I want to take this opportunity to say that I am taking bookings for the upcoming Port Stephens 2019 season. I will be available from mid-January until mid-March'19. As most would know this year's Marlin season up there was the best in many years. Best of all was the fabulous run of Blue Marlin. In fact out on the Car Park all three species of Marlin were biting their heads off, a rarity in itself. Unfortunately there were lots of Whaler sharks amongst them. Sadly I haven't had much to write about these last few days. The weather has been disastrous for anyone who has wanted to go to sea. Never the less there are Long Liners working wide off Sydney. This would indicate there are Yellowfin or maybe even some late season Bluefin out there. There are reports of Bluefin off the South coast but then again the weather is keeping all but the professionals in the harbour. Tight lines, Ivan

It is Shark time off Sydney at present with Mako's, Blues and Whalers on the bite. On the week-end a rare Thresher Shark was also caught and a couple of Whites were encountered. Now that the Bluefin have moved on and the Yellowfin haven't turned up Sharks have become the mainstay of game fishermen. These sharks are widespread, other than Blue sharks which are rarely found inside the shelf all the others can be caught from close inshore out to as far as you want to go. Of all the available sharks Mako's are the most spectacular. When hooked they make long, fast runs and they can jump. I have seen them reach up to at least four metres into the air; they are truly spectacular. Seeing a big Mako come out of the water rollover and come down head first is something not to be forgotten . Sadly as a result of these huge leaps more than a few unlucky anglers have ended up with a Mako in their boat. One of the hot spots for Mako's is Browns mountain where they congregate to feed on the Gemfish. Consequently because of the number of boats in close proximity also trying for the Gemmies and Blue Eye there is a real danger of having an uninvited guest drop in , literally. As for the Yellowfin I'm still hearing of the occasional fish being caught but I guess it is just a waiting game. In the meantime Kings are showing up on the inshore and offshore reefs but are being hit very hard by both professional and amateur fishermen. One has to wonder at how sustainable this resource is. Tight lines, Ivan

Winter and Spring are the time for Sydney's Tuna, Albacore, Yellowfin and Bluefin. Though it looks like the Bluefin have passed there are enough reports of Yellowfin both North and South to be optimistic. Sadly we are in post Bluefin season though I'm sure we all hope they'll return. It amazes me how they just disappear, here one day in numbers gone the next. Interestingly this year there were some good sized Yellowfin amongst the Bluefin. In this post Bluefin time fortunately for us there are other options. We can concentrate on Kingfish, Blue Eye, Gemfish and Mako sharks as well as hope the Yellowfin turn up. Last Saturday I took Dan and his friends out looking for the Yellowfin but still hoping a Bluefin might show up. We started by catching some live bait to have a shot on the outer reefs where the Kings were making an appearance. To cut a long story short we caught a few baits which were quite quickly converted into Kingfish. Not really large ones but good enough. However what they lacked in size they made up for in numbers. Dan and his mates shared my love for the horizon and whatever it may hold, they'd caught enough Kingies and wanted bigger game. I headed out toward Heatons with my usual spread and a lot of optimism. Around the thousand fathom line the temp started to rise and a few birds started to appear. Meanwhile on the radio I heard a couple of boats up North had found Yellowfin. They'd seen them breaking and even caught a couple on cubes. They were North of us but I didn't know how far so I turned left hoping they weren't too far. I later found out they were off Port Stephens. We didn't end up finding any 'fin but knowing they were there was interesting enough. I later heard someone caught a couple around Heatons and South around JB too. Meantime the mountain is fishing well for Gemfish and Blue Eye. To cap it off the Mako's are showing up too just in time for this weekend's Monster Mako Tournament held by the Sydney Game Fishing Club. Tight lines, Ivan

Striped Marlin and Mako Sharks as well as Tigers were all the news off Sydney last week-end. Two Tiger Sharks over 450 kgs. were taken as well as another of unknown size lost after several hours of fighting. With the thought of XOS Tiger sharks in mind I went out with Glen and Karen to see if we could find one for their daughter Makira. We headed out on Sunday to the eighty fathom line off Long Reef where we planned to start our trail. On nearing the area we found large numbers of Gannets diving on schools of bait fish. It was more than one group too. We could see several gatherings all in roughly the eighty fathom area. With so much bait around this had to be a good place to start. With baits set at varying depths on a couple of 15's and 24's and the kids punching the burly, it was that time of waiting. I must say there is something really pleasant about shark fishing, other than the smell and mess. It is quiet and peaceful with a tangible sense of expectation as all on board watch the floats for any sign of movement. After about an hour one of the reels starting slowly ticking off drawing everyone's attention. The speed increased then the fish took a run. Makira took the rod and wound in the belly of line and struck when Glen told her. She had weight and was hooked up. Unusually the fish stayed near the surface then we saw a splash as a bill and head broke the surface. We had a Marlin and after a reasonable fight Makira brought a good sized Striped Marlin to the boat where it was tagged and released - not the 400 kg Tiger we were hoping for but a nice surprise. All the gear was re-set and again we settled in, watching and waiting. The currents were doing strange thing though. We had drifted through two strong current lines. Now our deep baits were on one side of the boat while our burly was going in the opposite direction. This was obviously due to the very light breeze but still indicated a deeper current going opposite to the surface current. Hopefully our burly was heavy enough to reach the deeper water. It took a while then at the witching hour a small Mako turned up taking scraps off the surface. We drifted a bait out but no takers and after about ten minutes he/she disappeared. Shortly after our deep bait on 15 kg. started to run and again Makira took the rod and under Dad's instruction struck the fish. This one took a couple of runs and went deep, this had to be the Tiger. The fish continued to take line with the occasional head shakes causing concern. Eventually Makira started to gain line, slowly at first then steadily. After nearly an hour of give and take she had the double up and we got our first view of the fish. Howy took the leader and much to everyone's dismay brought up a 30 to 40 kilo Mako hooked in the tail. I don't think anyone could believe a Mako that size could fight as hard as this one had. So that was the day, we'd tagged a Striped Marlin and a Mako shark. I heard of another boat losing a Striped Marlin and that Browns was fishing well. Generally it seem it was a very quiet day off Sydney. Tight lines, Ivan

