Hawksnest - Port Stephens trip

[rjc123]

heyy guys.

just got back from the annual hawksnest trip and have a fair bit to report on. the fishing wasnt as good as usual but still great fun. anyway, here goes.

Day 1:

After a long drive up the previous afternoon it was time to stretch my legs and have a fish. we got the whiting rigs ready and headed down to jimmys beach. we fished near winda woppa for an hour or so and managed a couple of breambos around the 22cm mark. not whiting but anyhow.

Day 2: We decided to hit the whiting hot spot at yaccaba headland. there is a sand spit that goes out there and at dusk its a hot spot. We got lost trying to find it in the dunes and ended up walking around for half an hour until we stopped a little way away for a fish and break. we had a swim but no luck there. we the moved up further but too many people were fishing the main sand spit. they were pulling up whiting every second practically. we just waded out on a smaller sand spit nearby but had not a single bite. a disappointing session.

Day 3: i was keen to try winda woppa again so we did. we grabbed some beach worms and tried again. the conditions were not great but we still tried. after 20 minutes i pulled up a 28cm whiting which we ended up releasing as we didnt have a knife or bucket. shortly after i pulled up another one but this time it was only 23cm. the wind really picked up so we had to cal it a day.

Day 4: We were booked in for an offshore fishing charter so we were at the pick up spot at 10 am when we got the dreaded call saying that it had been canceled due to a large swell and strong wind. it was disappointing but we managed to get in to go out again the next day. later in the afternoon we fished our neverfail spot in tea gardens. its a wharf further away from the singing bridge but it has some great fishing. it was still a bit slow with only 3 undrsize bream, a blackfish and pufferfish. it was low tide and its a high tide spot but still good fun.

Day 5: up nice and early again and the conditions were pretty good. after a long 2 hour boat trip out to Broughton island fishing grounds i felt half asleap. on the way out we trolled some of the other small islands and picked up two massive 70cm bonito. Anyway we starter over a reef with lots of pinnacles. We only caught rock cod. slimy mackerel, seargent baker, squire and pike. next it was flattie tme but we just caught more of the same. it wasnt till right at the end when we picked up a couple of nice flatties going 38cm and 44cm. the deckhand managed to get hooked onto a striped tuna but it snapped him off after a run around the boat. The other good fish caught that day were 4 snapper over 35cm, about 12 other legal flatties, maori wrasse and a massive 2m bronze whaler. took him 20 minutes to bring to the surface before he saw us and dived down to snap the line.

Day 6: had one last try at jimmys for no result so that was it.

we are heading back up in two weeks for a few nights so maybe a few good fish then too.

[fish&chips]

Hey Mack, yeah I was up there last week over Christmas and new year and battled every single day to get onto the water... The wind was unpredictable. Over about 5 days on the water it produced a 65cm flattie which was caught in the down towards the creeks.... And about 20+ sharks! That was so annoying! From shovel nose, bangoes and wobbigongs! Fishing was a little dissapointing, but always great to get out on the water!

[rjc123]

yeh, im heading up again in a couple of weeks. hopefully some better fishing. where abouts do u stay. i can help you out with a few good spots that i didnt have time for during the trip.

Tom