darrenmason

Weather looked perfect and had a leave pass so my eldest an I headed out into the harbour. First light launch and the water was a horrible brown colour - but very calm. We took some bait but started off trying to get some fresh stuff. This proved to be fruitless as no squid and our berley seemed to only bring tiny schnapper around. Had some frozen squid heads and slimy mackerals from previous trips so we cut those up and tried a few of the channel markers and the southern wedding cake. Heaps of schnapper - some getting close to size but generally about the 20cm mark. Could barely get your bait in the water and it would be attacked by them. My son finally got a decent hookup and had him pulled around the boat for a few minutes on 8lb line and leader. Few expletives were heard as his leader knot failed though. Had 1 live yakka that we sent out hoping for more action but apart from a few nervous runs - he stayed in tact. We went hunting for something other than pinkies but wern't seeing many marks so decided to head over to balmoral to see if any bait was over there. We were immediately confronted with bust ups near the swimming markers so changed plans and drifted within casting range. Plenty of small tailor when we could get amongst them but we also had a small bonito that pulled the hooks at the boat. Few bigger bust ups further out that seemed to be much bigger but much more sporadic. We chased hard and invested a lot of casts of little metal slugs and finally got a hook up. It was a mack tuna, about 45cm. Plenty of fight and managed to get the drag warmed up a few times with fast runs. We kept chasing these bust ups for quite a while and managed a 40cm tailor, another bonito that pulled hooks as it reached the boat and two more mack tuna about the same size that we landed. They were hard to get as they were moving really fast and even when they came up right next to the boat the lure had to be moving in the right direction at the right speed to get their interest. I felt our hook ups were more luck than skill. Heaps of fun though. Called it a day a bit before 3pm and headed back. Tuna were bled, iced, filleted, battered and fed the family. No photos for the day sorry.

Ha! Just saw that my son had also posted this report previously. Oh well, everyone gets two perspectives on the same fish now.

Sounds like a great session. Always exciting sight fishing and even better when you hook up and get bigger fish following. Great report

Meant to post a report last week but thought I will get it in for my sons sake (as he got all the glory) Sunday afternoon's weather was better than expected so after doing a school working bee my eldest son and I headed out for a few hours. We took some frozen bait from a previous trip (slimies and squid) but were keen to chase bust ups with metal slugs and drop some small jigs. Bit of a washing machine getting out under the harbour bridge but we got out and checked out a couple of the harbour markers. Couple of interesting marks at the first one so we dropped some small jigs down. My son reported a touch and by the time I turned my head he was bent over the side of the boat. He reported good weight but didn't really get a run so we thought he might have a big flathead. As he started to get it away from the bottom it seemed to grow in size and also must have found out it was hooked with some decent runs. We were starting to think kingfish the closer it got but he was struggling to get it close to the boat on 20lb line and leader. I was busy trying to move the boat away from yachts and ferries that seemed to be everywhere. Probably close to a ten minute battle, but well worth it as it was a nice fat kingie that measured 84cm which is easily our best in our boat inside the harbour. We kept trying for a couple of hours for a repeat and moved to a few other spots but only managed flathead, pinkies and a huge ray - but certainly worth the trip out.

Thanks for the responses all. Great day and hope to replicate this weekend if things line up. @GordoRetiredI am still trying different smoking methods to see what works, but Tailor seem to go pretty well. I used fillets. Just used a water, brown sugar, salt brine this time with ratio about 4cup water : 1 cup sugar : 3/4 cup salt. They actually turned out a bit salty but I think that was due to poor rinsing rather than too much salt. I went with a longer smoke this time - a couple of hours at 70 degrees and then a bit over an hour at 90-100 degrees. Quite an intense flavour done for that long so you wouldn't have a meal of them like that but nice on crackers etc. I think next time I will just go with a dry brine (no water) and try a bit of cracked pepper as well.

Hi Fishraiders, Been a member on here for a while and occasionally jump on, but found I have been looking a bit more regularly now so thought I should put a report in. I have an 15ft half cabin with 50hp on the back and try to get out on the harbour when I can. Boat name is 'Amber' so feel free to say hello. Had a slot booked (with the wife) to go out on the weekend but hadn't picked a day - something came up on Sunday so decided to go Saturday. Took the eldest two sons with me (18 and 12) and we launched from woolwich about 6:30am. Few issues with the boat when we took off so took a while of stuffing around before we actually got anywhere. We usually chase squid for a while and then tow them around for kingfish at the various haunts but decided to chase a few bust ups we saw on the way out. Fish were coming up very occasionally and moving very fast so it was hard to get ahead of them and into any decent bust ups and when we did they weren't very interested in the variety we threw at them - couple of hook ups but one pulled the hooks quickly and the other snapped the hook on a jighead. Did manage to see it though and it was a reasonable bonito which I was happy about as they are great fun. Eventually we decided to find somewhere to throw some baits in. We had some frozen slimies and squid heads from our last outing so we went over to inside north head and then sounded back towards Manly looking for interesting marks. Didn't find a lot so did a few drifts and picked up a couple of nice flathead (50cm dusky and 42cm bluespot) Then found a bait school with some healthy marks under it so we decided to anchor over it. We ended up staying on this spot for hours as it just kept producing. There was a constant stream of under size snapper which kept everyone busy, but we also pulled a couple more small flathead out. The sounder stayed busy most of the time we were there but seemed to change the fish that were coming through. Sometime we would all be hooking up to tailors, then we would get smashed by good sized Australian salmon. My eldest son hooked up to a 55cm Bonito which had him working very hard on 8lb(and unfortunately cracked his light rod). An unweighted squid head got brutally smashed on the bigger rod and I gave it to the 12 yo and watched him battle with a nice little rat kingie (55cm). Caught lots of salmon that were really fighting hard and great fun - particularly on the lighter rods. I then hooked up to another bonito, probably about 40cm and it was chased to the boat by a few kingfish, not huge ones but I left the bonito in the water whilst the kids dropped some metal jigs in. The 12yo hooked onto one on his 8lb outfit and had a ball for the next few minutes trying to get it in. He did and it was also about 55cm but he had a ball with the rod being pulled into the water for half the fight. Decided it was time to head back, but we chased a few school bust up on the way back and picked out some nice tailor - some of them close to 50cm. Kept a couple of flathead and the bonito's for sushimi and BBQ dinner and also a few tailor to put in the smoker. Great day and exciting to be in a really active harbour. Can't wait to get out again (maybe next weekend) Regards Darren ps: didn't take many photos but here is one with the young bloke and his kingfish (that went back)