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

thanks fish-on

Hi Raiders. Can anyone recommend any landbased places that will give me a decent chance of a feed of squid around The Spit, Clontarf, Chinamans? I went and had a look down by the marina right next to the bridge, but the current just tears through. Cheers

Got it, thanks mate. Gives me something new to try! Cheers

Can anyone recommend best way to tie on a yamashita to fluro? Is it just a regular hook knot? Thanks!

Thanks guys. didnt get my act together to get a boat, but did a couple of hours off rocks at Neilson Park over the other side for a couple of flathead.

which side do you mean by current side? thanks

Hi, a little late report. Headed to Neilson Park last Monday for a couple of hours to flick plastics around... got there late, managed to catch the last our or so of run out tide. Picked up two lovely flathead for the table around the 40-45 mark. Lost what would have been a PB looking around 75cm, but rubbed the line on the rocks as I brought it in and said goodbye to that one!. Also picked up a trevalli, but don't particulary enjoy eating them so he went back in the drink. All in all a fun couple of hours in the winter sun.

Hi Raiders I have a few days annual leave and was thinking of getting a tinny from Balmoral and trying for squid and flathead. Anyone know if it's worth fishing it this time of year? I normally fish soft plastics. Weather looks better this week.! Advice appreciated. Cheers

Flikn, they're delicious. I had a swordfish steak last night (from a shop), and I had the dollie tonight. The dollie was actually better. filleted off the bone, left the skin on. Into a pan skin side down with a little oil for a few mins, as it starts to go white and you can see it reaching around half way, flip it to flesh side down for one or two mins, then I add a big knob of butter and a squirt of lemon juice to make like a lemon butter sauce/coating. Plenty in the freezer for the weekend!! Cheers

Hi Raiders, just a quick catch report. Went out with a charter on Wednesday morning. Had a great day. Picked up bait on the way out, yakkas and garfish. First stop north head, trolled the front. Got to Bluefish Point (think that's what it's called) - had one kingy on garfish, undersized so it went back to fight another day. Did a few more passes there but no success. Motored to Long Reef. Dropped the first downrigger with a garfish. Rod got smashed before the skipper could get the second bait in! Big bend in the rod but the hooks didn't set. Reckon we must have dropped in on his head! But that was all the action there for several trolls up and down. Then motored out to the fad - unsure of where we were really, but about 8-10ks out? Never seen dollies thick like that! They were literally everywhere. We were using the yakkas here. Seemed to be small yakka = small dollie, big yakka = bigger dollie. There were 3 of us on the boat, but we only took 8 home. We caught loads but it seemed wasteful to take too many. So we put back the ones that were hooked in the mouth which had a good chance of survival. Such great fun, and so beautiful when they light up. Then we motored over to south head. Started trolling both yakka and garfish from halfway to bondi back towards the head. No touches whatsoever - a fair few fish showing though. Trolled right up the heads for zero. Had enough of the swell so we zipped into the harbour to try near Rose Bay, then tried a couple of markers - didn't get any strikes. Was the big 'kingy' day we hoped for, but still more than happy for the sport we had with the dollies. Cheers all!