Black Fish

Place: Wollongong
Time: 1615 hr
Rod: Daiwa Procaster 6"6 4-6lbs
Reel: Daiwa Luvius 1500

Something must be very wrong or very right that day. Caught a Blackfish on prawns and a paternoster rig at the bottom. Biggest blackfish caught so far. Approx 1kg.

Gurnard

A nice looking fish that taste just as nice. Problem with this fish this fish is the amount of spines on its body. Also, its about time we bring the camera when we go fishing and not just show the fish about to be gutted and cooked.

Blue spotted Eagle Ray.

Place: Bellambi
Time: 2245
Rod: Fenwick Boat rod
Reel: Charter Special 1000 size
Rig: Running sinker
Bait: Pilchard


Finally after 6 trips and losing tons of rays (2 kg and above) we finally managed to land a 12 kilo eagle ray. A small one but still a major achievement for the team.

All the previous big rays we caught were lost due to lines rubbing against rocks, breakwalls, and us using tackles that were too light. By light I mean 30 lbs boat rods with 50lbs braided lines. Rays there range from babies to monster sandrays weighing up to approx 150 ++++ kgs. We really can't tell. They are around 1.6-1.7 meters across.



Not very wide but it's very thick. The initial burst was scary, pulling about 60-70 meters of line in a few seconds under 4 kilo drag.

The team with the catch. Can't u see the super satisfied smile that we can't seem to wipe off for days. Can't blame us after we've endured nights after nights in the howling winds and freezing temp (winter/spring here).




Another night at the harbour.

Willy's Whiting.

Place: Wollongong
Time: 2145 hr
Bait: Prawn
Rig: Running Sinker
Rod: Falcon 4- 6lb Rod
Reel: Luvius 2000

People say whitings bite only in the day so this might have be a lost whiting or just another greedy fish that was out for supper when it met its doom.




















These pic don't do the whiting any justice but it's one big fat whiting. Didn't put up a good fight though.



















Willy with his prize catch. Not too bad.........

Yullie's Snapper

Here's Yullie's Snapper from the boat trip fight lasted 5 min and almost pulled her overboard. Weigh around 2kg. Not bad for her first boat trip and second fish from a boat.
Another pic showing Willy and Yullie with the champion catch.
Not the biggest fish but definitely a hard fighter and a delicious fish. Maybe Yullie's a natural talent when it comes to fishing?

Wollongong Fishing : Boat Trip, Charter

Date: 11th OCT 2007
Time: 0530-1330
Boat /Captain: Hapuku / Captain Greg

Anglers: Willy
Kelvin
Yullie
Kat
Yours Truly

The day before the captain mentioned that a storm might be moving into our region the morning we were supposed to go offshore. Kinda turned off cos its the last time we would be fishing until we finish our exams. Luckily, the morning's weather was fine, light wind and a clear blue sky.


Leaving the harbour.

Moving towards the first reef.
Willy looking tired. We went fishing for rays the night before and we only had 2 hrs to sleep. Sleep deprivation certainly does affect the speed Willy ties his rigs.
Me in the background looking dazed too. Rigging up for Kat and Yullie, in retrospect why isn't Kelvin rigging up for his girlfriend? Huh?
I can't see what Kelvin is doing but he seems to be busy. With what? hehe, I dunno. Yullie enjoying the sunrise, little does she know she's the champion angler today. The biggest fish and a Snapper to boot. Well Done.....


Everyone busy fishing, Greg the captain surveying us , wondering why we are working so hard. People in Oz treat it as a relaxing day out. We view it as the only chance to get fresh fish. Of course we need to work hard to earn our feed.

Willy with his puny snapper. Not his biggest fish ever but this is one of his dream fish on a boat trip. Hopefully we'll get bigger ones next time.




Cleaning the fish on the way back to the harbour. 48 fish to clean and it takes a long time. We didn't even finish when we return to the harbour. In the mean time, while the guys were busy cleaning and gutting the fish, the girls are taking photos and video.


48 fishes and roughly 25 kilos. Our catch consists of a 4 smaller snapper and a bigger one, plenty of Morwong (13) and lots of leather jacket, 3 sweep,5 wrasse and 3 pig fish and 2 nannygai.

The half the team in the picture, minus the girls, forgot what they were doing.

Anyway, the designated photographers are responsible for the photo taking and there are more photos with Kelvin. I'll be getting it from them and posting the other pictures soon.

Wollongong Fishing : Boat Trip, Charter

Date: 25th Sept 2007

Time: 0600-1330

Anglers: Kelvin, Willy, Kat & Me of course

Boat: Hapuku

Captain: Greg

This trip was planned last minute, I managed to get Kat to come with us. We've been studying in Wollongong for an average 3 years yet this the first time we've been out on a Charter from Wollongong.
Being first timers doing bottom fishing here, we decided to use the charter's tackle while bringing our own just in case.

Weather was fine, cool and light breeze. Perfect day out.

When we saw the supplied tackle, we nearly fainted. Alvey reels and broomstick rods. Looks powerful, and very sturdy. But!!!! Too sturdy and super Heavy. Even Mr Muscle aka Kelvin found it too heavy to use. I decided to use my light jigging tackle as a bottom rod, Kelvin used a " Super Flexible" rod that bends for the sake of bending, Kat was equipped with a Charter Special boat rod setup and our bravest angler ,Willy, used his handline.

Fishing is good , in fact wonderful compared to Singapore, Half a day trip and we managed to bring home around 10 kg of fish, after all fish gutted. No counting the number of fish we threw back.
Sad thing is, Willy's dream fish , SNAPPER, was no where to be found, and the only snapper was caught by the captain. Worst thing, the bigger fishes were Blue Morwongs. Similar to Kaci or Sweetlip as it is known in Singapore.

Small Snapper and the BIGGEST Morwong by Champion Angler Kelvin, lifted the fish into the boat without having to use a net, unlike one of our "friend" who likes to shout "Bring me the net!!" for fishes of every size.

Forgot the name of this fish. We threw a few back because its too small before the captain told us it taste like Lobster... Hmmmmm...

Champion angler Kelvin on the left with the biggest Fish. On the deck is his trusted "Curvy" rod. Willy's handline all over the deck.

Half of our catch... Tons of Morwong, a few leather Jacket, A few Nannygai, and some other fishes.

Showing off.......... Nothing to be proud of but it's still a boat trip for us poor students

Morwong's special portrait shot.


Kelvin Showing how its done. Putting his muscles and hours of gym to good use.

Packing the fishes and getting ready for a FEAST!!!!!!!! BTW, we had 13 fishes for dinner that night. NOT BAD.......

Overall, a good morning, fun and eventful except for our elusive snapper. Captain is a very friendly guy and works hard to find us fish. Highly recommend him to anyone looking for a Charter out of Wollongong.