My 2765 km Road Trip

[twoutes]

I looked down at the trip meter as l stumbled out of the landcruiser last night, and it read 2765km.
My fishing buddy Graham and l did not plan to do such a big long run towing a 6 meter Edencraft, but some changes to our plans fishing Bateman?s Bay, then Jarvis Bay, saw us heading off to Port Stephens.



Edencraft ready to go





The bait was very scarce at Bateman?s Bay compared to JarvisBay which was our preferred fishing destination at the time. With only a 15km run to the shelf and ample bait, combined with good weather made it very easy fishing.



Murrays beach - Jarvis Bay






Boat Ramp






Our tactic was to pull rigged skip baits and teasers around, with a live bait ready to go when needed, and this was the case on one of the days when we saw a stripe tailing in front of the boat. The live bait was deployed and within seconds came tight on a feisty stripe marlin. I have never caught a tailing fish before, and l?m still not sure whether it was the same fish or possibly another one in the pack. Hours earlier we picked up another fish off another hooked up trailor boat.



Stripey at boat







Grahams marlin at boat






The long liners moved in at Bateman?s bay with one boat removing 45 marlin, and another 2 boats probably with similar results over night. When they decided to hit JarvisBay, another mate of mine decided to go have a look at Port Stephens. Graham and I have always wanted to fish out of there, so this was our opportunity to tag along with someone that new his way around.



One of the Marinas at Port Stephens





Dolphines aplenty at Port Stephens






We were very surprised to find water temperature up at 26.8 degrees and very little patches of bait holding down deep. We managed to mark a few marlin on our Furuno depth sounder, but struggled to secure any slimies having them ravaged by leather jackets, and on one occasion by a marlin just under the boat.
We decided to troll a pattern of lures around till we had some slimies on board, and managed one marlin of around 80kg before the end of the day.



Stripe marlin





Striped marlin before release






The fishing was definitely tougher for us out of Port Stephens with the 45km runs out to the shelf and some huge swells forcing us to travel at a slower pace. This meant that it would take around an hour and a half to get out and not to mention burning approx? 170 liters of fuel per day, compared to 70 liters at J.B.
We really enjoyed our time at Port Stephens and l had the opportunity to play with my egrell B6-6 in close on large schools of bonito which we would stitch up each night to take out on the shelf?.though they would not last long getting blown out with the hot water temp?



Bonito = Bait





Me and my Egrell B6-6







As per usual l like to put together a short video clip of my fishing trips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1w6MmUkcTY&feature=channel_page

[skip]

Awesome report Joe. We're so envious of you guys with your fishing out there, but in this case you travelled a LONG way to enjoy it.

Fantastic

[rammx]

thanks for sharing with us twoutes!!! most of us (including me) would be satisfied catching the fish you use for bait
10x again

[LapsiBoy]

Nice report mate, what method did you use to catch the bonito and what trolling speed and lead etcetc..would be usefull
10

[twoutes]

Thanks for the comments guys!
Lapsiboy. we caught the bonito using 3 small feather jigs rigged on a 40lb Black Magic leader. The feather jig is very similar to what you guys use for Lumpuki on hand lines around the Cini. The bonito are so thick that you could catch them on an oily rag on a hook. We started out by trolling at about 6 knots, but once we found the schools we would just cast out the back of the boat and retrieve very fast. It's lots of fun watching all the bonito fighting over the jig, and it only takes about 5 minutes to fill our bait box, for the next days fishing. Like l mentioned in my report we would stitch the bonito up in a way that they would skip on the surface without spinning and trolled at 8 knots about 30 meters behind the boat...and waiting for a marlin or shark to hit.
Thanks for the interest in my methods

[ramio]

Well done Joe, another nice.......long trip, and we somtimes feel troubled just trailing the boat along our island.
Thanks for the lovely mountage you did, very prfesional as usual. We really envy your rich seas. Its so fantastic seing such nise fish at close. do you do the taging, or was that a previously tagged fish.
Unfortunately things here in Malta are not looking very good for us. Too litle is being done, and unless some drastic action is taken, our sport may end up just watching your fantastic videos.
thanks again and keep them coming.

mario

[twoutes]

Hi Mario. Thanks for your comments
Like l have said before we are very fortunate to have a large diversity of marine life along our coast. But more importantly  rules and regulation, which if broken have severe penalties with no exclusions to anybody!
Strict bag limits and size limits ensures that the fish are mature enough to breed and in turn produce more fish...The law does not look away here, but makes sure that the rules are followed.
We tag all our marlin, and did so on six fish on this trip ranging from 80kg to 120kg.
Recreational anglers do not have any size limit  but a bag limit of 3 marlin per boat...but we choose not to kill any anyway...there are much better fish to eat in our seas than marlin...in saying that l have kept the odd small marlin in the past for a feed.
The commercial fishermen here (Long Liners) are not permitted to keep black or blue marlin, just striped marlin, but unfortunately their hooks can't tell the difference, so they still catch, and kill, them,then dump blacks and blues.I think they should change the rule only allowing them to catch a certain amount.We are always able to criticizes the system.
I never object when l hear that fishermen get caught breaking the rules, and end up losing their boat and car. Serves them right

[The_Gaffer]

Great writeup.  Many thanks for sharing this with us.  Also, well done on a very productive day. 

[twoutes]

Thanks...but there are many days that we do not get any fish either...they really keep you thinking.
That's why they call it 'fishing' and not 'catching'

[redbus9]

Nice report joe,you make me very enviouse.Good luck on your next trip out.Hopefully we,ll meet up again in Malta next year.   Keith