Crab Saturday, Inkers Sunday..not Enough Fish Though

[dlvbw]

Had a good weekend on the water hitting up the Hawkesbury on Saturday targeting crab/flatties and the harbour on Sunday targeting squid/kingies.

Hit the water right on light on Saturday and had pots soaking by 7am. Scored crab in all 10 pots on the first soak and then got four more keepers and a few throwbacks on the next two soaks. o. The crab were feistier than normal too and did some damage to the witches hats. All range of sizes as you can see from the photo. As the tide receded the crab definitely seemed to retire to the deeper channels.

In the crabbing downtime we flicked plastics and some mackerel baits for flatties but no luck. Still having trouble getting regular flatties in the Hawkesbury. I know that may sound lame to some of the pros, but hey at least we are trying. Had some inquiries from tailor but no flatties.

Sunday, I was battling a pretty stomach bug and was not well at all. I had promised a mate we would go out so against all my good sense off we went (me throwing up all the way...). Launched at Cammeray around 645 and trolled over to Balmoral picking up a nice tailor (good crab bait) for our efforts. Then headed to the north and started flicking these new yamashita jigs I picked up. AWESOME. 4 squid in ten minutes, one about a foot long. By this time the gentle rocking of the still boat was making me worse so we headed over north head to downrig the squid. Only managed 15 minutes of fishing (with me continually burleying unvoluntarily) before I told my mate fishing was over, I had to get home. Oh well, no kingies and we were pleased with the squidding.

QUESTION – we do not have a livey tank on our boat but poddies and yakkas stay alive reasonably well in a bucket if you change the water to aerate it pretty regularly. The squid however did not last 10 minutes. Any ideas of how to do this without a dedicated livey tank?

Pretty good weekend, would have liked a couple of flatties and a kingie but we will be out there again soon.

Cheers,

Duncs

PS – if anyone say two guys struggling with a front wheel drive on a very very slippery low tide Brooklyn boat ramp around 130 on Sat avo that was us. Thanks to those who assisted.........no thanks to those on the jetty who stood around and chuckled

[Tarana]

Had a good weekend on the water hitting up the Hawkesbury on Saturday targeting crab/flatties and the harbour on Sunday targeting squid/kingies.

Hit the water right on light on Saturday and had pots soaking by 7am. Scored crab in all 10 pots on the first soak and then got four more keepers and a few throwbacks on the next two soaks. o. The crab were feistier than normal too and did some damage to the witches hats. All range of sizes as you can see from the photo. As the tide receded the crab definitely seemed to retire to the deeper channels.

In the crabbing downtime we flicked plastics and some mackerel baits for flatties but no luck. Still having trouble getting regular flatties in the Hawkesbury. I know that may sound lame to some of the pros, but hey at least we are trying. Had some inquiries from tailor but no flatties.

Sunday, I was battling a pretty stomach bug and was not well at all. I had promised a mate we would go out so against all my good sense off we went (me throwing up all the way...). Launched at Cammeray around 645 and trolled over to Balmoral picking up a nice tailor (good crab bait) for our efforts. Then headed to the north and started flicking these new yamashita jigs I picked up. AWESOME. 4 squid in ten minutes, one about a foot long. By this time the gentle rocking of the still boat was making me worse so we headed over north head to downrig the squid. Only managed 15 minutes of fishing (with me continually burleying unvoluntarily) before I told my mate fishing was over, I had to get home. Oh well, no kingies and we were pleased with the squidding.

QUESTION – we do not have a livey tank on our boat but poddies and yakkas stay alive reasonably well in a bucket if you change the water to aerate it pretty regularly. The squid however did not last 10 minutes. Any ideas of how to do this without a dedicated livey tank?

Pretty good weekend, would have liked a couple of flatties and a kingie but we will be out there again soon.

Cheers,

Duncs

PS – if anyone say two guys struggling with a front wheel drive on a very very slippery low tide Brooklyn boat ramp around 130 on Sat avo that was us. Thanks to those who assisted.........no thanks to those on the jetty who stood around and chuckled

Nice work with the crabs!

Which part of Hawkesbury did you go?

Chrissy

[SZ1]

Hey Mate, if you keep the squids seperate bucket by them selfs they will last a lot longer. the Yakkas and poddies will stress them out. Also use air pump for the live squids and yakkas if you not already doing.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Sz1

[FISHARK]

Hey mate well done with the crabs mate you done well.

As for your squid that does not last if you are putting them in the same tank as the yellow tails and the poddies then they will spook the squid and they will tend to die very quickly ....