Got One Port Stephens
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Port Stephens Fishing Report - 2008/08/07 08:56
NSW 01 August 2008 Got One Port Stephens (NSW) [ Chris and Shep ]
Friday 1/08/ 2008
OUTSIDE
Once again large seas throughout the week have slowed fishing reports offshore although I did hear from the boys on PUMP ACTION (yep these boys fish rain, hail or shine but it would seem that they like rough weather) that the Yellowfin Tuna are still on the chew with them taking 8 fish in the 10-15kg range. All fish caught only 12 miles offshore so the boys didn’t make it to the shelf. Its nice when you only have to travel half way to the shelf to get the fish. All fish fell victim to small skirted trolling lures in the 6” – 8” size with colour not making a difference. According to the boys the fish were happy to eat anything as long as it was small and made a good smoke trail. On the reef fishing scene I did hear of one good bag of fish coming from the Uralla area with 1 large Pearl Perch of about 1.5kg taken, along with a nice sand flathead of about 55-60cm, a couple of squire and a nice jacket. Now that’s what I call a good feed of fresh fish - especially that pearl perch (best eating fish in the sea). I have only had a few other reports of Nannygai along with leather jackets in plague proportions in anywhere from 40-100mtrs and I did hear of a few squire that have avoided being eaten by jackets around the Pinnacle off Fingal. All fish fell victim to fresh slimy mackerel fillets fished on a paternoster rig (a lot of these rigs were donated to jackets removing the few squire - from reports the jackets were too small to catch being all around 6”). Closer inshore a few Snapper were taken last weekend with the sisters area being the most consistent but after this blow I reckon anywhere around the north side of Fingal should produce some ripper fish. After seeing a bit of resurgence in the flyfishing scene and reading a couple of articles in magazines (one in fishing monthly by local fisho Brent Hancock talking about green weed flies and another by central coast fisho Jamie Robley on fishing the washes with berley and bread flies) it brings back memories of the fly fishing boom way back when local fishing identities Dean Butler and Brent Harding were right into chasing mega Drummer, Bream, Blackfish and Trevally. The boys would head out in the boat and anchor around one off the many washes in the area and begin to berley with bread in the berley pot and bits of bread floating out on the surface. Once the fish started boofing the floating bread pieces the bread fly was cast amongst the berley and watch for that take and hold on. The beauty of this fishing is that you can just cast bits of bread or dough into the berley if fly fishing is not your cup of tea. I would suggest a 8-9wt fly rod (you can use smaller wt rods for Luderick and bream say 6-7wt but I recommend you prepare for those drummer as a light leader and fly rod is generally laughed at) with a matching reel with a minimum 100yds backing (preferably 300 for versatility chasing pelagics) plus a fast taper weight forward floating flyline to aid punching larger spun deer hair bread flies into the wind (which seems to be a permanent thing these days around the bay)
ROCK HOPPERS
Southerly seas and near freezing conditions have kept all but the keenest of fisho’s indoors. With very few options this week due to large seas reports have been a bit thin but a few fish have been taken. Reports of squire around Fishermans bay falling victim to soft plastics spun behind the washes along with a few reports of drummer with the odd bream up around the stink pipe south of Fingal bay. The south headland of box beach has been producing quality tailor although their numbers are a bit thin along with hordes of salmon keen to munch any well presented pilchard or any metal spinner that zips past em quickly. Also the east facing ledges of Boat Harbour have been producing quality drummer and bream along with the odd tarwine. Most are finding success after berleying and fishing floating baits around an area with a bit of wash.
BEACHES
Once again very little to report from the week although I did hear reports of a Polar Bear chasing Penguins and Seals down Stockton beach on Monday. I hear they were running around in this white stuff that is really cold (I think they call it snow). Alright I am just pulling your leg but how cold was it Monday? I think this might have something to do with the lack of people on the beach. The only reports I do have are from a couple who headed down to try their luck on Wednesday afternoon with an armful of pilchards and some frozen beach worms (too cold to stand in the water and catch them yourself I was told). They were rewarded for their patience by a couple of tasty bream and then around dark were harassed by masses of salmon and one lone tailor that found it’s way into the bucket along with the bream.
ESTUARY
Luderick are really all the talk at the moment with no shortage of reports of bag limits being taken from De Albora Breakwall. As always, even though the weather has been atrocious it has still been a case of standing room only with some having to ask permission to cast due to a lack of room. But what really got my attention this week is the talk of mulloway harassing the luderick fisherman with at least 4 local anglers having stories of losing fish to larger critters. Originally I thought probably small sharks but I had one good mate say that he got one of these attacked fish back after it was grabbed and it had the markings of a large jewfish attack with a couple of puncture marks around the head from those big K9’s on the front of a jewies mouth and a massive lack of scales on the luderick after being inside the jewies mouth. So I put it to you all, who can be the first to land a 50lb jewie of the breakwall on a live luderick?? The challenge is now on so head down and fish the tide change and as always please pop in a photo of your captures as fresh photos are always appreciated. Elsewhere inside the port whiting are still about in small numbers around Shoal bay and little beach around the boat ramp. Just remember what they lack in numbers they make up for in size. Bream are still being taken in small numbers along the breakwall also with most falling victim to peeled Hawksbury river prawns fished with very little weight.
Got One Port Stephens
Shop 5, Rigby Centre
Salamander Bay NSW 2317
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