Northern Beaches night fishing trip

[Pongrass18ft]

Hi Raiders

Had a phone call from hawkesbass late yesterday afternoon for a fishing trip to the northern beaches. I gladly took up the offer as I don't get to fish the north side very often, I'm usually down at Stanwell Park.

We hit longreef beach at around 8.30pm, conditions looked great and rigged up. I was armed with slimey mackerel and bonito. Hawkesbass brought along squid and pilchards. Armed with two rods myself and hawkesbass with one we cast out different baits on each and it didn't take long to get sharked. The slimey mackerel rod went nuts but my 120lb leader and 8/0 hooks were no match . Re-rigged the rod with 200lb trace and 10/0 hooks and another fresh slimey and cast out to the same area, sat back for a while and bang the same rod goes again. This time I was having some fun feeling the pressure of the fight but my trace was once again no match to the shark. He bit through the snelled rig and all I got back this time was one hook . I thought "wow, this is good fun" so I re-rigged again, not giving in and while this was going on the other rods weren't getting touched. Third time lucky on the slimey mackerel bait we hooked up solid bringing in the fish, this time it wasn't a shark . Hawkesbass was winding it in and I was bringing up the other two rods and our braids managed to touch each other and hawkesbass' line snapped so we never got to see what it was. I had my thoughts on a very large tailor, would have been a nice catch.

Fished on into the night for a couple more hours but the tide was getting very low and the beach was getting shallow. We did manage to bring up a healthy 15kg plus Port Jackson Shark and one salmon. Best bait by far for the night was the slimey mackerel, consistantly getting bites, whereas with the other baits we would have been sitting there with basically no bites all night.

All up it was an enjoyable night.

Hawkesbass will post a couple of photo's later.

Chris

[Guest hawkesbass]

cheers for the company last night not much around but still a good night out and the port jackson shark was defineately the biggest ive seen landed.here is the photos.

trev

[Basil D]

You had a nice nights fishing chris, well done, cant wait for the summer months

[kadavu]

That's the biggest Jackson shark I've seen in ages good job

[Basil D]

Looks like some Idiot cut the sharks fin of, people like that should have there frigging hands cut off and see if they frigging like it, B#!%$T#

Edited August 14, 2011 by Groper

[Keflapod]

Looks like some Idiot cut the sharks fin of, people like that should have there frigging hands cut off and see if they frigging like it, B#!%$T#

Basil,

Where do you see shark fins missing?

I have to agree regarding finning of sharks - not a good practice...

Chris, Hawkesbass,

You guys must drink anti-freeze fluid or something if you fish the beach on a winter's night.

I know, I know, the full moon makes us do weird things, like howling and growing heavy beards and continually trying to catch sharks with mono, even though 10/0's cost like $5.70 each.....

Well done on the PB PJ. RSVP ASAP OK ?

Tony

Edited August 15, 2011 by Keflapod

[eastwood1980]

Nice catch.....

Didn't know you can catch salmon in the middle of the night.

[Brooker435]

Wow, Nice Port Jackson,

I was on a house boat last weekend at the hawkesbury and we got into heaps of Port Jacksons they are such a nice looking shark and its a shame that people would cut the fins off them that's so cruel.

Looks like you had a good night out!!! Well done,

Regards,

Nathan

[zen801]

Well done guys. LR is my fav beach spot. Caught some big sharks there and my biggest jewie. One night we were getting salmon and the sharks were trying to take them before we could get them to the beach. Eventually got up a salmon onto the sand and slabbed him straight out. I got totally smoked but the power of the run was awesome.

Just a tips guys, park your car carefully in the LR carpark. Don't know about recently but now and again Anti social antics happen as well as vandalism and theft from cars etc. Park directly under the lights in carpark or on Pittwater rd if its safe.

Cheers

Mike

[Guest hawkesbass]

Been fishing long reef for a few years now and never seen any damage to my car. It definately is a good shark beach i get plenty of weird looks when standing knee deep in shorts catching bronze whalers upto 6 feet long while people are still swimming and surfing

[Guest hawkesbass]

The spikes were cut of the fins only didnt seem to hinder the fish at all. Beach fishing in winter is not cold all that is needed is good wet weather gear to block out the wind i was in shorts on sat night under long wet weather pants and was warm.

[Robofish]

Hi guys,

where do you actually fish at long reef - off the sand or off the point?

Dave

[Guest hawkesbass]

We were off the beach near the lagoon but you can fish the point not recommended at night involves walking across the reef in knee deep or deeper water from 1/2 high to 1/2 low tide and also need to consider swell size/ direction and wind conditions to fish the point can be dangerous at times

[Basil D]

Hey Kef, looked like the tail fin was missing, look Ive seen sharks that Ive puled aboard and they had fins missing, what have they done.