Offshore
Fishing report from Hovig of Allie Hunter Charters

12th August 2006 Offshore Fishing Report

Allie Hunter was out today for two reef fishing trips. With the weather proving to be yet another glorious day, we headed off early with a 5.30am pick up, meaning we were able to start fishing by 6am. Out of the heads and straight up to the northern reefs, the activity picked up as soon as the lines were dropped in. Fishing with pilchards and squid, the Snapper and Morwong were the treats of the reef. The biggest catch for the morning trip was a 59cm Morwong, weighing in at 2.2kg. With an early drop off, we left the happy customers at King Street Wharf with around 35 fish in total.

With a 12.30pm pick up, the afternoon was looking good to start off with! Straight back out and headed north, we fished the same reefs as the morning, which proved to be just as successful, if not more than the mornings efforts. The boys were using pilchards and squid, catching plenty of great sized Snapper, Morwong and Flathead. Leatherjackets also managed to make their way aboard Allie Hunter, surprisingly, without snapping off too many lines!
At 3.15pm, a baby Mako decided to make a surprise appearance to the surface, just at the back of the boat. We couldn't let the opportunity pass, so I ran downstairs and grabbed a Tiagra 30 and attached the shark trace. With 4 whole pilchards hooked onto the trace, we fed the shark, and as we suspected, it was an offer he could not refuse! Once we were sure the Mako had taken the bait, we struck on the rod to make sure he was hooked properly. The shark then started leaping out of the water (as seen in the pictures) realising the mistake he had made... now Jaws would be in our jaws for dinner tonight! He tossed and turned and managed to wrap himself in the trace, making it harder for us to bring him to the boat. After 20 minutes of heavy fighting, the baby Mako was brought to the boat, weighing in at 30.85kg. All in all, the boys who weren't game enough to go game fishing were ecstatic with their superb catch... a catch they didn't expect to get on a reef fishing trip. They enjoyed him that night for dinner, chargrilling the whole fillet of Jaws on the bbq.

Hovig Aslanian
Director
Allie Hunter Charters
www.alliehunter.com.au

29th July 2006 Offshore Fishing Report

It has sure been a while since we have had the chance to sit down for a few minutes and put pen to paper. Although it seems we have been a bit slack with getting our reports in, Allie Hunter has been busy out there doing its 'thang'! So now the time has come to get back into gear and start keeping you guys updated with the buzzing activity that has been happening both close in on the reefs, as well as out wide.

The game fishing season is now well and truly in full swing, with numerous sightings of bait activity up on the surface. Allie Hunter was mainly out on reef trips during the start of the season, however, it appears the game fishing trips were booked for the perfect time, especially that of the 29th July. Out at the decent hour of 7.30am, we headed offshore towards Brown's Mountain. Once we reached the Continental Shelf, the lures were dropped in and the trolling began. After just a half hour of trolling, we were lucky enough to come across alot of bird and bait activity. Upon nearly reaching Brown's Mountain, with only 0.15nm to go, the rod went off and we were hooked up to what looked like a Yellowfin Tuna. After a really long fight... being 20 minutes later, a 30 kg Yellowfin was landed! The boys were cheering and couldn't contain themselves for the next hit. Straight away, we started setting the lures out and within 5 minutes we were hooked again. Although, we weren't so lucky when we ended up loosing the fish. All wasn't over though. We started trolling again and were hooked up within just 15 minutes. The fight was long and hard, but eventually one of the boys managed to land a 25kg Yellowfin Tuna. After all the excitement died down, we decided to try a different technique to see how our luck went. We started a cube trail and set out two live Yellowtail, 3 cube baits and one shark bait. After two hours, we had no success and minimal hits, proving the fish are preferring the lures to the cubes and live baits.

On the way back in, we set the lures back up and trolled along the Continental Shelf. Having no joy along the shelf, we cruised back in to Sydney Harbour, with the boys happy with their exceptional catch.

Close in on the reefs, there has been huge amounts of Snapper, Morwong and Flatheads, all coming in at a good size. Also making their grand appearance have been the line snapping pests... also known as Leather Jackets.


