Brendan Monks

Some cracker Pearlies there @Pickles 😲 Dylan (Deckie) told me you guys were fishing with them that day, we were fishing our last point score day of the game fishing season...Unfortunately zeros but can't complain at all about the season we had this year!

Amazing looking boat Zoran!!! Looks like you've included all the bells and whistles 😍 I notice you have outrigger bases on this boat! 👌🦄

Nice work Wazza! Hopefully we will see another report from you mid week 😉🤙

I'm not too sure the best time of the year, but I'd guess a Saturday arvo/night would work best with most people providing weather/tides align 😁 See what others think, I'm easy! 😄

Great to hear Neil!!! 👌 Scotty is the best around and and Dyl is a good kid, I was with him Thursday & Friday nights 🍻 and he mentioned he was working Saturday but I never guessed it was with you guys! 😄 I know him through the local Game Fishing Club 🤙

Looks like a cracker day out @Pickles How did the deckie (Dylan) perform? 😄

Haven't really thought about another trip again just yet. We wanted to get a few in early this season before it got too cold 😆😄 Shoot us a PM and should be able to work something out 👌

Thank you Donna. I'd be in for sure if something was put together!!! 👌 I never got to experience one of the old Hairtail Socials 😄

Cheers, thank you guys! 🤙

Cheers, thanks guys! I've heard if you do get bitten by one to apply their slime? When I first tried them I couldn't believe how good they tasted...a very sweet fish - Definitely something you need to have a crack at mate.

After last year’s success, I thought I’d give it a crack a Friday night a while back (29/04) chasing some Hairtail fishing solo up the Cowan. It was a late get away and I was only on the water around 8:00pm. I couldn’t believe the amount of boats fishing over the cockle beds in the Hawkesbury and was surprised even more by the number fishing up in JB. 😲 With the rods baited and set it was only 5/10 minutes before I had the unmistakable bite of a Hairtail slowly tugging down, feeding out a bit of line I struck and didn’t come tight…lesson learnt, strike earlier next time! After a bit of hard burleying for an hour or so, I had another 2 fish boatside only to pull hooks. Finally another rod went off and I quickly had it in the boat after a short tussle! First Hairtail for my boat. Yeeeww. The rest of the night was uneventful apart from another decent sized one that snipped me off next to the boat, but I was very happy for the first outing of the season! 🥳👌 With the first fish under the belt, I decided to plan a mid-week trip with my mate, and we penciled in Wednesday. Froth levels were high and become even higher when I saw @J0nn0 report just before we headed off! Getting on the water a bit earlier this time (Although still late for Hairtail standards – I have given up ever fishing dusk with work commitments) we put out 1 crab pot to soak while we fished. Fishing in the bay away from all the other boats we soon had a nice burley trail going, we had the tell tail sign of fish under us, but no baits been taken. It wasn’t long before we had a trickle of small baitfish come into the lights when my mates rods rod went off that he had just casted into the shadow line! After a few happy snaps my rod went off soon after…a smaller model but still happy we were onto them! We had both missed another fish each before he came up tight again to a good size fish adding to his tally of 2. Bait by now had disappeared and we could see a lot of boats had already packed up and headed off. We made the call to try another location and after a bit of mucking around setting anchor again with current and wind moving us everywhere we finally had some burley back in the water. My rod loaded up and screamed off quickly and we both hoped it was a small Jewie, but alas a big Stingray (We were fishing a bit shallower in this spot so must of casted too far 🙄). Not long after unhooking it I felt the pressure of a Hairtail again and struck hard. It seems removing the swivels out of my gang hooks gave it nothing to turn when it hits their bony mouth, and I didn’t miss a hookup all night, unlike the week before! 🤔 A great night overall, somehow getting home at 2:30 after a ‘Quick’ session. We checked the crab pot on the way in and found it loaded with baby catfish, 2 male and 2 female Blue Swimmers. We both couldn’t be bothered cooking the crabs so we let them go. Hope to get back down there again soon…or if we can put together some sort of Social Meet… 🍻🤙 Cheers, Brendo

No problem at all mate! I had a change of plans anyway and only fished Sunday arvo and Monday morning for pretty much just Mac Tunas 🤣

@Little_Flatty I think I actually saw the recipe you posted but ended up going with this one: https://www.womensweeklyfood.com.au/recipes/crisp-skinned-thai-chilli-snapper-6846 (No, mine ended up nothing like it! 🤣 I was hoping it was going to come out a bit more crispy!).

The bonito were in plague proportions which may explain it! Still, I have a score to settle with a big cobia...if anyone finds one with hook, leader, and line... 🤣

Thanks Big Neil! 🤙 Cheers mate. Thought I'd try a Thai Chilli Snapper recipe (Just found online) over coconut rice. Tasted amazing! 🤤 Thanks for the heads up Hoods. Plans have changed slightly now and I'll be only fishing Sunday and Monday...Hopefully a few reports come through and I'll see if it's worth the trip up...Otherwise Broughton again! 🤙 Yep, the water was crazy dirty at the heads, but plenty of fish busting up through it.