Talks 2 Fish

Your dad must really know how to fish😀 here’s a couple more photos for you

Sorry about the long report but it was an eventful weekend. As alluded to in Hookerbruce's earlier post we fished the annual Nowra ANSA competition over the weekend. The plan was for myself and Bruce to head down early on Friday morning and I could pretend to be "working from home" while we fished offshore for the day before the rest of the clan came down in the evening. Was not to be with work getting in the way of my fishing again, I would have to wait till Saturday to wet a line. Saturday morning arrived and with 8 people having to get organised into 2 boats including a 3 year old, a 4 year old and a 5 year old there was no early starts. With boats launched and boarded by 8am we weren't going to bad. In my boat I had my wife and 2 boys (3 and 5) with my bother and his family and Bruce (our father) in Hookerbuce's boat. The comp was on, never mind the actually competition family bragging rights is all that really matters. The fishing started with a great amount of excitement. The first bait was cast up current and set to drift back over the shallow flats with the flooding tide. Before I could even set the second bait we were on. Rather then drifting back with the tide the first line was slowly moving into the current. The fish was heavy and slow moving, seeming to be behave like a nice flatty. With the fish swimming around the front of the boat, short 3 year old arms trying to hold the rod and line out from the boat, and 1kg line rubbing dangerously across the gunnels it wasn't looking good. The fish luckily changing directions, disaster was averted. As the fish glided past swimming with the current not 3 metres from the boat we got sight of our finned adversary. Not sure who got more excited as the 80-85cm cruised past. Alas it wasn't to be with the hooks pulling about 2 minutes later. Not to worry we had one very excited 3 year old on our hands. Things went quite after that, very quite. After about an hour of not much happening we motored back up to the other boat to check on their progress. They were doing much better than us so we kept quite and kept moving. The hours, the fishing spots and the crew members came and went and still no fish. Bruce's crew and my youngest son were dropped back at the boat ramp with Kobi now swapping boats to fish with Grandpa. Still no fish for my boat. We noticed that Bruce's boat had disappeared. Either Kobi had convinced him to drop into Greenwell Point for fish and chips or they were onto a good fish and had to give chase. Sometime later they re-appeared with Kobi proudly hold up a large Australian salmon which took him about 30 minutes and a 1.5km chase to land on 1kg line. The fish would later weigh in at 2.42kg and is a pending ANSA national sub junior record. My boat was still fishless. For the last couple of hours my number 2 son and brother returned and we rafted the 2 boats together. The tally was standing at their boat 1 salmon and a mixed bag of 10 bream and flathead, us 1 bream, we couldn't even find poddy mullet and had to borrow some. As the tide dropped to bight came on, well for their boat anyway, seems we had rafted to the wrong side of them. As the end of the day approached the last livie was sent over. It didn't last long. With a large heavy fish moving slowly around in the current it was called for a large flat head. After about 5 minutes of what can only be described as a sluggish fight it came into view. What a beast. After another five minutes of jumping from one boat to the other it was netted, and what a fat flatty it was. No where near the longest I had caught but boy was it fat. It was quickly placed into the esky along with 100L of aerated water as we made the dash back to the weighin determined to keep the fish alive for release. The flathead measured in at a stumpy 85cm but weighed in at an astonishing 5.9kg and is a pending national ANSA record for a flathead on 1kg line. After a few quick photos she taken back to river and released swimming away stongly after being swum for a few minutes. Sunday morning came and we were determined to get number 2 son a fish. His first chance was an approx 3kg salmon on 1kg line. Unfortunately he was a little outgunned and his short 3 year old arms saw him unable to hold the line far enough from the boat and after about 15 minutes the fish won its freedom. I'm not sure who was more upset Tyler or Daddy. Anyway after settling down and a cold drink for myself and some lollies for Tyler he was ready to try again. This time we hooked a more manageably sized fish and had upgraded to 2kg line. After a relatively short 10 minute fight and to great excitement we boated his first Salmon which weighed in at 1.5kg. This was to be our only fish for the day as we headed of for the sausage sizzling lunch and the presentation. All in all it was a pretty good weekend and although we didn't catch a lot of fish we caught some quality fish. And while we don't fish for the trophies or the records they sure are nice when they come your way. We ended up for the weekend with 2 pending national records and taking out 1st place for sub junior, 1st and 3rd for junior, myself 1st for estuary and hookerbruce 2nd, my wife fourth in the ladies, champion club, and Kobi's salmon deemed to be Most Meritorious Capture for the whole competition.

Kobi would like to correct you. He said to tell grandpa that his Salmon weighed in at 2.42kg and it took all morning to land

Did the boys catch anything today?

About 21km.

Luckily my kids aren't that big yet so I still get to eat most of my fish myself, though the older can give it a good go. The younger one is more interested in the chips that go with the fish

I think it was around 20-25 yakkas. Depends on how many are around and their size, but if we get more than this they can start to die in the tank. They only lasted about half the day till we ran out but the dolphin fish we eating anything.

