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Weekly Fishing Report
Fishing Report 16th January 2010
Bluewater season rolls in with the turn of 2010 and the fish are arriving on cue. Marlin of several strains have been sighted and hooked anywhere from the back of the surf to the continental shelf. Small black marlin are the most inshore-oriented of the three main species along this part of the coast and will follow the frigate mackeral run. Other species capitalise on these cute little tuna, namely hammerhead sharks and hoodlum kingfish. On those balmy summer days you can check the hammers cruising the surface quite clearly and on light tackle they can be good fun. The marlin will be most receptive to live baits, but each year we expect to hear a few tales from surprised fishos of a beakie that has nabbed a floatlined pilchard or snapper plastic on drastically under-gunned gear. Offshore there have been both striped and blue marlin hookups from anglers trolling skirts over the shelf.
The kingy run in the harbour continues to amuse anglers, both through landing plenty of fish and being smoked by plenty of fish. Although you will find lots of standard harbour "rats", bigger fish to over 1.2m have been successfully landed. A single-minded approach is the way to nab one of these bigger "bandits"; heavy outfits, heavy traces and big live squid. Expect to be done over in tight country though as FOW staff member Jonesy recently found out. Running a big Saltiga with 80lb line and a mean 37kg custom Calstar stick, Jonesy's big live squid was slammed off the downrigger and within 15 seconds it was all over- shredded in the moorings. Where do you go from there?
Several snapper have been reported coming in from the reefs and fish have been receptive to the bigger squidgy flickbaits and 7" gulps along with fresh cuttlefish and octopus baits. Bream, flathead, tailor and salmon are making up the bulk of the harbour and pittwater's catches, along with some squid that are on the whole very small. Thus, small lightly weighted jigs from the likes of Yamashita and Yo-Zuri have been dynamite. Get out there!
Fishing Report
Thursday 24th December 2009
Seasons greetings fisho folk! One gaze across sydney harbour on any given sunny day now will see multitudes of people out and about enjoying the summer freedom in all forms. Luckily enough, there are some nice fish feeding. Big flathead have been on the chew from well upstream to well offshore on both bait and lure. Live yellowtail, mullet and squid have been taking the big fish to over 80cm with the odd croc falling to the infallible Squidgy 100mm bloodworm wriggler. As I'm sure you already know, please handle these fish with care and release them in healthy condition. A good feed of smaller ones can be almost assured with this warm whitebait-filled water. Just drift around with some quality bait or soft plastics and sooner or later you will tempt one. Remember, no one will try and wipe the smile off your face if a school jew slurps down your offering. Another productive technique which seems to have become almost forgotten is trolling the drop-offs for them. Lures like the deep-diving X-rap 10 and 12's are perfect for this, just run them close to weed beds and sand flats preferably with an electric motor, although plenty will still be caught by those running a two-stoke.
With this christmas holiday rush, the harbour and pittwater's likely kingy spots will be copping a flogging but the kings are in full force so here's hoping a few newcomers into the ranks experience the sheer power kings can summon from their elongate frames. If you're not into jostling with all the boats in the likely spots then don't worry too much. A trickle of berley to stir up the baitfish will work wonders; keep them at your feet or under your boat and the kings will show. It's just like hearing a party going on down the road, naturally you wanna check it out.
The early season rush of bonito seems to have slowed to a trickle, at least this seems to be what I have noticed, but some big salmon are slamming the odd metal and hardbody. Cast and retrieved pillies and gars will take a few too, along with the odd rat king. On the beach whiting are feeding on live worms (remember to drop in to FOW to grab a couple of worms..) and pipis.
At this time of year the squid are going to be small, both in the calamari and arrow form, although expect the arrows to be a little larger. Yamashita egi sutte ES 1.7 and 1.8 jigs in pink and orange have been the slayers. The arrows are one of the best mulloway baits available in these waters.
Good luck, tight lines and merry christmas from the crew at Fish Outta Water!
Thursday 7th May 2009
Slotted in between one bout of rough weather and another fast approaching, anglers this week have seen some notable action and captures. A few boats have done the dash out wide and have been consequently locking horns with some solid fish. One lucky angler can now lay claim to have landed the largest blue marlin ever taken off Sydney, after a 4 plus hour battle on 37kg standup tackle all 361kg of monster marlin was pumped boatside. The odd striped marlin has been swiping a lazy afternoon lure as boats trolled in at the end of the day, proving a more than irregular trip saver. As May matures, those kegs with gold sickles, the yellowfin tuna, have become more consistent with reports out wide of 30-40kg fish, a splash of fish over the magic 100lb mark, and a few jumbos over 60kg. The 'fin have been moving fast, chewing on sauries.
Closer inshore, a couple of anglers audaciously taunted some hood kings with fresh large live and cut squid on an unnamed reef off Sydney. Finding out that the wait between hookups was shorter than expected, the boys stretched themselves on some nice fish going 10 and 12kg. As the big mullet schools make their way into the bays and harbours so will the bigger kings and some decent specimens have been taken in water far shallower than most would expect to find them, proving that predators will follow food wherever it takes them. As the weather cools further, silver trevally will grow larger and become more frequent, as will the southern calamari squid and so it's time to arm up with some larger jigs.
In between swell spikes there have been a smattering of nice luderick with the odd pig taken from most washy ledges and off the sand big bream and the ubiquitous noah's ark.
Good luck and tight lines from all the crew at Fish Outta Water!
FISHING REPORT.
Offshore fishing has been fairly quiet with only 1 yellowfin report to 15kgs this week, although plenty of leatherjackets are distressing anglers & bite offs have been many at popular inshore reefs.
Sydney Harbour has plenty of choppers out & about readily taking all baits, North Harbour faired particularly well last Sat with bream, flathead & small reds also in the trail.
Our salmon run still hasn’t upgeared as expected but schools can be located around Nth Head as the working birds will indicate. Middle Harbour has a few kings around the Spit with some trevally down deeper fishing whitebait near the bottom .
Stefan Hansson
Fishouttawater. |
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