The prawns are running and temps are up, which means we should be in for a very productive fishing weekend.
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Perfect timing on the tournament front, with round 10 of the Pro Lure Kayak Bream comp staging out of Cams Wharf November 3-4, as well as the inaugural Charlestown Anglers Flathead Classic in the lake.
“It should be very fertile in terms of whiting, bream and flathead,” Jason “One For” Nunn, from Fishermans Warehouse at Marks Point said.
“There’s a wind shift predicted for Saturday arvo, but that won’t trouble the kayak guys down in the south of the lake.
“And there’s a big roll-up for the Charlestown Anglers Flathead Classic with all money raised going to the Leukemia Foundation.
“The beauty of both these tournaments is they’re all catch and release which is the way it should be because it releases the pressure on estuary stocks.”
Fish in the know
The November prawn run, which gets going about Friday night – seven to 10 days after the full moon being the time-honoured equation – is being highly anticipated.
“We’ve had 180ml of rain, and we’ve been getting some big tides, so that’s a big drain and on top of the prawn run we expect to see a lot of fish around,” Jason said.
“We’ve had reports this week of all species on the chew – flathead, bream, whiting, jew and nice-sized snapper up to around 50cm.
“We even had reports of small cobia caught out on the lake amidst oodles of baitfish.
“Belmont Beach has been producing travelling bream, which is another indicator things are on track for the prawn run. The fish know it’s coming.”
It’s been pretty quiet on the shelf. A blue was taken off Port Stephens and a black this week. Water temp on the edge is around 21.3 almost to 22 degrees in patches.
Pending record
Having said that Newcastle Game Fishing Club boat Hard One fished out of Port Macquarie last weekend and had a great day.
“With just Paul Hardy and son Max Hardy (junior angler) on board, Max managed to land an 82kg yellowfin tuna after over two hours on 60kg gear,” NGFC secretary Scott Morris reported.
“It is a pending Australian and NSW record. Max was exhausted after this, but decided to put the lures out and hooked up to an estimated 200kg blue marlin which I am not sure how excited Max was to fight this one as well. Maybe luckily, it got off after a short time.”
Bay booming
Paul “Ringo” Lennon, from Fish Port Stephens Estuary Charters, reports plenty of flathead in the bay pushing down the system.
“Mouth of the Myall, Karuah and Tilliegerry systems all fishing well,” Ringo reported. “Medium-size plastics or poddy mullet doing the business.
“Water colour in the bay is good despite the rain. We’ve seen a couple of nice jewies coming off the beach. One report suggested a 30kg mulloway landed off Stockton this week. Harley Price got one 17.5kg in the bay.
“There’s been the odd king around the rockwall at Nelson Bay. We got one 15kg on a charter this week.
“The weather is looking good for this weekend. Nice and hot so we should see fish starting to bite on the surface.”
Vale Neil Grieves
The Hunter game fishing and marine rescue communities farewelled a great man this week.
Neil Grieves, long-standing member of the Lake Macquarie Game Fishing Club, passed suddenly during a recent fishing trip to Cairns and will be deeply missed.
Neil was heavily involved in all facets of LMGFC, and game fishing in NSW, as well as Marine Rescue over many decades.
“It was very sad,” LMGFC club president Garry Russell said this week.
“It was standing room at his funeral on Wednesday, with presidents, vice presidents and many representatives from all local Hunter Zone game fishing clubs from Port Macquarie down to Golburn in attendance, as well as Gary Chenoworth, president of the NSW Game Fishing Association.
“The deputy commissioner of Marine Rescue NSW was there along with many Marine Rescue representatives, who formed a guard of honour. Our thoughts go out to his family.”
A keen angler in his younger days, Neil took on radios duties for the 1986 Interclub and then performed these with wife Lyndy at every gamefishing tournament in the Hunter Zone every year thereafter including this year.
“He was known as ‘the voice’ of all the tournament over the years,” Gary said.
“Everyone at sea knew him. He was always on the radio and people just respected his competence.
“He was second to none in the way he went about things, no mistakes, on the ball, and even if there was a problem he kept his head.
“He never went home until the last boat on his watch was safe home.
“He was one of kind.”