The Wind Picked Up It All Failed !

[Mr.KingSpooled]

Hey raiders,

Well organized a trip yesterday with the boys to fish the harbour for jewy's at night.

So finished work at around 4:15ish and loaded the car up with all the necessary gear. The missus wanted to come as well so she packed her stuff and we were on our way. The weather was perfect, the sun was out the wind was down and it just felt like it was going to be a good nights fishin.

So headed straight down to my local tackle shop to pick up some bait jigs and some fresh prawns for the lady and some salted pillies for myself.

Headed down to Jefferey St Wharf to see if I could catch some live yakkas and squid for bait, I arrived to see my mate jason already there fishing

for yakkas with a single hook rig, it was funny cause he didnt know he had a brand new bait rig sitting in the bottom of he's tackle bag.

By this time I've rigged up the bait rig and baited up with small cubes of salted pillie. Drop it over and boom 2 yakkas on the first drop, there

was plenty of yakkas here so I kept at it and after about 10-15 minutes i had a bucket full of live yakkas ready to go, meanwhile my mate jason

has still only got about 8 - 9 yakkas in his live bait cage. He continues to fish for yakkas while i re-rig with a squid jig to try for some fresh

harbour squid. No dice the squid didnt wanna play, not even a smell of my jig.

By this time its hitting around 6:30 - 6:45pm and the sun is starting to drop, so with my yakkas still very lively and kicking and a well setup aerator to keep them alive I grabbed my bucket and all my gear and proceeded around the walkway till I was just before the harbour bridge.

I setup a sliding sinker rig with single 6/0 hook and size 6 anchor sinker. So ticking 7:05 now and Ive got a live yellow tail in my hand spiking me with his anal fin while im fumbling around with the hook, final I manage to pin him underneathe his dorsal fin without too much damage to myself and the fish. So time to cast, the weather had changed its alot colder and also the wind had picked up a fair bit. The current now was very strong and the water was quite choppy. I go for a big flick out, but all I see is a sinker land and no ripples from a live yellow tail landing, then in the corner of my eye i see a lonely yakka flying and hit the water on a totally different angle to where my sinker landed, damn im thinkin thats 1 yakka down and it hasn't even made the water could this be a bad night?

So i rig up another live squirming yakka and tried for cast number 2, I belt him out again as hard as I could on my short 6'4 rod, travels about 25 - 30 metres before hitting the water bait and all still intact. So i was for the sinker to drop to the bottom meanwhile my line is being ripped off my spool from the ammount of wind so i let it fly a little to let the sinker drop before reeling up the slack. He was alive and kicking I could see the tiny movements of the yakka on the rod tip. I now attach my rod to the fence using my rod straps and proceed to rig up my 2nd rod. Same style rig but for this rod I used fresh yakka fillets. This being a 10ft rod I was able to get alot bigger cast and sent it out about 40 - 50m. All rods are now setup to the fence and camping chair ready to take full force of my ass ! Waiting... Waiting... Still... Waiting... Oh look theres something tapping my rod, oh its gone again .. waiting .. waiting... waiting .. NOTHING. So I wind in my live bait to see he is still kicking quite spastically and vertually untouched. So I pick a little more of an angle and lob it out again for another 30m cast, all goes well rod is setup and the wait continues. Btw both drags are set loose so that I have time to take the rods off the fence without pressure on it. ZzzzZZzzzzZzzzzzz.... nothing...zzzz..nothing ...nothing....zzz..nothing. Now im thinking small jew maybe or a big squid. So I pick up the rod carefully tighten the drag and take load. Hmm I can feel something there but it dont feel like no jew,so I wind it back in thinking it might have been a floating bit of weed that hit the bait cause there was no fight what so ever on the retrieve just dead weight. Pulled it up and its a 33cm Bream. Nice but on the tackle it was caught on the comparison would be like lifting a teabag with an engine hoist. I was happy because this being my biggest bream ever I was stocked, but also dissappointed that this fish wasnt caught on the tackle that I bought specifically for bream. Anyways I clean and gut my fish to take home for lunch the next day so got all that done and put him in a nice ice slurry. Now back to fishing, re-baited and lobbed it back out by now its about 10ish and the wind has really picked up, I was struggling getting a cast of 40m with my 10ft rod but we didnt wanna give in the tide was just changing now and we could feel it was gonna be good so we persisted. With bait after bait getting reeled in and tossed out it was getting ridiculous. Pickers destroying yakka fillets and squid eating eyes and guts of livey's. 11:30pm came and the wind was just terrible couldnt get a cast out no matter what weight you had. So I pull out my 10ft rod calling quits. As im packing away all the gear I hear click click, click click click and i look over at my live bait rod its bent and click then would stop. So i gently pick up the rod and i can feel weight, but its moving around i dont think he noticed he was hooked, so I carefully tighten the drag quickly take load and start reeling, he turns he's head and straight away i feel a bumb. Wtf whats going on, the rods getting pulled but i cant pull back, nah this fish cant be that big, i tighten the drag a little more and pull a bit harder by this point Ive figure somethings wrong. Ping my line snaps, i retrieve it to find that my sinker had got caught on something in the water as the fish swam away with the bait causing me to snag when trying to retrieve. I was so pissed off, my 1 good fish for the night and something as stupid as a snagged sinker is the downfall.

Conclusion for the night, I caught a whole lot of bait for the big fish. The big fish only wanted 1 bait and decided to snag my line. The suicidal bream was caught on a whole yakka fillet with a size 6/0 octopus circle hook Like seriously it only just fit in its mouth, but it was a damn fresh fillet, thing was still kicking.

Im sorry I didnt take any pics i left my camera at home last night, plus would have only been a pic of a single bream.

So embaressing....

Hope you guys enjoyed a good laugh

Cheers,

jez

[Catchin Jack]

Nice report mate, shame you didn't get the jew.

[duck168]

Good read all the way to the end. Hope you enjoy your bream lunch.

[Mr.KingSpooled]

Good read all the way to the end. Hope you enjoy your bream lunch.

Oh yeah, garlic butter sauce and some spuds!!

B-E-A-UTIFUL!!!

Cheers mate

[Rafinx]

Bream is a common bi catch, ive now caught about 4 breams now on 9/0 hooks etc on snelled rigs with whole squids on. great report champ, never fished the harbour before, but my uncle swore me to secrecy on his secret jew spots there. so one time I plan to go check them out.

[kurtisjohnthomas]

Did you get a water temp reading.

I have been on the harbour twice this week and haven't seen any pelagics at all. I know the fresh water has probably pushed alot out to see, but it seems as though the harbour is dead. Nobody seems to be scoring this week

[Mr.KingSpooled]

Did you get a water temp reading.

I have been on the harbour twice this week and haven't seen any pelagics at all. I know the fresh water has probably pushed alot out to see, but it seems as though the harbour is dead. Nobody seems to be scoring this week

yeah its been a bit slow around the kirribilli area. Plenty of yakkas as usual and squid, just all the big gun predators arent there to eat em. I dunno maybe there just hiding cause they know my baits have hooks in em lol !

[kurtisjohnthomas]

Mate, appart from the Kings, the Pelagics are Gone!!! 4 times now and nothing!