Hovig Aslanian
Director
Allie Hunter Charters
www.alliehunter.com.au

1st January 2006 Offshore Fishing Report

So far the new year has been exceptional for fishing. The first week Allie Hunter was out doing sport and reef fishing trips. The reef fishing trips have seen great sized Morwong, with catches reaching up to 2.3kg. Fishing the outer edges of the reef seemed to produce most of the Morwong and Snapper, with the Snapper showing up in large numbers.

Finally, the Mahi Mahi have shown up...as they say, better late than never! The wait was well worth it, with the mass of Dolphin fish hanging around the FAD's. Over the first two weeks of the new year, on its sport fishing outings, the average trips catch of Mahi Mahi has been between 35 -40 fish. Although we haven't yet caught the larger sized fish we saw around the early months of last year, the average sized catch is around the 2.5kg mark. Out on Sunday there were many boats fishing the Wave Rider. The current appeared to be screaming at 2 knots, which in turn meant the Dolphin Fish were hanging lower under the FAD. Using pilchards, we decided to fish down deep behind the FAD, which produced 36 Dolphin Fish for the morning session. The crew were extremely happy with their efforts to say the very least! A great result indeed! With many sport fishing charters booked for the weeks approaching, we can only hope the results we have seen stay at such a great level.

Although Allie Hunter hasn't had the chance to get out wide, there have been reports of Marlin catches in deeper waters. Over the weekend just gone, fellow members of the Sydney Game Fishing Club had tagged and released a 130kg Blue Marlin, as well as smaller Black Marlin. With a game fishing trip planned for this weekend, we hope we can add Allie Hunter's name to the clubs tally board.

Regards,

Hovannes Aslanian
Director
Allie Hunter Charters
www.alliehunter.com.au

14th November 2005 Offshore Fishing Report

We had an early start to the fishing weekend, beginning on Friday with a harbour cruise and estuary fishing. The weather was great as the sun poured down onto Sydney Harbour. We did more cruising rather than fishing....it appeared the gentlemen on board were more interested in trying to 'hook up' the topless waitress aboard Allie Hunter!

Saturday and Sunday saw both days out on the reefs. Much of the same activity was seen as the past few weeks, with a surprising catch of another John Dory. Other than the Morwong and Flathead, a few decent sized Snapper were caught measuring from 40cm - 56cm.

Regards,

Hovannes Aslanian
Director
Allie Hunter Charters
www.alliehunter.com.au

31st October 2005 - Offshore Fishing Report

We had an early start to the week with Wednesday calling for a morning session of reef fishing. With three of us on board, we were out for a few social hours out bottom bashing with the hope to catch something nice for a seafood barbecue that night.

Hitting the reefs at 8.30am, all first drops scored hits instantaneously, pulling up a 1kg flathead, a decent sized Morwong and a large Sergent Baker. In the first hour, 12 fish were caught, most of which were Morwong of Flathead. With most of the catches loving to feed on the pilchards, it was great to see a 30cm Snapper take the squid. The next few drops landed a 1.8kg Morwong, and as we moved back up to the gravel beds, a few more decent sized Flathead were brought to the boat. After 2 and a half hours out there, 24 fish between three of us, and a killer suntan all round, it was time to head back home for a swim and a scrumptious seafood barbecue!

For Saturday, we had both the morning and afternoon sessions of reef fishing. The morning was off to a quick start with some great sized Morwong and Nannygai being caught. Around 10am, we moved back up to the gravel beds in search for some Flathead. Most of our customers had bites, but had the unfortunate luck of hooking up the babies! We did however, end up with a two decent Flatties, however, the morning seemed to produce better luck with the Morwong and Nannygai. Saturday afternoon was much the same as the morning, although things seemed to switch around. We had much better luck with the Flathead, bringing 12 to the boat. Only 4 Morwong were caught along with 2 Snapper. Not a bad effort indeed!

Out again on Sunday morning for yet another reef trip, it seemed we picked up from where we left off on Saturday afternoon. Although we were only out on the reefs for a few hours, as a few of our clients tried to hold themselves up against the wind and the seas, a decent amount of fish were caught with the majority of those being Flathead. In 3 hours we had 11 Flathead, 2 Morwong, 1 Snapper and 1 Sergent Baker, then all the lines were pulled up as we headed back home.
Although I haven't been out there myself in the past week, friends on the water have reported that nothing much has been happening out wide. Although the water is warming up, we are yet to see the Marlin and Kingfish.... they just seem to be keeping us waiting in anticipation!


