Keflapod Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Hey raiders, Time for Botany Bay report. Went out early Saturday morning to get away from the crowds. Funny when you're driving down the river and can't quite see where you're going. Nearly run into a 42 riviera parked on a private jetty - no lights anywhere, but how I managed to get anywhere near it is a mystery. I should have kept the forward spotlight on for just a bit longer than I did... Very important lesson learnt right there.... Anyway, anchored on my favourite early morning possie, saw a couple of fish hit the deck, as well as a disoriented whitebait that beached itself on the transom step - the transom light must have startled it. Surprisingly there were no ooglies to take the bait, no stingrays, banjos, eels or catfish... At sunrise, moved to spot B and caught a few more fish, then at about 6:45am, this little blue speedboat cat thing ran around at 40 knots, buzzing my whole area, as well as most of the bay. The noise was incredible and it's amazing how one person can ruin the fishing for 30 others....He kept this up for 1.5 hours before he decided that he has killed enough of the prime fishing time for us fishos.... Needless to say I had to move to get away. Then at 8:30 I moved back to my first spot and by about 9:30 the NW wind kicked in, sending most boats back to the ramp. I was pretty happy about that - peace at last, just have to hang onto a jostling boat. Then the fish came on the bite nicely and I finished up with 15 bream, 8 whiting and a trevally. One little lesson - I lost a thumper of a bream at the boat when the trace parted. How did this happen? Well, you find that little bits of bait will work loose from the hook and work their way up the trace until they reach the swivel, or some little scratch in the line where it will catch. When the bit of bait goes all the way to the swivel, they are not so obvious to see because the trace is so long, but the little toad fish, leatherjackets and other toothies pick at it and chomp away at the line as well. I always check my traces for such damage but in this instance the damage was a long way up the very long trace and I didn't think to check that far. Oh well, the fish was 40'ish cm and probably a big breeding female - not to worry - I caught enough fish. I even let about 6 fish go that were 26cm so the fish were really on. I'm sure that boat noise has heaps to do with it so I stayed until I ran out of bait. Often, I find people are friendly and like to come up to me, do a lap of honour around my boat to check me out and say a friendly G'day - that's nice, but what they don't realise is that they have systematically driven over all 4 of my baits and usually catch one of my lines in their outboard propeller. To say HI thay end up wrecking your chances of catching a fish for maybe half an hour, or more. What do you do? That's why I'm sure the fish came on after the main traffic had left. Anyways, a couple of pics for the record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenwickinho Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Great catch mate! Good feed there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tide'n'knots Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 nice catch keflapod! I am fishing the hawkesbury tomorrow if I do half as good as that I will be happy! good to see you did well dispite the sometimes well intentioned idiots!! Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shakeel Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 nice work! i sooooo need a boat, offshore and land based fishing sucks hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkHorse Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Awesome catch mate! Boy I wish I could catch some decent fish like that. I think I have lost my mojo already............ no fish for the last 4 outings, especially no flatheads which my family and I really enjoy eating!! Don't no what else to do, maybe I will stalk you keflapod and follow your every move in Botany and see how I go Regards, Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thereddragon Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Thats a top report and great catch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keflapod Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 (edited) Awesome catch mate! Boy I wish I could catch some decent fish like that. I think I have lost my mojo already............ no fish for the last 4 outings, especially no flatheads which my family and I really enjoy eating!! Don't no what else to do, maybe I will stalk you keflapod and follow your every move in Botany and see how I go Regards, Rob Jeez Darkhorse - you got me worried now You know I have had a few people do the "follow that boat" on me but there are quite a few little fine details in this sort of fishing that can make a real difference. I once went on a mate's boat - each had 3 rods. I caught 19 bream and he caught 4. Another time I went out with someone else - I caught 12 he caught 1. There are signs you have to read - where to cast, when to check your bait, when a fish picks up the bait and runs, are you going to strike or let the reel sing for a while? Which way is he going? With the tide or across it to get to a certain area? Did that slight rod tip movement 5 minutes ago mean a small fish stole your bait? If so, that rod is sitting there with no chance of a hookup. Are all your baits being stolen with no fish to show for it? MOVE SPOTS! Did you try a few deeper water spots for not much? GO SHALLOW. Has the tide just changed? REPEAT YOUR SPOTS - they may fire on the opposite tide... There's a lot of "on-the-fly" thinking and strategy involved. I don't always have the answers though - fishing is an inexact science - unless we can do a vulcan mind-meld with fish, we will never really know.... Edited January 26, 2009 by Keflapod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2fish Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Well Done u always seem to kick a** in the bay,do u drift or anchor?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keflapod Posted January 27, 2009 Author Share Posted January 27, 2009 Well Done u always seem to kick a** in the bay,do u drift or anchor?? Hey Mr breambo, I always anchor although occasionally I might drift while in experimental mode. I often conduct little experiments to see what would happen if..... Only when I can't seem to find a fish and I see the squidgie guys getting fish, then I might drift and toss a SP around until the tide changes or I get fed up with life. I also seem to think that some spots hold fish at certain times. Eg off silver beach, I never stay later than 9:30 as the fishing slows down too much, while other spots I can usually get them at any time. I think that the bream_snapper_jew team did better, although curiously no whiting. Night can be a good time if you haven't got 20 knots of northeasterly hurricane blowing.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulg Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 (edited) Catching good bags of bream consistently, is definitely an art...... well done. My misses tells me I take too seriously. I have been getting some small but decent bags of bream aswell, 8 bream between 33 to 40cm is not uncommon. cheers. Hey Mr breambo, I always anchor although occasionally I might drift while in experimental mode. I often conduct little experiments to see what would happen if..... Only when I can't seem to find a fish and I see the squidgie guys getting fish, then I might drift and toss a SP around until the tide changes or I get fed up with life. I also seem to think that some spots hold fish at certain times. Eg off silver beach, I never stay later than 9:30 as the fishing slows down too much, while other spots I can usually get them at any time. I think that the bream_snapper_jew team did better, although curiously no whiting. Night can be a good time if you haven't got 20 knots of northeasterly hurricane blowing.... Edited January 28, 2009 by Mr Rosebay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keflapod Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 Catching good bags of bream consistently, is definitely an art...... well done. My misses tells me I take too seriously. I have been getting some small but decent bags of bream aswell, 8 bream between 33 to 40cm is not uncommon. cheers. Hey Mr Rosebay, 8 fish of that size is a very respectable catch. A good eating size as well. I take it by your name that you fish the harbour or did I get it wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulg Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Hi, i used to fish the harbour, mainly around shark island until the dioxins scared me away. My father fished there years ago when big snapper with large knobbed foreheads and metre long flatties were common. He fished with handlines and used to put band aids on his fingers to prevent the line from ripping into the skin. Those days are long gone. I mainly fish port hacking with the occassional botany bay bash. Port hacking is very very tough at times. cheers. Hey Mr Rosebay, 8 fish of that size is a very respectable catch. A good eating size as well. I take it by your name that you fish the harbour or did I get it wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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