Fishing The Local Park/bay

[ophet]

Hi All, this is my first fishing report. Joined Fishraider a couple of weeks ago, and have been enjoying reading people's reports. I must say there are a lot of good fishermen on this site, and what has most impressed me is the willingness of people to help others and provide encouragement.

I live in Neutral Bay, and sometimes walk through Anderson Park on my way to work - walking across the Harbour Bridge. I have been sussing out the little bay at the end of the park for a long time now, and have always said to myself that I should give the place a try one day.... never getting around to it.

A couple of days ago I was walking home, through the park and there was so much fish activity around the bay. There was certainly a school of fish busting up bait fish everywhere, I was trying to work out what they were and what they were chasing, I thought I saw some small tailor scurrying along and jumping in terror out of the water. I thought maybe jewies, salmon or maybe kings. What ever they were, I was excited and decided that I would rush home today and grab my SP gear and head down for a crack at what was chasing the fish or have a crack at the flatties that I was sure to be there.

As luck has it when I got down there today, no sign of the hive of fish activity, so I thought I would try to nail some of the flatties. After a couple of casts of the golden squidgie shad into the gutter that I had previously sussed out, and a couple of bumps on the line, I hook onto the first flattie. I had not taken a landing net, as I was planning on releasing the buggers (I was going out for dinner and could not be bothered gutting and scaling fish), so I had the problem of negotiating the drop of a metre or so to the water. I had to bring the flattie close to the wall and lift her in one motion, hoping that she did not bite through the 12lb line. After successfully lifting her onto the grass, I had nothing to measure her with so, took a photo of her with my rod, before releasing. I estimate her to be around 40cm??

A new squidgie was required, as the first one was destroyed. After a couple more casts, hook onto another flatttie. Same method required, get her in close, single lifting motion onto the grass. This one was a little bigger then the first, I decided to put my size 9 thong next to her, to give some scale.

I land another small one, around 30cm and lose a fourth around the same size as the largest one, as she spat out the squidgie just before I was about to lift her out of the water.

All in all a very satisfying trip down to the local park. I know there are some bigger flatties in there and also some bumper bream. They will have to wait another day.

Question to everyone. There is a storm water drain that leads into this bay, which gets pretty filthy after rain - you can see all the grime from the road wash into it after rain. Do you think it would be safe to eat the flatties around the area? I know there has been a lot of press around dioxins in Harbour fish, but the reports only show results on bream, squid, yellowtail, trevs ... not flatties. Interested to hear whether people would eat the fish, in this instance the flatties, out of the bay adjoining Anderson Park - Neutral Bay.

Anyway, sorry about the long winded report. Hope to post some more this coming summer, cheers.

[wrasseman]

Welcome to the site. Great report. Back when I was living in Sydney i fished anderson park bay quite a few times, it certainly can turn it on from time to time. However I was never willing to risk eating anything out of there and i reckon flatties wouldn't be worth the risk. If squid can pick up enough toxins in their 6-8 months of life to make them dodgy, I certainly wouldn't be eating a fish that lives in the sediment with all the crap that falls out of the water column right near a drain.

Cheers

col.

Edited September 22, 2006 by wrasseman

[Jewhunter]

How good is that for a first report?!!

To the site 445F.

We all try to help each other out here.

I fish a drain a bit further up river & nail some cracking Bream & Flatties, but they are not worth eating.

Nice piccies as well,

Cheers,

Grant.

[Flattieman]

to the site. A fair bit of my landbased flattie fishing is similar to that - it's a good feeling when you can catch a few good fish from a convenient location. Some nice flatties there.

Flattieman.

[nlthhig]

nice post. i'm familiar with the area, but haven't giving it a go yet.

keep in mind the water in that area is filthy. i wouldn't even swim there let alone eat the fish that sit on the bottom absorbing all the crap in the water.

do yourself a favour and stick to releasing the fish, you might even end up living longer that way

[mrmoshe]

It looks like flatties aren't quite as affected by dioxin levels as bream and other species.

I still would be very reluctant to eat any of them so near a drain that spills into that bay.

Catch & release seems the safest bet.

Here is a link to the Govt. study and the relevant bit concerning flatties.

