GreyNurse Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) I arrived at Wally's Wharf at 5.30 am with the sky just beginning to show light in the east. While unpacking the car, another angler arrived, who turned out to be my new best friend, Mathew. Throughout the morning, Mathew regaled me with stories of fishing from his home harbour in N.Z. But first order of the day was to clean up the pontoon. It was littered with the leavings of the previous night's activities; empty squid jig packets, wrappers, discarded plastic drink bottles, discarded bundles of fishing line. Even though the bins are 20 meters away at the amenities block on the way out, why can't people clean up after themselves when they leave? Anyway, job done. Now to fish. At that point I was using pillies and fresh frozen tailor from Sunday's sesh at Lilli Pilli. I'd had great success fishing a 1/0 long shank hook on a 1.5 meter 8lb trace under a small plastic float that can be partially filled with water. No other weight. Just as daylight made it possible to spot the float bobbing on the water's surface, I hooked up to a sweep. Into the livey tank he went. Rebait and cast. A short while later, the float goes under. I count one, two... lift the rod and feel the weight. The fish takes off on a powerful short run before I turn him and a minute later I land a lovely fat 30 cm bream. I decided to keep him and so dispatched him quickly and humanely. Things went a bit quiet for a while for me after that, but Mathew called me over and asked me to hand him his net. He had just spun up a lively frigate makeral! He offered it to me, but I declined, insisting it was his fish. He said he wasn't interested in keeping it, so it was released to swim off rather disgruntled. I returned to my rod to find that the pickers had started stealing my bait, so I switched to tailor strips. The move paid off with the result of a 45cm snook. Said fish was released and Mathew offered me a sweep he had just landed on a lure. So I pinned the poor unfortunate behind the shoulder and sent him out. He swam around for 5 minutes before heading around the corner of the pontoon, so I retrieved him and sent him back out the front. A short time later the float disappeared and the rod tip buckled. The reel screamed as line was peeling of at fast rate. I struck to set the hook, but then felt all the tension leave the line. I reeled in to find the livie still on the end, intact, but as dead as a doornail. He wasn't crushed but there were numerous areas on his body where the scales had been stripped off to the flesh. I threw him back out to where he was taken in case whatever had grabbed him was still looking around for their lost prey, but to no avail. After that I caught and released a 25 cm bream. By 9.30 am I decided to call it quits and head home as the day was warming up and I needed a feed. I'm thinking a return visit is in order. Especially as I forgot the camera! Edited March 4, 2015 by GreyNurse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papafish Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 hi how is wally's wharf anyway? never been there but i normally fish around sylvania under the bridge. is wallys wharf productive?? cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big Neil Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Nice report Nursie and I hope you and Mathew post plenty more. Good onya for cleaning up the mess too. (Shouldn't have to). Neil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bessell1955 Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Yes it is a shame that other people do not clean up their mess, but leave it for public spirited people like you Nursie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbdshroom Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Sounds like an eventful morning GreyNurse! I enjoyed reading that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyNurse Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 hi how is wally's wharf anyway? never been there but i normally fish around sylvania under the bridge. is wallys wharf productive?? cheers Wally's can turn on some good sport when it fires. Best time is weekday morning and late afternoon before the locals get there. It's never the same two days in a row, except for the pickers seeking shelter and shade around the pontoon. When the water's clear, it's like gazing down on an aquarium! There was a time when you could NOT catch a squid there. They would even try and steal your bream baits. But now it's hard work to jig up one in a session. Maybe in the next few months it may be more productive. Judging by the rubbish I found on the pontoon, there's no shortage of night time squidding activity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad_tate Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Hi GreyNurse, thank you for spending the time to clean up. I know the litterbugs won't understand it, but I certainly appreciate the effort. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamski Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Hats off for taking the time to clean up the wharf man, it's amazing the amount of crap some fishos leave behind. Well done on the nice-sized bream too. Any thoughts on what that last fish that nailed the sweep might have been? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiveflies Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Hey GreyNurse, Good report and well done on the clean up. I fish there often during the day, gentlemen's hours, and often am tidying up as well. It's so flat that a lot of debris must get blown into the water. It's amazing the variety of fish that are there. Hard to catch a squid as you note. If you see a someone down there on the ramp end, fixated on a pencil float and looking dolefully at the luderick avoiding his weed, it's probably me! Come say hello! