Port Stephens 6.3.2008

G’day lads

with good weather offshore predicted yesterday, Col, Darryl and I left Sydney early, and headed up the F3. Multiple marlin reports from last Sunday’s Interclub (including two grand slams) had us pretty fired up, and the back of the station wagon was chockablock, with big fish gear:

After a quick stop at Macca’s Bob’s Farm (to get my cholesterol into the red zone!) we launched at Little Bay boat ramp.

It nevers fails to amaze me how much Australia’s prosperity has grown over the last ten years and your average Aussie boat ramp provides pretty good proof, of that. Launching next to my battered old tinny was an Edencraft 233, with twin 200s, a mini tower and a custom paint job, being towed by a twin cab truck. Col and I were drooling at the sportfishing possibilities of such an awesome offshore weapon!

After logging on with VMR Port Stephens we headed straight for the FAD. Always a good break en route to the Carpark, and often a very good big fish spot in its own right. As usual it was surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of small mahi. After putting a few in the esky we deployed four lures, and started trolling eastwards.

One downside was that the current had slowed, if not stopped altogether, as shown by the absence of a plume behind the FAD buoy.

The sea conditions and water temps just kept improving on final approach to the Carpark:

Only 4 or 5 boats were there, which was a bit of a surprise. The icing on the cake was seeing a free jumper just behind Billfisher and Broadbill, who were fishing in tandem. The bait was very scattered and deep but finally we jigged some, about 400 feet down. A huge slimey on Col’s jig was cut in two as by a scalpel, so the pelagic leatherjackets are still around. We deployed one surface livebait off the outrigger, one off the downrigger (at 56 metres) and commenced circling with the rest of the fleet.

After a couple of hours (including through the top of the tide), nothing. And we didn’t see anyone else hook up either. At one point Darryl spotted a free jumping marlin way off to the south, but generally it was very quiet. Having passed through a couple of bands of working birds on the way out (and noting a couple of big game boats fishing in 40 fathoms) we figured that, because the current has stopped, the Carpark bait (and marlin) are leaving for better pastures. Back inshore we went, stopping at the FAD for some fun on light gear.

The wind picked up pretty hard from the nor’ east (according to Seabreeze, ~25 knots) and with a run out tide, the Heads were the washing machine most Port anglers are familiar with. A somewhat disappointing day fishing-wise but more than made up for with the great company of Col and Darryl. You couldn’t wish for two better fishing mates. Cheers, Andrew

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