reelmagic

Tomorrow morning..... Saturday! Out at 8am......... back about 6pm pending a late hook-up! Might have a marlin fish on the way back! taa dale

Hi guys, All my regular deckies are out this weekend, so I thought I'd post this note to see if anyone would like to come for a spin on Saturday out of Yowie Bay ramp. Weather is looking ok , with a strong Nor easter on the way home. Targeting Makos, so another pair of hand would be great. contact me on 0425327784 regards, dale reelmagic

Hi Andrew, Noted your post re Jervis. My deckies are all out this saturday for a shark fish out of yowie bay - sydney Boat name is reelmagic. If you are available to have a fish, ring me on 0425327784. dale reelmagic

Mate, Saw two on the deck at 35+ boosting the fishos claim that they dropped one / several alot bigger. Great blokes who love fishin, so I'd took on board what they said. Seemed to think that several boats were still out there quite late! dale

Hi Guys, Been 12 weeks since we have had a fish. Yesterday we managed to tag a small tiger about 90kgs off Kiama. The water was off great colour and at 20.8C. We even had a visit from a good sized marlin who swum up the trail for a look and continued to 'fin' down south with the current. Wasn't interested in too much it appeared! The GOOD news was, that some good sized 'fin were caught, and in numbers, wide a little further south in about 2000 fathoms. Hopefully. next week we will do better with a fish out off the Hacking! dale reelmagic

Hi Guys, A quick note! We had a fish out of Kiama yesterday as the weather forecast was favourable. A gentle mans start at 8.00am and a burley trail commencing at around 9.15. The water was COLD, at 16.8, so expectations were low. Have not been out since Bermi, so didn't really care. Nice drift of .4 knots in 280m of water with good clarity. The birds kept us amused for most of the day. At 1pm the float starting to dance and then move sideways in the burley trail.................... 'fish up' was the call. Moments later a good, but thin mako lept out of the water and then repeated its summersaults 'in tuck' position four mores times before sounding a little. The fish come up easily and then proceeded to damaged the boat on the gaff! mmmmmmmm God bless two pack paint! My point here is that this fish was thin, really thin compared to all the others we have caught. Has the fish been feeding appropriately? Was it well or just the time in the season? A female of about 90 to 100 or so. It swallowed the hook deep and was bleeding when taken. When examined later, it had two stainless long line hooks in vital parts of the stomach. Did they impact upon the shark from feeding ?....... relatively, we kill very few, but once again, what is the impact of our long liners to our fish species? (Not seen!) We hoped to get another bite in the late afternoon, but not this time! Made for home at 5pm. dale reelmagic

Hi All, As most of you would have heard many weeks ago, that some Southern Bluefin Tuna have appeared in good numbers down at Bermi. SO............ we had a little look late last week and , yes the reports were accurate and there are many schools around from 20 kgs right through to schools of 140+ fish. You don't need any special techniques for these fish at present , as just go out and troll some lures around. IF you happen to come across a school, then you can expect every lure out to hook-up. You just have to be lucky to be at the spot that the school comes up, and lucky enough for the school to be off a good size. A boat we know "cool time" got a 5 hook up on 100+ fish with two blokes on board. They landed one 100.5kgs and the other 142kgs. Great effort guys! We managed 7 fish and some albacore in the two days, but did not come across the big fish. We let a few go as you get plenty of meat from these things. They are fat! So if you want to catch that special fish, now is the time. Just go down and troll. Start at 1750 fathoms which is about 24nm and work south and wider. Good luck........ they are there! Amazing fish, check the blood in these things! ps. longliners are getting plenty of fish 100+ every night! regards, dale

Hi Guys, Fished same area yesterday and then out to 650 fathoms. Conditions were not great and the current very strong this week!!!!! The temp was warmer at 21.5 degrees mmmmmmmmmmmmm ! We hooked one good fish on the troll , but lost it soon after. Did not turn a reel for the rest of the day. Several fish were seen 45nm south around the long liners.... What a surprise! reelmagic

Hi Frank, One on a lure, then burlied for two more on livies.

