Long Reef Sat 30/07

[REKLESS]

Gidday all,

Well I managed to get out on saturday morning with Chris (a fellow Fishraider) as No.1 deckie and anchor puller.We put in at 600 and were first up out of the ramp,things were looking pretty good with a low low swell and about 10 knots of NW that would have the boat hanging off the drop off,trouble was that instead of the anticipated 18.4c water we were looking at 16c and the current was trickiling to the north .

Laying down the pick we lasted there for about half an hour, feeding the resident black scourge (Sweep) until getting the shits and going to a secret spot in deeper water.There was a few schools of fish showing on the sounder and there was a few Big birds (Skuas)? hanging around .Laying down a trail of cubes we ended up picking up a small red and trevally for chris.While we were there burleying-the school of fish that had been on the sounder announced there presence,yup winter is here ,Cowanyoung and smelly pike.One went back down with a 10/0 (they were big) and spent the rest of the time twisting the line on my 24kg outfit,needless to say he didnt get touched.

While all this action was going on Chris pulled out his silly gear and was happily hooking up all sorts of goodys on his soft plastics,some bottom ooglys made there presence felt-I reckon one of your wrasse would have taken out the largest on a lure Chris! .

Seeing as it was winter and Chris is a Salmon Virgin ,we went out lookin,and looking,trolling all the way and exploring all the little bays to manly Beach and back again before pulling the pin on that idea and going for option #3,Flaty action.

Well we drifted and picked up a solid flathead and a stud blue morwong and also picking up a new species for me .I reckon that it is a blue spotted Goatfish.As far as eating goes this fish is one that rates up there with coral Trout and Red Emporer,I will happily swap a Snapper for one again-any day.

Any way we pulled the pin at 1200 to have a gentle little NE wind puff up,the end to what was a nice day out even though the fishing was a little on the slow side.

Thanks again for coming out Chris, and you are welcome to come out anytime again.

Simon

[inspin]

Having a day off yesterday (Bank Holiday) we decided to venture out for some snapper action as well. The water was 17.9 degrees and all looked good until we anchored up and set up a berley trail when we noticed no current what so ever...you know what they say...no run no fun...we ended up with 2 small pinkies around 35cm and 2 big morwong, with the dreaded plague proportions of sweep and pesky pike...my mate kept yelling out "how much does a pie cost ?" everytime he brought one to the boat...stinky nuisances !!!

We pulled the pin after a few hours and decided to try a drift in deeper water....no luck, no wind, no drift....top day to be on the water and felt even better cos i didnt have to come to work.

On the way back to the heads we saw birds hanging just in front of north head looking as if they were feeding but couldnt see any sign of fish feeding...threw a bass minnow in amongst them just in case and managed to hook a bird square in the beak....had my hands full trying to release him but finally managed to do so....salmon cant be far off surely !!