Fishy Firey

Hey letsgocrabbing, the bloke who thought the North Sydney (or Broken Bay) Fad was missing was me, and that was confirmed. I did troll past the old location on this run and could see no replacement yet.

Mmmm, maybe if I re-rigg this or tweak that.....🐟🐟🐟😁

Out again this morning, 6am at Parsley Bay only to find the ramp packed (Thursday is garbage collection day and the barge from Dangar has to drop off and pick up garbage trucks), but with a little patience I was soon on the water. Today I thought I’d give west head bait grounds a miss and stick with lures only. Not too far out of BB and a frigate mackerel came aboard on a pink rapala x-rap 30 about half the size he was. At about the 70m mark the water temperature finally started to nudge up from the 21 degrees I was seeing nearer to shore, and out went the skirts. Watching the temperature slowly pass 23.5, (nothing like the 27.1 I saw last trip) I turned to check how my lures were running and thought “Wow that short corner is leaving a hell of a bubble trail, and it’s bright blue! And it’s waving a broom stick!” Marlin in the spread! After swatting a the lure a couple of times he came out of the water and smashed it. It stayed attached for about 10 seconds, then he was gone😩. The lure needed checking as it wasn’t swimming right, so in it comes with a small mahi-mahi on. I think he was so small on the heavy gear I may have been trolling a livie accidentally and that’s what the marlin took (then dropped). Trolled on to Terrigal Fad, some fair sized mahi-mahi there but hard to tempt. Picked up a 90cm mahi-mahi on the return trip, but no more beakie fish. Conditions were a little rough and the action slow, but that minute or so of watching that massive fish stalk my lure 30feet from the boat and 10 seconds of screaming reel, has pumped my addiction to a new level. I think this hit might last till I can get out again Monday, but man I’ve got it bad now...😉

So a few weeks back I’m peddling (flappering😁) my way around Berowra Waters tossing SP’s for Bream when a large red and brown striped fish had an explosive shot at my shallow retrieve along a drop off. It came part way out of the water and showed a fair bit of flank so I was as sure as I could be (without actually catching it😉) and I reckon it was a Mangrove Jack. Couldn’t entice a second take... Anyone else ever encountered such a mythical beast locally? (North Syd / Hawkesbury River)

I reckon the chances are good it was me, if you’re talking about the skinny bloke in an I-fish cap with an esky full of sashimi 👍 and thanks Welster for the Fad info

Hi all, time for a second post, here goes... 5am launch out of Parsley Bay, headed to West Head bait grounds, but the schools there were really on edge, I’m guessing the Kingies were probably about. Found livies at the Valiant wreck and headed for the BB Fad... Trolled mixed skirts from about the 50m mark to the fad, or at least where the fad was last week! Has it dragged or is it gone, does anyone know? So no Fad there, lures back in the water, and off to the Terrigal Fad. Following (roughly) the 100m contour. About 2/3 of the way there the Striped Tuna (Skipjack) started belting the lures and I iced a couple of 7ish kg modles for sushimi and retuned another dozen to fight again. Arrived at the T Fad to find a sizeable but courteous crowd and when I got my chance threw a 30g jig on 20lb leader looking for a nice dolly, instead it’s another tuna, although a lot more challenging on the light stuff instead of the game rods. Trolled home with no (marlin) luck. the water was 27 almost back to Broken Bay, where there were huge schools of slimies and yakkas at the colour and temp break only 2km or so out. 36 trolling hours this season, no beakie fish, but I’m still lovin it😀 And remember if you’re heading out, log in with Marine Resce, it’s a BIG ocean out there👍

Hi all, thought I’d make my first post, here goes... Launched 5:45 am from Parsley Bay, stopped at West Head for some yakkas ( 5 minutes with a little bread berly and bait jig saw 6 in the bait tank) and then headed for the Terrigal Fad, trolling small skirts looking for marlin. No pointy fish, but a nice bull mahi-mahi of 95 cm right at the fad. Stopped and threw lures ( softies of various size and poppers) and liveys at the mixed school of kings and mahi-mahi for no result. Trolled down to Broken Bay fad, again no result, same tactics. Trolled back to the river, grabbed a couple of nice tailor from a school near Flint and Steel and headed home by 2 pm. Long day, no marlin but a beautiful day all the same.