Botany Bay - Been away but went Sunday - twas OK, eh?

[Keflapod]

I haven 't posted in a long time but when I do, I like to stretch the report into a story and every trip has it's own little story, full of wonder - ie "I wonder why I even bother sometimes" kinda wonder.
So if you have 5 spare minutes I hope you will be entertained and possibly even glean a fact or two from my account of events.

I hadn’t wet a line in 6 weeks and my fridge was like old mother hubbard’s proverbial cupboard.

I had even stooped as low as buying fish.

Yes I hung my head in shame as I parted with cash for fish so I at least made sure the fish were of a species I couldn’t catch myself.

Now I know some of you are thinking that I could have bought any fish in the shop because I can’t catch anything…

Well at least some of you CAN think because some of the guys with whom I crossed swords over the weekend certainly couldn’t…

I had to fish on idiot Sunday because I couldn’t get my sorry butt organised on Saturday.

The 6 weeks of laying up due to unimportant famly events, ridiculous no-fishing-allowed holidays and frivolous parties for relatives had left me without any time to perform important fishing activities.

During that 6 weeks, things got a bit rusty – literally. The brake pads on the starboard forward trailer wheel had rusted against the brake disc. Unbeknownst to me at 5:00am, I revved the car like a dragster but the trailer only moved 300mm forward, to the tune of a screeching trailer tyre.

I thought I had left the trailer brake on but I never use such complicated contraptions so I was left scratching my head - then again, I can't say that the brain is firing on all 2 cylinders at 5:00am either, coz at that time I'm still dreaming of Jeannie.

The trailer was being dragged unceremoniously forward, leaving the blackest skidmark on white concrete that I have seen since I was a pimply teenager in my first car. Back in those days, my mates and I would annoy each other by taking our respective car to each others driveway and try our hardest to blacken their driveway with burnout marks – a hard task when we had muscle cars holden camiras and datsun 120y’s......ah the good old days...

Well back to fixing my seized trailer tyre, I had to squirt about a litre of CRC onto the disk pads and apply a little persuasion with a hammer and bolster - just the thing we like to do for our neighbours in the wee hours. So at 5:15 am I was ready to roll - well the trailer wheels were anyway..

Now if I could just remember how to reverse the boat - I checked that I was straight but couldn't see properly. The solar powered ramp lights rarely work so I had to get out of the car. As I did the car slowly rolled backwards into the water. First the trailer wouldn't move when I wanted it to, now it moves when I don't want it to!

Ah yes - the car was still in reverse albeit with the park brake on - well sort of on...I Dive into the car and put it in park - just as well I was alone at the ramp else there would have been a chorus of laughter with me be taking centre stage.

The river water temp was 25.5 degrees as I peered into the silhouetted water ahead of the boat, in case a floating tree, a small unlit tinny or other debris was in my path after the recent rains. Now the night before, I consulted my historical spreadsheets to tell me where I should fish today. They said to fish the deeper water after rain with smellier baits.

For those of you that find it hard to extract important info from fishing reports, this is important (well from my experience anyways). Fresh water floats over saltwater because it is less dense. The shallow areas will have more fresh water than salt and I find the fish will move into deeper water to get cleaner salt water. I didn't say clean, but cleaner water.

I stopped the boat in 4.0m of water and I didn't get the second rod out when the first went off. Over the next 90 minutes I kept 8 bream from 28cm to 35cm and released another dozen just legals but the moral of the story is that the fish were there. I was getting ready to move spots when one of the rods bent over slightly and line slowly trickled off the baitrunner. I gave it some line and struck.

I felt good weight and a couple of headshakes. I thought it would be a big banjo or shovelnose as I have caught more than my fair share. It went for a bit of a run and as I pulled it in, it stayed deep. Definately a banjo so I gave it a bit of stick. In the discoloured water I couldn't see deeper than half a metre and the low light didn't help either. I also realised that the fish had wrapped up another rod and the braids were wrapped. I called out Stupid Banjo, just the way Homer Simpson would have. The fish came to the surface and I nearly fell over. It thrashed it's head side to side. With catlike reflexes I gave the big lizard some slack so her teeth don't cut the 6lb trace. Miraculously the fish was still attached.

