30th Jan 2009
Al fishing report jan/feb
Al McGlashan’s Jan/Feb fishing report
Marlin fishing slow
Wow how things have changed only just a few weeks ago Port Stephens was firing with boats tagging up to 7 fish a day, but now it is dead. The water has cooled and gone green and there is no bait whatsoever. Obviously things can change overnight but looking at the temp charts there isn’t anything promising coming down the coast in the near future.
I recently fished the Golden Lure Tournament out of Port Macquarie as part of Team Honda. The weather and fishing were reasonable and we ended up running all the way to South West Rocks each day to tally three marlin. This would have given us second place but we chose to do the honorable thing and disqualify one since he got tangled in two lines, but that’s tournament fishing. I should also add there were heaps of big mahi out wide as well as few blue marlin.
While Port Stephens is slow Bermagui down on the South Coast has produced some really solid fish over the last few weeks. A couple of solid blacks were lost out over the Twelve Mile Reef and then a visiting Victorian angler nailed a sensational 353kg blue marlin a week later. It is interesting to note that a majority of Bermagui's biggest fish always come from late Jan early Feb including that 900 and something pounder caught a few years ago. With this in mind it might be worthwhile fishing the heavy gear in case you pump into one!
I am about to begin my annual marlin sojourn aboard Strikezone fishing and filming up and down the coast and at present have to say that I think the north coast is my best option. The small blacks that have been plaguing the Gold Coast have moved south and reports are now filtering through of fish as far down as South West Rocks. I suspect over the next month the inshore fishing will continue improve as the main concentration of fish move south. On top of this there is still a good number of blue marlin out wide to mix up the options and the beauty of the north coast is the shelf is close in so you can realistically fish for both in a single day.
Shark central
This marlin may be slow but there are sharks are everywhere. This season I have seen more white sharks than ever before and now there are plagues of little hammerheads all over the place. While the mere mention of sharks has sent a chill through the community I personally reckon it’s a good thing and really highlights the fact that things might be improving. I just hope fisheries departments start promoting sharks in a positive light instead of pretending they don’t exist. Education is the key and is a much better option!
Mahi time
There are some big mahi up on the North Coast and most the FADs are loaded with smaller models. The bigger fish tend to be wider and are best targeted by trolling a spread of blue marlin lures over the canyons. Over the next month the mahi fishing will just get better and better.
Kingfish
While I have been mainly marlin fishing I will get out this week and see what the kings are doing off Sydney, however by all reports they have slowed off a bit. It is a similar case down south on the Banks or up north around Fish Rock – lots of little ones but not a lot of big ones!
Dave Steele headed up to Yamba and managed to find some bigger kings in the 8kg range while fishing deep structure. Another mate Pete caught a decent king close to 20pounds out of Sydney while fishing a yakka down deep just off the heads.
A time to act
On another note I recently wrote a letter to the fishing industry (got to news section to read it) about the serious concerns of the future of fishing and in particular the increasing threat of marine parks. In NSW anglers are being locked out of ever increasing areas thanks to the plague of poorly implemented marine parks. It is high time the various organizations that supposedly represent Australia’s 3.5 million anglers put aside their difference and started protecting our right to fish. Anglers are the true conservationists and I for one and sick of being used as a scapegoat for the mistakes other made. Let me know what you think.
Cheers Al McGlashan
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