Port stephens- snapper, flatty but no marlin!

[Scratchie]

Hi raiders,

Today I hooked up with a fellow raider wahoo76 and he was kind enough to use his awesome boat to go out for the first time for us both chasing marlin!!!

After a few phone calls and with anticipation building we both arrived at the boat ramp way earlier than scheduled. Headed out to collect some livies and within 20mins had the tank full.

Then we thought we'd stick to the plan we had discussed and set the spread from the light all the way to seal rocks. The weather was just awesome.

But the water temp was only around the 22.0 mark. We continued our journey as planned and worked from broughton island to seal rocks for about 4hrs. We saw only 1 beakie jumping but could not entice the bite.

Time for plan b, with livies at hand, we decided to drop some baits at the gibber and try our luck. After a few pickers, the livey on my rod goes off. Zzzzzzzzzz and we're in, about a 5min battle or so up comes a 1.7m black tip reef shark. Damn it!!! Was still fun but not what we we're chasing. We hit several other marks and wahoo 76 managed a nice flatty. Time to move again and we hit the sisters. There were bait schools everywhere so we dropped a range of baits and the action was constant. Wahoo managed a couple of nice snapper and I managed to drop my only keeper, a flatty at the boat.

The drift we had going was perfect but time wasn't on our side and we had to head home. Although on the way home just to add insult to injury we spotted a small black at the front of our boat and managed to hit it at speed. We circled around to see if we could claim it but to no avail.

All in all, a fantastic day on the water, I found a new fishing buddy for life and a top bloke he is!! Thanks heaps wahoo76.

Cheers scratchie!!!

Edited February 14, 2013 by Scratchie

[noelguyau]

NICE RIG- WHAT SIZE IS SHE, WAS IT A LONG RUN UP TO SEAL ROCKS.

[Scratchie]

6m stejcraft. Just an awesome boat!!! Took us about 1/12-2 hrs travelling at 10knots

[wahoo76]

Hi raiders,

Today I hooked up with a fellow raider wahoo76 and he was kind enough to use his awesome boat to go out for the first time for us both chasing marlin!!!

After a few phone calls and with anticipation building we both arrived at the boat ramp way earlier than scheduled. Headed out to collect some livies and within 20mins had the tank full.

Then we thought we'd stick to the plan we had discussed and set the spread from the light all the way to seal rocks. The weather was just awesome.

But the water temp was only around the 22.0 mark. We continued our journey as planned and worked from broughton island to seal rocks for about 4hrs. We saw only 1 beakie jumping but could not entice the bite.

Time for plan b, with livies at hand, we decided to drop some baits at the gibber and try our luck. After a few pickers, the livey on my rod goes off. Zzzzzzzzzz and we're in, about a 5min battle or so up comes a 1.7m black tip reef shark. Damn it!!! Was still fun but not what we we're chasing. We hit several other marks and wahoo 76 managed a nice flatty. Time to move again and we hit the sisters. There were bait schools everywhere so we dropped a range of baits and the action was constant. Wahoo managed a couple of nice snapper and I managed to drop my only keeper, a flatty at the boat.

image.jpg

The drift we had going was perfect but time wasn't on our side and we had to head home. Although on the way home just to add insult to injury we spotted a small black at the front of our boat and managed to hit it at speed. We circled around to see if we could claim it but to no avail.

All in all, a fantastic day on the water, I found a new fishing buddy for life and a top bloke he is!! Thanks heaps wahoo76.

image.jpg

Cheers scratchie!!! image.jpg image.jpg

Thanks to you too Scratchie. Your a champion of a bloke also. Really enjoyed today.

We were unlucky on the marlin bite but that's fishing. Thanks for all the marks and local knowledge.I'm really happy with the reds I got.

Might be able to get out again before I go if I'm lucky. I'll let you know.

Cheers.