Glen has more good news:

Hey Andrew, the game fishing season is slowly getting into gear here. Snared four yellowfin between 30 and 40 kilos on Sunday, and jumped off a striped marlin. The activity was out in 1200-1500 fathoms east of Coffs and the water was blue and 22.7 degrees, but running hard south at 2 1/2 to 3 knots. This made for an uncomfortable day due to the persistent sou' easters and thunderstorms. Still, fish on the deck and you tend not to notice such things!

So good to see one again, Glen!

By the way, a new world record pending with IGFA for yellowfin. Caught off Mexico, 420 pounds:

Ryan from WA caught the snapper of a lifetime, last week:

Fishing off Bunbury WA and finally cracked the 10kg mark. Fish went to 10.5kg!! Great day on the water!

Sheesh, you could throw a saddle on that thing. Well done, Ryan.

Peter J stopped by the Show on Saturday, then hit the Harbour on Sunday:

Hope the show went well for you –looking forward to trying the downrigger and doing some experimentation on jews with it –too good a day on Sunday not to go for a fish- caught this 7 kilo jewie near Goat Island in the harbour –live yellowtail on a two hook snooded 8/0 –dropped another two –yellowtail were there in numbers but reluctant to bite –took an hour to get 8 –this is most annoying when you lose those hard earned jew baits to tailor who generally just bite the yakka in half and make it useless but that’s fishing ! .... Hope this inspires you to keep trying for the jewies-its all about putting in the effort and the rewards with follow.

Too right I will Peter, and thanks for your encouragement. Yep, Spiro from Bluebottle Fishing and I spent a very enjoyable weekend at the Tinnie & Tackle Show, out at Eastern Creek drag strip. Here’s our stand the day before:

Speaking of the Hunter, Ross had a top morning off Seal Rocks:

Hi Andy Ross from up Port Stephens we fished Edith Breakers and had a ball. We ended up with a few nice snapper the biggest being 5kg and a nice pearl perch. Then a flatty drift on the way home produced half a dozen good sized flathead.

I was at Port myself on the same day, with The Bride. Downrigging for flatties along the dropoff, which you can see in the background of the pic.

But with an icy cold westerly, we decided to bail early.

Can't wait to return next year.

Cheers Rick Morais RBA Rods – Custom rod Builder www.rbarods.com.br

That is FANTASTIC. Thanks so much for sending, our readers will really enjoy it. I’ve heard so much about peacock bass over the years, everyone says they are one of the worlds’ greatest sports fish. Your rods look great on the website, too.

Jack Murphy has some great tips on fishing photography, in his weekly blog report:

Ever struggled photographing a fish of a lifetime? Check out today's blog for six tips that will have you shooting like a pro. Find it here:www.jackmurphyfishing.com.au/apps/blog

Cute German tourist says: Hey, Jack: my eyes are up here! Thanks champ, I never miss your weekly blog. Thanks too to Robin Newcombe for his great review of our downriggers, in this months’ Boat Mag (page 46):

http://theboatmag.boatmags.com.au/?iid=69034

Very grateful to you, Robin.

And now for something really exotic! Ryan, with an Africa report:

Here is a photo of a tiger fish I caught in Botswana in the Okavango delta. One catches Tigers when the barbel fish move up the river, this is known as the barbel run. When hooked they fight very aggressively and jump nicely out the water. You can see this fish has a good dentist! Regards Ryan

What an amazing looking fish Ryan, well done. Still overseas, and regular readers might remember Jan from Oman and the pics he used to send in showing cracking sailfish and mahi, caught in the Red Sea. One of our regular readers and contributors took up Jans kind invitation to fish with him in Oman but unfortunately the weather didn’t play ball. Nonetheless Jan has generously extended the invitation to all our readers:

Thanks for the mails. Now we are in business again. Whenever you are in this part of the world please drop in. Accommodation is free and fishing even better. Yes it was nice to have Wayne here, just a pity time was not enough to go fishing more than once.

Good on you Jan, I hear you have some massive GTs there. Car and trailer drownings at the boat ramp are something we cover regularly in the weekly report. In this case Ruslan was on hand for a sad saga at Botany ramp, last Sunday:

And for the fishing report 17C water temp very clear and no fish.. spent 6 hours casting out minnows and squid jigs and nothing.. also I’m after a jigging rod and reel set up and if you can recommend a rod and real set up for plastic lures, both for boat use. If you can please email me some prices that would be great

Will do Rus and thanks for this news.

This is what happens to a trawler when u take on the Ballina bar on a run out tide with a 2-3 metre wave coming thru

The wave blew the front and back of the wheelhouse out. Image the amount of water and force required to do that.

Nasty, but a good reminder to us all.

Matt Reid has been out nailing them again. If you’ve got a spare day this weekend and you live in Sydney, do yourself a favour and give the man a call:

Hi Andy out today Sunday in the Harbour and found the squid a bit hard but with the squid we did get, we turned into kings. I don't have any bookings for this weekend coming if anyone would like to chase Sydney kings….. Matty Reid Raptor Charters  040488014

John C has a question he hopes readers might help with:

Hi Andrew, I spoke to you on Saturday at the Tackle and Boat show about identifying this fish caught at Browns Mountain, see attached photos.

Hi Andrew, some Priests from Sydney come down every couple of months to enjoy a day out fishing with Simmo. It was a really good day out for them last trip with plenty of snapper and morwong coming in and even Simmo's signature rock cod! The weather was kind, the fishing was good ...what more could you want except for the bread.  Jervis Bay can still fish well even if we have had some wild weather lately which kept every one home except the hardy few who fished the creek with some good bream and flathead coming in. Regards from JB, Dave and Kate

Well mate I would have said Simmo’s signature is a stubby on the cleaning table!