Haven Sport Fishing Charters

Hey Rob, Showus Ya Snapper

2009-11-25T21:08:00.002+11:00

Kings Moving Inshore

2009-11-24T10:28:00.002+11:00

Yep, they are on the move. We will start targeting kings in the shallows next moon. Brutal fights are the norm, 80 pound braid or more is needed to pull them out.

Check out Robin from Waikiwi Fencing, nice one on a livey. He also scored a massive snapper on a live slimey. I will post a pic later.

We will deploy our FADs next few weeks for the first run of big dolphin fish, due mid December.

Marlin season at Nelson Bay is filling fast. Book now to make sure you get a spot

Terrigal Still Going Off

2009-11-24T10:19:00.002+11:00

Weipa Trip, more pics

2009-11-24T09:15:00.002+11:00

Weipa Trip

2009-11-24T08:33:00.002+11:00

Jumped on the plane to Cairns and met up with my good mates Joel and Adam. The boys towed Adams boat up, one of the neatest custom boats I've ever had pleasure of riding on. We blasted over to Weipa in record time, despite almost 1000 k's of dirt. Adam's V8 gas injected Landcruiser is a beast.

Spent the first day trolling around, catching mackeral and tunas, checking out the place, then got into chucking poppers and minnows over shallow reef. GT's, finger marks, jacks, trout and large queenies climbed on.

I've fished a lot of hot-spots around the pacific, Weipa is up there with the best of 'em

SAMAKI JIGS

2009-11-15T18:20:00.003+11:00

2009-11-15T18:17:00.000+11:00

2009-11-15T18:11:00.001+11:00

Live Baiting and Jigging This Week

2009-11-15T17:43:00.002+11:00

Live baiting with yakkas and slimeys has caught most of our fish this week, heaps around the one meter mark. The jackets gave us hell earlier in the week, some days we lost 10 or more jigs( used as sinkers). Today we had a triple hook up and managed to land all three, 105, 107 and 108 cm.
The new SAMAKI 280grm ZEPPLIN and their HUSTLER jigs are the bomb!!! Check out their rods, jigs and lures at all good tackle shops. Their range of tackle is world class. Call me if you can't find a shop that stocks their gear and I will let you know.

More October Beasts

2009-10-31T19:18:00.004+11:00

Catching Monsters on the Freedom

2009-10-31T18:58:00.002+11:00

Check Out "Eugene The Jigging Machine's" Beauty he caught on a SAKANA jig.

Live Baiting

2009-10-29T21:23:00.010+11:00

October is the month for catching monsters live baiting. We have been averaging 20 Plus

Kingy's each day with the majority 8 kgs plus. Our Daiwa 6500 Expeditions have been

doing the damage. We are fishing 60 and 80lb Braid and still getting smoked by unseen

beasts !

The 2009 Jigging season so far

2009-06-15T11:30:00.004+10:00

Hi Everyone

The Jigging season so far has been a blast even though the weather has been against us.

If you have been out with me this season click on this link to see if your photo is there. (You wil be redirected back to the photo page on the Website.)

Here are some examples:

Bye for now
Scotty

Welcome 2009

2009-01-08T17:15:00.004+11:00

Sorry about the lack of reports, phone/camera problems and other boats following the Freedom around my favourite kingy spots were the cause. The kingfish are still taking the jigs out wide, they're not in any great numbers but there certainly are some nice ones.

If they don't bite the jig, a live slimy or yaka gets them going, we've been getting smoked on 65lb braid. A nose rigged livey on 100lb leader, 7/0 circle hook dropped down to the bottom and then wound up 20 meters or so usually does the trick.

Its pretty cool to here a punter say "how will I know when I get a bite". Then see the look on their face when the rod loads up and they get dragged around the cockpit. Its brutal hand to hand combat, with most fish around the meter mark.

The new Daiwa Expedition( 3 months ago) are well and truly run in, but with maxed out drags the monsters still manage to find the reef...... I have been contemplating going up too 100 lb braid but I don't think the anglers can take it.
After a few bust offs and a few victims find there way into the ice box, we have been hitting the reef species, mostly pearl perch, mowies and a few nice reds.

