im putting this in on behalf on Boonga as I can upload more photos than him. Below is his report from their trip to NZ. Hi all, We just got back from NZ last night after 4 days of soft baiting with our mate Brett from Assassin Charters. This is the third time in 6 years we have fished on the Assassin from Great Barrier Island out from Auckland to north of the Bay of Islands. This trip was back up north with Whangaroa Harbour again our base for each day. We were armed with Daiwa Certate 3500 HD custom reels with 12lb braid with 20lb leader & Team Daiwa Saltwater 701MHFS rods. Our first day greeted us with great weather and we fished the washes down south for some great reds to 9kg and did a bit of jigging for kings. Day 2 and we headed north 30 miles to some pinnicles where we were greeted by some hungry snapper with triple & quadruple hookups on 5-6kg fish all day and again some good kings. Day 3 was very hard fishing with the current slowing right down but we still managed to find some good fish after trying a lot of different spots. That night we were in the pub when “Primetime” a famous NZ game boat radioed in that they wanted to weigh a striped marlin which they were calling close to 200kg. The publican who is also the weigh master for the game fishing club said they would be an hour or so. Myself and Brett hung around to see how big is was. It pulled the scales at 204.5kg – a club record on 37kg and 1.6kg under world record size. It was a great effort with only 2 on board and on 37kg standup gear. Day 4 it was predicted for the wind to pick up and it did and so did the current and fishing. We caught fish after fish in 8 metres of water ranging in size from 1kg to 9kg. Again it was a great spot to fish but this time a lot more boats on the water – we had 2 more groups fishing for 4 days each after us on the Assassin so we are looking forward to hearing their reports. Cheers Damien

Look forward to seeing you on Sunday the time is 10am at Rose Bay. Cheers Mike Clarkson

Well done Herb great to hear you guys got your first yellowfin on board. We will be out this Saturday & Sunday with charters so will keep you informed as to how we go. Can't wait to see the pictures! Cheers Mike

no problem DGF let me know how you get on and we will see if we can get something sorted for you. Cheers Mike

Hi DGF, I have sent you a PM to let you know the details. For our charter on saturday we plan to troll in the morning trying to catch a marlin or yellowfin & cube in the afternoon for yellowfin and we would plan to do the same on Sunday unless things changed. As I said before the weather looks great. Cheers Mike

Saturday is booked but Sunday is now also available due to a cancellation from a regular overseas client. If anyone is interested its the same details as the Friday option. Cheers Mike

Hi all after a great weekend of fishing im getting a lot of calls & emails for single people wanting to fish. Raider member "Framedtrash" has contacted me & put a post up my other post "Sydney Yellowfin" seeing if anyone is interested in Friday this week. Im sure he will rely to this post. Reply to him on here & PM him letting him know if your interested as he is keen to get out and catch some fish. The weather looks good for the rest of the week and into the weekend. For five people it is $330 per head with all tackle, lunch & softdrinks provided & you will be picked up & dropped off at Rose Bay wharf. Here are a couple of other yellowfin pictures Cheers Mike

Frank all fish were on the troll and the weather was great. Plenty of bird life and fish to boot. Cheers Mike

Hi guys thanks for the replys. The fish were all caught on lures. Here is a couple of pictures of the fish caught. The pictures don't really do the fish justice as Steve & Pete are both 6 foot 3 & 120kg. Anyway a great start to the season for us. Im itching to get back out there this week.. the weather is going to be good all week and it is a perfect opportunity to get into the fish while they are here. Don't forget with all those school yellowfin around it is also a great chance to catch a big blue marlin that like to feed on them. Raiders get a group together and lets get out there!!!! Cheers Mike

As I predicted in my post on the 23rd of last month the yellowfin turned up in numbers off Sydney today. We were listening to the skeds for the Sydney Game Fishing comp and heard a few fish being caught. We quickly organised a crew of Steve, Pete, Macca & myself to meet at the boat to throw the ropes for 12 o'clock. We headed out some good looking water in 500 fathoms in one of our favourite areas for yellowfin that we had great success with last season. We found some birds and worked them boating 11 yellowfin for a quick session with the biggest pulling the scales at 60kg. What a start to the season!!! I will post some pictures when I get them back. Anyway if anyone is interested in a charter this week I have some days spare so give me a call or email me. Cheers Mike

After bringing the boat back from Port Stephens I have had a few days off to spend with the family and friends over Easter. My mate Buster was itching to get out on monday and with the conditions looking good we decided to head out to troll some lures. It was just the two of us and after catching plenty of dolphin fish we headed further east. In 75 fathoms we had a srtike on the long rigger and the hook set beautifully with Buster on the rod whilst i observed from the flybridge. A solid fish of around 85kg gave us a great fight with me running up and down the ladder trying to drive the boat and leader the fish at the same time. After half an hour we had him swimming along side with the medium lumo sprocket removed, tag in and released to catch another day. (sorry no pictures today it was a bit hectic with just the two of us) If anyone is interested in a charter let me know. Cheers Mike

