The Rev

Great report Zoran - well done on the dollies. A warm current has just pushed into Sydney so I am not surprised to see the result. Bruce

Well done Bob!

Well done Tarik - what day were you out? Great to hear about the abundance of the Dollies!

Well done on the Trag Yowie - they are great eating fish. What was the depth of the water that you in. Fascinated how they came in on dark. I've only caught them about 7km's offshore in 50m of water. Bruce

Hi Bob - it was great to see you out there. We ended up with 4 in quick succession before the bite shut down. I wouldn’t be surprised if a shark turned up. It happens regularly when they are on the bite. We could have caught more but I was taking my brother who had never fished before and I ended up helping him moist of the time that the bite started. He loved it! Being on holidays at present I have been away from teh computer and haven’t posted about the as a result. Bruce

Thanks Duncan - we will have to catch one together!

Dinner sorted for a few nights! It is fish again tonight!!!

Hi Bob, I was on a mates boat and he was ready to come in at 11:30am so in we went! We had plenty of fish as it was!

Just a quick report as am also trying to work today. Went out yesterday on my day off with a new fishing friend from the Northern Beaches (Steve) no board hits boat to fish for Snapper and Trag. had tried a few people who wanted to come with me but all were unavailable and Steve offered for me to come with him and his mate. Headed out from Little Manly at 5:20am before sunrise to north of Sydney Heads. We fished the first of his spots as the sun came up and managed 1 decent Trag that was approx. 70cm. After not much action we moved to a second spot and had good success with Steve landing us on the fish. WE caught 4 1/2 Trag, the half being all that was left after Steve was sharked! Myself and Peter also got sharked on good pulling up decent sized Trag. Steve managed to catch a 55cm Bonito which was soon being used as fresh cut bait. After things went quiet for 15 minutes - probably from teh sharks in the area, I had a very solid hit that was pulling line on my Penn Slammer 4500. After a strong battle I managed I was pleasantly surprised to see a massive snapper come up next to the boat! It was by far and away a PB for me at 76cm. Final catch for the day was 4 1/2 Trag, 2 Snapper, 3 Mowong and teh Bonito. All fish caught on bait. Fun day out and back at the ramp by 11:30am. Cheers, The Rev

Hi Neil - I have no idea - what i do know is why the Watsons are called Leaping bonito. They were literally leaping out of the water on the day as they chased the bait fish. It was amazing to see. Bruce

Hi Gareth - Yes that one was a Watson's leaping Bonito - They were literally leaping out of the water up in Elizabeth Bay.

Thanks Isaac - yes it is lighter colour. It is a soft flesh so needs to be carefully handled and is at its best in the first 2 days, but delicious as sashimi when eaten fresh! Remarkably, many people only use them as bait (which they are great for!). The Rev

Hi Raiders - A quick report this time. I went out Friday on sunrise for a quick few hours. Took a mate from church who loves sashimi. WE caught 3 bonito trolling inside North Head. We then spot locked where we got the last one and burleyed up for 45 minutes to try and catch a king at Old Man's Hat but not a touch. WE managed one pan sided snapper. WE went up the harbour to Elizabeth Bay and caught 2 more bonito on lures before heading back to the ramp at 10am. Lunch entree sorted for a family gathering the next day and some good fun! The Rev

Sashimi was great Neil 👌🏼

To quote the from that great movie and the key actor Forrest Gump... "My momma always said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.” Well that was exactly what yesterday's fishing trip was like! I headed out from Manly ramp at 6am as the sun rose and started by squid fishing, but after no luck went around the corner to the "blue pools" live bait ground. There was one other boat there and between us small yakkas were easy to come by. i had a noice to chat to him as we fished next to each other and shared burley trails as we pulled livies up ready for teh days fishing adventures. At this stage he told me that he had caught some nice dollies the previous week off the Sydney Harbour FAD (the one 15km's out that is off Bondi). Given the weather report - 1M swell and low wind I thought that I could make it out there. After heading out past the artificial is was still a bit bumpy and continued that way for quite a while. In my boat (4.2M Quintrex renegade tiller steer) I was able to go at between 13-15 knots and saw two larger 6M+ boats heading out that there at about 20-22 knots. Sadly the weather changed and it poured - that was definitely not part of the plan. I was quickly getting drenched. Here is a quick video of the rain that happened on a few occasions when out wide. IMG_2458.MOV Thankfully I have wet weather gear which I got on just in time! I finally arrived at the FAD after about a 30 minute journey and discovered 5 boats there including 2 charter boats. There were fish there but sadly they went off the bite as soon as I arrived 😞 I fished livies and soft plastics for one 30cm king! A bit demoralising. I went about 500m east to where there is a reef that holds big kings. Fishing the bottom - my new friend from the live boat grounds who was also fishing there landed a nice john Dory. When I tried this was all I could catch! After 5 drops at 100-105 Meters depth I thought that I would go back to the Fad to see if the Dollies would bite. I landed one on a soft plastic that was 55cm and so it went back to grow bigger. I have to say it was a bit disappointing. Driving back I thought that I would try in close off Ben Buckler. I stopped at the 50m grounds and tried for a flatty but all that was biting were small juveniles with 2 small blue spots and a small undersized snapper all thrown back. At Ben Buckler I down rigged a small yakka for a while for no hits. Knowing that there are a lot of Bonito around at the moment - I thought that I would troll back to South head and landed 2 nice sized Bonito - 45cm & 54cm respectively which put a smile on the face as we all love sashimi in my household and this was going to be dinner. Coming back in after a quick call to the wife who said take your time coming in - I slow trolled a down rigged yakka from Old Man's Hat to the Centurion and just as I thought that I would pack it in gift hit by a king! I had stumbled on a small school of Rats that were sitting off the Centurion wreck and landed a few which was fun. There were in the high 50cm range and were sent back. Thankfully i did that as 2 mins later Fisheries rocked up and did a fish catch inspection! After a nice chat to them I returned to Manly ramp. Sadly though the southerly had come up and it was a real struggle to get the boat on the trailer. With rain coming down and not a person in sight at Little Manly Cove there was no one to help. As I definally succeeded I remembered Forrest Gump's famous line - Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you are going to get. and I think fishing is pretty similar. It was fun day that definitely didn't happen as I imaged it. I ended up catching... 1 nannygai, 1 big eyed reef fish, 1 dolphin fish, 2 flathead, 1 snapper, 2 bonito and 2 kings - 10 fish total catch, 1 rain squall endured and dinner sorted. God bless and thanks for reading, The Rev