I fumbled for the toy net I use and tried to net her from the tail end. She just swims away and takes more line. Meanwhile I can hear another rod screaming behind me – sorry that one will have to wait. The lizard is slowly coaxed back to the net but the tangled other rod is preventing me from turning her head toward the net – crap –what to do – rod in one hand, net in another and I need another two hands to cut the braid on the other rod. I'm stuck between a rod and a hard fish.

I then had to invent a new netting angle that involved some kind of over-the-top backhand reverse slanted approach angle with some topspin to try to net her from the head. After a few failed attempts, I replaced the topspin with a slicing action and she swam into the net. I quickly realised that a lot of her tail was out of the net but I gave the heave-ho and hauled her on board....

I gave myself a high five (not a pretty sight as I nearly went overboard) and put her on the brag mat. She went 75cm and a PB for me. Last legal flattie I caught was years ago as I don't target them but my 6 year old daughter has been pestering me for flathead. She ignores my bream and whiting, pushing them aside to see if I got any flatties. Well this time I'm gonna scare her with this croc !

I put her in the esky (the fish, not the daughter) with the bream as another boat drifted by. The other boat was a good 10m from me and promptly picked up two of my lines with their lines and outboard leg....

I attempted to tell them how intelligent they were but my expletives vocabulary had suddenly gone offline – I was too happy about my capture to say anything negative...It was a weird feeling....I moved onto the next spot with a smile and waved to the offending boat as if they just did me a favour - man I was losing it....

Moving further downcurrent, I moved about 500m and redeployed. The bream were here as well but these fish were a bit bigger and fewer throwbacks. I stayed there for a while but I was itching to know if there were in fact any fish in the shallows, so I moved into 1m of water.

No sooner had I deployed the 3^rd rod when yet another fruitcake drifted by me a good 8m away. He nearly picked up my anchor rope but did manage to snare two of my lines...After our lines were again detangled, I realised that I was still smiling from the flattie earlier on...I thought to myself, "This smiling will have to stop – people will thing I'm the Joker from Batman or something....actually more like fatman really..." but the point was, there were no bites in the shallows – the fish were in the deeper water...so back to the deeps I went.

I noticed the wind shifted to the south and a change was expected. The VHF radio began to chatter about the expected southerly to be due at midday but I knew it was due before that in the bay. As the wind gathered strength, the fishing slowed down and the boats all made a bee-line to the ramps. I stayed until midday in the rough but the fish had shut down – unusual – they usually pick up.

The tally was 17 bream, 3 whiting and that big flattie. I was sure it had Trung's name on it somewhere. It was a satisfying ride home as the bow threw spray over the windshield. I had finally caught a decent flattie for my daughter. Back at the ramp the usual MENSA convention was in full swing and I had to wait until each members deliberations had completed before I could retrieve my boat. No matter. If I have enough patience to wait for a stupid fish to bite, I can have enough patience for an even stupider boatie to finish using the boat ramp.

When I finally got home and the daughter asked "Daddy did you get me a flat-head?". I replied with a certain tone of voice, kinda like Elvis says "a-ha baby – yeah". When she went over to the killbox, and she looked inside, she let out a little scream – half in terror, half in surprise, and half in excitement. Little kids always give you three halves don't they ?

Well after 36 questions about the fish and how I caught it, I'm now convinced that she will be my decky in future, not my 11 year old son....Genetics is a funny thing...

Tony

PS - Some piccies of the action and the food aftermath...

I would be the world's worst photographer but the point was I made a fish soup from the flathead frame (Greek style) and fried up the rest of the skinned, filleted and deboned fish that fed us all and had enough for mum and dad's lunch the next day...A decent flattie goes a long way...

..having trouble with uploading some piccies - might have to do the rest in the morning...

Edited February 12, 2013 by Keflapod

[nbdshroom]

Good write up! I chuckled a few times, notably when describing the ramp people as part of a MENSA convention and the bit about the 3 halves hehehe. What rigs and bait were you using?

[GreyNurse]

I was down at Lady Robinson Beach on Sunday morning casting about for flatties and whiting in vain. Before I left the car I had a dekko across the cay with my 10 x 40's and couldn't believe how close the boats were to one another, even allowing for some loss of perspective through the haze. I think you were lucky that you only encountered two idiots.

