Sydney 24Th July

[AndrewNR]

Picked up my mate and went to his uncles house @ 5.30am for a fish. Launched the boat at Ryde and we made our way down the Parra freezing our butts off. Cruised around south head and went a bit south to go to our flathead spot and it started to rain. It disappeared in about 45min but as soon as it did the wind picked up. It made it hard to drift in 40m of water. We had to put the sea anchor out and used a large sinker which made feeling the bites a bit difficult.

We ran into some jackets and lost about 5 setups early and we got a bit frustrated. After a little while the wind died down, the jackets disappeared and we were on to some fish. Using a smaller sinker we could feel the bites better and ended up getting 10 flathead, 4 sand, 5 dusky and 1 tiger which I have never caught before. We also caught a banjo shark which put up a good fight and went back in the drink. Then the jackets came back. We persisted for a bit and caught 5 of the bast**ds before we called it quits and decided to head back inside and fish there seems we had dinner.

We stopped at a spot near rose bay where my mates uncle caught a nice 47cm John dory last Tuesday which he kept raving on about it being the best fish he has ever eaten. We caught a few yakkas and one squid and anchored up. Dropped the squid looking for a king as we have caught a few of late in the harbour. Dropped some yakkas looking for the dory,and got the bream gear out and gave that a go. Burleyed our butts off for nearly 2 hours and all we got to show for it was a 40cm sand whiting which was pretty good. By then it was 3pm and we called it quits. When we left the sea was flat as a tack and the wind was non existant. All in all it was a good day. Sorry I have no pics as we filleted the fish on the boat and my camera was at home. We also don't know much about the dory. What they like, do they school up or where to find them. We pressume they don't school, like deep water where baitfish are. Any opinions?

P.S- we were approached by maratime for a safety check so keep your eyesout and get pulled over as the girl driving the boat and doing the check was a slamming hottie

Cheers Andrew.