Broken Bay Report

[Jibr2]

Hey Raiders,

James here. Long time reader first time poster here. Firstly I'd like to say that Fishraider is the BEST fishing site I have come across. The sharing of knowledge, tips and tricks has been a huge factor in my development as a fisherman over the last 5 years and I thank everyone on board for it. Decided its time to start contributing.

Last week I had three newbies to take fishing in broken bay, and the conditions were not great. With the recent reports of kings flooding through I wanted to have a crack but had to stay well protected so none of them would get sick. After filling up on yakkas it started to get a bit rough so I decided to anchor where we collected our bait, put out a burley trail from there and send out some livies.

A large part of taking newbies fishing is keeping them entertained, and staying at the bait grounds was the best call I could have made. As we had our bag limit of yakkas in our tank in no time, one of my mates decided to spend 4 hours playing catch and release with yakkas on small sp wrigglers with 3kg line, amazing how entertained a 25year old can be with a baitfish. With a fresh unweighted yellowtail fillet being drifted back, a livie on the bottom, a butterflied bait on the bottom and a livie under a float it wasn't long until our baits were found.

Unfortunately the kings didn't play the game, but there were some decent tailor that turned up and as you can imagine with three newbies on board and reels screaming things got a little hectic and a few fish were lost, but we did manage some solid tailor. One of the lives went off and the drag wasn't screaming but just slowly peeling away. It felt like a ray, but it was on a livie, so I was a bit suspect. Once we put some pressure on the line it started feeling a bit more lively, and fishy. We had to put some serious hurt on it to bring it back. It turned out to be a Wobbegong shark and this thing was huge! It made my mate sammy look small and he is a big guy, check out the photo. A few minutes later the same thing happened and we thought the fish was stupid enough to hook himself again, but this time it was a port jackson.

I really enjoy targeting species and successfully walking away with them, but like many keen fisherman can get a bit snobby and have pretty hight expectations of myself when I head out for a fish. The great thing about taking out mates is that it isn't about the catch, it's just about having a good time with some good blokes. They were so impressed at a catch that me and the mrs would have been disappointed with (my high fishing expectations have rubbed off on her). Its so refreshing to take out newbies, they give you a fresh view on fishing, they didn't care they were bottom feeding sharks, they were just happy to pull these things aboard and have a pat. The Sharks and yakkas were emptied back in, but we cook one of the tailor onboard on the camping stove and enjoyed it with a salad the mrs brought for us.

A question for the raiders out there. When fishing between box head and little box head I have often picked up very large port jackson sharks, often with pinkish enlarged gonads. The one in the photo is probably an average size one for the area, I've caught much larger ones. Has anyone had similar experiences as I believe this may be an important spawning ground…just a thought?

Cheers, James

photo of my mate sammy and his woebegone

[Jibr2]

my mate Caleb with the port jackson shark

[Jibr2]

Sammy again with a nice tailor.

[pomey_git]

Christ! Thats a face only a mother could love.

The wobbegong i mean.

Good stuff mate

[Ray R]

Great report mate, as for the Q in don't know.

Head over to Pittwater enrty and throw out a yakka, you might score yourself a King over that way..

[Jibr2]

Yeah, I was surprised by the teeth on the wobbegone, the bigger ones have a pretty good set on them. Thanks for the tip Ray, I am mad keen to send out some live yakka and squid across at barrenjoey head and will probably do that at the next opportunity, but on this particular day the wind blew up a bit I didn't want to risk anyone going green if I made the trip over from Brisbane water.

James