First Report: Middle Harbour

[SargeRX8]

Hey all,

Here's my first, of hopefully more, reports! Went out a couple of weeks ago with a mate on a boat we hired out at middle harbour. Left nice and early, we checked the weather and it seemed like it was gonna be a good day. Hit the water at about 8am and only managed some yakka to throw out as live baits but had some squid with us from home. Being our first time out on the water we had no idea where to go so we looked for other boat fisho's and tried around where they were. After casting out numerous baits, trying for squid, flicking out plastics all around balmoral, the evidence was clear: no fish. Then the overcast came and out of no where a strong southerly started blowing in making it quite uncomfortable and almost ruining the trip.

With no fish in the bag we headed off to get lunch. After some, really expensive food, we jumped back in the boat and decided to go further up into middle harbour stopping at any "fishable" looking location. After hours of moving around, the time hit 4pm and we hadn't landed a decent fish all day. The amount of under sized snapper in the MH is amazing. We decided to head back in and try one last fishy looking spot. We were out of bait so using our plastics at this time for more under sized snapper.

Suddently, out of no where, my drag on my rod started rolling off and there was no need to set the hook... I was in and I was in good. We were fishing up close to a few pylons so the nerves were on, fishing only light line and leader, that I could get busted off if this fish takes me to the oyster encrusted pylons. After a couple of minutes I had full control of the situation and what looked to be a huge snapper in the water was actually a red morwong! My first ever, on a plastic and it was a big boy. Although the rest of the day was unproductive, we still had awesome fun on the water and this one fish lifted the feeling even higher.

I can't wait to get my self a boat, the amount of awesomeness cannot be described just moving through those quiet bays of middle harbour and scouting out fishing locations.

Took him home and measured him up and he came up at 40.5cm, gotta be a record breaker on a plastic, surely. I was cheering.

No kings on the day but good things can happen if you lower your targets!

Heres the pic of the fish and honestly he tasted pretty good with the olive oil, lemon and wrapped in the foil mmm.

Cheers guys!

Edited December 26, 2012 by SargeRX8

[Marcel]

Hey all,

Here's my first, of hopefully more, reports! Went out a couple of weeks ago with a mate on a boat we hired out at middle harbour. Left nice and early, we checked the weather and it seemed like it was gonna be a good day. Hit the water at about 8am and only managed some yakka to throw out as live baits but had some squid with us from home. Being our first time out on the water we had no idea where to go so we looked for other boat fisho's and tried around where they were. After casting out numerous baits, trying for squid, flicking out plastics all around balmoral, the evidence was clear: no fish. Then the overcast came and out of no where a strong southerly started blowing in making it quite uncomfortable and almost ruining the trip.

With no fish in the bag we headed off to get lunch. After some, really expensive food, we jumped back in the boat and decided to go further up into middle harbour stopping at any "fishable" looking location. After hours of moving around, the time hit 4pm and we hadn't landed a decent fish all day. The amount of under sized snapper in the MH is amazing. We decided to head back in and try one last fishy looking spot. We were out of bait so using our plastics at this time for more under sized snapper.

Suddently, out of no where, my drag on my rod started rolling off and there was no need to set the hook... I was in and I was in good. We were fishing up close to a few pylons so the nerves were on, fishing only light line and leader, that I could get busted off if this fish takes me to the oyster encrusted pylons. After a couple of minutes I had full control of the situation and what looked to be a huge snapper in the water was actually a red morwong! My first ever, on a plastic and it was a big boy. Although the rest of the day was unproductive, we still had awesome fun on the water and this one fish lifted the feeling even higher.

I can't wait to get my self a boat, the amount of awesomeness cannot be described just moving through those quiet bays of middle harbour and scouting out fishing locations.

Took him home and measured him up and he came up at 40.5cm, gotta be a record breaker on a plastic, surely. I was cheering.

No kings on the day but good things can happen if you lower your targets!

Heres the pic of the fish and honestly he tasted pretty good with the olive oil, lemon and wrapped in the foil mmm.

Cheers guys!

Nice catch mate you don't see many of them around

[filthmonger]

Nice report. I hear ya on the baby snapper. The hacking is absoultely plagued by em!

[Day's Fishin]

Good first report mate. Food around the Harbour is ridiculously expensive. A nice red morwong to top off your day. Will look forward to reading more post with better results as things will improve as you learn the right spots, baits and times to fish. Regards Jeff

[SKW]

Sarge,

That's not a red mowie, it's a spangled emperor. Your a lucky man !

They're a warm water species that's prolific on the Barrier Reef/Coral Sea. There have been increasing sightings around the harbour in recent years.

Cheers

[fisholb]

well done...just wanna know where did u hire d boat n how much? thanks

[Guest]

SKW is 100% correct on the spangled emperor and good eating as well

[SargeRX8]

Wow when ever I've heard of emperors I wouldn't have thought anywhere like this. When I fished him out I had no idea what he was so just had a look at the fish scale thing and the closet was the red morwong. Learn something new. Cheers for the positive input. Much appreciated.

Probably the worst thing about the plagues of undersized snapper is when you foul hook one in the arse or something and it pulls a lot harder haha.

[rjc123]

Great Spangley

Do him up whole

Superb tabe fish.

congrats!

Cheers, Tom

[erroll]

Welcome mate. That's a prize capture. Well done.

Cheers

[General Zod]

Thanks for sharing. True fishing from the boat has its awesomeness, gets better when u learn where to fish. Good on you on hooking that fish on your first trip. Sure beats my first experience.