April Fishing Adventure Through South Passage Bar

The call of the deep blue temped some keen fishos offshore, despite the South Passage Bar trying to spoil our fun.

The Details

Date: Sunday 12 April 2026

Location: Offshore through SPB

Conditions: Borderline Dangerous

Boats out: not many

What Happened

Trip Report

After far too long it was time to check that the motors on Sailfish still worked, so off Derek and Jason headed on Sunday.

The weather and swell forecast was poor, but improving during the day, so we planned for a bay fish but had gear for offshore if the bar looked ok.

A later than usual start due to the forecast saw us heading across the bay at around 6:30am. Near the Hope Banks we found a patch of longtail tuna busting up, and with pre-rigged rods we couldn’t resist the chance. Chasing these speedsters for 30mins or so reminded us of the last trip out on Hydrostatic, lots of chasing and not much catching – time to continue eastwards.

The approach to the bar was flat as, but I was reminded this is no indication of the bar itself and is sometimes an indicator the bar will be gnarly.

On arrive we saw Pieter in Blue Pearl heading towards us, but he had no offshore intentions so we continued hoping Pieter would come to our rescue if things went tits.

The bar looked horrid, lots of white water but not too large so we ventured inwards. It wasn’t long before the skipper was questioning that decision, but the crew had full faith that the mighty Sailfish could cope so onwards we went. The waves were very close together and due to the outgoing tide they had no back on them leaving us airborne after a good few, even travelling at a slow pace. The adrenaline now working overtime and the view ahead looking worse, the gap between waves being too small to turn back, there was no option but to stay committed. We were nearly through, just a couple to go, but oh boy were they big. Sailfish sits high but when the wave ahead is at the height of the boat roof and is a vertical wall of water you know you are in trouble – BOOM – we hit the wave and up went Sailfish, one of those near vertical launches you see on YouTube, then with nothing underneath on the other side down she came, engines first – yep I through it as all over but she pulled through and then, just one slightly smaller one to go and we were out: gee-wiz that was not great; and in the words of the MBGFC Gamefish captain also out that same day it was “Borderline Dangerous”.

On the other side of the bar the conditions were good, so we headed to the fishing grounds. A decent current around 2 Knots made it slightly hard but Jason managed a cracking tuskfish and a nice pearlie and Derek sorted through the undersize pearlies and a sergeant baker to land a nice snapper and pearlie. One shark showed interested on one fish but otherwise no tax paid.

Almost glass out conditions for the trip back to the bar, but we were surprised to see a swell forming at 20m depth which was generating once again some big green ones on the bar. The tide was coming in so we jumped on the back of a big one and rode it in until it broke, then fast forward to the one ahead – less memorable than the trip out but I can confirm the adrenaline reserves are now well and truly depleted.