FishFever

Thanks for the reports guys, much appreciated. Hope to catch a couple for the family while im there.

Hey All, Heading down there in during xmas, was wondering if i should bother with all the fishing gear. Just going to spin some lures, are bonnies around this time of year? thanks anfs

Awesome post, been to hamilton island myself. Both land based and charter fishing was amazing. Your giving me the itch to get back there. Glad to see you succeeded with the Spanish mackerals, great work. Merry Xmas mate.

(My 2nd outing ever, new to boating) Myself and 2 mates got to Foreshore Ramp about 5:30 am this morning expecting a full house but surprised to see it fairly empty. Don't know why, 3 kn winds, 24 degrees, overcast, perfect day IMO anyways. But gave us a chance to launch boat without annoying others as we are new to the game. Went to catch some yakkas, plentiful as expected. (much easier with a sand anchor) Moved to the famous Molli point, and dropped a livie to the bottom. We then proceed to spin hardbodies, flick soft plastics, and throw a line with prawns overboard for ZILCH. (Saw an idiot almost flip his boat side ways though.) Went to 3rd runway, same thing again. But this time my mate on prawns instantly produces a nice 48 cm flatty. Prawns continued to produce yakkas, tarwhine, bream, snapper, most under size but fun as hell to catch. Soft plastics and hardbodies didn't come up with the goods. Yakka still idle. We decide to move off to the oil wharf, so i wind in the yakka. To my surprise at the very end was a Soapie (my first jewie ever!!!, kinda) it was barely twice the size of the yakka and hardly moving. I wanted to release but unfornately it shallowed the hook so deep it had already died when it came up. Felt really bad about the jewie, my first and it was dead before i got a chance to say goodbye. Giving it a good sea farewell, we moved off to the oil wharf. Where i had seen many youtube clips of people getting into travelly's and bream. I once again drop off a livie and proceed to copy my mate with prawns, and BANG !!! im on & its pulling line. Being an idiot I release the pressure for a sec to tighten my drag, POP the fish is gone. Left me wounded and muttering to myself how stupid I was. Friend next to me pulls in a HUGE flatty, all 5 cm of it. To top it off, it manages to sting him good and he is in pain for about 5 mins. After 30-40mins of nothing we once again we decide to move off, moving to various places for ZILCH. Nearing 1 pm, we move back to runway to try luck again with flatties, and once again the prawns produce another nice 47 cm Flatty. So both my mates 1 each, and im still empty. Not one to give up i continue with the trend with my nitro bream finesse rod and c14 2500 with 8 lb braid. Whoosh - Finally something decent takes the prawn, doesn't shake like pinky, bream, yakka. Maybe its a flathead, never caught one so I wouldn't know. Then line gets peeled of the spool like no tomorrow, mates telling me to only fractionally tighten the drag. I comply but its still going and going. Considering I was fishing right under the boat, this thing is way out past 100 m mark. Finally it leaps and our mystery is answer. The sambo is taking my bream combo to town, after 10 mins+ i finally get it under control and mate nets it successfully. Around 75cm mark - 3 kg. Tally 2 flatties 1 sambo 3 legal tarwhine bag of yakkas that died before they could be dropped out as livies. Fun day in the bay ! Anfs

Nice catch as usual Ray, We didn't dare head out your way to do some spinning due to reports of large swells. Hopefully we see you there next week, i still haven't tried my hand at the blackfish yet, but keen as to give it a shot. Was in sydney harbour today and saw a fellow land a massive blackie from the wharf. Cheers Anfs

I was out at Avoca rocks on fathers day with my mate. He initially used a 40g metal with no luck. He changed to a hardbody and on the 2nd cast hooked up, I was also on a hardbody (rapala) and hooked up at same time. We got 3 and dropped 1 in about 1 hour of fishing, a few of the other guys fishing with pillies that day didn't have much luck.