Bust Up

[James Clain]

For all those who are still interested in the salmon schools around the harbour bridge, I did not go fishing myself but on the ferry today there was the most enormous bust up with over 100 gulls dive bombing and sitting on the water over a big ball of small sardine like fish. I did not get an official ID on the predators so for all I know it could have been tailor or even small kings.

I hope the information is relevant to some of you my report is probably very helpful. The location was just in front of Fort Denison on the bridge side.

[James Clain]

10 hours ago, motiondave said:

I went out Saturday and yes, saw a few seagull, bait busting going on from near balls head right up Luna Park bay areas. Looked decent size fish. Not sure what species. 

I didn't have heavy gear to toss lures at them at the time. 

Yea obviously the same sort of fish I saw busting.

[PaddyT]

At this time of the year they are feeding on very small bait, best option is often a 3 inch Berkely Powerbait minnow in "casper clear"  or a small floating stickbait like an Ecogear or one of the ones bream fishos use. Light line and 10lb leader (I typically would use 4lb braid and 8lb leader) at a max- they wont hit heavy lures or clumsy rigs. Often the best option is a fly (not that i flyfish but have been outfished by them before in this situation)

[blaxland]

3 or 5 gm even 10gm i Halco twisties work on a light braid carbon rod set up, gives a good cast distance. Often there are other species under the salmon if you let your lure sink a few seconds. 

Edited September 17, 2019 by blaxland

[PaddyT]

34 minutes ago, motiondave said:

Ok. I was going to go 4-5" pre jigged paddle tails , maybe white or silver with 8' rod armed with 15lb braid and 20lb mono leader. 

Probably overkill I'd say....

you dont catch unless you get the bite first!!

[anthman]

11 hours ago, PaddyT said:

At this time of the year they are feeding on very small bait, best option is often a 3 inch Berkely Powerbait minnow in "casper clear"  or a small floating stickbait like an Ecogear or one of the ones bream fishos use. Light line and 10lb leader (I typically would use 4lb braid and 8lb leader) at a max- they wont hit heavy lures or clumsy rigs. Often the best option is a fly (not that i flyfish but have been outfished by them before in this situation)

Good suggestion! I've had luck with the same size powerbait minnows in pearl watermelon and pearl blue. Have had luck with the 2" pearl white as well, but get less cast range cause of the jughead weights available in that size of a hook.

11 hours ago, blaxland said:

3 or 5 gm even 10gm i Halco twisties work on a light braid carbon rod set up, gives a good cast distance. Often there are other species under the salmon if you let your lure sink a few seconds. 

Also a good suggestion.

Im keen to try throwing 10g slow pitch jigs and working underneath the bust ups.

[PaddyT]

Big issue you face in Sydney is that most folk dont know how to approach a feeding school- get up wind of the school and drift down into it- they always feed into the wind. With the lightweight soft plastics less is often better, flick the lure out and letting it sit often works best. 

[anthman]

On 9/15/2019 at 8:32 PM, James Clain said:

For all those who are still interested in the salmon schools around the harbour bridge, I did not go fishing myself but on the ferry today there was the most enormous bust up with over 100 gulls dive bombing and sitting on the water over a big ball of small sardine like fish. I did not get an official ID on the predators so for all I know it could have been tailor or even small kings.

I hope the information is relevant to some of you my report is probably very helpful. The location was just in front of Fort Denison on the bridge side.

 

On 9/17/2019 at 7:45 AM, motiondave said:

I went out Saturday and yes, saw a few seagull, bait busting going on from near balls head right up Luna Park bay areas. Looked decent size fish. Not sure what species. 

I didn't have heavy gear to toss lures at them at the time. 

 

On 9/17/2019 at 7:53 AM, jnrfinatic said:

I went on Saturday too. Beautiful day, we didn't catch fish though. There were salmon schools everywhere in the harbour, but no one was hooking up. They'd bust-up for about 10 seconds and they'd go down for about 10mins. 

Best of luck 

Adem 

What time of the day did you all see the bustups? I did a full circuit from middle head past the bridge (not into, though) then back and did not see a single bust up - was there from 6:30am till about 10:00am...

[anthman]

Thanks all. Should have stayed around longer!

[James Clain]

4 hours ago, anthman said:

 

 

What time of the day did you all see the bustups? I did a full circuit from middle head past the bridge (not into, though) then back and did not see a single bust up - was there from 6:30am till about 10:00am...

This was at 10:30 am exactly when I saw the Bust up