Well done on the catch. Great flathead for the bay. It must have migrated out of the Georges for the day to escape the fresh. There was little to be had shore based as, like you suggested, the fish moved off the shallows and into deeper waters. Still, Sunday morning was nice enough to have a rod in hand anywhere in Sydney.

Cheers,

Nursie

[cjchen]

great job tony,

good to see the fish are back in numbers!.

thank you for the great report!

[Paul]

Entertaining read Tony. Great catch!

[fishythings]

I haven 't posted in a long time but when I do, I like to stretch the report into a story and every trip has it's own little story, full of wonder - ie "I wonder why I even bother sometimes" kinda wonder.

So if you have 5 spare minutes I hope you will be entertained and possibly even glean a fact or two from my account of events.

I hadn’t wet a line in 6 weeks and my fridge was like old mother hubbard’s proverbial cupboard.

I had even stooped as low as buying fish.

Yes I hung my head in shame as I parted with cash for fish so I at least made sure the fish were of a species I couldn’t catch myself.

Now I know some of you are thinking that I could have bought any fish in the shop because I can’t catch anything…

Well at least some of you CAN think because some of the guys with whom I crossed swords over the weekend certainly couldn’t…

I had to fish on idiot Sunday because I couldn’t get my sorry butt organised on Saturday.

The 6 weeks of laying up due to unimportant famly events, ridiculous no-fishing-allowed holidays and frivolous parties for relatives had left me without any time to perform important fishing activities.

During that 6 weeks, things got a bit rusty – literally. The brake pads on the starboard forward trailer wheel had rusted against the brake disc. Unbeknownst to me at 5:00am, I revved the car like a dragster but the trailer only moved 300mm forward, to the tune of a screeching trailer tyre.

I thought I had left the trailer brake on but I never use such complicated contraptions so I was left scratching my head - then again, I can't say that the brain is firing on all 2 cylinders at 5:00am either, coz at that time I'm still dreaming of Jeannie.

The trailer was being dragged unceremoniously forward, leaving the blackest skidmark on white concrete that I have seen since I was a pimply teenager in my first car. Back in those days, my mates and I would annoy each other by taking our respective car to each others driveway and try our hardest to blacken their driveway with burnout marks – a hard task when we had muscle cars holden camiras and datsun 120y’s......ah the good old days...

Well back to fixing my seized trailer tyre, I had to squirt about a litre of CRC onto the disk pads and apply a little persuasion with a hammer and bolster - just the thing we like to do for our neighbours in the wee hours. So at 5:15 am I was ready to roll - well the trailer wheels were anyway..

Now if I could just remember how to reverse the boat - I checked that I was straight but couldn't see properly. The solar powered ramp lights rarely work so I had to get out of the car. As I did the car slowly rolled backwards into the water. First the trailer wouldn't move when I wanted it to, now it moves when I don't want it to!

Ah yes - the car was still in reverse albeit with the park brake on - well sort of on...I Dive into the car and put it in park - just as well I was alone at the ramp else there would have been a chorus of laughter with me be taking centre stage.

The river water temp was 25.5 degrees as I peered into the silhouetted water ahead of the boat, in case a floating tree, a small unlit tinny or other debris was in my path after the recent rains. Now the night before, I consulted my historical spreadsheets to tell me where I should fish today. They said to fish the deeper water after rain with smellier baits.

For those of you that find it hard to extract important info from fishing reports, this is important (well from my experience anyways). Fresh water floats over saltwater because it is less dense. The shallow areas will have more fresh water than salt and I find the fish will move into deeper water to get cleaner salt water. I didn't say clean, but cleaner water.

I stopped the boat in 4.0m of water and I didn't get the second rod out when the first went off. Over the next 90 minutes I kept 8 bream from 28cm to 35cm and released another dozen just legals but the moral of the story is that the fish were there. I was getting ready to move spots when one of the rods bent over slightly and line slowly trickled off the baitrunner. I gave it some line and struck.

