Sydney Offshore – 24-4-2014

[Scent Blazer Lures]

Got out there today again, can’t help myself, warm water and calm conditions, it’s too inviting. I’ll pay this weekend when I am catching up on my work.

Had a problem with my GoPro this morning spent about 1 hr trying to work out how change some settings, argghhh, looking on Google for answers, so got a later start than we would have liked.

We got to the heads around 10.30am, fanged it to the Whale Fad, about 1 mile before the fad there was massive current line and temp break, 21.5 to 23. We spotted a shark cruising along it, thought what the hell, so we put out our hi-speed lures and trolled near where we saw it, we didn’t see it surface again. We could see the Whale Fad ahead with 4 boats on it, didn’t bother going anywhere near it.

We started trolling our way to MH at 12knts. MH was crowded as well so didn’t bother going near that either, kept trolling at 12-14 knots heading towards the Bait Station. About half way there we hooked up a Dollie at 12 knots, almost ripped it’s head off J, so we slowed down to 8 knots for a little while and got another hook-up, it was another Dollie but we dropped it. So we picked it back up to 12-14 knots and kept trolling towards the Bait Station.

About 8 NM from the Bait Station we found a decent current line and the water temp rose to 23.5, we slowed down to 8 knots put out our regular spread and ran that current line, there were small Dollies chasing our lures but not hitting them. After about 1 hour of no hits we headed wider towards the Bait Station.

About 5 NM from the Bait Station we came across another decent current line, temp 24.2. We ran that line for an hour and the same thing happened. Dollies chasing our spread but no hits, so we headed towards the Bait Station again.

About 1 NM from the Bait Station another current line, 25 plus, this was biggest of line of the lot (photo attached) it was running north to south at around 4 – 5 knots. We only had to go 3 knots for the lures to pop when we were running up current. A couple of Dollies chasing the lures again, still no hits. The only reason we could think why the fish weren’t hitting the lures is because the type of bait we had inside them. We put scraps of Tuna and Dolphin Fish inside them and we normally always put some Pilchards inside them, but we didn’t bring any Pilchards with us this time. So we autopsied the Dolphin Fish we caught earlier, it had a small Leatherjacket and some other juvenile fish in there, we emptied out 3 of lures and put bits of Leatherjacket and bits of the juvenile fish inside them, it worked for us and the lures started to get hit.

We ran the line south starting near the Bait Station for about an hour and half and got about 5 Dollies along it. At around 4pm we turned and started trolling towards Sydney Harbour and we kept hooking up all the way back, a few double headers. We fished it to the death and got our final hook-up almost in the dark about 6NM from Sydney Heads.

Boated around 12 Dollies in total, not massive fish but some of them pretty decent, we kept 3 and released the rest.

We are stinging to hook another Marlin this season, but we haven’t come across any in our last 6 outings. It’s still 25 degrees at the Bait Station, there could be granders in that water. With so many good temperature breaks, good current lines and an abundance of blue water the Marlin could be anywhere, in close or out wide. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.

Good luck to anyone heading out in the next few days, hope you come across a few.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Scent Blazer Lures

[Scent Blazer Lures]

more pics

[thefisherman6784]

Great job mate

Some great fish to

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Scent Blazer Lures]

Nice fish there you always get something might have to myself some of you lures

Cheers sydneyfisher12

Thanks mate, yeah we always seem to get at least a few every time we get out there which is great. The biggest we got went about 15lb earlier in the season, we're hoping to get come across a bigger one before the season ends.

Yeah give the lures a go, you will do well on them.

Peter

Edited April 25, 2014 by Scent Blazer Lures

[tomBillfish]

Pete, you deserve a medal for finding a useful purpose for leatherjackets

Well done

[chocolate]

Hello Pete in relation to the current lines, When I come back from BALI last year and coming in for landing we coming in over the peak, And just past the peak you could see the current line you could not miss it. if you know any pilots this would help heaps, Thanks for the reports , Also I will get some lures in the future just got to talk to the misses OUCH OOOW. HONEY BUNNY. LOL.

[Scent Blazer Lures]

Hello Pete in relation to the current lines, When I come back from BALI last year and coming in for landing we coming in over the peak, And just past the peak you could see the current line you could not miss it. if you know any pilots this would help heaps, Thanks for the reports , Also I will get some lures in the future just got to talk to the misses OUCH OOOW. HONEY BUNNY. LOL.

unfortunately I don't know any pilots, I fish with an American guy and he says same thing, he says all the fishermen should chuck in and hire a pilot to give us the co-ordinates of the currents and the bird flocks over winter to find the tuna.

It's a pity there isn't some sort of daily hi-res satellite image, like a hi-res version of Google Earth that you could view. The current lines would show up on that and you could get co-ordinates and go straight to the lines. You could even get app which could guide you there.

Good luck convincing your misses, have a good one.

[erroll]

Any fish that feeds on jackets is a friend of mine.......

[Simda]

Any fish that feeds on jackets is a friend of mine.......

Totally agree

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk