The Rev

Well done - great site and great effort.

Good job - its amazing what is coming in this winter!

Thanks Ray - it was a fun day on the water with a few extra unexpected blessings to finish it off!

Yes - it was a great brunch and yes with a holy beer. That's my mate Tony - always celebrating!

No - I'm the Rev (Bruce) - Tony is the guy in the photo. Local Manly guy who comes to my church. Cheers The Rev

Before I start this post it needs to be said – I am an Anglican minister – so I believe in miracles! And this was an interesting day – but not quite what you may be wondering… Baramundi in Sydney Harbour? Think more Jesus multiplying five loaves and two fish to feed a crowd. We are in miracle territory today. We set out at 6:30am from Manly boat ramp on Friday morning (my day off). I live not far from there and always go out from this ramp. We started in North Harbour fishing for bream and Trevally and only managed one bream in the high twenties. With my wife counting on a feed when we got back he went into the esky. My mate Tony had a great hook up and run but inexperience cots him a good fish at the boat. After being there for an hour without too much action we moved to Sow & Pigs. With a large high tide coming in – our floated un-weighted prawn baits just wouldn’t sit down in the burley trail and as soon as the line feed stopped – they floated up to the surface due to the run of the water. Blow! I have fished there a bit and experienced this a bit – you need to get the boats sinking down with the burley to get fish and if you weight your bait up – you get endless lost tackle. Been there before for a lot of frustration. So the call comes time to move. High tide was at 9:45am and I wanted to make sure we had a good burley trail set as we approached it so me moved. We motored over to Middle Head – but same problem with the tidal flow. The westerly was now well and truly up so we made the call to move again – this time to inside Dobroyd near the Shacks. We got there and all looked promising. Clean air as we were protected from the wind and only one other boat that was squidding. Well after an hour we managed only 1 keeper. A nice Leatherjacket along with a sergeant baker (Great for making fish stock for all the cooks out there. They have great flesh just millions of bones!). Plenty of small snapper but nothing else worth writing home about. It was now 9:35am and feeling somewhat defeated – we headed in to Balmoral. Coffee and Breakfast at the new boatshed beckoned and my mate offered to shout! So over we went. The wind had dropped by now and as we slowed in the no wash zone and began to motor past the boats, an empty mooring beckoned. I thought high tide – let’s have one more shot. Well after a hot session right on the high tide we managed 9 Trevally in 30 minutes – 6 were 31-35cm keepers. Happy days I though as we motored the rest of the way in to the boat shed at Balmoral. After ordering food and coffee I went to check the boat. And this is when the miracles started! I went to check the boat was ok before food appeared and after checking all was ok – Tony materializes with a barramundi in his hand – still flapping!!!. He then stoops down and plucks another one out of bucket. Now understand – he is at the back of the restaurant, I am a minister, and I think he has pinched them from the kitchen. Oh dear – not a good look and he is calling to me – get the esky ready. Kitchen staff are about 5 meters away and I am thinking Tony – what are you doing! All was not what it seemed. He then proceeded to tell me that the Tender boat at the Boat Shed had been helping with a Japanese photo shoot on the harbour out the front of Balmoral. Can yo believe this - They were using live barramundi! The must have been ones that are imported down from up north for the restaurants. The photo shoot had finished and the boat driver said help yourself – just leave me one! He is still in the bucket to prove it. So there you go – 2 barramundi caught at Sydney Harbour, out of a bucket – by hand! I never thought I would see that in winter in Sydney Harbour. There is a God and miracles still happen! Cheers The Rev Ps - the first photo is back at Manly boat ramp. The second the last Barramundi still trying to live in the bucket. The third is the catch for the day and the last - Breakfast at Balmoral Boat Shed - I can recommend it!

Great photo - well done dad. Start them young!

