Port Stephens trip

[Jo5hC]

Recent trip to Port Stephens with the family wasn't as fruitful as I'd hoped, but 

Day 1: Picked up some Newcastle prawns from Salamander Duff's Bait and Tackle as it was recommended by the guy there. Fished the Nelson Bay breakwall in the evening, there were a ton of mullet and other small baitfish around, and tailor chasing them. Tried the soft plastics with little luck, only dropping a small flatty. The only topwater I had was a slippery dog, which promptly got its assist hooks chomped off first cast by a tailor. 

Day 2: Dad and I woke up early to try and fish the rocks for pelagics. Destination was the rocks around Boat Harbour. Upon arriving, watching the swell and walking down to the spot, we deduced that it was too dangerous to keep fishing so we moved to the breakwall to fish. Wind was quite strong so we had to fish the inside of the breakwall, as even our lures kept getting blown away. The inside didn't produce much, just undersized bream and other pickers on the prawns. Decided to move to Soldiers Point, and there were tons of herring about, but by then the wind had picked up to 50km/h, so we tried the Port Stephens breakwall, as the beach next to it looked pretty good. managed to hunker down behind the rocks and pick up a just undersized flatty. Headed out back to the breakwall in the evening to try and catch some bigger bream on the prawns, and first cast hooked on to an around legal size one, but we weren't too sure and didn't really need it so we threw it back. Rest of the evening was pretty quiet.

Day 3: Still very windy, and this time went with the family to the inside of the breakwall, as they just wanted some action on any fish. There were plenty of sweep and small bream around to do this, and I also managed to get a small flatty. Went out again in the evening and it was a lot quieter, although some people next to us did pull up an around 50cm flatty.

Day 4: The wind still persisted, and we tried another morning session, this time at the shoal bay wharf. In the morning it was still quite windy and we tried for squid, using soft plastics, and bait, nothing really working. There were heaps of herring about but there didn't seem to be any larger fish about. We came back later in the evening and the wind had calmed down a lot more. The wharf was packed and there were a ton of yakkas around, and some pretty big luderick cruising around. There were also tailor busting up further out of casting range. I somehow managed to snag a small snook in the tail with a zman grubz, which was quite interesting. My dad also caught a legal bream, which we decided to take home as it was the last night. It became a bit quieter once it got dark, but my dad hooked on to a shark that I wasn't really able to identify, but I'm not too good with sharks. 

Overall, the wind kind of stuffed us over for most of the trip, but it was still a pleasant experience, as I have never fished Port Stephens before. 

Picture of shark

[slothparade]

Looks like a gummy. Interesting for in there, mainly caught bullsharks there. Very good catching a legal bream there. 

[frankS]

I call them " Blind Shark " OR Lunkers catch heaps of them on Brothers reef down bermi way.

Good hard fight but useless otherwise.

Frank

[Rebel]

Top report.

Well done.

[Jo5hC]

1 hour ago, frankS said:

I call them " Blind Shark " OR Lunkers catch heaps of them on Brothers reef down bermi way.

Good hard fight but useless otherwise.

Frank

I think you're spot on there Frank

[bessell1955]

Great to see that you did not let the weather defeat you.