Sydney Harbour 22/12

[Robertos87]

Hi guys, Merry Christmas to all, hope Santa got you all the fishing gear you asked for!

Last Saturday my Dad, my brother and I decided to head out to Sydney Harbour to drop a line and have a nice day out on the water. Lately we've been hitting up the Hawkesbury for not a lot of action so a change of scene was needed.

Was an interesting start to say the least.after dropping the boat in at Rose bay we headed out to find spot. As soon as we stopped the boat we looked to set up. We started looking for our tackle boxes.....and it dawned on us we didn't have them on board!!! Bit of miscommunication better my dad and me, and long story short we both thought the other one had brought them along. After some words I probably shouldn't repeat here were shared, we decided to make do with what we had. And what we had were four rods already set up. That's right, we couldn't afford to lose any tackle whatsoever. I was crossing my fingers we didn't come across any jackets.

After catching almost two dozen baby snapper, we finally found a decent spot. As soon as my dad hit the bottom he was on to a nice flathead. That's when we had a nice run of fish come on board. Between the three of us we ended up catching 4 flathead between 40 to 50cms, 2 nice trevally, 2 flounder with the biggest going close to 50cms, 2 eagle rays, and a very nice leatherjacket. We also caught 2 octopus We caught the majority of our fish between about 1130am and about 130pm. Can you believe it, we did not lose a single bit of gear. I think the fishing gods were looking down on us! Probably with some sympathy! All in all a great day out on the water and we may give the Hawkesbury a rest for the time being.

We will be heading out again this Sunday, and hopefully we can get into some kings this time.

Sharnee well. Beats working!!!

Tight lines, Rob.

[Robertos87]

Photo coming soon

[Robertos87]

Our catch

[erroll]

Good work there mate. Good read.

I have done the before but landed a 96cm kingy on a 7/0 live bait hook directed attached to a 150lb snap swivel with a yakka on the end! Thats a better result that when i have my gear! I reckon I need a laminated checklist for my gear as I am always forgetting stuff. To excited to get out there.

Cheers

[Robertos87]

[port hacking addiction]

Good catch mate i dont think they are eagle rays though look like banjo sharks or somethin else.

[Guest hawkesbass]

Nice effort for not knowing the harbour too well they are defineately banjo rays not too sure of many eagle rays being seen or caught in sydney harbour

[SargeRX8]

Can you eat those things? Ive caught a few of those rays and they were huge. I threw them all back as a past experience with anything similar tells me they are an absolute pain in the arse to peel and really not worth the effort after tasting it. People say they are best served in batter, deep fried, but in all honesty a dirty old sock will probably taste good when its deep fried. Its got the upper body of a string ray but a tail like a shark.

Let us know how they go because if they're worth eating, I'd be willing to try catch one.

Even so, that leather jacket is going to be delicious. My favorite of all fish to eat.

Good stuff.

Edited December 27, 2012 by SargeRX8

[ashisnothereman]

i caught a few of these before didnt consider eating them. we caught several shovel nose sharks on the same night and i had heard they go alright so we kept one. they are a pain in the arse to fillet due to their super tough skin, but the flesh isn't bad at all. didnt batter and deep fry, just cooked over the open camp fire with seasoning. was very nice but i was fairly hammered by that point. i would say that the banjo rays would taste similar. it is just flake.

[Robertos87]

Can you eat those things? Ive caught a few of those rays and they were huge. I threw them all back as a past experience with anything similar tells me they are an absolute pain in the arse to peel and really not worth the effort after tasting it. People say they are best served in batter, deep fried, but in all honesty a dirty old sock will probably taste good when its deep fried. Its got the upper body of a string ray but a tail like a shark.

Let us know how they go because if they're worth eating, I'd be willing to try catch one.

Even so, that leather jacket is going to be delicious. My favorite of all fish to eat.

Good stuff.

We have caught a few before and always threw them back, but iv'e heard they were good eating so we thought we'd give it a go. I didnt find them that hard to prepare, I cut the wings off with scissors then cut straight down either side of the spine and was able to pull the meat out without the skin. Taste wise they were ok. I battered and fried them. I found the tail flesh was much better then the wings. Next time i will be trying it on the grill, the flesh seemed more solid then normal fish so I think they may hold up well on the barbie. The leather jacket was very nice, i'm with you, not many nicer tasting fish out there.

[brettmann86]

Banjo sharks not eagle rays, you'll know when you hook an eagle ray, they actually give a good account if themselves, tail flesh is the best meat on them the wing flesh goes well boil with egg noodles and Thai curry

[Robertos87]

Banjo sharks not eagle rays, you'll know when you hook an eagle ray, they actually give a good account if themselves, tail flesh is the best meat on them the wing flesh goes well boil with egg noodles and Thai curry

Hey Brett how you goin? Yea was a banjo shark. Hows the married life? We need to hook up a fish together sometime.

[brettmann86]

Hey Brett how you goin? Yea was a banjo shark. Hows the married life? We need to hook up a fish together sometime.

Hey yeah I'm all good dude. Everyone asks that question and its no different than living together lol. And yeah I'm out on the boat most weekends when I'm not out with the fishing club.