Saturday…
I along with Ron Kovacs and Lee Cheeseman took Ambition up to Nelson Bay at Port Stephens last Saturday. And what a trip it was. It poured the whole way up. The sea wasn’t too bad to start with, being about 15 knots of South-Easter with a Northerly current. However as we moved wider the current turned to the South and increased markedly and so did the wind. The 1.5 to 2 metre Southerly swell jumped up to 3 to 4 metres and shortened making for a very uncomfortable ride.
We didn’t see anything on the way up and it wouldn’t have been much fun if we had hooked up anyway. When we reached Port Stephens the water temperature had dropped down to 22.5 C and off the lighthouse we marked lots of bait and since the current was coming from the South in close it was a lot more comfortable, but still raining. It was a pleasure to reach our berth at Nelson Bay and relax with a beer or two.
Sunday…
Sunday dawned a perfect day. It was hard to believe it could have calmed so quickly overnight.
We headed out to the lighthouse where there had been lots of bait and bird activity the previous day. Surprise , surprise, there was no bait, no bird life and the water had jumped up to 25 C.
We’d caught bait at Cabbage Tree and I wasn’t going out to the shelf so we skipped a couple of slimies close in shore.
Up near the V Reef I started to mark bait and after working the area for an hour or so, we were rewarded with a strike. It turned out to be a Striped marlin of about 70kg. which sadly didn’t put up much of a fight however it was a first for Grant . So, one more off his bucket list.
I worked the area for a little longer but with the tide starting to run out I worked my way back to the entrance intending to get back to the lighthouse.
However, we never made it back, this time it was a Black, a very stubborn Black which gave Grant’s son a very hard time. Then an even harder time to Ron when he traced it as you’ll see in the video.
So one quite successful day after one very miserable day. Two firsts to two very excited and satisfied fishermen.
Tight lines,
Ivan
LINKS…
Weather and Sea State :
Buoyweather
Bureau of Meteorology
Radar
Seabreeze
Weatherzone
Weathercams
Ripcharts
C.S.I.R.O.
N.S.W Bluelink
Fishing Tackle :
Pakula Tackle
Global Tackle
Otto’s Tackle
Melton Tackle
Aftco
Campbell’s Pro Tackle
Electronics :