Regards,

Hovannes Aslanian
Director
Allie Hunter Charters
www.alliehunter.com.au

17th October 2005 - Offshore Fishing Report

Out on Saturday for an afternoon reef fishing trip on yet another one of Sydney's gorgeous afternoons. With the weather looking promising and the water extremely flat compared to what it had been like for the past few days, it was interesting to see how quiet it was out on the reefs. With only one Morwong and three flatties caught in the half hour we were out there, and with most of our clients surprisingly seasick, the decision had been made to head back to shore.

Sunday called for a pick up at the Spit for a days game fishing. We set out in search of live bait, yet the morning appeared to be a quiet one, with no bait in sight. Rather than wasting anymore valuable fishing time, we powered straight out towards Brown's Mountain. Just before reaching the Continental Shelf, we laid out a spread of lures and started trolling, as a mass of bait action was present on the surface.

Within five minutes of trolling, not one, but two rods went off producing two striped Tuna. Upon approaching Brown's Mountain, the outrigger went off and the ratchet screamed! I instantly knew this wasn't another striped Tuna, as just like a Yellowfin it took off extremely fast. Sure enough, after a twenty minute fight a 18kg Yellowfin was landed. Soon after, another four Striped Tuna were brought to the boat. Around 1pm we started a burley trail on the dumping grounds. We continued this for two and a half hours, unfortunately nothing was produced.

Although Sunday's game fishing had not been as successful as our last few trips out, it was great to see so many Striped Tuna caught. The reason for this is that the warmer currents are not too far away for the Marlin season to commence.

Regards,

Hovannes Aslanian
Director
Allie Hunter Charters
www.alliehunter.com.au

10th October 2005 - Offshore Fishing Report

Out early on Saturday morning, the day began to look like an exceptionally quiet one out on the reefs. Fishing for two hours and all we had to show was one Morwong, one Snapper and a Pigfish, namely due to the lack of drift. Around 9am, it was as if all the fish had woken from their slumber! After the breeze picked up a little, we scored a better drift, making the baits work harder as we covered larger ground. Then for the next three hours it was all on! Morwong, Snapper, Gurnards and large Flatties filled the boat as fast as we could put the bait on! Overall, the clients were extremely happy with the days results, having shared 41 fish between the seven of them.

The afternoon session of reef fishing also proved to be quite productive. The great drift we saw in the morning continued through into the afternoon, producing monster Flathead and Gurnards. The fish preferred pilchards and squid, but were also biting on soft plastics.

For the first two hours of fishing there was a repeat of this mornings catch, with 21 fish brought to the boat between six people. The later hours of the afternoon proved to be much quieter, as the drift slowly died off. Although it was quiet, it was much of a surprise when one client pulled up a 1kg John Dory ...something which we haven't seen of late! However, with the days results, one can't exactly complain!

Out on Sunday for another reef bash, produced another fairly reasonable day out. Although a little quieter compared to Saturdays efforts, the day saw many Morwong & decent sized Flathead. Once again, the crew were sick, so it was another short day for us as we headed back inside the harbour.

Regards,

Hovannes Aslanian
Director
Allie Hunter Charters
www.alliehunter.com.au

1st October 2005 - Offshore Fishing Report

To begin the weekend knowing we have an extra day off, or in my case, an extra day to fish, proved to be an exceptional start to the October long weekend. A morning reef fishing trip on Saturday scored a great catch with large flatheads, Morwong and Pink fish on the scene. However, as the fishing progressed the day sought to be one of those unfortunate occasions without a Snapper in sight!

Sunday morning also proved to be yet another fruitful reef fishing adventure. Close in on the gravel beds we saw large Flathead feeding on pilchards, whilst further out on the reefs the squid were proving quite popular with the decent sized Morwong. We had much better luck on this trip with the Snapper, compared with yesterdays efforts. Despite only catching the few we did, it was great to see the ones that didn't get away holding a decent size. Once again, the squid are appearing popular with this catch.

