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Thanks Bob, appreciate the help. Hopefully a few will swim my way

Thanks Pickles and Jenno its a great experience already begun the planning for the next top end trip

Looks like a great day out Bob!

they don’t cross because they see the real estate prices on the east side of the bridge 😂

What a top day @zmk1962. Devocean delivered again. Lots of premium fish for the next few feeds. Well done indeed sensei Zoran

That was a terrific day @ireallylovefishies22 with mates and a solid Jewie, only just under legal, well done.

A great report @jordy, that’s a cracker Barra - so want to do a trip like that.👏👏

Yep it’s mine Hugh, wondered where it got to

havent actually been able to find a veritas in person, but they look good and come in a great cast rating. are the utlegras good? i mainly use shiamno for light finese reels and rods and reserve penns for the heavy work. but im planning to use the saragosa for jigging of the kayak as well, so it will be used for multple things as im getting ready to retire some reels. haha, one night mate and i forgot to bring the rod holders, ended up holding tiagras for a few hours then gave up and went home beause our arms were way to tired.

Yeah that would be the ideal spot to put some gear. I need to get some gull wings at some point to make that space actually usable. I went out to a couple tackle shops today and tried multiple rods and reels. Firstly: Saragosa, 10,000 and 8000 were to big and heavy for what I want as I'm not looking to replace my live liners. The Saragosa 5000 on the was really nice. But ultimately settled on the 6000hg. Tried the Penn battles, but found that I was looking for a size between the 4000 and 5000 and they also aren't sealed. Then the slammer 4, they've really stepped it up a notch, the slammer 4 is definitely more refined than the 3 and was a tough contender against the Shimano. Ultimately, it came down to I wanted something between the 4500 and the 5500. So overall, I'm headed towards a Saragosa, which is great to have the reel out of the way. Now for the rods, I had a try of all the prevails. Found that they were all very sensitive. But I do agree, they seem great for sending big baits out. Definitely loaded up nicely and all round, I believe I have found a rod for sending out large baits. Now back to the lure fishing rod. The Penn prevails in the 9-10' range are a bit heavy on the cast weight department, as I want to be able to throw smaller metals for tailor. Around the 15g mark. But all round, solid contender. The Shimano aerowave, nope. Great bait rod, but I don't believe I need more of them. Sensor surf, love it, can see why you like it, but it's not for me. I just wouldn't get the use out of it. Thinking to try dawia again, so here's the ones I'm contemplating the most. The ones in really interested in is the sea bass 10'6" 8-15kg, 20-80g cast. And the 11' 7-15kg 20-60 cast. Any experience with them? Other one I'm looking at is the sandstorm, 10'6". Finally, the Penn prevail, 10' 8-15kg, 50-100 cast. Or the 9' 6-12kg 20-85 cast

As a fisherman with a science background having worked as an analyst at CSIRO as part of a heavy metals in fresh water study, the studies of the Dioxin contamination were of interest to me. Many years ago I found and had a look at the papers on which recommendations were based and to me the numbers of samples and the range of results were only borderline statistically valid. The sample sizes of fishes tested were small and the result range varied greatly for each type of fish. Further, their only survey seemed to be a one off event in that year (I think 2004?) rather than a regular sample program over the course of a year or years which may have better included fishes movements. I think I recall another study in maybe 2017 that was done that gave similar results to 2004 for 20 fish of 20 species….. again think it was a single event study. Do I eat fish from West of the bridge, yes I do. However I’m primarily a Luderick fisherman and they’re mainly vego’s as well as being a species that migrate in and out of estuaries for spawning. Would I eat bream or flatties from further upstream, possibly not. In my mind the ‘Harbour Bridge’ demarcation point was used cos it’s a bloody obvious spot, rather than for any science based reason. Anyway, that’s just my 2c worth everyone needs to make their own decisions on whether they eat fish from Sydney Harbour.

Ok , there isn’t a barricade under the harbour bridge so the fish can and do move around all through the harbour and its tributaries. I wouldn’t eat a crab or a prawn from anywhere in Sydney harbour- actually expand that to anywhere within 100km of Sydney! My advice is to minimise what you eat out of anywhere in Sydney harbour . Fish that feed on things like oysters , mussels or marine worms probably have higher levels of dioxins because their food source is either a filter feeder or ingests the sludge in the bottom of the system as they feed . I know plenty of people who eat fish out of the parra river and have no problems , I grew up eating fish and prawns out of there and I am fine .

Great post Jordy, well done on your PB and yes a trip like this is on my bucket list!

My take on it is that they have elevated levels of dioxins , higher than many food but almost all dairy has dioxins too so as long it’s only very occasionally why not. One every couple months probably won’t hurt (not a doctor…!) . I’ve eaten flathead from Balmain, but wouldn’t from iron cove as I read that’s particularly polluted too. I think it’s frequency that’s the danger as evident from the recommendations of eating east of the bridge.

Great post and well done on a long day of interesting captures!

Good on you Bob! Great to see another newbie hooked:) My son is the opposite and insists on using 50lb braid in Port Hacking, I got him onto his first king on one of my 20lb set ups. He's now gone shopping for a lighter allrounder set up:)

Thanks mate. It was a team effort on the day. cheers Z

Official advice - https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/fishing-skills/fishing-in-sydney-harbour . I'm not keen on eating a lot of fish caught around cities, at all. People don't seem to care what they toss into waterways.

Just curious, how many of you would actually eat fish from the parramatta river? Any where above Gladesville I definitely wouldn’t eat anything out of but maybe around iron cove or Balmain I wouldn’t mind eating a flatty or very occasionally a bream. I know a lot of people eat everything legal they catch east of the harbour bridge and then as soon as they get on the other side an invisible border appears and they don’t even touch the fish. but it’s not like fish won’t move around a few kilometres. https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system/files/media/documents/2022/homebush-bay-dioxin-project-report-2017-03.pdf According to this study the bream from Homebush bay and silver water have a lot of dioxins which obviously makes sense but bream from the lower parramatta river aren’t terribly above the recommended limit (6pg TEQ/g), so I’d assume a flatty or something from these areas would probably be within the limit. Mullet are a different story. Read some posts on this site from a few years ago and there were mixed opinions. Any thoughts ?

Good result Bob. Your definition of 'light' for kings might be why I've never landed one on my own. Granted, I'm rarely targeting them, they're more of an accidental catch. Where are the bananas?

Good when a plan comes together Bob, and the fish bite. The reddie is a good eating size

Great stuff Bob. Seeing your photo reminds me I’ve got a random bucket hat in the back of the car that I think might be yours…..

The detail is awesome! This takes “local knowledge” to the next level! I have a sounder but it takes forever to scan large areas thoroughly, now I can plan the major marks and even discover some new spots I haven’t tried yet 😀. Any chance Deckee might let me upload my own sonar scans one day to help others?

Amen to that Zoran

Great report @Isaac Ct, I love circle hooks (the go to for my fav’s the Kingies), but I know lots of fisho’s not so keen on them, (but the key is to let the fish take the bait and run before you put pressure on the fish, and most fishos like to “strike” the fish. thats a really nice Flatties, well done.