Botany Friday Night

[pkat87]

Headed out after work on Friday night with a few mates at about 8pm... Launched at Kyeemagh which was nice and quiet for a change compared to the usual peak hours I like to fish during..

Short trip across the moonlit (or should I say Port Botany lit) bay across to Towra.. anchored up set up a berley trail and dropped our baits down.. Chicken breast and prawns were on the menu tonight... Noticed there was hardly any current which had me a little worried as I rarely get a boatful of mates to take out so I didn't want to disappoint.. After about 10 minutes first fish came on board, not sure what it was but it looked kind of like a bream with more of a snout for a nose? I've seen them before but haven't bothered to look up the species on the net. Sorry no photos this report everyone was to eager to get onto more fish..

Anyway not much more happened for the next 20mins so we headed around the corner closer towards Dolls point.. Spread out some berley and dropped the baits down again.. All rods were set up with light gear, 4-6lb leader with unweighted and very small sinkers. After a few minutes here couple of the boys got some decent hits and then first fish was landed, a nice 29cm bream which was very fat and healthy, onto the ice she goes.. Over the next half hour we landed another 3 of similar size and then it all went quiet.. Tried moving in a little closer to shore but no luck.. By this time it was about 11pm and we were getting closer to the slack low tide.. Tried motoring over to the runways more in hope of luck being on our side than anything else. Anchored off the 3rd and weariness was setting in, was not looking forward to pulling up the anchor again. After about 10mins or so we pulled up another keeper bream, then the rest of the time here was spent pulling up little reds which all went back in.

Around 12am decided to head back towards the ramp and thought we'd give the 1st runway a try.. No berley this time just dropped the baits and relaxed enjoying some interesting conversation.. Pulled up a few horse-sized yakkas but that was it. Until I decided to reel my line back in before pulling the anchor up, only to notice there was some weight on the end of the line??.. kept reeling and then noticed I had finally caught my first squid!! and typical it was on a small longshank hook with prawn instead of one of my expensive squid jigs. Then had a rookie-error moment, lowered the net in front of the squid instead of behind, only to have it squirt a few times and then jump off the hook =(.. Quickly tied on a pink Ika squid jig and threw it back out there.. Got a few hits but didn't manage to land one, I guess my squidding technique needs some work..

So that's where it ended, headed back in rather smoothly, got home and pissed off the neighbours with a 2am flush, luckily for them I've upgraded to a 4-stroke as the old 2-stroke used to wake up everyone in a 5km radius.

Ended up with 5 keeper bream, the bigger models were caught on chicken breast.

Hope to get out there again soon, might try for a jew or 2 next time now that I've managed to find some squid!

Cheers,

Peter

[Formosan]

Good report Peter. There is an engine flushing facility in another boat ramp not far without risking the hate from the neighbours.

[Terms]

Incase your wondering the ramp with engine flushing facility is the one on foreshore drive

but you will need to take your own hose.