Hi Guys, It's been 8 weeks since we have wet a line and took us some time to 'remember where we left the boat!!' Didn't really care if we caught nothing , just wanted to get-out and burn some diesel. So......... we fished yesterday in the 15-20 knot west sou-wester. Wet / uncomfortable / cold, but in the end we found a few small ones. Caught some livies early, had a visit from the waterways boys and then headed out for a troll. No boats, no birds, 20.8 degree water in a 1.6 knot current. After 2 hours or so, we got a triple hook-up.............. and only got one to the boat as we lost a lure to one and a hook to another, due to poor tackle maintenance is my guess!!!! .......... that'll teach ya! a mate said !!!!!! Anyway at least we got one! Trolled some more until we ended up in an estimated area to set-up a drift to see if any more were around. Started a cube trail with a few baits out in within 15 minutes we hooked another. Continued the drift and got one more at 4.45pm. In all, not a bad diesel burning day after all! regards, reelmagic

Great fish, no matter what gear it was on! To 'get it up' before sinking etc is a great feat! Fantastic stuff! Well done to all involved! dale

Hi Guys, Spent a week at port and only got out on the Thursday before all the mess came through. The sw wind was in early and the sea sloppy making for only a 12knt passage out to the grounds. The only thing that kept out hopes up, was the expected change in conditions for the better later in the day. NOT! At times, a series of 4m+ swells rolled through but the sight of an early free jumper in greenish water put this out of our minds. Lures were set while looking for bait and after 30 mins the shot gun 'went off' with a very enthusiastic small fish which billed the leader and wrapped his bill for a few minutes before parting. A few striped tuna were a welcome addition to the tubes. Finally we jigged bait at 80-90m and set our baits close by the bait school with the deep bait at 65m+. The current was 1.8knts south making for difficulty staying over an area. At 12.15pm the band on the deep bait gave out the usual 'pop' and the the angle of the line started to change. Within seconds a good fish blasted to the surface but seemed unsure of what was happening. As the drag was increased, the fish became very unhappy and took-off. For some reason, this fish was very tough and difficult, probably the most by far! Hooked in the corner, it was tagged after 55mins, but took several more attempts to cut it free as it kept taking off and tailing on the leader. With the crew with now longer arms, it finally came in, was cut free and then it charged off yet agin! Wow! Tough fish! This episode took us sou. east at least 6kms and into a very strong, blue current which in the late afternoon was in over the shelf. We found the bait again and put out two striped tuna and in 10 mins a nice marlin swum up between the two of them, past the boat not 30 feet away with a seemingly smile on the dial. At 4pm we started our long run home. The next 6 days were blown out!

We fished Saturday! Bait was scattered within 65 fathoms. Found reasonable patches north of the canyons at 65-100m down but nothing to really get excited about. Ended up on the stripes late in the arvo. at 175 or so fathoms.

Hi all, A beautiful forecast with flat seas .............. We decided to fish Kiama hoping to find a blue or two that seem to down the South Coast at present. After looking at the day, probably a bad call as we struggled to find anything that look to hold fish. The water (as expected) warmed to 24.6 at 150 fathoms and the stripies that were notably missing at JB last week, were a surprising find. We got about 8 during the day and dropped probably 10 or more. The bait was very thin past 60 fathoms, but found some patches at 60-100m at the canyons. To this end, we lived baited two stripies for an hour with no reward. The current was 2knts +, due to the warm stream flowing through. After some teasing and trolling skips, we decided to go wider for the afternoon and came across a patch of striped marlin who took turns in smashing the 'shot gun'. A few loops and re-sets of the lure we finally hooked up to a little fish (the smallest and obviously the dumbest in the group). It screamed off taking considerable metres before we cleared the deck to chase. The poor thing ended up 'foul' hooked somehow and ended up dying on us making getting it to the boat difficult. We haven't killed a fish in quite a while, but in terms of the long liner that has been down south of late, all of us could not kill as many fish in ALL our collective fishing years. Just does not make any sense! A limit of striped marlin must be imposed if we are to continue to catch them. Thanks to Shawn Holmes a FR, who's experience enabled me to wind a fish in this time!

Hi all, We could not fish anywhere else with the success that we have recently had, so we spent another day down at JB. The Sou'wester was up early on Sunday making the morning feel like a Yellowfin day. The water warmed to 22.8 during the day and the bait in some areas were very deep at 130+m and patchy at times. Once again I was lucky to find some bait that filled our tank and by 11.00m came across some bait that looked promising. Out went the baits and in 20 to 30 mins we had the deep bait 'ping' from the rigger. As Greg picked-up the rod to feed some line, Jason started to clear the shallow bait only to find that it too was now taking line. Double hook-up followed with two reasonable striped Marlin coming to the surface close together and smoking up the surface. Both threw their stomachs to the delight of a few Mutton birds. The slick they left was obvious, and after an hour or so of 'knit one pearl one' on the deck two stripes were tagged and sent on their way. Just look how good those circles are!, each one hit the corner of the mouth and never missed their mark. During the fight, a free swimmer came in for a closer look about 15 feet from the boat. Back at the starting point, the bait had disappeared, so we decided to tease with some skip baits with no success. At 3pm we found some deeper bait again (although too deep) but this was better than what we had seen in the past 3 hours. Baits were set again and in 15 mins the shallow bait 'popped' and an angry blue appeared.......... a very good fish that charge the boat resulting in us needing every hp we had to get out of it's way. It stopped , changed direction and charged at a Haines Patriot not 400m away. Thinking the worst, BUT the boy's on the Haines could see what was going down and promptly moved...... (thanks guys, I hope you had a good look) as this fish 'turned it on" like most blues do so well. Some 1 3/4 hrs down the track, the fished came up and pulled free by Jason. 5.30pm, time to head home! What another great day at JB, two stripes with a touch of blue!

