Hello everyone
We are now right in the middle of the game fishing season , the Port Stephens Shoot Out we ran over the weekend in mixed conditions , on day one we ( Running Bear ) headed north to the Seal rocks canyons in search of a big Blue marlin most boats that travelled north had a sea right on the nose making it an ordinary trip to say the least however at about the 25 mile mark the sea changed and wind backed off to only 10 knots for the rest of the day unlike back off the bay where it remained a constant 25 plus , unfortunately there were not a lot of fish up north a few small Black marlin kept you on your toes but nothing of any size .
Back off the bay local boat Cassey landed a Blue marlin that later weighed in at 174 kg with a short measurement of 2.6 m which remained the largest of the competition landing them $ 12500 in prize money , unfortunately for us we hooked up to a Blue marlin within the first 5 mins of fishing on Sunday , the marlin went 2.55 m short measurement which was not large enough , when we tried to release the fish but it had exhausted itself during the fight and wasn’t able to be released alive , we later weigh the Blue marlin and it went 148.5 kg angler was Steve Rielly ..
This weekend sees the start of Port Stephen Inter Club which will run over the next 2 weekends followed 2 weeks later by the Broken Bay Tournament and with the water off the coast as high as 25 dec at the moment it could be a long game fishing season .
Back along the coast it’s been a different story , the temperature has been varying from 18 – 21 dec , mid last week it was up and the fishing started to pick up with plenty of Bonito and Frigate mackerel around even a few Trag coming in from up around the Redhead area , then a day later it had all changed as the cooler water moved in once again , this weekend we will see winds out of the S/E which should bring warmer water in from out wide , let’s hope we have seen the last of the week long N/E winds , it’s been a tough inshore season so far and most of us could do with a break .
On the beaches it’s a little like offshore with changing water temps on a daily basis its been the same hard to pick , finally however we are now starting to see a few Tailor along Belmont and Blacksmiths beach both early in the morning and late afternoon while of a night the Breakwater seems to be holding the larger fish , Whiting are still been taken on the run out tide when fishing back into the channel both Tube and Beach worms providing the best results , while down off the rocks there have a been some nice size Tailor and Kingfish around mainly taking metal lures and live baits .
Back in the lake things have settled down after the holidays , Bream numbers have started to increase as we head into Easter , Wayne and Jason Rixon landed 7 Bream up to 40 cm on Monday afternoon and with the Prawn run starting in Swansea channel on Saturday night thing can only get better , hopefully this run will produce some larger prawns, most of the prawns this year have been a little smaller than previous years .
NSW ( Primary Industries ) Fisheries have been collecting prawn samples identifying areas of origin , last run my son Patrick and I collected samples from 4 nights prawning and if possible we will continue doing the same over the next 2 runs , however anyone wanting to help please give me a call as we only need a few from each night . Over the last few days there have been confirmed reports of large Tailor throughout the lake , areas such as Pulbar Island and back up around Belmont Bay are seeing the most fish at this stage , looks like it won’t be long before we break out the deep divers , everything seems to be falling into place for a great winters fishing ahead .
Regards Jason