I felt good weight and a couple of headshakes. I thought it would be a big banjo or shovelnose as I have caught more than my fair share. It went for a bit of a run and as I pulled it in, it stayed deep. Definately a banjo so I gave it a bit of stick. In the discoloured water I couldn't see deeper than half a metre and the low light didn't help either. I also realised that the fish had wrapped up another rod and the braids were wrapped. I called out Stupid Banjo, just the way Homer Simpson would have. The fish came to the surface and I nearly fell over. It thrashed it's head side to side. With catlike reflexes I gave the big lizard some slack so her teeth don't cut the 6lb trace. Miraculously the fish was still attached.

I fumbled for the toy net I use and tried to net her from the tail end. She just swims away and takes more line. Meanwhile I can hear another rod screaming behind me – sorry that one will have to wait. The lizard is slowly coaxed back to the net but the tangled other rod is preventing me from turning her head toward the net – crap –what to do – rod in one hand, net in another and I need another two hands to cut the braid on the other rod. I'm stuck between a rod and a hard fish.

I then had to invent a new netting angle that involved some kind of over-the-top backhand reverse slanted approach angle with some topspin to try to net her from the head. After a few failed attempts, I replaced the topspin with a slicing action and she swam into the net. I quickly realised that a lot of her tail was out of the net but I gave the heave-ho and hauled her on board....

I gave myself a high five (not a pretty sight as I nearly went overboard) and put her on the brag mat. She went 75cm and a PB for me. Last legal flattie I caught was years ago as I don't target them but my 6 year old daughter has been pestering me for flathead. She ignores my bream and whiting, pushing them aside to see if I got any flatties. Well this time I'm gonna scare her with this croc !

I put her in the esky (the fish, not the daughter) with the bream as another boat drifted by. The other boat was a good 10m from me and promptly picked up two of my lines with their lines and outboard leg....

I attempted to tell them how intelligent they were but my expletives vocabulary had suddenly gone offline – I was too happy about my capture to say anything negative...It was a weird feeling....I moved onto the next spot with a smile and waved to the offending boat as if they just did me a favour - man I was losing it....

Moving further downcurrent, I moved about 500m and redeployed. The bream were here as well but these fish were a bit bigger and fewer throwbacks. I stayed there for a while but I was itching to know if there were in fact any fish in the shallows, so I moved into 1m of water.

No sooner had I deployed the 3^rd rod when yet another fruitcake drifted by me a good 8m away. He nearly picked up my anchor rope but did manage to snare two of my lines...After our lines were again detangled, I realised that I was still smiling from the flattie earlier on...I thought to myself, "This smiling will have to stop – people will thing I'm the Joker from Batman or something....actually more like fatman really..." but the point was, there were no bites in the shallows – the fish were in the deeper water...so back to the deeps I went.

I noticed the wind shifted to the south and a change was expected. The VHF radio began to chatter about the expected southerly to be due at midday but I knew it was due before that in the bay. As the wind gathered strength, the fishing slowed down and the boats all made a bee-line to the ramps. I stayed until midday in the rough but the fish had shut down – unusual – they usually pick up.

The tally was 17 bream, 3 whiting and that big flattie. I was sure it had Trung's name on it somewhere. It was a satisfying ride home as the bow threw spray over the windshield. I had finally caught a decent flattie for my daughter. Back at the ramp the usual MENSA convention was in full swing and I had to wait until each members deliberations had completed before I could retrieve my boat. No matter. If I have enough patience to wait for a stupid fish to bite, I can have enough patience for an even stupider boatie to finish using the boat ramp.

When I finally got home and the daughter asked "Daddy did you get me a flat-head?". I replied with a certain tone of voice, kinda like Elvis says "a-ha baby – yeah". When she went over to the killbox, and she looked inside, she let out a little scream – half in terror, half in surprise, and half in excitement. Little kids always give you three halves don't they ?

Well after 36 questions about the fish and how I caught it, I'm now convinced that she will be my decky in future, not my 11 year old son....Genetics is a funny thing...

Tony

PS - Some piccies of the action and the food aftermath...

I would be the world's worst photographer but the point was I made a fish soup from the flathead frame (Greek style) and fried up the rest of the skinned, filleted and deboned fish that fed us all and had enough for mum and dad's lunch the next day...A decent flattie goes a long way...

