Hawkesbury 18 & 20th

[REKLESS]

Gidday all,I finally got to time to have crack at the jews,on the tuesday the 18th I put in at Apple Tree bay and then hiked out to West head for some bait.Dropped the pick just off the pill box and proceeded to burley up the worlds supply of sweep and Madoes,I dont mind using sweep for bait but the problem was they were on the hook at a ratio of 40 to 1 with the Yakkas.I persevered and after catching the obligatory 80 odd sweep and two lonesome yakkas I gave up in disgust and went out to go for squid.

I do not fish the Hawkesbury all that often but I always get squid at the Moorings at mackeral beach,any tide and any wind as there was 15 knots of EES wind it was a bit bumpy but I ended up picking up 5 beautys .All I do is pick up an empty mooring bouy ,the squid seem to like hanging around the edge of the weed going on to the sand.There is a nice lookind Halver ? there and they are usually hanging out between there and the sand.Can I get any more precise then that ?,they were taking a pink squid jig in the 2.5cm size, they were not interested in the green or the blue.

I tried the drift over the weed beds for nil result including the protected bit of kelp behind the bombie off barrenjoey but all I succeded in doing was having a near miss with a large rock .

Popped out the front and was faced the usual washing machine out there ,blowing 15knots with the occasional gust over that ,1.5m seas on a 1.5-2m swell my estimate,there was two boats anchored off the front battling on but they were having a hard time,ie re-stringing the rods while sitting down.

Trolled my BRAND NEW rapalas all around for no hits (See longreef report) and after visiting the wreck out there headed back to fish flint and steel as the tide was just about one hour off the bottom .

I had a good look around and I marked a school of things I beleived were jewfish in about 40 ft of water at S 33 34.204 E 151 17.109.I had a hell of a time getting the anchor right as there was a run out tide with a 15 knot Easterley that was playing havoc with the way I was laying.I am going out to buy a sea anchor next time I go past BIAS.To top things off the pick would not hold as It was picking up on an old trawling net that is "ghosting" over the reef.

Anyway the pick down and things were looking up,the boat next to me was a Bar crusher called "ZULU",the name rings an old bell but the guy on board reckoned that that they have been pulling out school jews all week long and that was the spot he had been fishing.

The tide started to slow when I started getting hassled by squire,before you know it all the 5 squid were eaten and I was down to two yakkas which got sharked after 5 minutes.The sweep was unmolested so he was butterflied and then sharked.

They were predominatley ? hammers with a whaler making an appearance.

Gave up after the last sweep and thought as i was heading back to have a go at juno next time.

Thursday,

Put in at parsley bay ramp and visited the garbage barge at Americas bay,this is where the bait from westhead is now living,I had twenty yakkas after 10 minutes ,there were a lot of garfish feeding on the fringe as well.

Hit juno point at the end of the runout and instantly got a run off the first butterflied yakka.After 5 minutes I was bitten off by a smallish whaler.......... .The livebaits were untouched ,as soon as fresh fish hit the water it was on.I put up for a while and found as some one else put a post up that the yakkas were coming back covered in sea lice,they were very thick.

Moved on to other pastures and had a crack at the rail bridge and finally located a school of jewfish at the third pilon from the sydney end.The fish were all undersize but were very thick,eating plastics, bits of yakkas but were very partial to peeled local prawns,I ended up pulling in around twelve plus two bream and a whiting but let them go as I was after JEWIES. Ah well at least I got to smell like a jewfisherman .

I pulled out two swimmers in the witches hats in mullet creek so at least I had something to chew on at home.

A good day, quite educational and I have Saturady to look forwards to, marlin here we come.

Simon

[Markus]

I agree with Iain Top post Rekless enjoyed reading that well done

[Guest MarkD]

ditto, great report, well done.

[maxjohno]

Simon

Great report as usual thats why you get to write all our adventures hopefully saturdays run out to browns will be a good one and the last run for harpoon will produce a couple more marlin before she goes to her new owner but soon enough a bigger and better harpoon 2 will be on the way see you tommorrow

Mark

[Jethro]

Have to agree. Great report Have to be happy with 12 jew even if they were only small

I will have to try a couple of those bait spots next time we head to the Hawkesbury in search of that elusive Jew

[Byron]

Great read Reckless, and thanks for your generosity in sharing your bait and squid catching grounds.

Much appreciated mate and see you on the water.

Cheers

Byron

[Guest Jocool]

Mate thats just an AWESOME report. And thanks for sharing all those bait tips!

Dont you just hate that stench of Jew????

[Aquaholic]

Great Report,

Thanks for sharing your spots and methods. Its great help to those of us still learning and who need all the help we can get.

Hopefully I can return the favour one day.

Cheers,

Aqua

[Martin]

Great report and its very kind of you to share so much information, just as you have done in your other reports.

Colin Buckley owns the Bar Crusher called Zulu; it’s his new boat. He fishes for a living, writing articles on boat tests and on fishing, for a range of magazines as well as doing a fishing report in the Manly Daily each Friday.

There have been a few reports over the last month of good jewfish coming from Juno, more so as the run out starts. Place can get crowed. Having followed the reports it appears Juno seems to be doing well in the first half of the day particularly with a high tide early morning.

Just around the corner in the Hawkesbury are a number of starboard channel markers. You can drift in 12 feet of water keeping to the western side of the markers for a feed of flathead on the last 2 hours of the run in tide before giving Juno a go.

I have not heard of anything comming from the rail bridge for a while as it appears to be fishing poorly.

Thank you for the report and information you shared.