Broken Bay Fad

[Flute]

We are off to the FAD at Broken Bay. Warm currents, plenty of baitfish and good weather are good reasons to be optimistic. Has anyone been out recently??? Any reports would be much appreciated.

Flute

[Guest Big-Banana]

Was there Sunday and the current was absolutely roaring at around 6-7 knots. The FAD was almost dragged down. We caught around 11 Striped Tuna and 1 Bluefin (we think), spooled on 4kg as well

[bongie555]

We were out there on Saturday, first tried Terrigal fad for 1 57cm dolly then Broken Bay. Came home with zilch. Like BB said the current was roaring to get a decent go at either.

[nic_ally_king]

sunday before and just after sun up was awesome. we stayed till about 11 from memory we got about 20 dollies and 10ish tunas. some good size tunas too. yeh current is really strong so watch out for the you know whos who like to zig zag about the fads

[andrewgibbons]

hey guys i was just wondering what lures/ bait you guys are using out on the fads im thinking of heading out this weekend to the broken bay fad.also how long is the ride out there from lion island?

thanks fellers

[Andy Loops]

hey guys i was just wondering what lures/ bait you guys are using out on the fads im thinking of heading out this weekend to the broken bay fad.also how long is the ride out there from lion island?

thanks fellers

Mate we were out there on Sunday with plenty of undersize dollies about - as the other raiders have said the current was raging but water looked good.. We trolled around both Broken Bay and Terrigal for small dollies..

BB FAD is ~22km out from lion island so just depends on conditions as to how long it takes

[Evanwz]

I fished the BB FAD 2 weeks ago for some nice 60cm Dollies - they're only just legal at the moment

From Lion Island in reasonable conditions doing 19 to 22knots it's about a 40 min run (I think!)

I've seen 5.2m Quintrex Bowriders out there amongst 6 to 8m half cabs

Well worth the effort, Dollies are blast to catch just drifting a livie or dead bait unweighted should do the trick

People say the bigger ones are down deeper but slowing the drift can be a challenge

good luck

[nic_ally_king]

hey guys i was just wondering what lures/ bait you guys are using out on the fads im thinking of heading out this weekend to the broken bay fad.also how long is the ride out there from lion island?

thanks fellers

Hi Andrew,

The technique we use and I think a lot of others use is drifting unweighted pillies (or baitfish you've caught). So you head up past the fad in the opp direction of the current and then drift back down past it freespooling unweigted baits (we usually use salted pillies w the line ran through the eye and then pinned once in the body).. don't be scarred to drift way past the fad. You can then troll back against the current. On sunday we trolled with 6/7 inch skirts only and got hit on every single pass bar maybe one (pink seemed to work best).

There's a hell of a lot of activity out there around sunrise so you could try heaps of diff things im sure they'd get hit.

And like the others answered, depending on the swell and how your boat handles, could be 15 mins in a quick boat with good conditions and over an hour in a tinnie with swell.

Good luck

[shane87]

Which direction was the current going? South or North.

Cheers Shane.

[fishingrod]

Which direction was the current going? South or North.

Cheers Shane.

I was there yesterday afternoon. It looked like a southerly current. My boat was drifting S to SSW, but no doubt the drift was helped by a moderate NE seabreeze.

I got a Dollies (just undersize) on every live yakka i threw out. 24degC on the sounder. The Fad is just about spot on the mark on the DPI/Fisheries website if that helps anyone.

cheers

Rod

[andrewgibbons]

Hi Andrew,

The technique we use and I think a lot of others use is drifting unweighted pillies (or baitfish you've caught). So you head up past the fad in the opp direction of the current and then drift back down past it freespooling unweigted baits (we usually use salted pillies w the line ran through the eye and then pinned once in the body).. don't be scarred to drift way past the fad. You can then troll back against the current. On sunday we trolled with 6/7 inch skirts only and got hit on every single pass bar maybe one (pink seemed to work best).

There's a hell of a lot of activity out there around sunrise so you could try heaps of diff things im sure they'd get hit.

And like the others answered, depending on the swell and how your boat handles, could be 15 mins in a quick boat with good conditions and over an hour in a tinnie with swell.

Good luck

thanks for that information hopefully i can deliver the goods tomorrow