mark_s

Touch wood have never forgotten my Bungs. I have however launched without holding onto my guide rope. Had to jump in and swim after my vessel as it happily drifted out from the ramp. Then had to get back in the car sopping wet to go park the trailer.

I was out on my yak on the weekend (first time for 6 weeks). On sat, I hit the mainbar at flats at high tide with soft plastics. Not a touch in over 2 hours. On Sunday, I hit the pontoons in burraneer and gunnamatta bays, again with soft plastics, for two small bream. Nice out on the water though.

Not a bite. Water was dirty in the hacking but l clean off Cronulla

Busy on the port today despite the rain this morning. Had boats whizzing passed me on top of the darook flats. The navigation channel is obviously recommend only. Made it bloody hard to flick lures around.

These have been on the hacking a lot over summer, including at night with no lights on (after the waterways have clocked off). Some of them are those takacat's where the driver can't see where they are going. Silly stuff

Thanks stormy.

Where did this happen stormy? In the hacking (I.e. Past burraneer) or out around shark island or jibbon? I am dubious of the 4-5m claim if it's up at lilli pilli or beyond. I can believe a 2-3m bull, which would look bugger, but not a gws (or tiger). Ps, I saw a turtle up opposite port hacking (the suburb) on the weekend and the water was 21deg, cf 19 at jibbon beach so that's a bit unusual.

Tough topic. I live on a street with tight parking. One of the neighbours keeps a trailer (no boat) parked on it. But not in front of his house as that would stuff up his parking, no it's down the street in front of someone else. The trailer hasn't moved once in 9 months I have been living here. When one neighbour said something to them, they sent round their 20 year old sons to suggest they keep their views to themselves. This is the exception though. My boat doesnt fit in the garage, so I pay to park it somewhere secure but have stored it on street in my o9ld house.

Snuck this arvo on the kayak using sift plastics at mainbar on the rising tide. Landed a nice flatly at 35cms, my first on the yak, yay. The bigger talking point was a huge flatly (looked 4ft plus) meandering over the flats in about 1 foot of water. It was a great sight and she had no fear of me. Finished the day off by having a moray swimming between my legs while lifting the yak out of the water. Made me jump about 3 ft in the air. Nice few hours on the water

The hacking is chocolate brown in burraneer bay

I gave this spot a go this morning from the kayak (last channel marker). I got hammered by leather jackets (big ones). They chased the soft plastic to the surface, a net would have gotten me one. I might try again tomorrow.

I drifted these flats lat Sunday morning (on the big high tide) on a kayak tossing around pink soft plastics. Didn't get a hit in 2 hrs and only saw a school of mulllet.

Hi Jet, I live next to Cronulla and fish these areas whenever i can (which isn't that often as I have very young kids). Firstly, in terms of boat, I previously had a 14ft quintrex and now have a 18ft Searay. Neither are a great sea boat but both were/are fine for what I do (fish from kurnel down to about Wattamolla, and in the hacking) generally sticking to within 1-2kms of the coast, providing you pick your day and don't push it if in doubt. One thing to watch out for is the fog can roll down off the RNP quickly, even in the middle of the day. It doesn't happen often, but if makes for an eiry run back to the hacking, navigating by compass and sounder. In terms of spots, don't forget there is quite a few spots in the middle and north end of bate bay, merries reef: osborne shoals and more. Also, don't underestimate the hacking, You can catch legal snapper there as well, my daughter caught one on dough at a mooring that I reckong 95% of boats in the hacking drive past every day. Its the same technique as offshore - drift light weighted lines down a burly trail. Back to the offshore spots, I have had some success chasing snapper on plastics but also more failures - the jackets (and maybe toads) just tear you apart some days. I haven't got any in really shallow water (20m of less) yet. As for kings, I haven't picked up any stonkers of the RNP yet, dunna why as I think I am doing all the right things. They are there though and I have had plenty of just under kings. Have had some strange catches, the other week I was getting bonito on pastics down at marley, but there was a few (school?) of red rockies underneath the bonnies - presumedly feeding on their scraps. Good luck

Water was 20 degrees in the hacking on Sunday and pretty much the same out in bate bay. Also the water is deeper than 15m of Lilli pill from memory it gets down to about 25m. The maritime website also has good maps of all of sydney,s waterways, inckuding showing where the deeper water is. Yowie your reports and catches are consistently very impressive!

