mako1

Hadn’t had the boat in the water since last November so with all of the tuna reports decided to head out last Saturday 14/7/12 and try our luck. Conditions didn’t look too bad but it did look like it was going to be bumpy on the way back due to the westerly. Took my work college Patrick along as he had been on a few trips with us last year for marlin but we didn’t turn a reel. Launched at about 7am and headed south from Botany. Put out a spread of four lures and a teaser and started looking for any temp changes. Worked a few areas and then headed further out towards the 2000m line. At about 10:45am, not long after the tide change, the short corner takes off. Then the short rigger and the long corner scream off. Luckily the hooks pulled on the short rigger and the long rigger had a hit but didn’t hook up. Patrick grabbed the short corner and began fighting the fish while I cleared the teaser and other lines. Mine stayed deep under the boat for most of the fight and after about 25mins I get colour on mine and it was a good Southern Bluefin. Not long after I had my first Southern Bluefin gaffed and then I called Patrick to give me a hand to lift the beast into the boat. Patrick continued to fight his fish and a little while later his first Southern Bluefin and biggest ever fish was gaffed and heaved into the boat. After boating the fish I quickly bled and gutted them and kept them as cold as possible. We put the lures back in and trolled back to the shelf but we didn’t get any more hits. Happy with the days results we gunned it home from the shelf as the sea began to flatten out. Spent the rest of the afternoon/evening cleaning and preparing the fish and most of the next day cleaning the blood out of the boat. My fish had the following lengths Short length 1.7m Girth 1.15m Patrick’s fish Short length 1.5m Girth 1.04m For anyone interested the lures that the fish took were Short corner:Polu Kai 12inch Plou Diver in Midnight Slick Long corner: Polu Kai 12inch Shaka Plunger in Lumo Ghost The following two lures had hits but didn’t stay connected Short rigger: Polu Kai 9inch Tailpipe in Purple Magic Long rigger: Polu Kai 9inch Shaka Plunger Jet in Blue Pilly Photos of the catch Also took some video with my GoPro camera

Great effort Grant. Even in the tough conditions you still managed some great fish. Well done

No worries CJ. It can be a bit hard to put the surface lures down during summer and switch to diving HBs but there are situations when the bream will just smash the diving HBs. If your used to fising surface lures and want to switch to diving HBs try the really shallow ones that either float or suspend as you can work them over the flats in a similar twitching action to surface lures. You can also try just a slow wind. Just remember to pause the lure a few times during the retrive. This works really well over flats and around structure like racks and rock bars. Once you start getting some fish then you can move to the areas that are a bit deeper with deeper running lures and use similar techniques. Just get the lure down first and then use a twitching or a slow rolling retrive. Once you start to get a few fish you will get more of a feel what retrives and lures work in certain areas.

Great report hawkesbass. Good sized fish too. Well done

That's a top bag of whiting. Well done

Great report Jet. Some nice flatties. They can be a tricky fish to put in the live well, I've lost a few while trying to get them in the well.

Thanks for the replies guys. No worries nat. I'll probably give the bream another go over the next few weeks. I'm in a dune pro angler. Pink has been my most successful colour in WB. I do get fish on naturals and some other colours but pink outfishes them all for me. The only time I stick to naturals in WB is when I use surface lures. I've had most success on the following HB lures. Attack lures in pink coach dog and pink and mauve tiger. Halco scorpion in hot pink. Halco laser pro 45 in hot pink. Be careful when heading to the back of the bay in your boat. There are heaps of old leases around and there are rock piles which need to be navigated to access the flats right at the back. Your best bet is to go towards the back during a low tide as all of the leases and rock piles are exposed. Make a note of them and then come back during a high tide to fish the flats, rock piles and racks.

Great report. Well done to you and your sons on catching some nice trevally. They are so much fun on light gear and I love catching them at the Kurnell flats.

Another awesome report. Top pics and some beautiful fish caught. Well done

That's a top trevally Koolcat. Must of been a heap of fun with the light gear. Well done

Went for a fish on Woolooware bay yesterday to see what was biting. The water was still cold so I wasn’t expecting too much action. I started at the mouth of the bay casting poppers around for bream and whiting but I didn’t get any hits or follows. The water was 15 degrees and still too cold for topwater fishing. I made my way to the back of the bay as the tide was rising. I was working plastics and vibes along the way but I only caught some chopper tailor. I finally made it to the flats at the back of the bay and noticed that the water was about 18 degrees. There was heaps of whitebait around, which the tailor were smashing on the surface, and even some gars and mullet jumping. I started casting surface lures again and I had quite a few follows and about five swirls but no hook-ups. A few more weeks and they will be feeding on the surface again. I changed over to a pink hardbody and the bream were climbing all over it. I tried plastics, vibes and other HB lures but they would only hit the HB lures with pink on them. All of the bream hit the lures hard and fought really well. Caught quite a few bream with nearly all of them over legal size. Here are some of the fish from the flats. I caught two 45cm flatties on the flats and dropped two better ones trolling along the eastern drop-off. While trolling back to the launch spot I had a screaming run on a pink HB lure. There were lots of powerful runs and plenty of strong headshakes. I called it for a trevally but to my surprise a decent blackfish surfaced. I couldn’t believe how hard it fought even with the damage to its back. It was nice to get back onto Woolooware again and it didn’t disappoint. Not long now and I’ll be chasing the fish with surface lures again. I can’t wait.

Top fin Mad Mullet

Great session Joey. Some nice Bass there. Well done

Unlucky that there weren't more fish around but that's still a top EP. Congrats on the new PB Nathan

Beautiful reds Bustoff Well done getting them on plastics.