JDP

Trouble when you have family come to stay that want to catch fish. Personally Im looking forward to targeting the smaller species, though I am fired up to target mako's when the water temp drops down, given them a miss the past couple of years as they can be pretty destructive to the boats.

I keep forgetting about all the rules and regulations you like to put on yourselves back there while you let your government give away your fish to foreigners!!!!!.....Unfortunatly I've fallen into that "she'l be right mate mode" living here so long. In saying that we kick out foreign trawlers who want to catch all our mackerel and what feed on them as bycatch. Now, should toothy sharks caught on the beach be in the toothy section or beach and where is the kayak section for sharking kayakers. Im going spearing today 🙃

Thats because its a simrad piece of junk, far better images from the bold guy on my own boat using Garmin. In saying that I smashed another screen on the 8410 on my last trip in my own boat!!!!....as far as LBGTYQ, Im neutral.

Oh no, just realised I've done it again posting in the wrong section, keep forgetting there's a beach section!!!!!!....tried to move it and can't. It's the friggin title that gets me every time, Catch reports. Heading for the sin bin. Remove or delete.

When you say one slip, how wide is it ? Many of ours even in small coastal towns are 6 lanes wide with floating pontoons to tie up to while you park the vehicle. We also don't get in the water for launching or retrieving, so winter temps mean nothing to boat launching. Our small coastal town has a population of 8000 people and we have 12 boat launch ramps, most just double lanes though. I would hate having to remove all my valuables from the boat every time I leave it on a mooring or pontoon and the whole scrubbing and painting would put me off owning a boat, let alone locked to one location. Do you know if local councils have been approached in regards to more ramps ? obviously if there are lots of jetski owners, there's a demand for launch sites.

Bait and marlin.

Just a few more. Should be back out there in a couple of days.

Part three. Just fishy pics from the seven we caught for the day.

Part two. More bait schools were found and more marlin. The young fella got to skipper the boat while I took a few pics of jumping fish, he did a great job even at the close stage work where fish can often be lost under the boat. Plenty of other boat porn all around us with everything from 17ft boats to 50ft boats hooked into marlin.

After a few hours sleep from the hectic beach session it was back at the boat ramp at 6am for another day offshore with the young fellas chasing marlin. They had been a pit unhappy we were have fun out there while they were at school through the week. Normally we travel around 20k offshore to the start of the continental shelf to target marlin but this black marlin almost jumped into the boat as we left the harbour. We didn't stop to have a fish as we seldom hook a fish we've seen free jumping. There were a few boats out wide with a weekend comp on, so we headed away from them in search of mackerel or small tuna to use as bait. When you find bait it will often have marlin on it. This is mackerel virtually the same as the UK variety. After catching a couple of strings of them for the live bait tank we setup some live bait trolling outfits and started the search. Wasn't long before we found bait with a fair amount of marlin showing on the sounder and suddenly we were hooked into three marlin. Another boat soon moved in and they got a double hookup. Fighting three fish was crazy and had the youngsters pumped with excitement. Luckily two pulled the hooks and we were able to concentrate on handling just one. Two of the boys (brothers aged 13-15) worked together, with the youngest lining his elder brothers fish when he was able to get hold of the leader. Soon after the elder brother had the same opportunity to leader his younger brothers fish, which was his first time doing it. Funny enough the youngest lad has caught many game fish and also works for my daughter most weekends on the charter boat she skippers. More to follow as my picture size won't allow more.

Had the day relaxing today after another couple of busy dangling sessions. Friday daytime was spent rock hopping after a few squid which resulted in some nice calamari for lunch. Decided to head down the beach again after dark for a quick session. Once again the beach fish were fired up, with bites on fresh baits before I could get the two rods in the holders. It was a mixed bag of fish, from Aus salmon, tailor (bluefish) sharks and small stingrays. Time got away from us with such a hot bite and before we knew it it was almost midnight and we had an early morning 5am start chasing marlin again the next day so pulled the pin and left the fish biting.

So why not keep it home on the trailer ? are there no decent launch ramps in your area.

Yes I have the navionics app and also the Garmin active captain. I like both but prefer the Garmin, I will also continue with both.

Im not sure but we do have various cadburys varieties, none quite as good as the UK cadburys. On another note, 7 marlin for us today, Im stuffed.

This sounds like a favourite noodle kind of question. I like Aldi dark coffee beans, any chocolate or fudge and will watch just about anything. Just gone 5am so have to get moving now.

Ok the leisurely day turned out to be far from leisurely, just gotten home 11.45 pm from an exhausting beach session and heading out at 5.30am chasing marling again in the morning. Got to make the most of it while I have my youngest here with her partner, can go back to chocolate and Netflix when they leave!!!!!!.... Might get round to doing a report from today if tomorrow's trip isn't to full on.

Great looking hull shape.

Turns out the bigger fish could actually be a blue marlin, just getting confirmation on it.

Same as part one, only this was a much bigger fish on spin gear. Took around 30mins to get this very lively fish to the boat, in which time we had traveled over 2km from where we initially hooked it up. Twice we were down to the last few metres of line and had to chase the fish. Lots of jumps, though these were mostly to far from the boat to get good pictures of. Tomorrow I might opt for a more leisurely day inshore with the boat and another beach session after dark.

Headed offshore today again with my youngest and her boyfriend in the hope of another black marlin. First bait over the side was pulled from my hand by an eager little striped marlin of around 40kg. The fact this was a small fish meant we were able to get it to the boat and in for a quick picture before release. A good size to keep for eating but this one was released.

We rarely keep them even though they are in good numbers and pretty good to eat, it just adds on to much time at the end of a day giving it all away.

It didn't get away mate, we use light gauge hooks so that we can pull the hook when you trace them beside the boat. I was driving the boat so didn't get pics of this but my daughter filmed it on the GoPro.

Conditions were a bit sloppy so just worked the inshore headlands with the boat for around 20 bonito, 15 salmon and mixed catch of reef species. Plenty of sharks, mostly hammerheads and whalers but also caught an unusual species of leopard shark which I’ve not seen before ( pics are on my camera still ) Put the boat away then headed to the beach where we encountered one of the most action packed sessions I can remember. Salmon were in the 6-8kg size and quite literally one after another which made it difficult to get a bait to other species. Fished without wire and opted for 80lb leaders to avoid landing sharks. This meant going through 20-30 hooks between the three of us. Male and female port Jackson sharks.

Took my youngest daughter and her boyfriend out for a marlin session after they had finished their morning fish on the beach catching salmon today. The water temp was too hot for our normal target species of striped marlin but was good for both blacks and blue marlin. Striped tuna were in good numbers, a favourite of most marlin to eat, even though most were in the 6-8kg size. It was so much fun catching these tuna on 10lb spin gear we almost forgot about chasing marlin. Set up a teaser and dropped two live baits out the back at the slowest speed the boat will troll at. Literally under one minute and we were hooked into an estimated 200lb lively black marlin. This fish was extremely stubborn and had the young fella soon loosing a few beads of sweat!!!!! The fight went on for around 1.30 mins before we had it traced alongside the boat and released. Most likely fish inshore around the headlands tomorrow if the weather gods allow targeting a few hammerheads etc.

I did a fair amount of research on the species when I first moved here. Over 12 months I went to the Sydney fish markets 2hrs before I started work ( 5am ) where I collected data from commercial catches. Such things as tide, moon phase, area water temps, weather conditions, barametric pressure, water temps at capture locations etc etc. Combining these facts with their preferred bait species gives you a better chance. It took me over almost 2yrs before I could consistently target them, however where I live now these fish are even less common.