Long Reef 5 Jan - plenty of fish

[jdudfield]

We thought we would brave the early morning wind on Thursday and planned to go to Long Reef.

Balmoral by 6.30am for yakkas ... plenty of pinkies, trevally and sweep but no yakkas at all ... must have been cleaned out over chrissy.

Headed off to Dobroyd and found a school of fish on the sounder which turned out to be yakkas ... we got about a dozen, with a couple of horses, and a small flathead and a box puffer. Saw some surface action and after throwing dozens of casts with SPs and plenty of grabs finally hooked up to a 30cm tailor.

Time to poke our nose out the heads. It was pretty messy so we slow trolled towards Manly, waved at 3 rockhoppers having fun on North Head. By Manly we thought may as well give it a go and headed slowly to Long Reef. Again saw some surface action but didn't get any takes on SPs or lures, so we continued north. It was still a bit messy when we got there and there were a few yaks in the water but no other boats. Set up for a drift just north of the ledge with the wind taking us towards the beach. Burley bucket over the side just a foot down, 2 live baits under the boat and squid strips on light gear out the back. The wind started to drop off and the swell flattened a bit. The drift was quiet initially but after about 15 minutes we were getting some interest on the squid strips, ended up being a school of solid sweep, a bit of fun but not dinner. Then the kingies started hitting.

Over 8 or 10 drifts we would have landed about 25 kingies, most 55 - 62cm plus a few 40cm. The squid strips out fished the live bait 2 to 1 at least! At one stage we had a triple hook up with 2 on squid strips and 1 taking a live bait - now that was chaotic with fish swimming all over the place, crossed lines and the burley bucket getting in on the act but we managed to land (and release) all three. We did lose a few on the live bait with a bust off and a pulled hook ... maybe they were a decent size!

During the drifts we also caught more sweep than we could count plus a 45cm samson fish (first time, and it fried up very nicely as fillets - photo attached) and a 35cm pinkie. We also saw a shark, large sea turtle and penguin doing its stuff.

The dive boat turned up and a few other boats came out later but it was pretty quiet out there - early weather must have scared everyone off or you are all back at work!!

Overall a great couple of hours giving the gear a solid work out and us plenty of exercise. Luckily the forecast was right and the weather calmed down mid morning.

[SamBradley]

We thought we would brave the early morning wind on Thursday and planned to go to Long Reef.

Balmoral by 6.30am for yakkas ... plenty of pinkies, trevally and sweep but no yakkas at all ... must have been cleaned out over chrissy.

Headed off to Dobroyd and found a school of fish on the sounder which turned out to be yakkas ... we got about a dozen, with a couple of horses, and a small flathead and a box puffer. Saw some surface action and after throwing dozens of casts with SPs and plenty of grabs finally hooked up to a 30cm tailor.

Time to poke our nose out the heads. It was pretty messy so we slow trolled towards Manly, waved at 3 rockhoppers having fun on North Head. By Manly we thought may as well give it a go and headed slowly to Long Reef. Again saw some surface action but didn't get any takes on SPs or lures, so we continued north. It was still a bit messy when we got there and there were a few yaks in the water but no other boats. Set up for a drift just north of the ledge with the wind taking us towards the beach. Burley bucket over the side just a foot down, 2 live baits under the boat and squid strips on light gear out the back. The wind started to drop off and the swell flattened a bit. The drift was quiet initially but after about 15 minutes we were getting some interest on the squid strips, ended up being a school of solid sweep, a bit of fun but not dinner. Then the kingies started hitting.

Over 8 or 10 drifts we would have landed about 25 kingies, most 55 - 62cm plus a few 40cm. The squid strips out fished the live bait 2 to 1 at least! At one stage we had a triple hook up with 2 on squid strips and 1 taking a live bait - now that was chaotic with fish swimming all over the place, crossed lines and the burley bucket getting in on the act but we managed to land (and release) all three. We did lose a few on the live bait with a bust off and a pulled hook ... maybe they were a decent size!

During the drifts we also caught more sweep than we could count plus a 45cm samson fish (first time, and it fried up very nicely as fillets - photo attached) and a 35cm pinkie. We also saw a shark, large sea turtle and penguin doing its stuff.

The dive boat turned up and a few other boats came out later but it was pretty quiet out there - early weather must have scared everyone off or you are all back at work!!

Overall a great couple of hours giving the gear a solid work out and us plenty of exercise. Luckily the forecast was right and the weather calmed down mid morning.

Nice day out! We are heading out tomorrow so i hope that some of their friends hang around!!

[KAIJACK]

Sounds like fun Dudders.

[Krispy !]

Welldone mate thats a nice session there

Edited January 6, 2012 by Krispy !

[noelguyau]

What sort of depth are we talking?

[jdudfield]

What sort of depth are we talking?

We were drifting across 14 to 8 metres