Keflapod Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 (edited) Hey Raiders, I haven't posted in a little while - haven't been out in several weeks. Boy has the bay cooled down or what. While I have been absent from the bay, the water has really plunged. The river temp around oatley is a brisk 12 degrees, 14.5 at Captain cooks bridge, 15 degrees on the southern side of the bay and 16.4 at the oil wharf. Understandably the fishing has quietened down a lot but the fish are still there and can be caught if people don't drive over your head while fishing. Seriously, I had at least a dozen incidents when people drove less than 10 metres from me, catching my lines in their propeller, cutting me off, wrapping metres of line in their prop in the process. The fish would spook and no bites for maybe half an hour. I even had one guy nearly drive over my fish as I wound it in - fortunately it was only a stingray but some people are stupendously ignorant. Jeez that sounds like a very apt description of the perpetrators. Well I'm sure they are decent friendly people (most of them) which is why I give them the benefit of the doubt and I always ask them nicely if they could not drive so close to my lines. Most just smile at me like spongebob squarepants and keep on driving, while others have threatened to break my arms (threats and aggro done in front of their kids too). It speaks volumes for their intelligence. What do you do ? I have to laugh it off and just remind myself that I have 16 bream and a trevally in the icebox while they would have maybe just their bait to take home and eat..... hehehe I was out there fairly late at 6:30 - gentle cool breeze at 5kn out of the NW. Rugged up but not like the proverbial eskimo. Some fish were coming in which kept me enthusiastic, then by 8:00am, the zephyr turned into a 10knot breeze - the windchill began to cut through me and sent me scrambling for more clothes. By midday the wind calmed off to nothing and it was very pleasant, so I stayed out there until 3:00pm. Then it seemed that every man and his dog lined up in front of the wharf to fish the last of the runout tide, the fish stopped biting as boat traffic got out of control. The maritime boat came around several times, flexing it's muscles but didn't shoo anyone away. They also drove very close to me but I was 100m from the wharf. By then the fish had stopped biting and so I left the mayhem to itself..... While out there, I could hear the charter boats complaining of a distinct lack of fish - and lack of current. Some stripies were being caught but no kingies on the peak. They speculated the good water had gone south, and that there was in fact too much current from the hump and down further south. Another friend of mine fished Sunday in close from the lighthouse and also complained of no current and no fish. All up, I think I did OK for a cold winter's day - but the water hasn't finished cooling down yet - the hardest yards are yet to come. I may have to install a fireplace in my 5.7m platey ! The obligatory pics... NB - the bay behind me is barren of boats - because the whole fleet is on my head..... Edited June 15, 2009 by Keflapod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tumra Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 you cleaned up mate... good report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishDrought Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 Top report mate & a fantastic catch of Bream. In your photos were they the boats that were running over your lines? I was out the same morning & was sided by two boats "haemaroids" that pulled up right next to us at the Container wall as soon as our Burley trail went out. A third dropped anchor less than 4 metres off the back of the motor which really started to tick me off. We found this happened in a few spots including the HWO & Bare Island but they were mostly smaller punts & some older glass boats.. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james7 Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 That a great report Keflapod. At least you managed what looks like a top catch of bream despite some crazy behaviour by some "inconsiderate" boats. That water temp at Oatley is cool alright! 12 degrees! Brrrrr! It was around 18.9 down around the hump on Sunday so the sinkers were actually warm to the touch when they came up. Great read and good photos. Cheers Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewgaffer Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 .......Boy has the bay cooled down or what. While I have been absent from the bay, the water has really plunged. .......The river temp around oatley is a brisk 12 degrees, 14.5 at Captain cooks bridge, 15 degrees on the southern side of the bay and 16.4 at the oil wharf. ......... the fish are still there and can be caught if people don't drive over your head while fishing. ........ ...What do you do ? I have to laugh it off and just remind myself that I have 16 bream and a trevally in the icebox while they would have maybe just their bait to take home and eat..... hehehe Top Kurnell session Kephalpod ..... It seems those other boaties fishing around the oil wharf may have had other ideas and overlooked the decent size estuary fish that a good winter produces..... Cheers jewgaffer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisheroo Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 Great Haul and great report there mate.... well done.