Botany Bay 20/09/08

[Davemmm]

I dont usually post a report without photos but with the social coming up I figured a few might want a bit of a report.

I fished the run up in a couple of places with reasonable results (until the wind came in) and believe it or not I finally bit the bullet and went out with no bait just plastics.

First stop was middle flat off St George sailing club the light noreaster and the run in made for a very good drift. This was lucky as I hadnt charged the battery and the electric lasted two seconds. Very first cast with a 4"jerkshad in pumpkin brought up a very nice flatty that got all the way to the boat before biting through the leader. This was followed by two more undersize and a couple of little whiting.

I went back and drifted the same line again. From abot fifteen ft up on the flat and then drifting just inside the first green mark out into the deeper water. The second drift saw four or five 20cm whiting. Third drift on a similar line was more of the same - whiting, whiting, whiting still no keepers.

Gave that up and headed to ramsgate. The wind here was once again perfect, it allowed for me to drift on a slight angle from about eighty metres out in towards the beach. I had several drifts here from various spots along the beach. On each one I hit fish from about fifty metres off the beach all the way in. They werent great flathead, most of them were undersize, but two went 45cm and another two were around 40cm. Almost all of these took nuclear chicken shrimp (makes sense as Lucas Heights run off ends up in the bay) with a couple taking camo sand eels. All up I landed about fifteen flathead but only four of them were keepers.

Unfortunately the norwester came in reasonably hard and completely buggered the drift.

I headed out into the middle but the wind made it hard to get into the lines I wanted. I tried a couple of different palstics and jigs but not even a touch. Ordinarily I would have anchored and burleyed as there is a decent couple of spots next to the main channel that deliver reasonable bream on the run in. Not today.

The norwester was blowing harder but it made for a decent drift over the flats down from Towra Pt, in front of Quibray bay. The nuclear chicken delivered here as well. first up was a nice sand flathead 41cm from his head down to his blue tail. He came up in 2.5m over the shell bed/sandy bit. Two small bream came off the weed beds and went back to neptune. Next drift was similar one keeper flathead (sandy) and three undersize bream.

With the wind getting to me I gave it one more drift over the flat. First cast brought in a small trevor that put up a great fight for his size and he must of gone back and got his dad cause the next cast got smashed by a nice size trevor as did the one after that. In 3m of water trevally are unreal to catch on 6lb line. The fish went off for the rest of that drift but after the trevors I gave it one more time.

Half way through the drift and i hadnt even had a touch when all of a sudden the baitfish burst out of the water right in front of me. This was just on the edge of one of the big sand patches. Ive got no idea what lure I had on but it was in pumpkinseed colour and it got ravaged by a bloody big tailor. This fish took me for a great run. At one stage the drag was going that hard I stopped and lit a fag off it. When I finally got the fish to the boat it was a beauty, easily the best I have caught (you always hear that when there is no photo proof but trust me). As Im not a big fan of tailor fillets he went back to neptune.

Enough was enough I went home about twelve with six decent flatties for dinner.

For those that are fishing the social landbased I got a lot of the flathead within casting distance from the groynes along the beach and some very close to the actual beach. Even though the majority were unders there are still fish there.

Cheers

Dave

Edit

Damn I just checked the record for tailor and it stands at 62cm had I have had a camera my one would have beat that by a metre. LOL

Edited September 20, 2008 by davemmm

[Hodgey]

Great report Dave

Sounds like there was some good fish activity, particularly in the windy conditions. That's a heap of very useful information regarding water depth, choice of plastics and location. If the weather plays the game for the social, there could well be a lot of fish weighed in! Well done mate

Cheers

Hodgey

[Guest Dr Dato]

Thanks Mate Great Info

[robeebee]

well it looks like we have some good spots for the social mate