All At Sea - Fishing Charters

A windy Sunday, bonito city and a 49 cm morwong

All At Sea — Sun, 13 May 2012 05:57:45 +0000

Yes, it was a strong westerly wind with rough offshore conditions. But being close to the high cliffs and out of the wind, saved the day for us with a box of bonito. They were all caught while trolling with our five lines along the Royal National Park.
Morwong have thick lips, which is why they are sometimes known as rubber lip morwong. They are pale silvery blue and sometimes have a brownish hue. Morwong feed mainly at night and their diet includes crustaceans and molluscs.
We found this fish on a patch of reef in about 20 metre of water. James did really well, hooking up and bringing in a 49 cm blue morwong with our light 4.5 kilo spinning gear.

How to cook? With whole fish like this, we recommend that you keep the scales on to keep the flesh moist. Then just fill the stomach cavity with your favourite herbs and spices, butter and lemon. Wrap up the fish in a double layer of foil and cook in a moderate oven for thirty minutes.

And here is Ross’s yummy gummy – shark

All At Sea — Sat, 12 May 2012 05:50:08 +0000

We had a great day today with a mix of pelagic and reef fish, i.e. red rock cod, wrasses, trevally, sweep, mackerel, mac tuna and more than a dozen bonito. And as you can see, Ross’s 1.2 metre gummy shark.
This is a slender, white-spotted fish with pavement-like crushing teeth. They grow to a maximum of 1.75 metre. The gummy shark often occurs in small schools composed predominantly of one sex and size group and is common in coastal waters of Australia’s southern half. Research conducted by tagging in on the east coast has shown that it is capable of long migrations to South Australia and Western Australia.
If you see items like fish cocktail, boneless fillet or flake in a fish shop – it is gummy shark and very nice eating.

It was a cancelled weekend due to sea conditions!

All At Sea — Sun, 06 May 2012 09:48:24 +0000

Terrible sea conditions, there is no other way to describe it from a seafarer’s point of view. We met our fishing friends from Nokia at 6.30 am. The forecast was reasonable with 15 knots from the south and sea about 1.5 metre. But reality was different at 8:00, about two nautical miles out at sea, when we aborted the event and went back home.
The conditions got worse later in the morning with wind gusts were up to 28 knots off Kurnell at 10:17. And sea between 2.06 to 3.27 metre at 5.64 seconds interval. That is like being in a washing machine! It is definitely not a pleasure to be offshore in conditions like that.
We also cancelled today Sunday because of the sea conditions and large swell inshore and offshore.
But the forecast is much better for next week and we might be out on Thursday 10 May, chasing tuna and mahi mahi. Anybody interested?

Reef fishing trip turning into chasing dolphin fish at our secret FAD

All At Sea — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:50:46 +0000

We had a very nice today. An inshore trolling run resulted in a few bonito just near the mouth of Port Hacking. Then off to the offshore grounds for reef fishing. It was a little slow but lots of mackerel under the boat. We kept about ten or so and then pulled up the anchor to move on the FAD. It took us about 30 minutes, going south east into a depth of 110 metres. And the break gave the guys an opportunity to have breakfast, i.e. hotdogs with mustard, tomato sauce and soft drinks.
At the FAD we hooked up a few undersized dollies (less than 60 cm) and some very small kingies. But luckily for Jed, also a 76 cm mahi mahi keeper. Enjoy that for dinner tonight Jed!
By the way, these fish have many names, we call them dolphin fish, in the US they are called mahi mahi, in South America they are dorado, and in the South pacific they are masi masi.

Anzac Day at sea, and it was a windy Wednesday offshore

All At Sea — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 06:34:59 +0000

Anzac day is a public holiday in Australia and we had an opportunity to go fishing. The forecast was within the range we were looking for. But unfortunately the westerly wind arrived early and we had to come in from the FAD and work closer to the coast line for calmer water and inshore trolling.
The guys did well and hooked up a dozen bonito off the Royal National Park. We also stopped on a patch of reef for some light sport fishing and bottom fishing. Robert pulled in the fish of the day, a nice size goatfish.
Goatfishes are found on rocky reefs and sand patches among reefs from 5-100m depth. They feed on the bottom using their two sensitive chin barbels to dig into the sediment and locate food items.
Small goatfish forage on the bottom in loose schools, hunting for invertebrates such as small crustaceans and worms. Larger individuals, like Robert’s fish, also feed on small fishes. Goatfish are excellent eating.

A much better day at sea than we expected

All At Sea — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 07:44:38 +0000

The weather forecast and ocean condition predictions are often hard to read. The various web sites present different scenarios and it’s a matter of picking the average and add our local knowledge. Yesterday was a tough day at the office with a 2 to 3 metre north easterly swell with a 15 knot southerly on top of it. But today was much better, no wind and a little overcast. We mixed up reef fishing with chasing mahi mahi under the nearest FAD. Good fun and I think our guests enjoyed the different techniques, i.e. trolling, reef fishing and targeting offshore tuna and dolphin fish.

A mixed day with reef fish, leather jackets and pelagic species

All At Sea — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:05:06 +0000

Yes, it was a very mixed day with reef fish and bonito. After very strong winds earlier in the week, rock fishing and surf warnings were issued. But offshore the conditions were fine with long rolling swell. We had a mixed team onboard with Ben from South Korea, a few locals and JD from Seattle, here on holidays. So with two boxes of fish we were happy with the day.

Fishing trip with boxes of fish, plus sightings of a whale, dolphins and a seal

All At Sea — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:21:50 +0000

We had a great day with exceptional sea conditions, no wind and clear sunny sky. And fishing was good with a batch of bonito and reef fish like snapper, red rock cod, wrasses, blue morwong, striped sea pike and some other bits and pieces.
We also had the first humpback whale sighting for the season, a single animal swimming around in shallow water in Bate Bay off Cronulla. And dolphins around the boat plus Sammy the seal added some interest to the day.

Easter Monday and fish for dinner

All At Sea — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:01:39 +0000

Adrian from UK has been in Australia for eight months and loving every minute of it. We had a good day today, Easter Monday with clear sky and not much wind. The swell was building a little but fishing was good with our average catch of three to four fish per person. As you can see Adrian was happy with his 36 cm tarwhine. Other than that the catch included a dozen bonito, red rock cod, maori wrasse, wirrah cod, silver trevally and a few sweep.

Sergio’s team and Neil caught heaps of tuna

All At Sea — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 08:46:26 +0000

To me it was a tough day at the office; the forecast was good but reality different. We picked up a few mahi mahi at our inshore FAD and then proceeded to the Port Hacking FAD about 12 nautical miles offshore. We found a confused sea, short and sharp waves and wind increasing. I didn’t like the conditions and decided to return to inshore trolling. But on the way fishing was good and the boys on the floor picked up a couple of boxes of mix of tuna, i.e. mac tuna, stripies, bonito and a couple of dolphin fish.