Very well done guys, a good fish ..................... Don't worry re the 'kill', I'm sure you will have many opportunities in the future to see them swim away! Remember, that even when we let 'em go, some don't survive unfortunately. great catch........ reelMagic

Probably out of Kiama this week! reelmagic

Hi Guys, As you would be well aware, the marlin showed up in force in recent weeks off JB. We have spent a few week ends down there and after seeing the double pluggers 'thread' I thought it appropriate to share some additional info etc. Many boats fished with many boats seeing up to 12 fish per day. Most boats hooked up with many tagging fish! The bait had thin down last week end and we teased, skipped and live baited till very late each day. We worked hard all day, with the only reward were 20 or so stripies for bait. Two weeks ago, the bait was so thick that the fish seemed full and would'nt switch very well. Live bait was the best attack, with two black and one striped falling to the deeper baits including stripies. We came across a bait ball with many marlin smashing into it and a double hooked followed in 30 secs or less. Blues, blacks and stripes, over a few weeks .......... what a way to go! Just lucky I guess!

Only a tiddler........ 73 on 15!

Friday was another shark day, due to an unsuccessful Marlin day last Wednesday. We made our way to the FAD off the Hacking where we were greeted by many aggressive, yet small dollies who motored around the area looking for every morsel offered to them. A VERY short time later, we left to find our drift starting point! The current was more suited to our liking, being 0.6kts straight south!!!!. Although a strong wind warning was current, the swell was under 0.5m and the wind was almost non-existent, from due North. Today we were visited by dolphins, dolphins and more dolphins..... 360 degrees as far as you could see. For several hours they jumped, tossed, played and monitored our baits for us. Finally they left us at 3.30pm and at 4.30pm the reel came to life with the characteristic MAKO run. Soon after a small mako surfaced with the traced wrapped around its mouth, the hook 'fouled' deeply in it's belly with a constant stream of blood colouring the water behind it! Unfortunately, it would not have survived, but was a size suitable for eating......... It weighed 73kgs.

Shark day again yesterday. Water improved on last trip at 22.0, with the same NW current at 0.9knt. Started the trail at 9am and had the deep bait mauled at about 12.30am. A much better fish and its behaviour gave away the tell tale traits of a tiger. 45 minutes later, a nice fish came up the intention of doing the tiger roll dance before he accepted the tag. At 4.45pm we had another shoot, but with several aerials including back flips a good mako left the scene. Pulled the pin early to see the fireworks in Sydney. Happy new year! Fished for marlin today, complete waste of time!

"Is there a code of ethics regarding boats entering an obvious burley trail of another boat?" It could also be asked, "Is it ethical to back down on top of a school of bait which is 'under' another boat, to drop down a livey?" mmmmm! No matter what the 'real' answer is, there is a need to respect fellow anglers in their pursuit of gamefish. Opinions differ greatly here, especially in comps. when it's 'all on the line!" To address the first code of ethics relating to "the burley trail", you could also include "to what distance is seen as 'reasonable"??????? I have no answer except that some boats, seem to think that a burley trail is a current line which they then proceed to troll up and down! Some boats can't resist the temptation that when spotting another boat "in the middle of no where", (with obviously large floats out) a close port of call on their way back to port! Most likely , just to have a 'sticky'! Not only do they see the need to get close , but tend to go across the back of the drifting boat, rather than past the pointy end! With the upcoming Port Stephens comp. , it will be entertaining once again, to see so many boats vying for position over the big ball off bait. Hoping the fish will be there along with them! Good luck and keep a look out!

Out of the Hacking and finished NW of Browns! Cheers!

Fished in 350m on Saturday. Water started at 20.8 and by the end of the day it was 22.9 with excellent colour. The current was West, then North, then NW, making for a good burley trail difficult. Our target again were Makos, ..... the reel 'went off at 12.30', with the usual 'tick', 'tick' , 'tick' and soon after a little tiger shark swum to the boat to receive her tag. She was in great condition and was covered with many little gashes on her from mating!!! By 4pm the sou easter was well and truly in when the reel came alive once more. This was short lived, as the hook did not find its mark. Headed for home 46kms from the 'hole' punching all the way at only 16knts. Not very comfortable to say the least. A nice day on the water!

Hi once again guys! Yet another shot of this fish! It had plenty of juice left when it was released. sorry, will not upload pic at this stage. reelmagic