Also Perfect Summers Day

[mmaclure]

Hi everyone

We also expereinced a perfect summers day heading out from Parsley Bay we picked up a dozen or so mini Yaccas at West head and proceeded to slow troll the headlands for not much action. One strike saw the bait return with the point of the hook burried inside the gills of the live bait. I  must have just pulled the bait back out the fishes mouth.....Doh 

After an hour or so and watching the water glass off we headded to the Broken Bay FAD at the same speed we came down the Hawkesbury earlier that moring!

Upon reaching the FAD we could see the 50cm kings and a few Dollies on the surface. They wouldnt touch a bait unless you added a half handful of pilly cubes next to it then their competative instict kicked in and all three of us started hooking up ?

Fun on light gear but nothing of size so we started to drift a little wider when we witnessed the strangest behaviour i have seen from fish. The kings were swimming with their fins out of the water and blooping at leaves on the surface of the water and the Dollies looked like they were playing games or just having fun free jumping and swimming with half their body out if the water or just their head looking above the water at us????

Trolled back to 9mile reef and hooked up to some more dollies then noticed the fish traps close by. Drifted the traps again and used the live baits for a couple of bigger models but just sport fishing at this stage using up the rest of the bait as cube burley to turn them on and try to draw a bigger model in on the action. Saw a much large flash from a bigger fish chasing an airborn yellowtail but no result. 

Fantastic day with some geat company made for a very memorable day out on the water and learnt if the dollies are a little timid to stir them up with a few freebies and small hooks hidden in the bait. 

Tight lines and keep safe of the water even if the conditions are perfect!!!

CapnMac 

 

[Mike89]

Wow look at those blue skies! Great pics.

Nice report. Sounds like a great day on the water!

[MattGb1989]

Nice beautiful blue skies. Keep the reports coming bud. Better luck next time.

 

Brownie

[Volitan]

Great day I'm sure with or without fish.

regarding the strange behaviour you saw, I wonder whether they were feeding on small shrimps or something else right in the surface film. If a dolly is swimming around slurping up mysid shrimps or something from the surface then it is going to appear to be half out, it has to be due to having its mouth at the lower part of the body. The kings could have been doing the same, paying special attention to any leaves etc around which the prey were taking refuge. Being tiny and transparent, things like mysid shrimp wouldn't necessarily be visible too you in the boat. It might also explain why they were hard to catch, as they were specialised-feeding on tiny shrimp.

 

cheers

arron

[big Neil]

Nice report Capnmac. Sure was glassy, don't see many days like that. Also like Volitans reason for the fishes strange behaviour. Seems quite feasible. BN

[mmaclure]

Yes that sounds just like what they were doing. Not being able to get out to the deep blue very often i hadn't witnessed this before. What a wealth of information Fishraider members have to offer. Thank you and yes it was a perfect day all round. Looking forward to the next adventure. 

[mitchie18092]

As mentioned, sounds like a top day out regardless of catching or not. Might have been worth throwing small stickbaits (sammy 65/sugapens etc.) to see if you could entice a bite?  Anyways, always next time! 

 

M.