The marlin fishing has been slow, we broke the leader on 70 kg striped mid December. It ate a live striped tuna, fished once again on a 6500 expedition . I haven't put in a full day on the marlin, just trolled lures or baits around between kingy spots, just a matter of time. The mahi mahi will turn up any day, there is 23/24c water on the way.
Ever wonder wot the Daiwa reps do on there holidays!!! I promised not to post this pic..... sorry Evan and Pete.... I had my fingers crossed.

Port Stephens season kicks off from February 2nd, there are still a few days left in march, If you want to catch a marlin on conventional, jig or fly tackle, the 2009 black marlin season is shaping up to be the best since 1997 (1200+ tagged during the 4 day interclub tourney).
All the best for 2009. may your lines be tight, may your tackle stay dry and remember .... to loose patience, is to loose the battle
Scotty

Ouch !!!

2008-09-22T18:55:00.004+10:00

The rising moon had the fish going crazy with catches of between 30 and 50 Kingy's averaging 6 to 7 kgs. But as I predicted the increase in water temperature this week has slowed the bite. Though the ones we are catching are still quality fish.

The temp has jumped to around 20 degrees and the smaller fish have started to move inshore. Last trip we only managed a dozen or so nice ones but early in the week the bite was still going strong. Wednesday on the first drop we had a triple hook up and boated the first two no problem the third one however was hooked in the side and played up on the leader. The hook pulled and with the Rod fully loaded and I copped a 300gm Lumo Abyss to my left eye.

My charter this day were a bunch of nice guys from Thailand however they seemed a bit over whelmed to see blood pouring from my eye. Lucky Josh from Freddys Fishing World was close by and was able to come aboard and administer first aid ! I stayed for another hour and whacked another 20 quality Kingy's and headed to home. I then spent the rest of the afternoon at Gosford Hospital where they stitched me up and then sent me straight off to the Eye Surgeon for further tests. Thankfully my Mako Sunnies ( the best fishing sunglasses on the market ) protected me from an even worse fate. Who said fishing is not a contact sport ! Lucky Eugene the Jigging Machine was able to help me out and we were back on the water and into it again the next morning.

Spoke to some mates in Townsville and The Townsville Light Tackle Tournament was brilliant with over 400 Marlin was hooked up. This should mean a bumper season for small Black Marlin at Port Stephens - Can't wait for that to come around !

Crazy Fishing

2008-09-16T08:55:00.007+10:00

Sorry about the delay in posting reports, to be honest the main reason being I've had heaps of boats following me around on the weekends after posting reports so I won't be doing such regular updates till the game fishing season starts. Some of the boats pull up only 10ft off the Freedom, there are plenty of Kingfish spots in this area and you just have to look around with your sounder. Have a look at some of the sounder pictures that I have posted on previous reports to give you some idea what to look for.

Now for the good stuff, Fishing has been CRAZY ! Everyday 30 to 60 Kingys most being released ( of course ) with an average size of 5 to 7 kgs. These are quality fish all around 80 to 90 cms mark . The leather jackets have been making the occasional appearance but you just have to move to a new bit of reef to get away from the bastards.

The water temperature is slowing increasing so the jigging will start to go off soon.We will then start targeting Kingys with live bait it should see some bigger fish come over the side. The increase in the water temp will push the fish inshore and make them more accessible to the smaller boats. The crowds on the grounds have forced me to leave a few of my secret spots untouched, these spots normally hold big kings that seem to be resident fish, the are not in great numbers like we are jigging at the moment but they are certainly a much better class of fish. This will give me a chance to try out our new tackle.

Thanks to my sponsors, Daiwa and Sakana we have some new tackle arriving this week. New 6500 expeditions, new Saltist overheads matched with heavy duty rods from the Sakana guys. They will be loaded with 80lb Braid. Just what we need to pull out live bait eating studs.

