dacosta74

Bit of a late post, but a couple of months ago, I saw flying fish in the harbour. I had to double take, have commuted from Manly to the CBD for 9 years and never seen them. Is this a common thing?

Hi there, great fish. When you say matching bar pressure to the tide, what did you mean by bar pressure. Having two kids means I generally only get an hour or two the moment so I need to maximise my chances!! Cheers

Marky, without giving my exact little favourite spot away... it's reasonably close to the bridge. I was fishing just after the turn of the tide, so able to just sit there with the boat hardly moving at all. I usually have more luck from about 1 hour after the tide has started pushing out. If you want company on the boat I'm more than willing to share what limited knowledge I have. If it's a kayak, we'd probably sink it. Jim, I don't know about sausages, but I managed to catch a 4 wood golf club on a 3inch pumpkinseed minnow. Cheers boys.

Hi Raiders. Borrowed a tinnie and had a few hours on the water on Saturday. Trolled lures for kingies around Balmoral boats and area - not a sausage. Headed down towards the Spit Bridge. Tried trolling through the Clontarf boats, nothing! Switched up to soft plastics to get a feed. Managed to get two flathead for the table - both fell to nuclear chicken 3 inch (I think jerk shad, maybe minnow). Got lucky with the weather and a feed, so all in all an awesome day. Cheers

Managed to get a pass for a few hours from the Mrs, so headed off with soft plastics set up. Fished the outgoing tide. Water was still pretty mucky, but it's slowly clearing. Started out under Spit Bridge, nothing. Then on to the sandy beach near the Rescue place, nothing. Then I went exploring round on the rocks at the end - kind of opposite Clontarf. It was going terribly again, then 2 hours into the tide going out it was like someone flicked a switch. Had an awesome 45mins catching three 40cm flathead - which is what I was targeting. All went to 3 inch gulp minnows in pumpkinseed - my harbour favourite. Not hugely impressive, but after blanking on my last 3-4 trips, this was a much needed success. Cheers all.

Hi mate, I'm also from the UK, been here 8 years now. I used to live in Paddington and Rose Bay, so I know those spots reasonably well. I'll ping you a direct message.

Hi there, I'm the same as you. I have more control with my dominant hand (right), so i cast and play fish with that one, and reel with the left. I took a charter once and the guy had to change all the reels round for me!

Well it's been a lame end to 2015 and beginning of 2016 for me. Weds 30th - had a boat, tried to get yakkas at Balmoral but could only attract a swarm of sweep. Resorted to pulling rapalas around all the marks. Tried soft plastics for flathead at Shark Bay. Decided to try trolling rapalas along the cliffs at north head. Lots of effort for zero fish. Disappointing but a glorious day out on the boat. 1st Jan - had a quick 1.5 hrs spare so grabbed the plastics and headed to spit bridge. Again nothing apart from, wait for it, a 4 wood golf club. Yes, I serious caught a golf club. I think it might be a sign to change sports. Today 2nd - after a lot of faffing around, I found the way down to Quakers Hat Bay. Foul hooked a reasonable whiting on the first cast, then nothing for the next three hours. Love being out there, but I'm having a shocking start to my fishing season, can't even manage a feed of flathead. Getting frustrated. Still, that's fishing and no doubt by next week I'll convince myself that the next session will be 'the' session to end all sessions! Happy fishing.

Thanks for the report. This is probably a totally stupid question, but are the prawns shell on or shelled?

And I've got a boat licence so can drive!

Hi there, I'm based in Seaforth. Been in Sydney 6 years, I have all my own gear. If you're looking for a friendly pom as company or a pair of hands, please do give me a shout. Cheers

Dead as a dodo. Really disappointing as everything seemed right, big tide in the morning, lovely weather. Hired a tinny, trolled Xraps up and down for 1.5 hours of the outgoing tide, tried through the boats, tried along the naval base markers, tried down the middle - not a single touch. Saw the bait getting smashed against the naval dock - way out of reach behind the exclusion zone. Headed fish the edge of the big hole near Chinamans - fishing soft plastics, not a nibble. Oh, apart from catching the daft woman kayaking. She had caught a crab pot under her rudder and was towing it obvliously, and then caught my mates line - for about 10 secs he thought he'd hooked a king ha ha. Dream on. Anyway, in the interest of the crabber we called her over and freed his pot. Then trolled xraps through Clontarf boats, over the big hole by the Spit Bridge. Nothing. Anchored the other side fishing plastics back toward the bridge - tide pulling fairly hard. Tried there because the week before I had pulled out two flathead land based. But alas, nothing again. Back to Balmoral for the last 10mins to try for flathead among the boats, plastics, again nothing. You can see a theme developing right? So frustrating. But that's fishing. I'll no doubt be back out in the next week or so, land or tinny, just as eager, just as sure that this trip is going to be 'the' trip! If anyone else was fishing those areas, I'd be interested to know if you were catching much, or whether it was just us. Tight lines.

Hi guys, been fishing Sydney harbour 6 years and never caught one of these before. He was foul hooked in the eye actually. He went back safely. Can anyone ID it?

Just a quickie from Middle Harbour. Had a break from the inlaws for a couple of hours, dropped down to the Spit land based, on the north side. Tried nuclear chicken soft plastics - I was pretty much just feeding Leather Jackets!!! - they must have thought it was Christmas or something!! I tried all under the bridge, incoming tide, which I wonder if it's why I had no luck. I tried right along that strip into the park casting out as far as possible but zero hits the further I got into the park. Put on a small 3inch xrap hard body red belly with a red feathery tail... absolutely nothing as I worked back to the bridge. Update: 26.12 Had an hour fishing the spit, south side, along the side that faces into middle harbour. Fishing around high tide, same tactics as above, nothing but tiny nibblers. I seem to be struggling around this area, would be happy just picking up some table sized flathead. Will keep trying! Anyone else struggling land based? Merry Christmas Raiders.

thanks sydneyfisher