Botany Bay 17.4.10

[jim bream]

Hi raiders

Second week in a row, Fishing was tough going. Landed at towra at 6.00am, with 10 fish in half a hour at that stage i thought "nah could it be?" But what had me worried was a very small tide and the water temperature started to decline from last week. After towra we moved to the patches, to the sticks and then kurnell, and it seemed there were no fish at the top of the bay whatsoever. Each of those hot spots produce zero fish. So i decided to head back to the novatel with no surprise there was about 8 boats there which produced 10 good fish. At this stage i had 20, i said one more stop at towra on the way home which produced 2 fish. And a 1m shovel nose shark that i let go. 22 fish all up, highlight of the day was a 42 cm bream.

Cheers

Jimbream.

[Basil D]

even when its tough you manage to catch fish, So how many would you have caught when they are on

[Keflapod]

Hey Jimmy,

You did OK in the end.

I've been scratching my head a bit these last few weeks as I have not been able to find fish on any of my marks from Quibray bay to kurnell, from 1.0m to 4.8m.

The only thing I could do was to go prospecting at different spots.

I was out on Sunday and I fished the runout tide in the mouth of the river, a drop that is 3.8m to 6m.

This spot is new to me. There was some fish there (mainly 28's) but the only fish of any quality there was a 47cm whiting.

A friend of mine showed me a spot on Sunday where he anchors in 6m, burleys and fishes his burley trail.

The spot is new to me, the technique is also one that I have not practiced in years.

He asked me to not divulge his spot as it's important to him to provide regular fish for hims retired self and his ageing mum.

I watched him catch about 25 fish (20 bream plus 5 odd trevally)while I only got 7 bream.

I was trying to work out what I was doing wrong but I couldn't see it.

After about an hour, I realised what it was....

He had directed me to what he believed was the better spot to anchor in.

The boat was swinging around a bit so it was not obvious from which direction the current was running.

I nearly fell over when I realised that I was directly upcurrent from my mate.

My burley was going directly to his boat !

He was getting his fish courtesy of two burley trails....

Good on him - he's a gentleman and a lovely person and I thank him for showing me his spot and technique.

Without it I would have gone home with a very modest catch.

I guess me burleying for him to give him a torrid 2 hours fishing can be seen as a thankyou from me.

I had to alter my technique a fair bit - I had to perform a bit of visual analysis from 20m away as to what he was doing. It had me changing rigs, changing my approach and thinking.

It's very refreshing to see someone else's technique in action catching fish when yours is not so crash hot - it keeps the fun and interest in the fishing..

I'm now trying to work out if there is any migration pattern for this time of year, from the shallower sections to the deeper ones.

This needs to happen so I can work out which spots to hit in the winter and what approach / baits to use.

Last winter I fished right through and still managed to catch some fish but I stumbled on a spot or two via pure luck.

I'm trying to work out the rules so I can find other spots as well in case these ones fail or they get crowded out.

Jimmy, do you still fish in the winter for bream in Botany Bay ?

If so, PM me so we can swap some notes...

[jim bream]

Hi Tony seems to me all the fish were at lower part of the bay that day and i think a very small tide with no movement caused this i spoke to some people and they had no luck at the top of the bay nothing at all and same today getting two calls were are the fish they were asking .I think every day is different you have to read into the tides and conditions and go from there you try you're usual spots of course if they don't fire you go else were the problem for me i wasted time on the usual spots and time crucial especially in the morning i new the morning was not going to that hot but the evening had a stronger tide interesting it would of being to no the difference that's my thoughts basically Ive experienced this a few times i don't think its fish migration patterns just tide. cheers Jim bream