With this tackle we will be bait and switching marlin this season. If you think Jigging is fun you should see how 80kg Striped Marlin goes on this sort of tackle.
Daiwa have released the new Saltiga Extreme Reels, they are 6500 and 4500 size, same as the old Saltiga range. Daiwa say these are the ultimate jigging reel they have ever designed. They have the new Hyper Digi gear internals and a new lubricated drag system with zero start up inertia. These will be available from December . The new Extreme Rods have hit the shops this month already.

Daiwa rep Evan Spary knocked over a heap of kings up to 30kg in NZ on ease on this tackle. Hit the Daiwa icon on my home page for more info.
The new Sakana Jigs are being shipped as we speak. I will post some pictures so you know what to look for.

Click on the below images to enlarge, then use your browsers back button to return.

The warm weather has got the bream moving onto the flats in the Brisbane Water, Sunday, my good mate Ian and I got out the Stratos and whacked a couple, Ian hooked the worlds biggest longtom that thankfully fell off at the boat. Ian has leadered 100's of marlin with me but this creature would've had us reaching for the firstaid kit. Roll on summer.

New Tackle

2008-08-27T17:01:00.004+10:00

Great News ! The Sakana Website will be up and running next week ( finally )
At the moment they will be advertising their Rod Range including some pretty neat Jigging Rods. We have been using The Sakana Saltwater Pro Overhead No. SP5610JH. This is a 5ft6 Rod Rated 30 to 50lb for Jigs to 250 to 400gms. We have fishing this on a Daiwa Saltist 30t. This is a great outfit for
50lb tackle. Its a very easy outfit to use due to its light weight and also narrow spool width and has accounted for several fish over 8kgs in the last few trips.
The Sakana Jigs will hit the market in the next 14 Days. We have put a lot of time into testing these Jig Patterns and Colours to get them just right. THEY ARE THE BOMB !

Today I caught up with Fred from EJ Todd ( Loomis Distributors ). He had a sample of a Jig Rod called a "Fake Lez 50H" . This is one of the best Jig Rods I have ever seen.

The prototype Sakana Jig Cranker Rods we have been evaluating on the boat are up there and these should be ready for next season.
Keep an eye out for the new Daiwa Sacrifice Sticks, they will be back on the market ( Hooray ! ) sometime before Christmas.

Update !

2008-08-27T16:38:00.005+10:00

Sorry about the lack of fishing reports but I have had a few issues mainly with miserable weather not letting me out but also with boats following me after reading my reports. This week in particular really pushed me over the edge with a commercial drop liner from Sydney setting his gear after watching me for an hour or so. He steamed straight over to our spot and set his gear right on the patch of fish we had been jigging on all morning. There was a fair bit of yelling from yours truly before he decided to leave us alone...P.S Lucky Eugene the jigging machine was with me for back up !!
But back to the good stuff..Bag Limit catches every trip ! We have been releasing heaps of nice ones but the average size is 4 kgs with enough nice ones mixed in to keep us one our toes.

We had a group of Humpback whales pay us visit last week , we had to stop fishing for an hour or so because they were so close. They we taking turns diving under the boat and rolling over and looking at us. At times dragging their tales along the keel of the little freedom. We were crapping ourselves !

The pictures are not in any particular order as I lost track who was on the boat
each day.

Things are looking great for the next few weeks with the lowest winter water temperature we've had for a few years. This will hopefully extend the jigging season into Oct/Nov.

F%#K'N JACKETS

2008-08-08T13:35:00.003+10:00

We got a weather window yesterday, and ran to the grounds with a cool westerly wind, that dropped to nothing by mid-morning. The first hour the guys released a few rats well under the 65cm limit. I found a patch of nice size kings that were eager to bite, but they were mixed up with a big school of jackets that were also willing to bite.

We started fishing with about 8 or so outfits. Buy the end of the session we had only one rod and reel that had enough line left one it to reach the bottom, and that included re spooling 3 of my reels and 1 of the guys. Add to that 25 plus jigs, flouro leader and snaps. The jackets would bite you off on the drop, on the retrieve, even when fighting a king.

