Fishing reports from Downrigger Shop Monday 8th February 2016

Some hot news to report this week with fishing on fire off both Portland and Sydney. Here’s Jarrad at Portland on Saturday 6th February with a solid 103cm – caught in ten metres of water:

Jake Donaldson bought two of our downriggers and headed to Portland too. Good move:

We got fourteen for the morning, got a good feed and released plenty.

Amazing! That’s NZ quality fishing. Super grateful for the pics and report, Jake. Andrew Westlake writes, pic from Wildblue:

Hi Andrew, a quick info update for you, check out wild blue, the king fish around Portland have been crazy this week. 112 boats apparently counted on Kings just outside the harbour on Sunday.

Still happening, Andy! Jarrad and Steve on Sunday 7th February:

Back into them again this morning. Mate Steve caught this ripper on the live yakka under a balloon in 9m of water straight out from Portland

North of the border, and Ron King finds perfect weather for deep dropping:

g/day Andrew here are my pics of some nice ocean pearch off tathra and l love my electric reel cheers mate

Glad it’s delivering for you, Ron. Kevin Preston chasing marlin:

hi Andrew here are some pics of a striped marlin off Kiama and a black marlin at the Banks over the last week there are a few blacks at the Banks now some over 150 kgs lost this one after 6 plus hours the next day sons girl friend did the same 3.5 hours

Sensational. Mate, can I just say how inspiring Team Preston is? From high country trout, to blue water marlin, your clan are always in the thick of the action. Closer to home and not so much kingie action to report. But there has been a great run of game fish riding the hot currents south. Here’s Matt Loraway on Wednesday:

Out of botany today in 60 ftms. On blue green break and 25 degrees. Just happy we did not get bitten off

Such a great fish, well done bloke. Evan out wide on Wednesday too, note fish trap floats in the background:

Good fish Andy. Dropped another about the same size on light gear. Few smaller ones early. Bit quite now. No current at all.

Good! Cause it means we can pop dollies and deep drop Browns on the same day. Dan finding some small ones which is what you want when you’ve got a first timer aboard:

Went out yesterday and weather was great. Got my cuz on his first Mahi Mahi. smile from ear to ear. great fun on light gear. Also pulled some skirts around for 4hrs and seen to marlin hit the lures but no hookup. Also seen a free jumping marlin towards the 12.

It’s gonna happen for you this season, Danno! Jason Hotop proves once again that it’s the blokes that go hard, who find success:

Hey mate, bite still on! Good black today due east of Broken Bay in 300m of water. Died in the fight (about an hour) Went 150kgs and will not be wasted. Dinner for me and my neighbours, for a week

Central Coast, and Adventure Machine Wazza Hill having a (maybe too close?) encounter:

Gday andy got these two marlin 1 on sunday and I on Australia day with my deckie Blake Clark 1 each his went 90 mine went 130kg tried swimming it but no good after 1.5 hour fight on 15kg stand up. Even had a swim with it. Both fish caught between 50mtrs and 100mts my stabi craft has raised ova 35 marlin this year

To tackle, and Glen Crofts giving our snapper combo a good work out:

Finally got a chance to get out again. Unpacked the rod from the box this morning. These pinkies stealing my whiting baits are beginning to be a problem.

Henk runs a charter fishing business in the Solomons and decided to get into this jigging thingy with our $275 Ryobi 24 kilo combo and some 100 gram jigs. It worked:

Finally I have a little something to contribute from the Solomons to your fantastic reports. Your Ryobi / Hercules Jigging combi and 100gm jigs held their own against 2 x handline fishos in a late evening reef fish. Drift fishing a reef top of 35m dropping away to 120m.

Tickled pink that the gear’s delivering results for you Henk! Much appreciated. With a white hot mackerel run from a crazy hot current on the mid north coast I’m receiving emails like this multiple times each day. And I love getting them. Check the surge on the local FAD:

Hi Andrew, I just placed an order for 4 x head starts via your website and sent payment via paypal.. The reason for the e-mail is to ask how quickly you think you can get them to me, I’m leaving for week in South West Rocks on Friday and obviously would like them before then.. .. And the downrigger is fantastic, what a great product compared to all the plastic crap on the market for the same sort of price.