Tuna and Marlin: Striped and Blue Marlin along with Yellowfin tuna , Mahi Mahi and some huge Tiger sharks are still haunting Sydney waters. When you consider that it is nearly June the fishing is quite incredible. I suppose what is really remarkable is sea temperatures still around 23 degrees. Even though all the above species are still around you still have to work hard and have a bit of luck on your side to succeed. I went out on Sunday expressly to stay out late and cube into the evening. While travelling out I heard that 'Reef Magic' had tagged two Marlin, a Striped and a Blue and 'Murryfin' had also tagged a Striped Marlin. It was looking good ! We saw loads of Gannets bombarding bait schools as we travelled out but no lookers on the lures. We crossed that 2 degree temperature break that is so well defined on the SST's but continued out, I wanted to see what was at the thousand fathom line. On the way I crossed another break where the temperature dropped significantly and there was a well defined thermocline below which I marked quite a few fish and bait. However I continued out to the thousand fathoms. When we finally arrived at the area I wanted it was a marine desert. Neither birds nor bait were present but the water looked better than anything we'd seen on the way out. Never the less I decided to go back to the cooler break a couple of miles back. We started cubing a little after 3pm., the wind was easing and the ocean glassing out. It was an hour or so before a big Blue Shark turned up circling checking out the baits. Shortly after another much smaller Blue turned up. Inevitably the larger shark took one of the baits and as Blue Sharks do, it did nothing. With maximum pressure applied it finally moved off and as it did bit through the leader. Unfortunately the sharks stayed with us, enjoying our burly, for a while then disappeared as silently as they had turned up. As the sun neared the horizon one of the guys had a bite. Not a regular tuna bite, this fish was coming towards the boat. Shark was the call. The fish or shark started pulling drag, slowly at first but increasing in speed as it went. Suddenly after, it had taken a couple of hundred metres of line, it just took off at a thousand miles an hour, much faster than any shark I'd caught. Needless to say a 40 kg. leader can only take so much and inevitably parted and we were left with a mystery. We had no further action, it was late and time to head for home. On the way I heard that the boys on 'Carnage' had weighed a 450 kg. Tiger shark at the club adding to a larger Tiger caught by a Port Hacking boat on Saturday. Of interest I think is that the guys fishing for Tigers generally start burlying in about 80 fathoms. At present the sea temperature in that area is only 18 degrees and the water green. It poses a conundrum considering that Tigers are a warm water species. I guess though that we'll never know what lies below. Tight lines, Ivan

Yellowfin tuna and big ones too are off Sydney at present. I haven't caught one weighing less than 60 kgs. in the last few weeks yet, with a few going over 70 kilo's. How long this will last, who only knows. I went out on both Saturday and Sunday and the fishing was quite different on both days. My plan on Saturday was to work my way out to Heatons looking for the Tuna. As luck would have it we started to see small groups of 'fin busting up from 600 fathoms out. The problem was they weren't staying up long enough for us to get the lures near them. It turned into a rather frustrating day chasing tuna all over the ocean. There were however a few tuna caught late in the day. Throughout the day a few boats ran into Blue an Striped Marlin also, these were found closer inshore around the 500 fathom line. On Sunday I took Wahyu and his friends from Global Tackle out. It was a different day in that there were more fin showing. The bust ups lasted a lot longertoo so we had plenty of time to get to them. We just had to get there before the other boats. As is common with most schooling fish and especially with Yellowfin, too much boat traffic spooks them and disrupts the bait killing the action. We managed three fin upward of 65kilo's. The first was a blind strike in 600 fathoms. The next two were on a double strike which is always fun with Yellowfin. The last thing you want is two fish circling under the boat. If this happens the probability is that you'll lose one if not both fish. We held one fish off while working hard on the other consequently catching both. We did lose another fish when as we were about to gaff it the hooks let go. By mid-afternoon lots of boats had found the Yellowfin and were racing around trying to get to the schools before they went down. We were done, the activity was slowing so we headed for home with a very happy and tired crew. Tight lines, Ivan