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjchen Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 what a top loot may i ask what bait? im a lure fisherman and never get above 5bream i think im switching to bait lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funnierthanu Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 Nice catch there mate , i notice there was no whiting , did you fish for them as my mate got 22 on sat at woy woy in 15.8 water . Good to see you out again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sideshow Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 (edited) hi im the other plate boat that was on the mark at first light ..... my father was with me to bare the cold .. we also managed a dozon+ bream around the .850 kg mark all smiles for the old man we let all smaller fish go to live another day .these fish being all of legal length . as for boat traffic ??? its not hard to travel up current off all boats fishing to prevent any line tangles . you dont get to your fishing spot any quicker with 300yards of braid wraped on your prop?? anyway great fish c u on the water . Edited June 16, 2009 by sideshow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screech Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 mate thats one thing that shits me most about fishing in the bay are those people that anchor next to u like 2 metres away...... THE BAY IS HUGE!!!! WHY NEXT TO ME??? or when they drive past without any idea of where your lines would be..... not that they give a shit i think. i also dont think they know their boat rules anyway. well done on the bream!!! winter produces some great breams! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.dawg Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 Man thats a yummy feed of bream Good work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray R Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 G'day Keph, a nice haul of bream you got, you were obviously not impressed by the boating prowess of some, boy I'm glad we don't have a boating peak hour up here, a bit like the road traffic, 16 cars stopped at a round-a-bout and it's on the news.. Good report and pics mate.. Cheers.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keflapod Posted June 16, 2009 Author Share Posted June 16, 2009 hi im the other plate boat that was on the mark at first light ..... my father was with me to bare the cold .. we also managed a dozon+ bream around the .850 kg mark all smiles for the old man we let all smaller fish go to live another day .these fish being all of legal length . as for boat traffic ??? its not hard to travel up current off all boats fishing to prevent any line tangles . you dont get to your fishing spot any quicker with 300yards of braid wraped on your prop?? anyway great fish c u on the water . Hey sideshow - mate if you got a dozen bream around the 850gm mark each - you found a bigger class of fish than me. Well done. It is also a big advantage to have someone fish with you so you can fish 6 or 7 rods. I fish alone as I have no friends so I can only fish 4 rods. That's OK - I can manage. Did you find much fish on the seaward side of the wharf or did you get the most fish on the hot water outlet side of the wharf? By the way, what time did you leave? I left at 3:00pm and you were still there...I also got no fish after about 2:30 so I'm curious to see if you got much on the second hald of the runout tide.... Also, out of curiosity, who was the naval architect of your boat ? Send me a PM and we can exchange emails - I would love to find out as the guy who did my custom boat for me was the only architect interested in a custom design....what a long story that was.... Tony Nice catch there mate , i notice there was no whiting , did you fish for them as my mate got 22 on sat at woy woy in 15.8 water . Good to see you out again. Hey 'Funny', Mate the week before last, I went to 'your' spot and couldn't lose a bait. That was with the water being 18 degrees. So I passed that spot by (it was 15 degrees this time) and I went straight to the wharf. In hindsight I should have spent some time there bcos the tide was rising, bringing warmer and cleaner water into the bay and that may have brought the fish on...but the report posted by Penguin that week (on the Friday) showed me the fish were at the wharf so I went straight there. Next week will be a new moon and a falling tide - not so good, but if the water on the coast is good, then I'll time my trip to fish the rise - gotta get some whiting - they're better than a 'hundred bream'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keflapod Posted June 16, 2009 Author Share Posted June 16, 2009 what a top loot may i ask what bait? im a lure fisherman and never get above 5bream i think im switching to bait lol Hey cjchen, I have used lures a little but being a bait fisherman all my life, I'm reluctant to spend a lot of time with them unless I just want a change of pace... Bait in the bay - I just use the worms - blood, tube or beach - they all work. I like to burley a little pilchard as well and often put a fillet out in the trail on a very light sinker. Mainly get trevs but some nice bream often move in on it as well. They are expensive them worms but everything eats them. That's pretty much it - but I'll admit, strategy plays an equally big role in success. You need to make an excel spreadsheet and make a note of all the variables and results of each trip, to work out what conditions give what results. Then you will begin to speculate on the 'what if's, you'll get those results and you'll decide what's important and what's not - it can be very complex and I don't know it all, but I like a rising tide when the water quality on the coast is good, and that coastal water gets sucked into the bay, bringing the fish on the bite - but how do you know what constitutes good water? Is it temp alone or is it temp plus other things like chlorophyll content, silt, chemicals or some unknown things that only fish can understand? Once the good water is sucked into the bay and the ocean water stays good quality, then the fish will bite well on all tide phases - but once that coastal water turns bad, then as soon as the first of that bad water comes into the bay, the fish will begin to shut down. Temp alone slows down the metabolism of fish so they don't need to feed as much, but I bet if that coastal water turns good, the apetite will return. In a nutshell, for each trip, tabulate your results and look at the variables and their results. My results go back about 6 years - not very long but it has given me a reasonable insight... Good luck - c u out there..... Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjchen Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 thanks for the great reply. keeping a record is a great idea but without a fish finder (i fish of a kayak) how do you find water temp? on the net? what are the varibles? tides, time, water presure temperature? ah i see worms, now i have to find a bait shop that sells it lure worms have always worked well, maybe bream is too smart to be tricked lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahcat Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 In a nutshell, for each trip, tabulate your results and look at the variables and their results. My results go back about 6 years - not very long but it has given me a reasonable insight... Good luck - c u out there..... Tony Tony, Any chance you could show us a copy of what sort of data you put into your spreed sheets? wahcat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sideshow Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 hi keflapod .. we fish with only 4 rods with 1&2kg mainline with circle hooks , fish were weighed in for the club ,thats were the weights came from .. any way left the wharf soon after you to try for a flatty , that plan didnt work ... was home by 4.30 .. Gavin mar was the architech with my father and me struggling with the project for around 10 months with the help of our welder mate dave from marine boat repairs..alot off sweat...will chat on the water soon.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mad_mullet Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 i was about 5 metres off the wall at molino the other week and out of the whole bay two boats 5metre cruisers one after the other decided that they would fit up the inside of me one person per boat catching them tiny sweep for fishcakes, about 6 metres off the back of us, i think they got the message to move after my jighead hit his boat about 30 times or so , oh well what can you do, oh and side show everyone loves the tug, its the shiz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keflapod Posted June 18, 2009 Author Share Posted June 18, 2009 (edited) Tony, Any chance you could show us a copy of what sort of data you put into your spreed sheets? wahcat Hi Wahcat. The spreadsheet is actually an Excel workbook, consisting of 13 worksheets. Each worksheet is a tab at the bottom of the page and each is labelled for each month of the year. The reason for this is that I can see all the January data in one go, from year 1 to current year. So when I want to plan the strategy for the next trip I look at this time last year, the year before and the year before, etc. For each trip, I record: Date, fishing start/end time, general area fished, specific spots visited, high and low tide times, water temp, moon phase, water clarity, wind speed and direction including changes, baits used, the catch by spot, general fish sizes and any unusual info (eg the fish were not swallowing the bait, or I missed some runs - (extremely rare)). I also put in my theories and results. If other people are catching fish on the same day I put their results in as well. I also try to find out via radio listening if the water quality on the coast is good and it's temp. A major failing of this is that I haven't got a barometer to record the pressure. I'm sure Jewgaffer and some other knowledgeable raiders will tell us how a changing barometer will make the fish feed but one it gets too high or too low and stabilizes, they'll stop biting... I will try to post an example of a page in the workbook but I will have to take a photo of my computer screen and post the photo - I'm sure I can't post an excel spreadsheet to the site... Then you can start capturing the data and it will really make you think about the complexities of the variables - you will form theories about when and where and it will give you some enthusiasm to try out theories. I'll post something up this evening.... Here it is... Edited June 18, 2009 by Keflapod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 A nice bag of fish I see, But can everybody stay away from my secret fishing spot in the bay pls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keflapod Posted June 21, 2009 Author Share Posted June 21, 2009 A nice bag of fish I see, But can everybody stay away from my secret fishing spot in the bay pls OK, I'll stay away - I promise... hehehe Penguin - I think you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him catch the fish... Some people I know look for bream on their sounder before they drop anchor to fish for them. Even though the spot isn't secret, there are a few little things you need to do right before you put the fish on the table... but I understand that it doesn't help the fishing when people troll lures 10m from your boat... Also, just wait until winter really hits with daily max temps of 12 deg and night lows of 5 deg - not many people will want to go out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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