Pete.

http://www.deh.gov.au/settlements/publicat...-6/aquatic.html

The regional distributions of the results (TEQFISH) are presented in Figure 3.23. The levels of dioxin-like chemicals on a fresh mass basis were highest in a fish sample that was caught in the Port Jackson area with about 0.49 pg TEQFISH g-1 fm (0.85pg TEQHUMANS g-1 fm). The bream sample from Port Jackson showed relatively elevated levels of the PCB and the PCDF (i.e. about one order of magnitude higher level of PCDF and PCB than any other fish sample analysed in this study). Whiting and flathead samples obtained from the Port Jackson showed levels of PCDD/PCDF and PCB that were not elevated compared to other samples. This may be related to the mobility patterns and/or feeding habits of these fish.

Edited September 22, 2006 by MallacootaPete

[Penguin]

,and nice report

penguin

[ophet]

Welcome to the site. Great report. Back when I was living in Sydney i fished anderson park bay quite a few times, it certainly can turn it on from time to time. However I was never willing to risk eating anything out of there and i reckon flatties wouldn't be worth the risk. If squid can pick up enough toxins in their 6-8 months of life to make them dodgy, I certainly wouldn't be eating a fish that lives in the sediment with all the crap that falls out of the water column right near a drain.

Cheers

col.

G'day Wrasseman, I think you (and everyon else that has reponded) are correct. Life is too short to eat polluted fish !!! I don't think I would be able to enjoy eating it, I would be thinking about whether it was safe to eat or not. To add to the rubbish coming down the open drain, there is the marina for the Captain Cook cruise ships. Who knows what they through into the water, wash and maintain their boats with.

As Flattieman says, it is just nice to have somewhere convenient to go for a fish and land some decent fish. I must admit, going down yesterday afternoon just before dark was very soothing and peaceful !!! Not as exciting as out on the boat, but also not the hassles with launching, washing etc. Good for a change.

Has anyone fished around the next bay, at Cremorne Point? I am pretty sure there are some mean Flatties around there, and it definately looks a lot cleaner. What are your thoughts about eating the fish around the next bay?

Cheers to everyone for the welcome, just confirms the my suspicion of this being a friendly site. Also cheers to MallacootaPete for the information on Flattie pollution. It makes me feel easier about eating them from other parts of the harbour. I don't know about everyone else, but I am still a little uneasy about eating bream from the harbour.

[robthefisherman]

to the site 445f

Great first report mate

[wrasseman]

G'day Wrasseman, I think you (and everyon else that has reponded) are correct. Life is too short to eat polluted fish !!! I don't think I would be able to enjoy eating it, I would be thinking about whether it was safe to eat or not. To add to the rubbish coming down the open drain, there is the marina for the Captain Cook cruise ships. Who knows what they through into the water, wash and maintain their boats with.

As Flattieman says, it is just nice to have somewhere convenient to go for a fish and land some decent fish. I must admit, going down yesterday afternoon just before dark was very soothing and peaceful !!! Not as exciting as out on the boat, but also not the hassles with launching, washing etc. Good for a change.

Has anyone fished around the next bay, at Cremorne Point? I am pretty sure there are some mean Flatties around there, and it definately looks a lot cleaner. What are your thoughts about eating the fish around the next bay?

Cheers to everyone for the welcome, just confirms the my suspicion of this being a friendly site. Also cheers to MallacootaPete for the information on Flattie pollution. It makes me feel easier about eating them from other parts of the harbour. I don't know about everyone else, but I am still a little uneasy about eating bream from the harbour.

I fished mosman bay (far side of cremorne point) heaps back when I lived locally and there are certainly some nice flatties there. My PB came out of there when it grabbed a chopper tailor that I'd hooked on a little 3cm HB and somehow found the hooks. From time to time trevally turn up (winter) and small tunas (frigates I guess) sometimes round bait up against the wall along with tailor. The Bay in between the two is quite small (this is the one you asked about, I think its called fisher bay or something similar but I'm not sure). I've fished it less but it certainly looks the goods with a nice sandflat and steep dropoff and I have taken tailor, whiting and flatties from there. I imagine it is very similar to mosman bay on a smaller scale. My strangest catch from that bay was a bag of pot I found floating past me whilst I was wading. Again (same with mosman bay) there is a stormwater drain there and I'd be careful about eating fish from there.

Cheers

Col.