As the saying goes, "third time lucky" came to pass on our third trip on public holiday Monday. Out bright and early, for a full days game fishing, on yet another glorious day, not only was the weather on our side, but we were soon to find out so were the fish! Arriving just south of Browns Mountain at around 9.30am, our first drop pulled up a 12kg Blue Eye Cod. Second drop saw a 17kg Blue Eye. the happy campers who hired the boat for the day couldn't believe their luck! And once they saw the third drop bringing up three Gemfish, they thought they had struck gold! Fourth drop saw us pulling up four Gemfish, with the fifth drop reeling in a 19kg Blue Eye and another Gemfish. And like they say, "save the best till last", suddenly, off went the rod! And after a short yet tiresome fight, a 60kg Mako shark was slapping like crazy against the back of the boat.

With an exceptional day out wide, our clients were ecstatic with the days catch, to say the very least! Yet like all good things, this trip had to come to an end, and back off home we were as we set sail back to shore.
The front has still been quiet with the Yellow Fin Tuna. However, with warmer waters fast approaching we are sure to soon set sight on the Marlin and Dolphin fish. Up north, between Coffs Harbour and Port Stephens, a few Marlin have been caught, which only reinforces the fact that they are not far away. Until then, lets hope for some more great weekends out, even if we don't get the extra day off!

Regards,

Hovannes Aslanian
Director
Allie Hunter Charters
www.alliehunter.com.au

September 2005 Offshore Fishing Report.

This month has proved to be great for fishing deep water. Just like last month, we have had much success with Mako Sharks, Blue Eye Cod and Gemfish. So far, its proved that the berley trail is the way to go when targeting Makos, whilst squid and pilchards have been popular when fishing the bottom of Browns Mountain for Blue Eye and Gemfish. The average size of Blue Eye has been between 5-12kg and the Gemfish between 5-9kg. Although the sharks have been large in numbers as well as size, the Yellowfin Tuna are still present in smaller groups, with a surprise catch of a 25kg during the middle of the month. With the current screaming from the north, we can only hope it brings schools of bait fish and warmer waters for our Dolphin Fish and Marlin season to begin.

Fishing the bottom, the outside reefs have been relatively rewarding with many large Snapper and Morwong biting on squid and mullet. Fishing closer in on the gravel beds has been exceptional for larger Flathead, sizing between 1–3kg.Also, the size of the Leatherjackets have been outstanding, biting on pilchards in 40–50 metres of water.

Regards,

Hovannes Aslanian
Director
Allie Hunter Charters

July

Offshore
On the days when it is nice enough to make it out there are a few nice Mako sharks to be had. Last week a specimen of 120kg was landed by the crew of Allie Hunter. They laid a berley trail of pilchards and a fleshy bait of striped tuna and after only a few hours had landed the Mako. Yellowfin tuna are still about with catches coming in between 15 and 60kg. Trolled lures are the go when targeting the tuna, soft headed skirts such as McGoo’s and xmas trees being the most successful.

Bottom fishing on the outside reefs has been relative good with numerous snapper up to 6kg being taken on flesh baits and squid. Several jewfish around 7kghave also been taken on the same baits. The gravel beds have been reliable for flathead on the drifts. Jig em rigs have been the most successful method for the flatties.

june 2005

Yellowfin Tuna are one of the most prized fish in the sea. For most people it's the delectability of the yellowfins firm rich flesh, but for anglers, its the blistering speed they exert once hooked up. Well now is the time, and Browns Mountain is the place. In an area stretching about 10nm around Browns, schools of 30 kilo plus fish have been moving around, herding
baitfish up toward the surface before feeding with vigour. It is possible to keep these schools around by cubing if the swell co-operates, and while you drift with the fish you can explore your options, which could include everything from live baiting to tossing lures or flies. Slimy mackerel are a great live bait, but if you cant get hold of any, un-weighted fish pieces floated down the cube trail can be just as effective. Fly fishing has also proved successful recently, with blue and silver offshore deceivers making their mark, though beware, these fish can and do destroy expensive gear.

August Report
Winter fishing is very rewarding the reef fish bite really well out in 60-70 meters of water and we look very hard to find the gravel patches with small individual dots about a meter off the bottom and with a good sounder on the zoom in you can identify these dots and drift over the mark to catch both mowong and snapper. A common misconception is people anchoring and fishing right on top of a reef, this sort of structure will produce quality fish but also plenty of small crappy fish.