Great catch - awesome to see winter waters firing!

cool video - well done

Awesome fish, a great way to end the day :-) The Rev

Great catch - well done. Often stop by there in the tinny for a coffee but must try a flick with the soft plastics next time! Cheers Therev

Great job

Well done guys / thanks for the report. Brought the memories of chasing Dollies off Wollongong when I lived down there. Glad you got a feed in the end Cheers The Rev

Great job - well done! Were you anchored of slow trolling the bait? Cheers The Rev

Hi 1mopar I caught 2 trolling a red and white CD rapala - one a salmon and one a bonito Caught all other three on a white metal slug about 35grams on 203CVZ millionaire bait castor(14lb). I lost 2 more on my soft plastics rod (6lb) that had a 25gram blue coloured metal. Cheers

Went out solo today. Tried hard to get a mate but no takers. Pity, great time on the water chucking lures. There were a heap of salmon and bonito and tailor underneath. Caught them all between Grotto point and middle head. At one stage there were seven boats surrounding a boiling water pot of fish smashing small bait fish. Lots of saltwater fly guys out there. I ended up with 2 salmon and 2 ninnies round the 50 mark and a 40cm tailor. Lots of fun on light gear The harbour is certainly get back to where it was before those raining storms came, Cheers The Rev Just uploaded the photo of the catch

Good on you - nothing like that first one! Now you have one I am sure you can't wait to get out again to catch the next one... the Kingfish addiction! Cheers The Rev

I agree. The two keys for me have been expensive jigs and persistence - it does eventually pay off. I have gone from frustrated squid jigger to seeing some fruit. The Rev Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice report - glad to hear you landed your fish on 20lb braid. It gives me hope! I was out this morning with my 16 old son, landed a rat and was then run off by two larger kings. We were fishing with 50lb braid and a 60lb leader. Last week we lost 3 on 30lb braid. We will bd back next Thursday for another crack - hope you enjoyed dinner! The Rev

Thanks for the report Fi5hing and all the comments, can't wait to get out again. I was dusted by 3 big Kings in a row Wednesday! Cheers. The Rev

Well done - the harbour has come alive. I've been out the past few days and it has been great fishing. Those Salmon are big- I'm sure lots of fun Cheers The Rev

You too - I was out in a small tinny slow tolling a live squid up and down the north head wall off the Q station. Nothing! Went to North Harbour and caught teh smallest Rat I have ever hooked - about 30cm I reckon! Cheers The Rev - Also back at my desk!

Hi Raiders Went out with a mate from Little Manly yesterday and had a great day on the water catching a mixed bag. I work weekends (local minister at Manly) so I get to have a midweek day off Great for fishing! Hit a new spot near early (5:30am) on the high tide at north head for 5 good bream - biggest went 39 cms. Lost 3 others as we were fishing very light. Went to try an catch some squid as we wanted to try our hand at snaring a kingfish but no luck - Still learning that art but will persevere for next time. We then went and fished North Harbour for some lives - caught a bunch of Slimies (13) and some yakkas (5) which we then went to slow troll off north head. Also caught a salmon and a nice 30cm trevally at North Harbour. On the way out to North Head we trolled some bibbed lures out and caught a rat king (55cm) and then a toothy tailor (50cm). I landed the tailor with the net and then went to get it out but it wasn't happy about it's new environment ... It latched onto my middle figure and bit down! Boy it hurt, what's more it wouldn't let go! AFter a struggle that went on for what felt like an age, I got the fish off along with some nice new puncture marks all around my finger. There was as much blood in the boat from bleeding the fish as there was from my finger. NOTE TO SELF - USE A GLOVE WHEN HANDLING LARGER TAILOR. We then switched to live baits and did a slow troll up and down but had no takers. With the wind getting up we retired to Middle Harbour to soak a few baits but not much luck there so we came home. All in all a good day on the water. Cheers The Rev Just got one photo uploaded!

We got hit slow trolling the livey (yakka) It took the yakka round it's shoulders just behind the hook that was put through it's nose. It was dead when I wound it in with teeth marks all over the body! Next time. We trolled a red / white rapala hard body over at first light but no luck. Cheers the Rev

We had a live yakka out at North Harbour while fishing for teh Trev's but no takes - we got the hit rounding point going back out of North Harbour. Next time!