Edited September 23, 2006 by wrasseman

[nlthhig]

I fished mosman bay (far side of cremorne point) heaps back when I lived locally and there are certainly some nice flatties there. My PB came out of there when it grabbed a chopper tailor that I'd hooked on a little 3cm HB and somehow found the hooks. From time to time trevally turn up (winter) and small tunas (frigates I guess) sometimes round bait up against the wall along with tailor. The Bay in between the two is quite small (this is the one you asked about, I think its called fisher bay or something similar but I'm not sure). I've fished it less but it certainly looks the goods with a nice sandflat and steep dropoff and I have taken tailor, whiting and flatties from there. I imagine it is very similar to mosman bay on a smaller scale. My strangest catch from that bay was a bag of pot I found floating past me whilst I was wading. Again (same with mosman bay) there is a stormwater drain there and I'd be careful about eating fish from there.

Cheers

Col.

An ounce of weed? CATCH OF THE DAY!!!! hehe. did you get a picture of it to post in the "Record Catches" section?

[CR@ZY OS@M@]

to the site matey and good report

[Fishing.Hooked]

On ‎9‎/‎22‎/‎2006 at 11:56 PM, ophet said:

Hi All, this is my first fishing report. Joined Fishraider a couple of weeks ago, and have been enjoying reading people's reports. I must say there are a lot of good fishermen on this site, and what has most impressed me is the willingness of people to help others and provide encouragement.

I live in Neutral Bay, and sometimes walk through Anderson Park on my way to work - walking across the Harbour Bridge. I have been sussing out the little bay at the end of the park for a long time now, and have always said to myself that I should give the place a try one day.... never getting around to it.

A couple of days ago I was walking home, through the park and there was so much fish activity around the bay. There was certainly a school of fish busting up bait fish everywhere, I was trying to work out what they were and what they were chasing, I thought I saw some small tailor scurrying along and jumping in terror out of the water. I thought maybe jewies, salmon or maybe kings. What ever they were, I was excited and decided that I would rush home today and grab my SP gear and head down for a crack at what was chasing the fish or have a crack at the flatties that I was sure to be there.

As luck has it when I got down there today, no sign of the hive of fish activity, so I thought I would try to nail some of the flatties. After a couple of casts of the golden squidgie shad into the gutter that I had previously sussed out, and a couple of bumps on the line, I hook onto the first flattie. I had not taken a landing net, as I was planning on releasing the buggers (I was going out for dinner and could not be bothered gutting and scaling fish), so I had the problem of negotiating the drop of a metre or so to the water. I had to bring the flattie close to the wall and lift her in one motion, hoping that she did not bite through the 12lb line. After successfully lifting her onto the grass, I had nothing to measure her with so, took a photo of her with my rod, before releasing. I estimate her to be around 40cm??

A new squidgie was required, as the first one was destroyed. After a couple more casts, hook onto another flatttie. Same method required, get her in close, single lifting motion onto the grass. This one was a little bigger then the first, I decided to put my size 9 thong next to her, to give some scale.

I land another small one, around 30cm and lose a fourth around the same size as the largest one, as she spat out the squidgie just before I was about to lift her out of the water.

All in all a very satisfying trip down to the local park. I know there are some bigger flatties in there and also some bumper bream. They will have to wait another day.

Question to everyone. There is a storm water drain that leads into this bay, which gets pretty filthy after rain - you can see all the grime from the road wash into it after rain. Do you think it would be safe to eat the flatties around the area? I know there has been a lot of press around dioxins in Harbour fish, but the reports only show results on bream, squid, yellowtail, trevs ... not flatties. Interested to hear whether people would eat the fish, in this instance the flatties, out of the bay adjoining Anderson Park - Neutral Bay.

Anyway, sorry about the long winded report. Hope to post some more this coming summer, cheers.

Hi Ophet,

I live literally around the corner on holdworths st  and have recently got into fishing myself and let me say i'm loving every second of it and am fishing with every spare moment (Mrs hates me for it haha) 

I have tried this spot "closer to the boat docking area" and have had no luck thus far, I have tried the following!
- Prawns / Blood worms "Day / Night"
- Small Black / Gold Soft plastic lures "Mid day" 
- 2x Lines out at once on light fishing gear/rigs"

Not even getting a nibble!!

Any tips for this spot? (ANYONE) -  seeing as its so close and within walking distance would like to land a fish there !!

Kind Regards,
Micheal!