Hacking Early Wednesday Explore

[wttmrwolf]

I took the day off work today to go in search of some fish in the hacking. Its been really slow fishing land based the last few weeks.

Awoke at the ungodly hour of 3:30am. I'm more of the late night Jewfishing type so getting up so early was really difficult but kids and wanted some attention so if I was going to have any chance of a decent fish it demanded an early start.

In the water by 4:30am. Launching at Yowie Bay boat ramp I started my search for fish in Gymea Bay. Nothing on the sounder so took off for South West arm. As I sped past Dark Bay opposite Yowie Bay the sounder started beeping. There were a couple of big fish sitting just over a ridge. Started zig zagging to get a better feel for the bottom profile and to try and find the big fish.

Thats when I stumbled upon a massive school of bait fish. Nothing like I have ever seen before. About 4 meters deep and covering a large area approximately 10m x 20m. See attached image.

Caught a few live yakka and sent them down on my king fishing gear. The bait hung around for 2 hours until the first light then they dispersed. Appeared to be some bigger fish mixed in with the bait but unfortunately no hookups. Filled the live bait tank with Yakka and Slimy.

When the bait disappeared I went around to Greys Point and picked up a Bream for dinner. When the sun hit the water the bites slowed so it was home time. Back home by 9am and happy to have had 4.5 hours of fishing before most people even start their day.

I have a couple of quick questions if anyone would like to entertain my curiosity.

Was I wasting my time targeting king fish in the middle of a bait school on a freezing winter day?

What would you do and where would you go with a tank full of live bait if you were in the hacking?

Ben

[tumra]

Mate out of interest how big did the bream go? Im always chasing bream in the hacking up towards greys point and its good to see that they are still around at the moment.

Also with regards to your bait school question, lately i have been seeing salmon chasing the bait fish over the last few weeks and have been hooking up a few salmon in the upper reaches of the hacking near gymea. There are other times where wholes schools of bait fish swim past and nothing seems to be chasing them so you do get lucky.

Edited July 16, 2009 by tumra

[jewgaffer]

I took the day off work today to go in search of some fish in the hacking. Its been really slow fishing land based the last few weeks.

.....so if I was going to have any chance of a decent fish it demanded an early start.

.....In the water by 4:30am..........Thats when I stumbled upon a massive school of bait fish. Nothing like I have ever seen before. About 4 meters deep and covering a large area approximately 10m x 20m. See attached image.

.........The bait hung around for 2 hours until the first light then they dispersed. Appeared to be some bigger fish mixed in with the bait but unfortunately no hookups. Filled the live bait tank with Yakka and Slimy.

........When the sun hit the water the bites slowed so it was home time. Back home by 9am and happy to have had 4.5 hours of fishing before most people even start their day.

.........What would you do and where would you go with a tank full of live bait if you were in the hacking?

..Ben

Hi mrwolf..... Winter fishing has been really good this year, still I don't think I'd ever come down from Campbelltown in winter and fish in the Hacking from before sun up into the mid morning....If I intended coming down I'd pick this Saturday and get baitfish just off Gymea baths in the late afternoon and start fishing in South West Arm according to the time of the change to the run in tide... I like Saturday because the wind is forecast to change from a southerly to an opposite direction i.e. a northerly aspect around mid morning....

I'd anchor and fish back into the 10 foot of water in front of the pool walkway for my baitfish, and hopefully catch a few squid there as well and then motor over into South west arm and do a night session about 100 metres out from the blackfish rocks between the entrance and the wharf, the one where you drive down to from Warragul road...It's only a few hundred metres into Soutrh west arm and up to 80 foot deep in parts of that section, so you can vary the hook size and the size of the baits and use 20lb braid on the light gear to cover yourself and have the big baits out on the larger rods on 4-0s each way for snapper or the jew coming in over the southern side of the river and hunting the deep water section in the early parts of South West Arm.....

Cheers

jewgaffer

[Trapper Tom]

Hey Jewgaffer

No wonder your a Gold member.

"GOLD ADVICE"!!!!!!!

and directions. Take a bow.

Cheers

Trapper Tom

[cut_loose]

Yeah thanks jewgaffer.. i alwayys read your post and each one is packed with info which all makes sence esp about the hacking which i fish 99 % of the time.

Thanks heeps im going to go to port hacking this saturday

Edited July 16, 2009 by cut_loose

[A.dawg]

Was fishing prot hacking Spot X the on tuesday day wen i saw a massive bait ball didnt know what sorrtta fish but they were about 35cm each round like mackerel and the bait ball was 3m diameter. atleast 200 fish in this bait bait and it was soo thick but they just swam past not responding to bait or burley.

[Davemmm]

The spot Jewgaffer described has apparantly been holding trevors and legal snapper of late.

Dave

[prawn*]

south west arm can be a hit and miss spot as its my favourite spot to fish i tend to have more luck using light gear there and sitting with the schools of yakka's around a fullish tide u will find there will be some action also depends on how u are rigging up i usually use ball sinker size 4 1m 40lb leader with a 6/0 hoodlum mustard and usually have one really low and one mid depth and seem to have most luck also tend to try using the smaller yakka's for live baits there as i find they hook up deeper into the mouth of the fish either kingfish or jew's

hope to see u out there soon!

[robust]

south west arm can be a hit and miss spot as its my favourite spot to fish i tend to have more luck using light gear there and sitting with the schools of yakka's around a fullish tide u will find there will be some action also depends on how u are rigging up i usually use ball sinker size 4 1m 40lb leader with a 6/0 hoodlum mustard and usually have one really low and one mid depth and seem to have most luck also tend to try using the smaller yakka's for live baits there as i find they hook up deeper into the mouth of the fish either kingfish or jew's

hope to see u out there soon!

Awesome tips there mc fishin and jewgaffer.......i spend 98% of my fishing time down at port hacking still trying to learn what works for me and what doesn't, but with all your knowledge and experience i'm going to give these a crack.....i'll be down there this weekend

Cheers,

Robert

[screech]

next time try dropping a yakka jig to see what the bait is then u could have a rough guess what the bigger fish were.

what was the temp of the water? if the kings are there in the hacking they'll be chasing the bait around so cant say why they wouldn't be around the bait you saw. sending down a slimy would have been better bait for a king.

agree with jewgaffer maximise your chance of scoring different species using different sized baits.