The final count, 12 nice keepers around 4/5kg, with 2 good ones over 90cms, 1 bonito and only 1 jacket. We just made it in before the wind and rain, it could be a couple of days before we get out again. Meanwhile I'm heading to Freddy's Fishing World to restock the boat with line and jigs.

Highs and Lows

2008-08-06T14:07:00.004+10:00

Talk about the highs and lows of fishing ! Sunday saw us battling ugly conditions with 25 knot SW winds pushing up against southbound current and waves up to 3 meters. I had to idle around between spots and the strong winds made staying on the spots hard. We only caught 1/2 dozen Kingys and a few Bonito. Unfortunately the sloppy conditions bought on a few cases of sea sickness and the boys decided to return a little bit early.

Monday was the best weather day of the whole season and the fish really turned it on ! We kept our bag limit with heaps of nice ones over 5kgs. Some Bonito and Samson Fish made up the by catch and we released heaps of Kings to fight another day....
The Jackets however took a toll of mine and the boys Jig collection and several spools of line. We watched Jackets following up the Jigs only to peel off and swim over to the lines still in the water and snip them off , losing
100 metres of line , leader and Jig. F*#K'N JACKETS was the cry of the day.
Daiwa Speed Jigs and Turkey Sliders are still the main producers, unfortunately I am down to my last Sacrifice Stick. I think I will retire it to my office before the jackets get to it. Best colours seem to be Pink and Silver.

Yesterday fishing was tough AGAIN. ! Heaps of little one though around 60cms have moved in and its hard to pull a legal one out. We ended up keep around 10 and a few Bonito , Amber-Jack and Trevally.

What a day

2008-07-31T17:42:00.004+10:00

Man, wot a great day it turned out to be, this morning however was another story. The westerly was still pumping when we got to the grounds, around 20 to 25 knots. It was made Phil and his mates( virgin jiggers) work extra hard, we started with 300 gram Diawas and Turkey Sliders, just to get down. Around 9 30 the wind started to drop so i ran to some of my rarely fished rocks to the North, there we found a massive school of kings that were only to willing to bite.

The first fish went to one of the Samoan guys, 7kg or so. The fish went into a frenzy with double and triple hookups. Mantis, the quite achiever, slugged it out with a nice one that ate his jig close to the bottom, it was a PB for him. Unfortunately he had eaten a dodgy servo pie for breakfast and once we got his fish in the net, he decided to share it with us. This set off a chain reaction, with the Samoan Bros and yours truly over the side. This is Mantis and his spew covered King.

The day got better and we were back to t-shirts by 11. One of the Samoans landed a monster, well over a meter, after a brutal fight with another one that ate the jig close to the reef. By 1pm the boys were rooted, they couldn't high 5 each other, there arms were so tired, so we called it a day. We kept 18 and let a heap go. Gales tomorrow, on the lounge watching Foxtell.

Fishing Sunday 27 July

2008-07-28T20:44:00.007+10:00

Finally got out after 6 days of foul weather. It started pretty slow and I did
the rounds to all my favourite spots and couldn't catch one. The tide changed at
around 8.30 am, with the high being at 3pm. I guess they might have had a sleep in as we ran into a hot bite from around 10.30 onwards....
I will post pic that I took of the sounder showing a solid patch of quality Kings.

We started getting Triple Hook Ups every time I motored back to the spot. Not
monsters but averaging around 3 to 5 kgs. The stand out Jigs were the Sacrifice Sticks - Pink and Blue , the Turkey Slider in Pink and also the new Diawa Grande Speed Jig in the (pike) Black Gold Colour. I lost my favourite Black Knife Jig on a snag. This is another collectors item !
I dropped the Pink Turkey Slider, trying to catch dinner and hooked up a beauty
but got the Shark treatment and lost the lot jig and all.

The boys out of Port Stephens had a mad yellow fin bite. Heaps of fish up to
20 Kg , on the shelf , down to the Norah Canyon where the water drops from 21 to 18 Degrees.
Looks like yet another few days off, the wave bouy is peaking at 8 metres as I type this....Can't wait to get out there again when it backs off !

