The Incredible Hull Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Went to the Hawkesbury last night, 7:30pm - 2am, absolutely nothing! So disappointing! Fished at the railway bridge, where I usually fish during the day and generally its good there, so I thought night time would have been better... Although we caught nothing we did get a consolation prize... I pulled up my trap to find 5 good size blue swimmers! Anyone know why fishing is so dead at night there? After we anhcored up, we noticed how foggy it was in the water... We literally couldn't see 10 metres ahead of us, so I was going really slow, virtually no throttle. I parked at the Brooklyn ramp, so to the path between the railway bridge and brooklyn ramp is straight and very easy.... one would think. In pitch black with thick fog everywhere, it was a nightmare come true, you couldn't even see navigation lights until you were 20 metres from it. We travel really slow for 15 minutes directly straight and still didn't see the boat ramp... travelled for another 15 minutes to realise we were completely lost, it was pitch black all around with immense fog. I had an idea to pull out my phone, use google maps + gps, and I could see exactly where we were, we actually veered into the danger island channel. It is impossible to steer straight in pitch black + fog. I was so happy to see the boat ramp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisherman36 Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 I too was on the hawkesbury last night. Put in at Apple Tree bay and anchored in Waratah Bay. By 10:00pm the fog was so thick and seeing as though I had caught a big fat zero I figured I'd try and make it back to the ramp. Set off and couldn't see past the front of the boat. I was solo and navigating only by the GPS. After about 1.5km at snail pace I decided it was just too dangerous to continue and turned back to head for the safety of the bay where the other 30 or so boats were. You could see absolutely nothing it was that thick. No chance of seeing past the front of the boat and no chance of seeing the shoreline. Got back to the bay and anchored up for a very chilly night. Finally headed back to the ramp at 7:30 this morning where it was still pretty foggy but visibility was better. Sometimes you just have to make the call, and although it was a long cold night, safety came first. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtisjohnthomas Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Had something similar happen when I was out chasing hairtail. We started at Waratah bay, but ventured out to stingray bay and got a little lost as I haven't fished Cowan before. Iphone saved the day.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Incredible Hull Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 5 crabs in one trap is this correct? From the report there must be a late season run to the sea to get 5 swimmers in one trap this time of year. Tried Fri night up Jerusalem for only 2 hairtail and forgot to put crab traps on the boat which would have been a good consolation by the sound of things. Even in crab season we are lucky to get more than 2 in at a time so that was a fantastic result for your efforts I lifted the trap up twice... the first time, we got 5 in 1 go, however 1 was too small so we threw him back. Lifted it up a couple of hours later and got 1 more. 2 of them were massive... back shell measured about 15cm, big as a mud crab. Funny enough that this is also the fist time I used a trap, so I was stoked to see the trap all full on the first drop! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Miller Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 yeah tell me about it we could not see 2 meters thru the fog at some points, went to jb at 7pm managed to raise a couple of squid. Then high tide hit around 9ish and all hell broke loose. 2 rods buzzed off at once while my mate was trying to scoop the squid and i was left to untangle a 66cm salmon from my anchor rope, also managed to land 5 trevalys from 32 to 36cm. caught a couple of tailor in there also (ended up using for bait) i was pretty impressed with jb that sat night, but today (sunday) totally dead. only thing we caught was a dirty big ray and a squid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockfisherman Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 I can feel your relief when you found the boat ramp, thank the lord you thought to pull out you gps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Incredible Hull Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 I can feel your relief when you found the boat ramp, thank the lord you thought to pull out you gps Amen to that brother. There is nothing worse, than to have no control over anything you try to do. Having said that, been to 3 different places at night and got nothing - I think I'll wait till summer for night fishing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaineM Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Launched in the pea soup fog late Saturday night at Apple Tree and had to navigate with sounder (keeping depths to more than 10 metres) and keeping shadow of shoreline just in sight. Saw more than a few boats doing circles trying to navigate. One boat asked for directions back to the ramp which we gave only for us to see the same boat going the opposite direction straight past us 30 mins later. Sent them back the right way again, hopefully they made it. Some first timers out there struggling as well. Busy night on the water too. Lots of very slow boats moving around. Caine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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