MY last couple of fishing reports have waxed lyrical about Sydney’s prime fishing currently unfolding and I’ve been strongly urging fishos to get out amongst the action.
The “cross over” season when warm water fish and winter fish merge together is creating frantic action as competition for food is increased. This period won’t last long though and the extra bonus for fishermen is excellent mixed bags of species to get stuck into.
Monday saw my father and I team up to hit Botany Bay. An earlier session in the week yielded poorly for dad in the Hawkesbury due to poor water clarity so a decision was made to target the clean water on the north eastern side of the Bay. Our target species were flathead and any pelagic fish that we could find. At this time of year trevs make a good showing and are a real tussle on light spin gear.
We target the runways at first light and the action was instant. It was a fish a cast for the first half hour and we remarked it was shaping up to be one of the more memorable sessions we’d had in the Bay in recent memory.
Obviously we spoke too soon. As if someone flicked a switch the action died off. After prospecting the Georges River, the sand flats around Brighton and back to runways, the fishing remained slow. We did catch a handful of trevs and the occasional flathead in the process but what shaped up to be a pearler ended up a day where we fought hard for our fish.
In the end we brought caught a dozen flathead, half a dozen trevs, one baby sambo and a cracker winter tailor to 55cms. Surprisingly no bream were caught and no jew after a belated effort on the tide change. Our best all round lure for the day was a 3” Atomic Jerk Minnow mated to a 1/6oz Nitro head.
As luck would have it, my wife gave me clearance to fish again the following day. This time we headed back to our local, the Hawkesbury, to attack some more thumper bream current on offer. The day was a complete reversal of the session the previous day. Instead of firing first off like it did in the bay, it was a tough session till midday until the tide began to run out and then all hell broke loose.
Fishing Broken Bay, in a session that spanned a few hours, my father, his neighbour Anthony, a newcomer to plastics, and myself got stuck right into a hot bite of flathead to 65cms, decent bream but no showstoppers, spotted macks, luderick, a jewie, two thumper octopus and some spritely pike. We estimated we caught over 40 fish in a couple frantic hours and saw Anthony get well and truly hooked, pardon the pun, on lures. A first time plastic fisho, he landed seven flathead and dropped quite a few more. I was impressed with his level of proficiency throughout the day and think the kid has a big future in our sport. I hope he sticks with it.
The Hawkesbury delivers another solid winter lizard.
I might sound like a broken record at the moment and it’s for good reason. I’m trying to get you punters to forget the cold snap and get out there. The weather quickly disappears when you are reeling in fish hand over fist.
See you next week with hopefully news of another positive session!