..having trouble with uploading some piccies - might have to do the rest in the morning...

I always love reading your fishing report; Ah no, it was a novel.

Andy

[wizza]

ura champion fisho and scribe keep getting out there wizza

[imgoin]

Great read and some nice fish there

[Basil D]

Nice catch Tony l think Jim bream needs some lessons his cone up empty the last couple of sessions

[Keflapod]

^{Thanks for the nice comments all.}

^{It's nice to be appreciated and it feeds my ego (which I constantly claim that I don't have).}

^Basil,

^{I doubt Jim Bream wold come up empty - or if he did, he would never admit it...}

^{But there's no shame in donut-ing bcos fishing can be so unpredictable...}

^{Although I've never done it - or admitted to it anyway !}

^Tony

Edited February 13, 2013 by Keflapod

[jim bream]

Hi Tony excellent catch i haven't being fishing since we last talked about 6 weeks or more was very slow as you no but i still managed a good catch disappointing that day considering the last few years up around that time were the bream were bigger and more in numbers i cant put my finger on it but looks like the bream are month late this year for some reason and will really start to pick soon as for doing a donut i would admit it but haven't done one for a very long time as you would say you only fish when the planets are aligned as for my good friend Basil you're a goose. cheers Jim bream

[sootopia]

wow....awesome job.

Me and a few mates just bought a boat and have hit up botany a few times but without success.

we are new to the whole boating thing but are pretty experienced rock fishos. the breams have been dodging us very successfully .

4lb fluro, weighted/unweighted, burley/no burley, fresh squid/yakka/mullet strips, peeled prawn to no avail, all we have been getting are tiny breams and pinkys.....

my hunch is that we are fishing the wrong areas. and reading the sounder is like speaking french to me..... other than deep or shallow!

could you please give us some advice on what exactly we are looking for when we fish off a boat!

Cheers,

Soo

[General Zod]

Nice report, that was a great read. Thanks for sharing.

Keep them coming.

[gonfishing]

Hi Tony,

Like always, very entertaining to read.

With the 2 idiots, common sense isn't so common.

[Serena]

Hi Tony

Great story , very funny! Some nice fish too. What does MENSA mean?!

[Keflapod]

G'day Husk17,

Welcome to the site - a nice place to learn lots from some decent people.

We are a big community here and most people will give you enough info to hype you up for your next trip.

Jimmy,

Groper is a fish, not a bird

Egg Soup,

Love your name by the way because I DO put an egg in my fish soup - makes me hungry just thinking about it.

I do speak French but I also find it hard to read the sounder so it's not speaking French - maybe Greek - no hang on, I speak Greek too...

I only use it to read the depth and the water temp, so why did I put a 10 inch SIMRAD on my dash? I dunno - sounder envy I guess !

Now you guys are experienced rock fishos right?

What is there lots of around rocks that hold the fish ?

Structure and current - always there....

Now structure in the bay can mean a sand bar, weed beds, cockle beds, yabbie / worm holes, oyster leases, dropoff, holes, rockwalls with weed / cunje, wharves, moored boats, channel markers, drums - see what I mean?

All of those exist in the bay so if you can find one that has some current (doesn't have to be raging), then you have a potential spot.

I have a friend who fishes the end of the first runway and does well on bream, flatties, trevs, tailor and the occasional jew. He doesn't get whiting though.

His structure (the runway) has always got current on it.

I fish the south side of the bay. I never get jew, rarely get flatties (my techniques don't suit them), occasionally get trevs and tailor but the bream and whiting are a staple catch.

Some spots I fish have no current so if I pull a few fish off these spots I have to move on because the fish won't move if current is not present.

If I'm fishing current, then the fish will move past me, find my burley and hookup.

There are a thousand little rules I use, the most important of which is to document your results into a spreadsheet for every trip.

My info goes back 8 or 9 years and I use it for every trip to formulate my itinerary and strategy.

Know which spot you will fish first, then second and if spot 2 no good, try spot 3, wait until tide change, go to spot 1 again.

If no good try spot 4. Then require bait 1 on spot 2 with burley, bait 2 on spot 3, etc, etc.

it can get quite involved and you will see why after you gather some fishing results.

