3 days in Middle Harbour and Pittwater

[steeevooo]

First proper weekend of boating & fishing with my new ride.

Recently bought a 90s Stessl runabout which I've been fixing up, and new motor (60hp Suzuki) was installed last week so it was time to go!

Day 1 - Saturday 30 Nov: 
Set off from Roseville around 6am, initial plan was to go for squid and yakkas around dobroyd head then cruise the harbour but after reaching there realised the wind was already picking up and would have made for an uncomfortable ride back. Probably could have soldiered on as it wasn't THAT bad, but wanted to be gentle with the new motor and get used to the boat in calmer conditions first. 

Decided to spend the day around middle harbour instead. Got onto some yakkas and then trolled a livey with a downrigger around moored boats etc. Sounder did show a few schools of bait and what was probably kings around them but no strikes. Spotted some surface action at one point with kings feeding on tiny little baitfish but they disappeared pretty fast. 
Wind was getting worse and worse so we headed back to the boatramp.

Day 2 - Sunday 1 Dec:
Headed for Pittwater this time. Launched around 6am, and with nicer weather predicted for the day, wanted to try some of the little reefs near the headland with microjigs. But the weatherman was wrong, plenty of wind again... once we got out there the conditions were quite unpleasant and we turned back to spend the day inside Pittwater instead.
Spent a while trying for yakkas around west head, heaps of other boats doing the same but no one having any luck. Then the rest of the day was spent between trying for squid around the shallows, (plenty of follows but they seemed shy despite us having a range of jigs) and fishing with bait (pillies and store bought squid) around the drop offs and deep holes. 
Tried some of our usual spots from the past, plenty of boats there, plenty of different approaches/baits/techniques, but bugger all action.
Packed it in around mid arvo. 

Day 3 - Monday 2 Dec:
Back to Middle Harbour. Weather was predicted to be super windy, but thought we'd give it a go anyway. Tried a few spots around Seaforth and near Tunks hoping for yakkas. Ended up just dealing with loads of annoying pinkies. Wind was getting worse, headed to Bantry Bay, burleyed up and used up the rest of our bait, not much happened apart from the occasional bite. Wind became unbearable and we called it a day. 

So 3 days of zeros!
Zeros apart from yakkas and pinkies anyway. 
But a fun weekend regardless. 
Managed to put about 13 hours on the new motor. 

Curious to hear how others went this weekend!

Now patiently watching the weather reports for next weekend, hoping we'll get some better conditions...

[Jimbo1973]

Bugger , still beats working

the wreck at Clareville holds plenty of yakkas if West Head not working , as does the Valiant, never seem to have much luck with Yakkas as livies in Pittwater squid is the killer bait or small cuttlefish if you can find them  when chasing Kings around.

[steeevooo]

14 minutes ago, Jimbo1973 said:

Bugger , still beats working

the wreck at Clareville holds plenty of yakkas if West Head not working , as does the Valiant, never seem to have much luck with Yakkas as livies in Pittwater squid is the killer bait or small cuttlefish if you can find them  when chasing Kings around.

Cheers Jimbo!

Yeah interestingly even the wreck at Clareville was delivering nothing, 
We counted about 8 boats there, no action. 
2 boats downrigging squid and trolling around us also with no luck. 

Valiant was our plan to try some microjigs at, and the little reef off Avalon headland, but once we got out there we didn't like the look of the wind and swell. It wasn't huge, but just wasn't as calm as predicted and didn't want to test my luck with new ride yet, so turned back. 

 

[leonardgid]

plenty of boats  getting stolen these days ,  these heroes  are not fussy  also  ,  , don't need to answer this post ,  just  make sure that yours is not one that goes missing this summer.

[steeevooo]

7 hours ago, leonardgid said:

plenty of boats  getting stolen these days ,  these heroes  are not fussy  also  ,  , don't need to answer this post ,  just  make sure that yours is not one that goes missing this summer.

A valid comment, plenty of grubs out there. 
For this reason we lengthened the driveway for the boat to be kept there instead of it being parked on the street!
Now kept 5m from the house, in a very quiet street, with several locks, and usually parked in by a car also. 
I'd be devastated to have it stolen after 2 month of spending every spare day working on it and the pricey addition of the new motor.