Middle Harbour And Thereabouts

[MrChipsnSalad]

Went for an afternoon session on the tinny. Dropped the boat in at Roseville and went straight to Grotto to see if I could hook a Flatty. There were heaps of leatherjackets that really made it a non-event. You just could not get a bait past them. Moved to Middle Head and picked up a few Cockney Bream and Wrasse, but nothing worth sticking around for. The breeze looked to be picking up, so we made the decision to try around the Spit Bridge. Once again it was the little Bream and nothing else. We moved around the area and tried here and there, but there was not much on the chew. Decided to have a final go around the moorings at Bantry Bay. We grabbed an empty mooring on the Eastern side of the bay at the last group of boat moorings before you head up to Roseville Bridge. There was not mush there, but we started to throw in bits of chopped pillies from time to time. After about 10 minutes or so we were visited by a small Kingy, probably around 60cm. The Kingy was picking up the bits of pilchard as we tossed them in. My son dangled his light bream gear over the side, and the Kingy grabbed the lot, taking the sinker and all. My dad was also rigged for Bream, but tossed the bait in, to promptly donate his rig to the Kingy too. I dropped in a more suitable 4.0 with a 30lb Flourocarbon leader. I had a squid on it, but the Kingy kept grabbing the pilchards. I retrieved my rig and changed baits to a pilchard. The damn Kingy grabbed every pilchard bit, except the one with my hook in it. After awhile, we had fed it enough scraps and it seemed to go. We decided to pack up and go to, so I emptied the bait board over the side and started to wash it off. Low and behold a bigger Kingy started ripping through the pilchard scraps. It was probably around the 70-80cm mark. I grabbed my heavy gear again and tried to entice it, but the same deal - everything but the hook. Then the leatherjackets arrived and my bait was shredded to bits.

I would be interested to get any ideas about how to deal with Kingys when they are so close to the boat. They were way to close to use lures or anything like that. We were literally able to dangle our gear on their heads they were so close. It just did not seem like the way to catch a Kingy. They were also very careful to grab every bait that had no hook. Damn frustrating. Anyway, it seems that berleying up was the go, and they were loving the small bits of pilchard.