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Sydney Harbour Kayak Fishing Report 14th April 2020


whiskey299

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With work imposing forced leave, I took the opportunity to fish with the kayak gang during my holidays. I was supposed to meet the guys at the ramp by 6am but I had trouble sleeping the night before and woke up late 5:45am! With only 15mins to get ready I messaged the guys that I would be late and not to wait up for me. Made it to the ramp by 6:20 and they were still getting ready, phew.
 
On the way to catch livies we sounded a school of bait in the middle of the channel, a quick drop and I hook just one sardine and the school quickly disappeared. The next few hours we spend ages trying to catch live bait with no luck. One of the guys decided he wanted a head start and went straight to the main channel to chase jewfish and snapper. It wasn't long before we got word he hooked up to a 40cm snapper and undersized jewie.
 
We quickly headed over and started to drift our baits across the channel. I managed to hook a pan sized snapper 32cm on squid, but no luck on the jewfish. One of my mates manages to catch another 2 jewfish on strips of squid but they are undersized and released.
 
We ran into a regular jewfish chaser who told us that kings were busting up further up channel, we thanked him and made our way quickly to the spot.
I dropped my squid baits down and hooked a nice Maori Rockcod and many Bigeyes. I caught Bigeyes on squid, slowjig and sabiki, there was no way to avoid them. One of the guys caught a yakka on sabiki only to have a kingfish steal it from under him. About 30mins later he manages to convert a dead sardine into a 69cm kingfish.
 
It took me about 30mins to finally catch some yakkas on sabiki. I send one back down while working the sabiki rod. A few minutes later the rod buckles over and the reel is screaming. Up comes a 67cm kingfish, a keeper which is dispatched, bled and iced. I send another live yakka down and within a minute the live bait rod buckles over and the reel is screaming again. This time a just legal kingfish 65cm, this one is released to grow bigger. I send another live yakka down and it doesn't take long for the rod to buckle over again, unfortunately no hook up. By this time the wind had really picked up and the kings soon disappeared so we moved spots to target jewfish again.
 
Half a dozen drifts I land baby jewfish on squid which released. 
 
The kingfish was eaten as sashimi, the bigeye was filleted and eaten as battered fish. The maori rockcod was steamed and fantastic eating, it's such a rare catch for Sydney given how cold it is compared to Queensland.
 
Another great session on the kayak
 

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Edited by whiskey299
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Nice report & the food looks delicious as well 👌

 

Well done :biggrinthumb:

 

If you hadn't have said Sydney harbour in the title by the look of the background in the 4th pic you could have been in the Georges or even port hacking, looks very similar.

 

 

 

 

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On ‎4‎/‎18‎/‎2020 at 2:14 PM, whiskey299 said:
With work imposing forced leave, I took the opportunity to fish with the kayak gang during my holidays. I was supposed to meet the guys at the ramp by 6am but I had trouble sleeping the night before and woke up late 5:45am! With only 15mins to get ready I messaged the guys that I would be late and not to wait up for me. Made it to the ramp by 6:20 and they were still getting ready, phew.
 
On the way to catch livies we sounded a school of bait in the middle of the channel, a quick drop and I hook just one sardine and the school quickly disappeared. The next few hours we spend ages trying to catch live bait with no luck. One of the guys decided he wanted a head start and went straight to the main channel to chase jewfish and snapper. It wasn't long before we got word he hooked up to a 40cm snapper and undersized jewie.
 
We quickly headed over and started to drift our baits across the channel. I managed to hook a pan sized snapper 32cm on squid, but no luck on the jewfish. One of my mates manages to catch another 2 jewfish on strips of squid but they are undersized and released.
 
We ran into a regular jewfish chaser who told us that kings were busting up further up channel, we thanked him and made our way quickly to the spot.
I dropped my squid baits down and hooked a nice Maori Rockcod and many Bigeyes. I caught Bigeyes on squid, slowjig and sabiki, there was no way to avoid them. One of the guys caught a yakka on sabiki only to have a kingfish steal it from under him. About 30mins later he manages to convert a dead sardine into a 69cm kingfish.
 
It took me about 30mins to finally catch some yakkas on sabiki. I send one back down while working the sabiki rod. A few minutes later the rod buckles over and the reel is screaming. Up comes a 67cm kingfish, a keeper which is dispatched, bled and iced. I send another live yakka down and within a minute the live bait rod buckles over and the reel is screaming again. This time a just legal kingfish 65cm, this one is released to grow bigger. I send another live yakka down and it doesn't take long for the rod to buckle over again, unfortunately no hook up. By this time the wind had really picked up and the kings soon disappeared so we moved spots to target jewfish again.
 
Half a dozen drifts I land baby jewfish on squid which released. 
 
The kingfish was eaten as sashimi, the bigeye was filleted and eaten as battered fish. The maori rockcod was steamed and fantastic eating, it's such a rare catch for Sydney given how cold it is compared to Queensland.
 
Another great session on the kayak
 

IMG_3066.jpg

IMG_3069.jpg

IMG_3070.jpg

037C2E24-D2AA-4C48-8196-6B0FE2C7AACC.jpg

IMG_8955.jpg

0D312B08-D5C5-40BE-A01C-5DBC9FA8C708.jpeg

0EBB187A-FA1D-44E7-B90F-62232B3D9D44.jpeg

32EF9E90-3597-4C94-A5BF-6CD317155C6D.jpeg

Hey mate.

 

Was that you in the yak at the same spot today?

Dan

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