Fishing any of the deeper holes in the hacking will give you (small) reddies if nothing else. A bit of burly will bring them on if their quiet for some reason. I take my kids out on the hacking and once they have caught a little reddie each they are "reddie" to go home! Lilli pilli is a good spot, deep water plus the opportunity for something decent.

Also done. Does anyone know what is the "misuse" that council is referring to?

I was fishing depths of 25 to 45m in bate bay with soft plastics 3.5inch to 5inch, trying to focus on the drop offs when ever I found one. not sure if that helps but Good luck

It came up 49cms today, but tasted great. A bit more detail on yesterday, my original plan was to head down to the hump but the forecast had the swell picking up during the day so I thought I would stick closer to home as I have had some tough conditions the last few trips. Instead I drfited the reefs at the north of bate bay throwing soft plastics. A school of fish kept showing up on one particular reef so I knew that if I gave it long enough I would pick something up. Was a good day all in all (and in hindsight the conditions were good enough to head down to the hump), but who can complain when over the course of the day you see whales, pods of dolphins, an albatross and a turtle plus pick up a nice fish for the table. One thing I am learning about fishing soft plastics is you don't get many pickers/throwbacks. IT seems to be an all or nothing bet.

Fished Bate Bay today for one nice snapper. Dropped another one which felt a little bigger. Was a slow day, only had 2 runs all morning. Jackets were attacking the gear when on top of the reef, but I didn't lose anything to them. Sorry for the pic quality. The wife was having a party when I got home so haven't had a chance to take a nice picture or measure it properly. I think its just over 50cms but will measure it up tomorrow.

I assume this was Oz day. I headed out. Got livies at jibbon and started trolling down the coast. The fog came in and it was very erie. Could only see 20m or so. No idea if it was going to clear or how far away the forecast southerly was so I turned around and headed back to the hacking at walking pace. Had to navigate by compass and sounder. Anchored on the north side of jibbon headland to see what the fog would do. When it cleared I got buzzed by the police helicopter and at the same time I dropped a yakka under my floor. I gave up and headed home then dodging the gin palaces.

UHF Channel 88 Botany Bay doesn't have a bar so much as an entrance - its far less dangerous to cross than a normal river bar. Stay in the middle of the channel for the best run. I have been heading out of botany bay and port hacking for the last 10 years in a 4.2m quintrex. Pick your days (especially the first few times). I find wind just as problematic as swell in smaller boats so wait for a day when both are favourable. One thing about botany, you can get days when the wind and swell are coming from different directions and a containership inevitably passes you on the other side so its like being hit from 3 directions at once. You shouldn't be heading outside on these days in a small boat anyway. My rule is that if I have to think twice about heading outside - I turn around and find somewhere sheltered to fish. No sounder will make it harder for you but there are some options: Troll along the healdands/cliffs for bonito etc. Drift stirght out from the heads of the bay in 30-50m for flatties (I have also picked up reddies and mowong doing this). Anchor in 20-30m of water out from any of the land/structure. Float baits and burly and see whats about. After years of heading outside the bay, I came the conclusion that the fishing inside the bay was just as good (if not better) than heading outside.

Good catch there and great report. I was out in the middle of bate bay today. It was a late start and then I had to hightail it home when the wind picked up around 1030ish. Ended up with just two flatties but one needed to be measured twice so he went back. I had earlier tried to pick up some yakkas but there were literaly none to be found - there were plenty last weekend but they vanished during the week.

PIc of amberjack. A pic of the undersize king to come.

I was in a 14ft Quintrex. The plan worked out a bit better today. Drifted baits does off jibbon for snapper, flathead, trevors and an amberjack. The amberjack was a keeper, the others were all 5cms or less undersize. Unbelievable run of not quite legal fish, but it was good fishing nevertheless. Then picked up a just undersize king on a trolled yakka before I picked up the kids and they caught their first fish in gunnamatta bay. Good day all in all, could have been a great day had just half of those fish been a few cms bigger.