We will be bringing Reef Magic back from Port Stephens on a charter tomorrow to our home berth in Sydney after another great few weeks up at the Port. We will hopefully find a few fish on the way back down the coast for the punters on board. The fish seem to have congregated more further south with boats getting into fish from Broken Bay down to Jervis Bay with a lot of fish seen off Sydney over the weekend. Some great reports of striped marlin pack attacks and plenty of dolphin fish about to get a feed. We will be now taking bookings for single or multiple day charters off Sydney chasing marlin and yellowfin. I was speaking to some friends in Narooma today with good reports of small yellowfin starting to turn up on the shelf and the longliners getting some bigger fish out wide. One trailer boat with a very experienced angler & skipper on board hooked an estimated 400kg Blue Marlin off Tuross canyons which they got back to the boat but with only two on board it was released to fight another day. They also managed 3 yellowfin to 25kg. Im sure this yellowfin season off Sydney will be as good as our last few seasons with some great catches aboard Reef Magic. I think we will start to hear of a few fish being caught up here over the next couple of weeks. Anyway hopefully everyone is catching a few fish and if your interested in a charter drop me a email or give me a call. Cheers Mike

With the weather improving this week the fish are back on the bite. SGFC boat Tantrum got into some fish yesterday on light tackle with good success. Today SGFC boat Ambition already has 6 fish for the morning... and they can't wait for the afternoon bite. I have had a couple of inquires about fishing this Friday as advetised in this section last week but need a crew of at least 4 unless people are prepared to pay more. The boat is still at Port Stephens and I am keen to get out up there for the end of the week. Cheers Mike

Hi DGF.. it works out to be $330 per head if you have 5 anglers or $412 per head if you have 4. So far we have three interested including yourself. I will let you know if we get any more people interested and hopefully catch you a marlin. Cheers Mike

Hi Ifish.. your interest is noted and appreciated. Lets now see if we can get a few more people interested and get a day sorted maybe for the 19th which is a Friday and would probably work out better for most people. (not having to work the next day) I will keep you posted. Cheers Mike

Hi Raiders, We have some days spare next week for charters at Port Stephens. The fishing continues to be good on the days when the weather allows boats to go wide. The interclub was very sucessful with a good number of fish being caught. The cost per day is $1650 which includes all tackle, food & soft drinks. (max 5 anglers) I can give you information on accomodation or transport if you need it. If you can get a group together yourself give me a call otherwise put a reply up here and we will see if we can get a group of "Raiders" together for a great day out on the water and a few people from this site can get to meet each other. Cheers Mike

For anyone interested here is the link to the Interclub Results http://www.npsgfc.com/template/files/71203/InterclubResults2010.pdf Cheers Mike

Firstly I would like to thank everyone for welcoming us to the site. I have had quite a few phone calls from single people looking for single spots on charters. I normally take groups that organise themselves. Now that we are advetising on here if you are interested in a charter post a reply letting other people know that you are interested and we will try to get a group of 4 together and get up to Port Stephens and catch some marlin. I have had a few groups recently come up on the bus... it leaves from Eddy Ave at Central and takes about 3 hours to get up there (Port Stephens coaches)www.pscoaches.com.au (its about $40) They have been staying at the Salamander shores after fishing (about $99 & sleeps 4) www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-7077-all-seasons-port-stephens-salamander-shores/index.shtml It is always a great time and I will do my best to catch you some fish & I will give you a better rate per day than anyone for a week day charter. Getting back to the fishing... we fished the Billfish Shootout with mixed results. Day 1 we headed north from the port looking for the temperature break that I thought would hold some nice Blue marlin. After a couple of hours we found a good break & plenty of bird activity so worked the area pulling lures. Before long we had a fish strike the long rigger and almost lept across all the lines but we managed to clear them without any issue. First calls we a stripe but with the blistering run and that followed we new it was a nice blue. Bob was on the 37kg standup and doing a great job getting line back and we had him back to the boat swimming nicely along side to judge how big he might be. We called him for around the 140kg mark and in beautiful condition - tag went in and the fish was released to fight another day. About a hour later in the same area we raised another fish that took the shotgun and this time Steve was on the 37kg chair rod. Working hard he got him back to the boat for a tag and again another blue of around 140kg. The rest of the day was quiet but we had long run home after stop fishing. Day 2 we went back the the same area looking for the big blue we were after. The water looked great but we only managed one big dolphin fish for the day. We got in late as we had a 2 hour run home from up north. The boat is running beautifully & we are still get into the fish up here each week. We had a four day charter over the weekend but unfortunately lost two days to bad weather. Anyway look forward to seeing some posts and hopefully get a few crews together. Cheers Mike