The flathead drifts have been very productive and the silstar jigem rigs which we use on every charter either the squid or the tails have proved to be a great way to keep the novice fisherman hooked up all day because they never run out of bait.and although we do freshen the rigs up with pilly or squid we find they are just as effective on their own. The duskie flathead have been a great size upto 75-80cm and the occasional big tiger flathead.

Game fishing has been hot and cold and the weather has turned us around so many times in the last month it s hard to warrant making the game fish bookings. On the days we were able to venture out we managed some luck on the yellowfin and the albacore and the mako sharks are always close behind these two fish. On one particular outing we jigged kings off the 12 mile to 5kgs and then we trolled out to Browns and just over the shelf we hooked a nice striped marlin only to have him pull the hooks and 30min later we hooked something big on the billy bonito and pulled the hooks on this almost strait away. Our luck changed when we started our cube trail and the albacore turned up under the boat and they seemed pretty spooky and after an hour we managed to get one to the boat and it was a healthy 24kg biggest one I have heard of in a long while. About an hour later the same bloke hooked something big and was unable to stop the long runs and a decision had to made very quickly as to how to stop the fish because we were running out of line so we attached another outfit to his outfit and tossed it over the side $1200 sinks very quickly and not long after the fish busted us off .

The king fish should be making a show very soon and then we can start our sport fishing on the deeper reef and we will have some specialist jigging tackle on board with prototype jigs and there is no more exciting fishing than being attached to a big king on braid.

Previous Report July 2004

Yellow fin tuna are on the bite and they are bigger and better than our last season three years ago.The average size of the fish is about 30kgs and there have been fish to 70 kgs boated over the last few weeks. The weather is the only thing we have to contend with and the Westerlies always look kind for the first five miles and then the sea turns into a washing machine and small boats can find the 20nm run home wet and dangerous at times.

This season the Allie hunter will be doing later runs out to the shelf instead of the typical charter day early start early finish. We will be starting our run out to the shelf at about 9am and this will enable us to assess the weather before going early and having to turn back. Start trolling after the 12 mile to see if we can locate any fish with a lure pattern and have cubes ready to go after a hookup because there is no better place to start the trail. I’m happy to start the trail as late as 1.30 pm and fish late into the afternoon and we have found that while other boats are travelling home this is the peak time between 3-5pm as the sun gets lower the fishing starts to hot up and we proved this time and time again during the last tuna run and we were coming home with fish when others were missing out.

The other problem when fishing out wide in winter is the sun late in the afternoon is at 310 degrees which is the run home and its almost impossible to see where you are heading. We also found that the later you leave the better the wind conditions can be the Westerlies seem to die out at about 4pm..Soon as the sun hits the deck we head for home and usually with a good catch of fin and albacore and if we are lucky everyone on bord has had a chance to fight a mako shark and watch it jump all over the ocean and test out the drags on the new okuma 30 two speed reels.

Our reef fishing is starting to change now winter is setting in and the snapper bite is hot with regular catches of keeper fish There is still a great mixed bag to come home with and we have started doing some wider runs out to the 9 mile or the 12 mile and fishing the bottom for big chinnamen leather jackets upto 70cm and on these drifts we are picking up pinkies and some good flat head. Last year the king fish turned up about mid June and we can only hope that this season will be just as productive

Report April

The season is changing, and so it seems only for the better. The dolphin fish have been very consistent, the marlin bite is steady with still good water temps and plenty of bait, and the kings are patrolling all the in close reefs. The reef fishing has been producing some great catches of flathead, mowies and the occasional good snapper. The fish which have been in almost plague proportions and most of us don’t target is the chinamen leather jackets and these fish average about 30cm and up to 70cm and are a great feed. The only problem is that its all deep water fishing 100m and deeper.

The dolphin fish are still very young but as the month goes on, these fish will grow and I hope they are still here in late June as they were a couple of seasons ago. On light tackle, these fish still provide a great fight and all ages and skill levels can enjoy this type of sport fishing. We have also had plenty of success targeting marlin around these fads and if you take the time to drop two big livebaits down deep and do a couple of circles before disturbing the dollies you will be very happy at the results all it takes is a little bit of planning . The waverider off longreef has been the most productive structure off Sydney for billfish this season.