With it being a few years since chasing the dolphin fish off Sydney and all the reports coming in I decided it was time to give them a go. After arranging to be working from home today, quick call to my dad, HookerBruce, earlier in the week and the weather being onside everything fell into place. After hitting the water just before 6 we filled up with livies and headed out through the heads and onto the Port Hacking Fad. As we travelled out the water temp steadily climbed and by the time we reached the fad it had climbed to 26 degrees. Approx 8km short of the FAD we came across a set of free floating fish trap buoys. As we motored close we were welcomed by hordes of hungry dollies. The first livies were sent over and we were both instantly hooked up with fish around the 70cm mark. For the next 1 1/2 hours every line which hit the water was set upon. Approx 25 fish were boated during this time ranging from around 50cm up to the biggest for the day at 95cm. The decision was made to keep heading out to the FAD and see if we could find a larger fish. As we approached the FAD 2 things stuck out. Firstly were the free jumping fish and secondly was that we were the only boat out there. We actually never saw another boat all day and had the FAD to our selves until we left just after 1. We probably landed at least another 20 fish at the FAD with the average size around 80cm. We ended up keeping 8 fish for the day with 4 of them over 90cm and the smallest at 75cm plus released about 6 which were over 90cm. Only saw one larger fish which looked approx 110-120, unfortunately it followed up a hooked fish when we were both already hooked up. Would have to say it is the most dolphin fish I have ever seen and caught off Sydney (probably anywhere) and of a quality size, having the FAD to yourself all day also helps. Hopefully we get a few more of these stronger currents and they keep up like this, at least for next summer anyway.

Basically we sight fish for them as they come up the berley trail. We catch them on hook, line and sinker. Takes a bit of practice but you can catch them in good numbers.

Hit the port on Saturday morning with my son and my dad, Hooker Bruce. We were on the water from roughly 7 till 4 and to put it simply we struggled. I spent most of my day being deckie to my 4 year old son, Kobi so didn't actually do much fishing myself. First port of call was the deep water of the back of Lilli Pilli sand flat. Fishing with unweighted baits of Pilchards and tuna cubes. This resulted in the standard procession of under size pinkies. We landed 2 small trevally around 35-40cms and saw only a small amount of sporadic surface activity. Next spot was one of our favourite bream spots which as usual provided a few fish and unleashed Kobi the fish thief. Grandpa made the mistake of telling Kobi that whoever was holding the rod or picked the rod up first they had to pull in the fish to which he simply replied "that's ok which ever rod gets a fish I'll just pick up". Which is exactly what he did. He managed 2 bream going about 28-30cms with both himself and grandpa, Hooker Bruce, being taken through the rocks a couple of times. As the tide dropped we had to move on, getting some nippers and then working our way along the southern edge of the channel, stopping at several places. The fish were noticeable in the absence with only an undersized flathead and undersized whiting being boated. However the lack of fish was more than made up for by the number of blue swimmers. It was the most crabs we had seen in the hacking for a couple of seasons with most of the stops producing crabs. Including a couple of really good ones. For the day we ended up keeping 9 good size males plus releasing a couple of smaller males (probably just legal size) and plenty of females caught and released. The catching of the crabs resulted in an almost diplomatic situation with Kobi letting it be known that he should be allowed to catch and or net the crabs. Anyway a truce was negotiated which saw him allowed to catch or net the females and once we had caught a few he was allowed to catch a few keepers. Towards the bottom of the tide, we moved over to Lilli Pilli sand flat so we could get out of the boat for a while and let Kobi stretch his legs. Working nippers and pilchards along the edge resulted in a little excitement but no actual fish. Kobi's nipper by pure chance was cast into passing school of what most likely appeared decent sized frigates. Unfortunately the hook pulled after a couple of minutes, though the short fight on 1kg line left him buzzing and he is still talking about how big that fish could have been. The rest of the day was spent moving around various places with decent bites few and far between. Of note was Kobi loosing a good sized bream, appeared to be about 35cm, at the boat with the hooks again pulling and HookerBruce landing one a similar size (released). All up was a bit of a disappointing day on the fish front with only 3 bream and 2 trevally boated for about 9 hours on the water, though with addition of the blue swimmers it ended up being not to bad.

A 5.5m fibreglass boat is pretty hefty. Whether the car can handle it or whether it will damage the car may not be your main concern. I'm sure someone will confirm this or correct me if I'm wrong but if your are over the maximum towing capacity then it could become an insurance and liability issue. I'd imagine if you are exceeding the weight limit and have a crash and injure someone or worse than you may find yourself on the wrong side of the law and your insurance company even if you weren't at fault. I'd be finding a public weigh station some where and finding out exactly how much your towing. Remember to make allowance for a fully laden boat. By the time you make allowances for a couple of batteries, anchors and chain, fishing gear, safety gear, esky, bait, ice, 100+ litres of fuel and everything else you carry (and your fish) it is easy to add on a few hundred kilos, particularly if you're going on holidays and using your boat to carry everything which wont fit in your car such as kids bikes or camping gear.

Really depends on what your definition of offshore is. If you mean generally sticking close to the coast, say within about 5-7km's with the odd trip out to the fads then something around 5m will suffice most of the time. If you want something to regularly head out to the shelf or browns then you are going to want something a bit larger. As previously mention there are 5m boats and there are 5m boats and a lot comes down to your budget and tow vehicle. If you are looking second hand around this size then I would stick to the boats which have well deserved reputations for offshore handling, for example the above mentioned seafarers, haines v17 range, cruise craft reef raider, yellowfin or any number of multi hulls, plus numerous others. As anything it comes down to budget and your priorities.

By the description of the fight, the blistering runs and in between being worked with relative ease to the boat, it sounds somewhat like a spanish mackerel. I've heard of a few being caught down this far this season and they commonly take to the air, though not sure of the squid bait. Though is probably more likely to be a large salmon or decent kingfish with a shark on its tail.

Looks like he is trying to decide if 1 is enough for dinner if he needs 2