Saturday’s BOM weather report was nothing to get excited about especially for going game fishing out wide. On checking the SST’s before the week-end it looked as though there were two likely areas where the Yellowfin might turn up. One was an area wide and South of Browns and the other North-East of the bait station. Via the grapevine I’d heard that a few ‘fin were wide of Broken Bay and off the Southern canyons. So it was with great expectations that we went out game fishing on the hunt for the elusive Yellowfin.
On the way out I decided to check for Kings which were on the bite on the inshore reefs. I didn’t bother taking live bait relying on the jigs to do the job. We did manage a couple of Kings as well as lots of Jackets. However it quickly became apparent that live bait was the go. The two other boats out there were doing a lot better than us.
I trolled out to the thousand fathom line but the water stayed green. Continuing South down the line there was no change in the water colour. So, after several hours trolling I discussed the situation with Chen and her friends and we decided to go back to the reef . It is ironic that though the radio is a frustration with its idiots on demand it is also a great source of information. Unfortunately, since I was the only boat out wide, due to the weather report, I could only judge the conditions from what I was seeing.
By the time we’d reached the reef the other boats had gone. We had the place to ourselves and the Kings were biting. I don’t know what changed but the jigs worked and saved the day.
Sunday was a perfect game fishing day. This time I went looking for bait but Murphy had stepped in and they just weren’t biting. I didn’t want to spend too much time chasing the bait as I was sure the ‘fin were out there somewhere. So again we hit the reefs with only jigs and again bait was the way to go. Remi and his mates however were keen to catch tuna.
Trolling out near and just over the shelf the bait was really building up. At times it was almost up to the
surface where the gannets were dive bombing the schools – it was looking really fishy.
There were a lot of boats out on Sunday and the chatter wasn’t too bad, with only a couple of nuisances voicing there opinions. For the most part the chatter was informative. Interestingly Marlin were being reported regularly around the bait and at least one at Browns. With that in mind we spent a good deal of time working around the bait schools before heading wider. Again after spending several hour trolling for nothing and not hearing about any Yellowfin we decided to go back to the reef. This time though we spent some time jigging up mackerel out of the schools on the shelf. After we’d caught about twenty very large slimies we headed back to the reef.
Murphy stepped in again though. We had just dropped our first live bait down when reports of Yellowfin started to come in. Worse, they were only a few miles from where I was heading. Whoever said fishing wasn’t frustrating has never been fishing.
Summing it up there were several Yellowfin taken. ‘Murryifin’ and ‘Phat Cat’ amongst those who found them and Ed from his boat ‘Hold Up’ tagged a Striped Marlin.
So with the hope of a good run of Yellowfin and an early start to the Marlin season.
Tight lines,
Ivan
Last Friday and Saturday there was still a good bite around Sydney though the fish were still hard to find a few boats found the Bluefin and Albacore wide of Browns out around Heatons and down to the Southern canyons strangely there were even some Mahi Mahi caught with more than one boat encountering Marlin.
On checking the SST’s and seeing that the current had dropped off and that there was a fairly strong Southerly current 35 to 40 miles out I thought Yellowfin might make a showing. It was a real surprise when ‘Phat Cat’ ( I think that was the boat ) called in with a six way hookup on Southern Blues and to his credit transmitting his position on the radio. I would be most surprised if most thought it was a hoax call as the usual radio idiots were out in force. However it didn’t take long to realise it wasn’t a hoax call and several boats headed out to the area where a couple of them got onto the fish. I unfortunately couldn’t get out there due to my group having to be back early.
Saturday was much the same but with more boats out and again captures of Marlin, Mahi Mahi, small Yellowfin and some larger ones. I think some Bluefin were taken but they were further South. I decided to go out wide and wide of Heatons I found a nice break which I followed for a while and ultimately was rewarded with a triple strike. One was definitely a tuna which we lost, another was a Spearfish which we caught and the other an unknown which dropped the hook on its first run which was a screamer.
I went out again on Monday but the water had changed out wide with the break having been pushed in by the colder water – we caught nothing and to add to the frustration we had a school of Yellowfin come down our trail, leaping out of the water like torpedoes, and virtually under the boat without touching anything – you have to wonder how two days can be so different. Even the inshore reef fishing was quieter but that was mostly because a couple of pro’s were drop lining.
Started out with a jig at 12 Mile with limited success but managing one nice King of a metre before the jackets moved in. The sea was up a bit despite weather reports to the contrary. However we ventured out to the spot and started cubing. All was quiet except for the occasional upchuck but then as the sun was setting one of the rods went off, it wasn’t a ‘fin but it had us guessing – a Stripy, a shark or maybe even an Albacore – well after a short but solid fight Marty landed a Striped tuna of 8kgs. , thank God they don’t grow to the size of their bigger cousins.