The kings have been great fun although a little late this year, and the size has also been a nice surprise with most fish coming over the side being legal and on some days up to 95cm .Anywhere you catch your livebaits in the harbour, the kings have been chasing them to the boat and a quick hook through the back and you're in business. A good tip if you're fishing light in shallow water is to fish very light drags, don’t force the fish to run hard and go deep just let them run and tire them out, and if that fails, pull out the big guns and pull their heads off.

This season will go down as our best marlin season in 6 years and all this is due to the amazing run of bait. It's not only slimmies yakkas or stripies but anything that schools up and is the right size is fair game - like the dozen or so leather jackets we found in a black marlin earlier this season. (Although I wouldn’t be game to bridle rig one and troll it around!)

There was some interesting catches on the weekend of Easter. With the weather being so perfect, boats were able to travel out wide and a couple of boats found some huge yellow fin tuna all over 60kg, so lets hope this is a good sign for the start of our tuna season.

Previous Report

Game fishing is usually one of those experiences all fisherman want to be able to say they have at least tried. Trolling the deep ocean drop offs in search of a big fish. Sydney waters have the ability to be the best fishery in the world for game fish like marlin tuna or sharks. The past few weeks has proved that when the bait turns up and holds up on an area as big as Long reef, then our marlin will be hot on there heals.

The first thing I have noticed is that all the fish have been really solid and 70-80kg striped marlin have been fighting above their weight class and hunting in packs and it has been common to have 2-3 fish up in the lure pattern. The black marlin are also very solid with fish upto 120kg being tagged and released the interesting thing to note with these fish is they are also hunting in packs and on one particular Sunday the Allie hunter trolled in close to the wave rider off long reef and we had four fish up in the pattern with a double hookup on the riggers and two other fish on the teasers all blacks and after putting tags in our double hookup both fish estimated at 80kg we felt like we had been in a tittle fight because the fish were so aggressive all the way to the boat. We put the lures back in the water and 15 min later another black was hooked up, how many fish are holding in area when the fish are bitting like this maybe hundreds.

The 10th of Jan will always stay fresh in my mind as one of the hottest marlin bites in the last five years. Picture in your mind 5 boats trolling in an area as big as two football fields in 77 fathoms of water off long reef . The water was flat no birds almost spookie it was so quiet. Below the surface in 15 fathoms there was a battle going on with hundreds of marlin and hugh balls of sauries going nuts, the only commotion was a free jumping marlin either jumping with glee after throwing back a few too many sauries or hooked up to an excited angler. The end result for our boat was two double hookups one triple and a single in a space of four to five hours . One of the double hoohups we turned into 2 tagged fish and the other was the single tagged fish. The other 4 boats each raised at least 8-12 fish each and went back to port gob smacked at what they had just experienced.

These big bait schools have moved on and the dolphin fish have started taking baits and feeding in their normal patterns so the sport fishing should be hot right through until the end of April. All our sport fishing trips include trolling for marlin and then fishing the trap buoys.

Allie Hunter Charters
www.Alliehunter.com.au

Previous Report

The Allie hunter has been very busy in the last few weeks and we have covered everything from whiting to yellow fin outside. There have only been a few bad weather days which has restricted our options, the fact the we are prepared to try all styles of fishing on the same day and work that little bit harder with attention to detail means more fish at the end of the day for the punters.

The reef fishing has been very productive with good catches of flathead and mowong on the drifts out wide and we have a spot off Dee Why in 60m of water that producers whiting and as quick as they come up they get nose rigged and sent back to the bottom for the bigger flathead, remember a live bait is anything they can fit down there throat. Some of the bigger flathead have been up over the 65cm mark. The snapper have been a little slow and now the legal limit is 30cm we seem to catch plenty of 28cm fish and I maintain the only way to catch bigger snapper in to sit at anchor and burley up in a know productive area and try not to fish on the reef it’s a great place to set the anchor but make sure you hang back and fish the sand or gravel flats. Another tip is don’t burley for the first 15-20 mins let your baits find the fish and if it doesn’t work start your trail.

