Balmoral Wharf 8/1/10

[stricko4]

Hi Raiders.

As is usual for me on a Friday arvo I knocked off a few hours early & went down to the harbour for a fish. I’d heard Clifton was open again but thought I’d give Balmoral another go after picking up some very nice trevally & bream before Christmas. And I’m glad I did.

I arrived about an hour after top of tide at 3:45 & immediately hooked into some smaller trevors. It was pretty quiet on the fishing front with only 6 or 8 people in all wetting a line. Yakka’s were easy to hook so one went out as a livie soon after. I’d been there about an hour when a HUGE school of something started boil ups all over the place. There was lots of splashing so I thought it might be big tailor so I started casting a 25g River to Sea whitebait metal at the boil ups closest to us. Third cast & I was on & this thing was zing the 10lb braid off my 2500 Stradic like nothing else. It took a few minutes & several very fast runs for me to find out it was bonito. A new species for me. A big thanks to the guy who assisted very capably with his landing net. As soon as the first was dispatched I was casting again & it didn’t take long to have that line peeling off again. This went on for an hour with me landing 5 bonito all around the 470mm mark weighing about 1.3kg. I lost another 2 on pulled hooks. What I really couldn’t believe was that I was the only one on the wharf casting a metal at these little speedsters. And with 3 or 4 livies out not one was taken.

All in all a very exciting few hours fishing & one of my best Friday arvo sessions.

Paul

[mikeh191]

Well done Paul, got yourself a great feed or some top bait there.

Cheers Mike

[Land based]

Have to love casting a metal also a great feed

[Day's Fishin]

Top one Paul. Their the top bait in my book. Fresh their a killer for snapper, mowong & flathead. We salt any take home ones for the next trip & their not that much less a bait then fresh still taking more fish then other baits.

Eating wise I can think of many other fish more suiting the palette then them. All in all they are a great fighting fish on light gear. We normally catch them on springers with christmas trees on our way out between south head & Bondi murk. Unfortunitely we skull drag them aboard on 50kg mono's as we are only interested in them for bait.

Regards Jeff