Port Stephens Jewie

[jordan.widz]

Bit of a late report here but last week my dad and I took a few days off work to do a 3 day trip up to Port Stephens and after putting in countless overnight sessions in the Hawkesbury we had jewfish on our mind. We spent the first day collecting bait for the night and by the afternoon we had a very healthy looking bait tank filled with 12 calamari, yakkas, slimys and pike.

We really tried to pick the best days to go up but the weather turned on us and we copped the full force of the storm on the first night the wind and rain was coming down so hard we couldn't hold anchor and the bilge pump was working overtime but it did died off later on that night and that's when the action started. We were only fishing live baits a fair way off the bottom to avoid the rubbish fish but we did manage a nice gummy for the bag and towards the end of the night even the banjos and shove noses were coming up for our livies lol here's my dad with a double heada banjo on a snelled 2 hook rig [emoji50] haha.

It was coming to the end of the first night and it was a good 4 hours after the tide change so we were coming to terms that we had struck out on a jewie but just as we were bringing in the rods my 6-8kg Catana with 20lb Aldi braid and a live slimy decides to buckle over and we're into it!!! This is the jewie we were looking for and its putting up one hell of a fight. After a good 10-12 minutes I finally get that big slab of silver to the surface and my dad wrestles it into the boat! Yeeewwwwww!!!

The plan was to release any big jewies we caught tonight because it was the first night of our 3 day trip and we wouldn't be able to keep it fresh on the boat anyway so after a few quick happy snaps we popped its swim bladder and sent it on its way. This one went 122cm and 18kg, beating my PB by 1kg. After that night we didn't care if we didn't catch another fish for the rest of the trip, that one made it worth while.

After that night the next 2 days weren't as eventful but we did manage another gummy for the bag and spent a lot of time looking at big Kings on the sounder that we couldn't entice to eat our downrigged squid lol. We knew they were right beneath us because we saw another boat bring in a 101cm fish but since we lost our anchor the night before we couldn't anchor up and try some different techniques on them. Here they are on the sounder thinning out a bait ball.

Hope you enjoy,

Cheers, Prawnstar

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SgtBundy]

Nice catch there with the Jewie.

[Dave_]

Awesome Jew mate, shame the Kings didn't wanna play.

[Ryder]

Fantastic Jewie.

Great plan , well executed, and release ++++

That fish would test your gear alright.

Well done

[thefisherman6784]

Wow that's a great fish and would have been one hell of a fight on that gear

Shame about the kings though but I certainly wouldn't be complaining

Sounds like the first night was an eventful one

Cheers thefisherman6784

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[Scratchie]

Nice jewy champ! Gotta love a port stephens jewy! Those kings on the breakwall there are touchy buggers. I find down rigging no good. Anchor up and unweighted best. Oh sorry you lost your anchor. Lol.

Your mate like told me you were here! Was waiting for a pm!

Well done again!

Cheers scratchie!!!

[NaClH2OK9]

That's a great writeup prawnstar and an amazing silver fish. As Ryder says. A well executed plan. It's great all your planning and prep payed off.

[andysinmexico]

Well done mate another quality fish

[jordy]

Great jewie mate released as well.must be a few about up there last week seen a 1m plus carcass in the shallows at the ramp.

[oziodin]

Great Report & Jew a Bloody Cracker .

Cheers Oziodin