We had a few good weather days which allowed us to fish in some deep water and the combination of burleying for sharks and fishing the reef with Tuff Line fire wire has produced some nice mako sharks and off the bottom we had snapper mowong and the chinamen leather jackets are upto 3 kgs and there are plenty of double hookups when targeting these great eating fish. The punters on these charters are always whinging about how exhausted they are because of the long fight but the results are worth the effort.

We have had some great deep water gigging sessions with king fish to 6kgs and the trevs have been thick and weighing 2-3 kgs which offer a great fight on the new saltiga rods and reels. The Japanese clients are very good fisherman and are prepared to travel along way from home to catch the kings. A big reward for one of these anglers was catching a 3.5 kg snapper on a jig and believe me this is a great catch on this new and improved technique of jigging deep water. We have managed some great days trolling live baits for the kings and this proves a very productive way to find the school of fish.

Sunday 30th Nov was a great game fishing day for most of the fleet the body of water sitting off Sydney was holding yellow fin and marlin and the Allie Hunter managed 6 yellow fin to 10kgs and we had a busy 20 min when all 6 rods went off and only four anglers to fight the fish, we managed to boat 4 fish and on returning to the same spot hooked up again. Some very happy blokes went home with a great feed.

The marlin fishing has started very well and we hooked a striped on the 2nd day of trolling and this was tagged and estimated at 55kgs. We had an incredible fight with a black which lasted nearly 2hrs and somewhere in his jumps to get away he was tail wrapped and this made it impossible to swim him up close to the boat .The last part of the fight was dragging this dead fish out of 140m of water and the bloke on the rod will feel this for weeks to come .We dragged the fish through the marlin door and got some pictures and estimated the fish at 120kgs. It’s always a shame to have a fish die.

Allie Hunter Charters
www.Alliehunter.com.au

Previous Report

Offshore both the water and the fish are starting to hot up. Mick Lyons out on ‘Allie Hunter’ pulled in 6 yellowfin tuna up to 10 kg on the troll.
The Marlin have started to come on for those who have been trolling in the last week, with many reports of big fish tagged.

Kingfish are starting to bite in much larger numbers, co-inciding with the increased amounts of bait around offshore. ‘The Peak’, especially around the bombora, has been a great hunting ground for these kings lately. Fresh squid or live yellowtail are the best baits, unless of course you can catch yourself some live squid.

The Peak’ is also holding plenty of snapper. Make sure you use a proper snapper rig to avoid getting snagged. Fresh prawn or fish baits are the best for snapper.

The inshore reefs are holding plenty of bait at the moment, which means the kingfish have moved in and are biting in bigger numbers.
Unfortunately the Dolphin Fish have not turned up at any of the offshore F.A.D.s. It seems they may be waiting for still warmer water, but this may be a while coming because of the recent storms.

Previous Report

Bait is what gets me excited at the beginning of summer the more concentrations of slimies and stripes the better chance we have with a greater number of predators turning up. The bait is at the base of all the rock ledges from bluefish upto Bondi and a very simple way to find some kings is to sound around and find the slimies and yakkas in a tight ball on the drop offs. We have a lot of success bridle rigging the big baits and slow trolling them around using big bean sinkers so when we stop the baits descend quickly into the strike zone, you have to watch your depth so you don’t end up snagging the bottom and we find you have to be very careful not to troll to close to the bottom because when you hook up a fish over 5kg even on 15kg tackle it only takes him a couple of kicks of the tail and he’s in the rocks .The kings will swim along way to take a bait and they are on the outside of the bait balls not in the middle so there is no need to keep splitting the bait schools with your boat.

The salmon schools are starting to thicken up and most of us are throwing metal jigs at these schools and a quick retrieve on the surface is hooking some solid 2-3 kg fish. Don’t forget what’s under these schools trevally, bonito, kings and the occasional black marlin can also be down deep so remember your big live baits weighted and cast into these banquets of bait can produce some memorable fish if your set up correctly. The most common remark you hear in fishing is I hooked something really big and I couldn’t stop it. It’s nice to fight fish on light gear for the sport but fighting big fish on heavy gear can be very rewarding.

