There is not much to be said for the Game fishing at present. I couldn’t make it out and from what I’ve heard I missed nothing. It would appear that there is a lot of bait around, so the stage is set I guess it just needs a change in the currents to set the action off.

It sounded like there were lots of boats out there trying on the week-end but the only  action I heard was from Jack Doyle’s boat ‘TAINUI 11’ on losing a Striped Marlin after a short fight. I did hear from Jeff Manson of ‘SPINDRIFT’  that there is a reasonable Snapper bite happening down South.

Inshore the Kings are still there on the inshore reefs and along the cliffs and for those who like protected waters the harbour is alive with pelagics ; Tailor, Salmon, Trevally, the ubiquitous Flathead and some really good sized Kings for those who know how or are just plain lucky.

Well being the eternal optimist and patience being the key it’s only a matter of time before it all comes together, so until then…

Tight lines,
Ivan

With what looked to be a half reasonable day on Sunday with offshore wind in the morning turning onshore and easing in the afternoon I decided it was worth a shot and I really wanted to see what was happening out wide.

We headed out and as expected the wind started to come away.  Just then I started marking bait, at around 70 fathoms and I also heard ‘Gale Force’ had had two hits in that depth but further North, one that Mike confirmed was a Marlin the other uncertain.

We started trolling at the 12 mile and I was surprised that there wasn’t the indications of Kings that I’d see there last Wednesday.  We continued out and the water was getting cooler as the charts were showing, but there was supposed to be a break between Browns and Heatons so on we went. In the mean time the wind was increasing and around the shelf the swell really picked up from the SE and with the Westerly doing a good 20 knots created quite a steep sea.

It wasn’t until we were in about 1000 fathoms that the temperature started to rise again and the water colour cleared up with Mutton birds searching the area becoming more apparent. We continued on but again the temperature started to drop, most disheartening, so the decision was made to go back inside the shelf where ‘Gale Force’ had had the strikes.

By now the wind had shifted to the SSE so the troll back was quite comfortable. At 80 fathoms I found a mass of bait being savaged by Striped Tuna. With great expectations we followed the action for a considerable time then it just disappeared and we’d had enough – it was time to go home – we’d given it a good shot.

Frustratingly when I checked the SST charts at home I found we would have only had to go another three or four miles to find the break – that is if you believe in the accuracy of the charts…

Tight lines,
Ivan

Well the work on Ambition is finally finished and to celebrate I took Whyu  and some of his friends from Global tackle out for a fish the weather being too good to waste.

It took a while but we caught some bait and headed out to try the inshore reefs where there were reported to be some good sized Kings being takenboth jigging and live baiting.

To cut it short we found them biting , in fact we had a four way hook-up at one stage, right at the bottom of the tide and caught nine fish and although we didn’t get one over the magic metre we didn’t get one under 92 cm. and they were all in good condition, solid heavy fish.

Interestingly all the Kings were caught on jigs, they took the livies alright but for some reason were very tentative in the take consequently no hook ups.

Havn’t heard much about fishing out wide but looking forward to getting out there this week-end…

Tight lines,
Ivan

Since Ambition is not ready yet I went out to sea on Saturday with Simon Fisher on his boat Shakara and it was good to be out there.

The day started out like a perfect summer day with a light North Westerly which we knew would turn into a howling North Easter in the afternoon. Consequently we went North to check out the temp breaks on each side of the warm water coming down at a rate of knots, 2.5 kn. to be more precise, from the North.

From about 60 fathoms to the break we found lots of bait, there were slimies on the surface as well as sauries and lots of deep bait with  Gannets both searching and diving on the schools. To say it looked good was an understatement but nothing showed up after working the area until well after the tide change.

We then worked our way out to the other side of the break which was in about 1,000 fathoms. There wasn’t as much bird activity but we did find a decent school of Stripies which appeared to be feeding on flying fish that were caught between a rock and a hard place with Stripies below and Mutton birds attacking from above  but again after working the area for a while nothing else turned up – it did look good though.

By then the wind was up from the North making for a comfortable run home.

Throughout the day we only heard of one missed strike and a lost Marlin from the boat Carnage so we didn’t feel so bad about our lack of success  but it was so good to be out at sea again…

Tight lines,
Ivan

It’s that time of year again to look forward to and plan my annual treck to Port Stephens for the great Sport and Game fishing available up there as well to compete in the Tournament season i.e. The Billfish Shoot-out and the NSWGFA Interclub.

During the period from January to April and even into May the baitfish move to the inshore reefs and islands at Port brought in by the East Australia Current and bringing with them all the Pacific Gamefish – Blue, Black and Striped Marlin, Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, Spearfish and the Tuna’s and the occasional Sailfish. Last year in particular there was a good run of Black Marlin and one of the best Blue Marlin bites I have ever experienced.

Depending on how the season pans out I will be taking bookings from mid-January until April 2017.

So if you are keen to catch a Marlin or in fact any of the above gamefish Port Stephens is the place to achieve your ambition, no pun intended.

Contact me for more details…

ph  : 0427 887707
em : sales@ambitioncharters.com.au

Tight lines,
Ivan

There doesn’t appear to be much to say about the last few days off Sydney even though the water out wide looks really good there is not much life in it.

In my ventures out I found the Kings on the reefs but also lots of Jackets, my philosophy is when I lose two jigs to Jackets it’s time to leave.

Further out, between 80 and 110 fathoms there was tons of bait,  slimies from top to bottom, certainly worth a shot for Marlin but the mountain was where we were going.

Over the previous few days there were quite a few Mako’s making life difficult for those bottom fishing with one of our club boats, Casey, tagging three and weighing one at 140 kg’s. We were lucky in that we weren’t harassed by any sharks but finding the Gemmies and anything else was hard going we only managed four and one Mirror Dory.

On the radio I did hear a report of good sized Yellowfin down South around Kiama and hopefully the way the current is running they may turn up here; you’ve got to be optimistic.

Snapper are still there for those who know and some good Kings are inshore, in fact some good ones being taken inside Botany Bay.

Good luck and tight lines,
Ivan

I spent the week-end fishing for Mako’s along with 27 other boats. To say that the Mako’s were missing would be an understatement mostly because the water was a warmer than usual on the wider grounds. Those who tried in closer on Sunday, around the 12 Mile, had much more luck though even then the results were not good. I don’t have the official results but there was only one Mako weighed and maybe 11 tagged. Interestingly on Sunday there were 5 Tiger sharks tagged and one good sized one lost after a long fight, strange goings on for this time of year. We even had a Marlin free jumping along our burley slick, guess it was wondering what it had got itself into.

On Monday we went to the Mountain bottom fishing and had no trouble bagging out on Gem fish and managed a Silver Dory but unfortunately couldn’t find a Blue Eye, the Gemmies are just too aggressive. One of the guys with us, I can’t remember his name, was dead keen on jigging and managed a Gem Fish and a Silver Dory. It may be a lot of fun jigging on Browns but it is hard work – a great way to get fit and not for the faint hearted.

After finishing up at Browns we went wider looking for Tuna. After finding a likely bit of feature we started cubing and deep jigging. The first drop produced a really good Albacore of around 13 Kg. and a little later another fell to a cube. So after a full on day all had caught fish and were tired – it was time to start the 2 hour run home.

Tight lines,
Ivan