Byron's Latest

[Guest Jocool]

Byron sent me some pics to be resized and posted. I'm sure he will put words to the pictures.

Nice Snapper mate. And that second one has real purrty colouring!

[Guest bluecod]

Byron,

Is that Mrs Murphy's Crack [Tomaree] just next to your right ear?

Nice fish too!

[Byron]

Hi all,

First a big thanks to Joe for the re-size efforts. Great work mate.

Well another trip to Port Stephens was planned for the weekend just gone and Saturday saw myself and good mate Nick aboard Sushi Bar and heading out of Port, and making the run up toward Broughton Island, our happy hunting ground for the soft plastic snapper.

Unfortunately, the conditions were not as favourable as last trip, with 15-20 knots of SW winds greeting us as we cleared the Port. Not pleasant with a 1.5 metre sea and about 2 metres of swell from the south.....bloody freezing cold too!!!

Anyway, not to be discouraged we called coast guard and were advised the winds would ease as the day progressed so we made our way up inside Cabbage Tree and headed north to Broughton.

We quickly realised that any drift we attempted would need to be out of the wind and unfortunately many of our proven snapper spots were copping a healthy dose of wind and swell making fishing very uncomfortable as well as difficult.

Our first few spots failed to deliver a snapper, however the Sgt Bakers were on fire!! At one stage I managed 4 Bakers in 4 casts!!

Another quick move saw us fishing some lovely broken ground and Nick pulled the fantastic looking Goatfish above. It posed for a snapshot and was sent on its way. (We were not aware of its tremendous eating qualities until a review of Grants Guide back home.......prize of the reef was the comment much to our disappointment)

Anwyay, with no sign of the wind easing we made another move and despite the fact that we did not have one keeper on board I kept my enthusiasm up and continued to cast and retrieve my plastic.

Well what can I say but persistance payed off in the end and I managed to boat 2 nice Snapper, the one in the photo being the biggest of the two at 2kg + and another at about 1.5kg. Both beautiful fish for the pan !!

In order to get a few fish for dinner we decided to head over to the ever reliable sand flattie drift and pulled 3 nice fish in no time at all. That saw us pull the pin on the day and head home a little disppointed but nonetheless pleased with a feed to show for our efforts.

Taking a quick glance at the cleaning tables as we packed down the boat, we noticed a conspicuous absence of any frames or scales bar the odd Sgt Baker. I felt much better after seeing that we probably did better than most for the day. (We would have bagged a minimum of 30 bakers for the day!)

Thoughts on the lack of success were largely focussed on the moon phase being in the middle of the cycle as well as the difficult conditions. Next trip will be planned around the full or new moon in September.

Cheers

Byron

P.S. Hi Bluecod, as much as it does look a little like her crack it is actually Broughton

[Martin]

Byron is it a charter your on or do you tow the boat up to Port Stephens.

[Byron]

Martin,

My mate Nick lives near Port Stephens and owns a very handy Haines 445F - Sushi Bar.

This is what I fish from when at Port and it does a tremendous job, despite not being the biggest offshore boat around.

Cheers

[Martin]

Thanks Byron

Makes me think I could take my little 4.75 Stjercraft for a spin outside.

[clutch]

Byron you seem to have the reds on plastic sussed

I'm eager to give it a go. Good to see your out there getting some

[Byron]

Thanks Byron

Makes me think I could take my little 4.75 Stjercraft for a spin outside.

62544[/snapback]

No worries out of Port Stephens mate, so long as you pick your day and weather is good. A good mate of ours at Port fishes solo from a tinnie and catches plenty of great fish. Just not as comfortably as I would like!

[Weiry]

Nice fish Byron...I bet it felt like you hooked onto a train. I love that adrenalin rush.