All good! Posting today for delivery tomorrow. Here’s Sean Morgan’s mate Terry with a beautiful SWR Spanish yesterday morning, if you’re not fired up already. Go get em and thanks for your kind words, Andy

Plenty of live bait at the buoys, spotties are thick and some good spanish getting around, this one was 18kgs. Another boat had 4 smaller (around 8-10kgs) and pretty much everybody was getting their bags on the spotties. FAD apparently is quiet, although of course could fire at any time. Water 24.7, clear and blue with a 2.5kn current running wide.

Appreciate that news, Sean. Trent Bracey up there too:

G'day Andrew, report from South West Rocks. Just had 4 awesome days fishing. Started with a charter with Andrew Trappel from South West Rocks Charter. Top bloke, put us onto lots of fish and then let us use his freezer for the week. Very helpful with advice as well. After that 3 days on our own. The spotted mackerel are on so that was the main target. Got plenty and some fish over a metre. No Spanish for us but there are a few about. Got plenty of small yellowfin tuna around Fish Rock but no kings or cobia unfortunately although there were some reports of marlin there one day.

So good. Busting to get up there myself but just so busy. News of the Weird and Dan sends three horrible disaster pics:

Speaking of disasters, I’ve been monitoring the decline of the sunken ferry in Middle Harbour every time we go past. It’s breaking up now:

Glen and Team Cadoo on the 26th January. It don’t get more Australia Day than this:

While everybody is eating prawns on the barbie for Aus day, we have to catch our own. Its a hard life in Qld.

Baa haa. That’s a big prawn! Boats, and Paul M stopped by for some jigging combos this week and told me that, back in the day, he’d owned Malcolm Douglas’ Quintrex. Being a huge fan of the boat (I had the centre console version) and an even bigger fan of Malcolm Douglas, I begged Paul for a pic. That’s great:

Hi Andrew, as mentioned the other day, my previous boat was a 5m quintrex fishmaster that was owned by Malcolm Douglas in the mid 80's. Judging by the age of my kids the photo is from late 2006 just when I bought the current boat. I owned it for only a few years and sold it rather than replacing the engine which I regret in hindsight. I'd spent 4 hours fishing and than another 6 hours at the boat ramp on the way home answering questions about the history of the boat. It was in fact used extensively in documentaries most notably in a crossing of bass straight from Tasmania to Melbourne, of which I have the film.

FNQ, and how good is this barra? Well done, Nick:

Hi Andy, here's my new PB impoundment barramundi from lake Tinaroo, it went 1.11m and released well, cheers mate, hope you're well, Nick.

Jay Barker back on Norfolk Island last week and into them hard. Check those conditions!

Hey Andy, been in Norfolk for a few days now. Fishing has been excellent, the weather has been excellent, the internet...not so good. Couple of photos for you. That king was about the 16kg mark, very fat and healthy. A few more kilos and I’ll have to start hugging them NZ style.

Mate I have been talking to the charter company, hoping to get over there late April. Your pics have got me so pumped! To politics, and regular readers will remember the Bill Athanasslies outrage. Fishing for sharks with his mate Travis from Point Lonsdale pier, in Victoria. Fisheries officers pretended to be rec fishers, in order to bust him for fishing in the marine park. The pier is not in the Park, but they engaged him in conversation while his line allegedly drifted into the Park. How ridiculous is that. This is a very important story because we are told when marine parks are announced that they are needed to conserve fish stocks. That’s a lie. It’s also a case study of Fisheries bullying - and their gotcha mentality, when ordered by the Minister to produce something to make him look tough in the media. Bill took it to court and was shown the evidence against him, including the picture below.

In this image, Travis is the guy in front fishing off the pier. The bloke behind is Fisheries Officer David Burgess, dressed like a rec angler and carrying rods and tackle as a disguise. This is the reality of marine parks – not about conservation, all about intimidation. When I posted this pic on Facebook Eza asked for more information. Thankfully Geoff Wilson (he of Fishing Knots and Rigs fame) has written the sorry story of this ridiculous case:

http://www.amazon.com/Sharks-Parks-Narks-Geoff-Wilson/dp/1514814722

Over decades of angling I’ve watched a steady incremental attack on our right to fish – as well as our other freedoms. And despite all the licenses, registrations, fines, marine closures, red tape and green tape in many cases the fishing has got worse, not better. Yellowfin and marlin being the two obvious examples. The Point Lonsdale outrage is a wakeup call to fishos as to how bad it’s going to get, if we don’t stand up to the pollies and bureaucrats who despise us and the things we do. Thanks for reading and double special thanks to those fishos who send in the pics and reports we all enjoy. Until next time,

Andrew Hestelow

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