Bonnies and Flatties at Port Stephens

[Berleyguts]

Had a wonderful day on the water today. The seas were smooth, the sun was shining and the fish were cooperating.

I normally fish solo but took my son and my wife out today with the goal of putting them onto some fish. I had a bit of success with my son near Boondelbah Island the other week but decided to try down near Fingal today. Tried for livies at Mrs Murphy's but they were playing hard to get (I think I have to get there earlier!). Got a couple of legal bream on the bait jig, though and released them. Headed over towards Fingal to troll the bommies near Shark Island. The red and white minnow does the job every time and every pass over reef and bait scored a bonito. My wife normally finds trolling boring but she was happy to see our son pull in a few bonnies. We bled one to eat, kept a few for bait and released the rest.

We then tried a drift in 40 to 45m of water. Now, I'm prepared to claim credit for putting my son onto the bonnies. I let him take all the strikes and I just drove the boat, watching the sounder and when I'd see bait and structure, I'd tell him to get ready and count down, then WHAM! However, with the flathead, for some reason, they favoured his line and baits by a long shot over ours!

Off the sand, I only managed undersized reddies and red rock cod, with a few double hookups, so back to the sand it was.

We finished the day with 7 flathead to 47cm and 5 bonito kept. A magic day on the water and a feed to boot. Port Stephens - I love this place! Shoulda moved here years ago!

Edited April 23, 2017 by Berleyguts

[rickmarlin62]

welcome to port .I lived at shoal bay back in 04 06 luv the place to death  had a good wknd at broughton hope to be back in two weeks...get used to bein in paradise...rick

[Scratchie]

Great stuff Baz! Good to see you out and about. The Bonnies are really thick up here at the moment, which is great to see as we seem to have better fishing when they are! Well done  

cheers scratchie!!!