Trolling the hawksbury

[brecko90]

Hey Raiders, heading up to the good old hawksbury in a week and was thinking of maybe trying a new tactic of trolling some lures between juno point, flint n steel and west head and maybe into pitwater, just wondering what i could expect to catch, and lure selection and is it really worth it?

[PRED-ATOR]

Hi Mate,

Try trolling the headland on the right hand side of the river mouth (opposite lion island) you will pick up salmon there at the moment. do it early at first light and there usually about 15foot down packed in lottle balled school.

They hang in pretty close to the rocks/exposed bommies so you will need to troll quite close but dont do anything crazy. the waves out there are unpredictable and not worth an australian salmon lol.

try lures such as rapala x wrap magnums in the pilchard. the 15's will do nicely. Theres alot of crap there so dont troll too deep, i trolled an x wrap 30 and hooked the rope of an abandonned anchor lol.

If your trolling the head lands, also start throwing little metal slugs such as halco twisties or sure catch knights for pike (awesome jew bait) and small tailor. the retrieve for these should be too quick but constant. If you let the metal sink a bit you can also pick up flatties, this works pretty well against the rock wall behing the face of lion island.

The above methods have got me alot of success on the hawkesbury but that please is really on off for me. some days you clean up, other days its an absolute donut.

Hope this helps : ),

Stan

[josamill]

I have found it to be a needle in a haystack. My father-in-law and I have been regular sailors for 20 years between Pittwater, Box Head, Juno Pt, and a few KMs out to sea. For years I chucked a lure out the back, as many times the yacht is travelling at a good trolling speed......Christmas trees, spoons, deep diving Rapalas & bombers.....

Must have trolled over 150KMs for one fish off Barrenjoey Headland.....a kingfish - around 50cm from memory. Most of this trolling between noon-4pm, so not ideal.

Rather than random trolling, have had much more success in the tinny searching for schools with the sounder, and birds showing us the way.

[rjc123]

Salmon and Tailor at the moment hanging around the places mentioned.. The lures don't have to be big either... Little flathead hard bodies (under 100mm)... Sometimes if they're not biting troll open water .. Don't know why but it works okay for me.

Cheers, Tom

[pittwaterfishing]

I have found it to be a needle in a haystack. My father-in-law and I have been regular sailors for 20 years between Pittwater, Box Head, Juno Pt, and a few KMs out to sea. For years I chucked a lure out the back, as many times the yacht is travelling at a good trolling speed......Christmas trees, spoons, deep diving Rapalas & bombers.....

Must have trolled over 150KMs for one fish off Barrenjoey Headland.....a kingfish - around 50cm from memory. Most of this trolling between noon-4pm, so not ideal.

Rather than random trolling, have had much more success in the tinny searching for schools with the sounder, and birds showing us the way.

Try slowing it down to 4-6 km/h, i catch plently of mine with a rapala magnum, for tailor around the mouth of mackerel and down till about jerusalem bay its filled with small tailor. bonito and salmon on the western shore around the basin and from flint and steel till around lion island.