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyNurse Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 Hats off for taking the time to clean up the wharf man, it's amazing the amount of crap some fishos leave behind. Well done on the nice-sized bream too. Any thoughts on what that last fish that nailed the sweep might have been? Methinks it behaved suspiciously like a mulloway. In hindsight, I probably struck too soon before he decided to swallow it. Jewfish tend to grab and run before consuming their prey. Hey GreyNurse, Good report and well done on the clean up. I fish there often during the day, gentlemen's hours, and often am tidying up as well. It's so flat that a lot of debris must get blown into the water. It's amazing the variety of fish that are there. Hard to catch a squid as you note. If you see a someone down there on the ramp end, fixated on a pencil float and looking dolefully at the luderick avoiding his weed, it's probably me! Come say hello! No problem fiveflies. I think I might have seen you before. I've certainly seen those blackfish. Some are whoppers! On the rubbish front, I was down there this morning early and managed to grab an empty take away coffee cup just before it landed in the drink. Not as messy as yesterday, though. And fishwise, nothing but pickers. I was told that it was pretty quiet all about the place today. I thought the barometer might be falling, but a check on the BOM site showed the barometer steady at around 1013 this morning, so that rules that out. Amyway, that's fishing for ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papafish Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 guys why do you guys using float's there? is it productive lol? like you most likely need to burley it up for the fish to come and take the bait off your float. won't it be better to cast out and let it seek onto the bottom? probably bigger fish..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papafish Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Hey GreyNurse, Good report and well done on the clean up. I fish there often during the day, gentlemen's hours, and often am tidying up as well. It's so flat that a lot of debris must get blown into the water. It's amazing the variety of fish that are there. Hard to catch a squid as you note. If you see a someone down there on the ramp end, fixated on a pencil float and looking dolefully at the luderick avoiding his weed, it's probably me! Come say hello! hey fireflies you need around como bridge or tom ugly bridge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyNurse Posted March 5, 2015 Author Share Posted March 5, 2015 guys why do you guys using float's there? is it productive lol? like you most likely need to burley it up for the fish to come and take the bait off your float. won't it be better to cast out and let it seek onto the bottom? probably bigger fish..? Fishing under a float was a new thing I adopted after good success with it at Lilli Pilli where the drop off from the scout hall boat ramp is steep and snaggy. There's a few guys who get down there with the traditional long rod with a fixed line with number 10 hooks or smaller under a small float, fishing for yakkas. My rig was an adaptation of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchie18092 Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Interesting chucking the sweep out for a livie - always think of them as a pest when im trying to bring up the yakkas! Might keep a few in the bucket next time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyNurse Posted March 5, 2015 Author Share Posted March 5, 2015 Interesting chucking the sweep out for a livie - always think of them as a pest when im trying to bring up the yakkas! Might keep a few in the bucket next time... Mitchie, If the pickers are enough of a pest, think outside the sqare and try anything. Those little striped trumpeter could be a go. Even mado. They all hang around structure for protection, so throwing one out wider under a float would make it vulnerable. Haven't a clue what might find them interesting enough to eat, but surely there must be some hungry predator around on a good day. I've seen yakka having been mauled by squid. But then again, yakka are proven prey for just about anything. The trick is finding them. Me and two others that morning had no luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HookLine&Thinker Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Great report mate!!! Not wet a line there for a while now but it's a brilliant spot in the evening. Don't forget the camera next time :-P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordy Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Caught a 1m plus flatty on a live mado,hooked the mado first the rod loaded up got the flatty then he spat the mado out with the hook still in its gob .Small live sweep are my number 1 john dory bait they work a treat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GCC Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I am surprised that no one has suggested that you should have put the live frigate mackerel out under a float. Also, sweep can catch big kingy's and that's what probably took yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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