The reef fishing in the past few weeks has been excellent on the flathead big fish to 70cm and plenty of fish around the 45 cm mark, all the marks I normally fish have been firing really well from 30m –70m . The mowong and snapper are still on the bite and as in every charter you would like to see bigger snapper but that’s seems to be hard work on the drift so going to anchor and drifting back baits is a good alternative and its amazing the variety of fish you can pull out of a burley trail.

Allie hunter charters has been very lucky to be offered a full sponsorship deal with OKUMA and the boat has been fully fitted out with their rods and reels. I have been using there gear for 12 months and I now have the opportunity to trial their new game fishing range. The new range of TITUS reels look the part with their fully cold forged aluminium body and with a beautiful gold finish like all good gamefishing reels should look. We will be using a lot of their new range of plastics the STORM range and they have some prototype plastic 3 hook squid rigs for reef fishing and I have been amazed at there success on many species of reef fish .The company is going to be a big part of the gigging market which is really taking off on our East coast and we will be trailing there prototype gigs in a few weeks, ready for the kingfish season. There will be new rods and reels on board soon that have been made for gigging only and we will be the first Sydney charter boat offering this type of sport fishing targeting big kings on deep reefs. Anyone needing information on any of the okuma range feel free to give me a ring.

The Mahi Mahi have turned up for the start of our sport fishing season and again with a new range of okuma Coronado CD40 biatrunners we will be targeting these great fighting fish from now until the end of April so don’t miss out get a group of 6 together and let us show you the most exciting light tackle fishing off Sydney. The first marlin of the season has been tagged last week and there have been a number of hooked and lost fish all these fish have been striped marlin some on the shelf and a few in close near the 12 mile reef. The bait has been thick out wide with striped tuna slimmies and sauries and this is a great start to what we hope will be a good game fish season. The yellow fin tuna are still on the bite and fish upto 20kg have been caught trolling small skirts. There’s very much a mixed bag out wide you just have to do the hours.

Previous report

Winter fishing out of Sydney can be challenging and uneventful at times and this time of the year can bring a lot of fisherman undone psychologically but if you can honestly say you have been amongst some good fish then you are amongst the top 10% of fisherman who read the signs and fish for what is available, not what you dreamed about the night before. When I first started doing fishing charters this was the mistake I made but now I arrive at the heads with a clear mind and I let the conditions tell me where to fish.

Kings are the species I would like to target all year round I have never had a punter say they were sick of catching these speedsters. The past few months the king fish have been on the rocks and not around the local reefs and this has been due to the bait distribution or should I say lack of it. Because these fish have been spread out we have a very simple recipe; no bait no kings, and this is the worst year I can remember for the lack of both. You would think after the king fish traps left our shores 4 years ago that the kings would be here in huge numbers but this year has been very lean, lets hope summer is more productive.

The drift fishing has been very productive with a variety of flathead mowong and snapper and using a 2 hook rig with snapper lead at the bottom to drag the bottom is simple and effective. The westerly wind has made it difficult to drift the wider grounds where the bigger fish seem to hang out that 60-70m is a great depth and the reef formations are not as pronounced and this gives us more sand and gravel patches, we don’t lose as much tackle and the species of fish are quality not rubbish.

Game fishing has been unproductive on the yellowfin for the third year in a row and I’m still confident this is due to a cycle our fishing seasons all the pros and the longliners are doing it tuff and even though these stocks are fished hard I think the season will turn in our favour. The mako sharks have been this winters best angling and we have changed our tactics, fishing on deep water reefs so we can fish the bottom for kings snapper and big chinamen leather jackets and burley for the sharks at the same time and the results have been unreal with some really big sharks to 130kg and they go as hard as any marlin.

The water starts to warm up in the next few weeks and this will start our dolphin fish season this fishery would be our best sport fishing off Sydney. We fish with livebaits, soft plastics, gigs, bait or fly; the fish range from 3kgs-15kgs and we regularly pull striped marlin off these fads. The beauty is being able to fish with 5 kilo outfits and not get busted off and there eatability is unreal. We do half day trips from 6.30-1.30 and this summer we will offer afternoon trips which will finish after 7pm, this way we can take advantage of our dawn bite, this could be a very productive tactic.

Regards

Allie Hunter Charters
www.Alliehunter.com.au