I strategise every 15 minutes, deciding whether I will stay another 15 minutes or move to the next spot....no time to sit down and relax.....too busy thinking and checking

I find that using mullet strips over weed beds catches some monster bream but I don't target them because those fish are very old and probably full of toxins. They also lack taste and are a bit tough with rubber for skin. They are also the best breeders so I leave them alone.

When fishing stormwater affected water, use pilchards, chicken, mullet fillet, tuna, etc, ie smelly baits.

When the water is clean use worms, peeled prawns, ie non-smelly baits but you still can use smelly baits.

GoneFishing,

Indeed common sense is a contradiction in terms so whoever coined that phrase has some explaining to do...

Bluefin74,

MENSA is an organisation where people with exceptionally high IQ's gather.

I was being sarcastic when I say that those boaties causing roadblocks were attending a MENSA convention....

[jdanger]

Your analytical skills on the water and prose tells me that maybe you should be in MENSA.

Awesome read and inspirational haul. Might have to start a spreadsheet myself.

[Keflapod]

G'day Jdanger,

Thankyou for your kind words.

My analytical skills are a side effect of my IT systems testing career choice.

Though I often suffer from analysis paralysis...

The rest of my abilities are more due obsessive compulsive dishorder (fishorder?) and I like to experiment with ideas - I love the words 'what-if'....

You think I belong in MENSA ? - Crikey I must a good actor !

Tony

PS if you have some time to kill and enjoy my style of fishing reports, a few are still available on this site.

Yes they are all lengthy but there is always a story to tell.

[jdanger]

Had a read through all four and it made my afternoon fly a lot quicker. Loved the report where your kids came on the boat, classic.

Sounds like you really have the bream sussed in the bay. Don't suppose it's an ABT venue, is it?

Jake

[Krispy !]

Well done mate great catch from the bay, was there on Tuesday morning in the rain and all up we caught over 30 legal bream and a few rat kings, got dusted by a larger king though. Looks like the bay is starting to pick up.

[Jewdreamer]

Good work Tony!

I think you are right about the flatty getting lost and hi-tailing it out of the Georrges, there are a few big ones hiding up there ATM.

Looking forward to you next instructional video on dealing with pr***s who drive straight over your lines.

Perhaps a you tube video involving excessive violence???

Cheers

Chris

[Keflapod]

Good work Tony!

I think you are right about the flatty getting lost and hi-tailing it out of the Georrges, there are a few big ones hiding up there ATM.

Looking forward to you next instructional video on dealing with pr***s who drive straight over your lines.

Perhaps a you tube video involving excessive violence???

Cheers

Chris

G'day Chris,

Youtube vide sounds great !

Excessive violence - hmmm - maybe I'll just have an excessive tantrum for the entertainment value - no one gets hurt, just a few ruffled feathers...or maybe I can film it and dub the voices with other silly comments or a Homer Simpson "D'oh" here and there...

[Keflapod]

Well done mate great catch from the bay, was there on Tuesday morning in the rain and all up we caught over 30 legal bream and a few rat kings, got dusted by a larger king though. Looks like the bay is starting to pick up.

G'day Krispy,

whoa what an effort yours was...don't tell me - you were on the oil wharf fishing the rising tide into the pylons ?

Yes I agree the fish are coming into the bay at the moment abd they will distribute themselves throughout - except they probably won't go into the shallows until the salinity levels increase a bit there.... bummer about the smoking you got tho...Personally I hate it - like a slap in the face...

Tony

[Basil D]

Hi Tony excellent catch i haven't being fishing since we last talked about 6 weeks or more was very slow as you no but i still managed a good catch disappointing that day considering the last few years up around that time were the bream were bigger and more in numbers i cant put my finger on it but looks like the bream are month late this year for some reason and will really start to pick soon as for doing a donut i would admit it but haven't done one for a very long time as you would say you only fish when the planets are aligned as for my good friend Basil you're a goose. cheers Jim bream

awww comon jim bream your breaking my heart is that what it takes for you to reply to a post lately Edited February 15, 2013 by Groper

[funnierthanu]

Ha now i know who to follow when the pirtek is on in a few weeks , you may be rusty but it will be worth it .