Jigging Video Action

2008-07-25T00:03:00.003+10:00

Hi Guys

The weather has kept me home all this week. Hoping to get back out there on Saturday.

Here is some video action from over the past 12 months or so.

Scotty

More recent pics

2008-07-21T20:23:00.016+10:00

Hi Guys

Just some more pics that didn't get on the last post.

Scotty

My First Blog !!

2008-07-21T10:06:00.018+10:00

Hi guys, For the most part the Kingys have been going off ! Thats why its taken me this long to get this post together. Talk about highs and lows of fishing....We have had some great days of over 40 big ones, releasing most of course. Then one or two days where we have only managed to catch a dozen or so average ones. The spectacualar days there were multiple hook ups, triple and quadruple hook ups causing me to reach for the ciggies !!

Jack and the boys from Freddy's Fishing World at Auburn had a blinder with the average fish going around 7 kilo's. A couple of the brave dropped 30 pound tackle on Diawa Certate Reels and Saltiga Coastals. You can check the pics, they really landed some nice fish. Nathan and his crew from Fishing Out of Water continued this trend, smashing some beauties.

A couple of days of bad weather allowed the fish to re-group and we set forth on another frontal attack. Most of the time Jig type and colour wasn't a problem but stand outs were the Daiwa Sacrifice in Pink and Silver and Blue and Pink ( these lures are no longer being made so if you happen to come across any old stock - grab them !! )

On Sat July 12, I took a bunch of Snapper Fisho's and put in a big day and just managed to catch a feed. 1/2 Dozen or so nice ones and a few mowies. The other charters boat reported the same but its good to see the jackets have finally disappeared.

My mate, Wy from Global Tackle organised a trip but at the last minute couldn't make it. But his customers did and they jumped on the boat loaded with the usual array of top quality jigging gear and cleaned up !!!! Bad Luck Wy, maybe next time. I am sure he will have some good stories from his fishing trip in NZ.
Last Thursday, We had some friendly competition on board as Tak and his Japanese mates
( the Yamato old jiggers ) went up against Team OZ for pretty much draw. Talk about quality tackle and exotic Jigs. These guys have the works and a completely different Jigging style that certainly work on fish that normally wouldn't bite. We took some livies along and pulled out a couple if nice ones from one of my rearly fished secret spots. We pulled out some bottom fishing gear and we introduced the guys to Perch Fishing. Tak called me last night and said they are "the best eating fish he had ever had" and next time can we do some more perch fishing. You can also check out Taks' website www. deepwaterjigging.com.au

These Perch are the Splendid Perch or Long Finned Perch Species. They are a beautiful deep water fish that in habit the reef where we jig. We usually have a couple of drops on them and put together a great feed. I' ll post some pic's.
Sharks have been showing up now and then and one day saw us getting smashed a couple of times, mainly whalers with the occasional Mako. We were fighting a nice Kinghy when I noticed a mark on the sounder and said to Deano and the guys that there was either a massive shark or marlin just below the boat and 30 secs later a nice Kinghy around 8 kgs got the short back and sides. All we got back was the head and the jig ( lucky)
The Sakana on-line Jigging Shop should be up and running in the next few weeks, they have some great tackle coming. Jigs /Rods/Split Rings etc, specially designed for big fish. We have had a fair bit of input into the proto types. All the sample jigs they gave me are now living
in the reef , we have been blown away by massive fish. Can't wait to get some more!

Some crap weather for the next few days, so not sure when I will be getting out there next. Sorry about that you guys who have booked months ago and will miss out on the hot bite. Not much I can do about the weather though !!
Scotty

Welcome

2008-07-19T11:32:00.001+10:00

Hi to all.
Welcome to my fishing report. Keep coming back to this blog & I will hopefully be able to keep you up to date with what has been going on in the fishing scene.

There maybe some changes to the layout etc. of this Blog in the first couple of weeks until we decde on what works best.

Also feel free to post your comments to each post. As with any blogs/forums etc. you will need to create an account, but its free.