Groped in Botany Bay

[Mousse]

Hi Guys,

A couple of weeks ago I was fishing in my favourite spot in Botany Bay with the missus, and I was targeting Drummer. We weren't having much luck as the seas were pretty flat - but a couple of hours before High Tide a school of Grouper decided to play with us. Well, my missus' gear was relatively light - so she was getting reefed or snagged almost every hit. They only stuck around for about an hour and a half - but I managed to land three and my missus managed to land a legal bream and a legal drummer.

I was very happy as I had never caught a groper anywhere near legal before. I was fishing for Drummer with Cunje - so I wasn't even targeting them. The only dissapointing thing was that when I posted the fishing report on this site - in my excitement to show off I didn't write up a detailed report - and it didn't say that I was fishing with my wife so my post was deleted as technically it was an illegal capture (3 groper - limit 2). I really felt horrible - I understand why the post was deleted and the only reason I kept three was because I thought as my wife and I were both fishing - it meant we could keep 2 each. I always do my utmost to follow the rules - most of which I learnt from this great site and the people on it. So I was a bit devestated that I had broken one and I apologized straight away to the moderator. I learnt a valuable lesson.

Anyhow to Tuesdays report! I turned up at my spot at 6am - with my brother in law and another mate this time, who I had been promising for a while to get them on to fish a little tougher than Bream and Flathead. I've become accustomed to tangling with Drummer so I thought there was no better fish to get them on to than these stubborn species!

It was bang on high tide with a decent swell, so there was no chance of getting any Cunje until around lunch, so we persevered with Endevour Prawns. The conditions were great - except for one thing. There was North Westerly wind blowing - which when combined with the swell direction and outgoing tide made it very, very difficult to keep our baits down directly beneath us. I like to fish as light as possible, and even after a couple of sinker size upgrades the bait still stayed up close to the surface and off to our right. It meant for plenty of snags and a tough time to get the baits into the zone where I knew the Drummer were.

After a couple of hours, my brother in law Mark had his rod tip buckle over - and after a short exciting fight for him - up came a just legal grouper! He was fat and would have been around a kilo and a bit I reckon - but I wasn;t keeping him. I remembered my mistake from last week - and back in he went to grow bigger and destroy my tackle next time.

For the next hour or so it was a battle against the conditions - and as the tide came down I went to gather a bit of Cunje to give that a go. Boy did it work! When I was able to get my bait down between the swell I was getting mauled almost every drop. Problem was I was also getting reefed almost every drop as the conditions made it a bit hard to feel the strike on time. But soon I got my timing right and I was on! It felt familiar - I knew it was a grouper and not a drummer and I had him to the surface pretty quick. He was too fat to risk lifting straight up even with 30 pound Schneider - so I played with him on the surface a bit until a wave washed up over the rocks to my left that I could wash im in with. About 50cm and 2.5kg-3kg max I think.

Another session when fishing for Pigs that I get Grouper show up! I'm not complaining - as long as I get to play around with either of these beasts I'll be very happy!

Edited April 25, 2013 by Mousse

[slam354]

Good one Michael good to see you are still hammering the groper down there. Can you tell me if anyone was fishing for blackfish on the day and if so did they catch any?

Cheers Steve

[Mousse]

Hi Steve,

Not that day there wasn't. Couple of guys spinning metals in the afternoon but none of the usual black fishers there.

You must have cleaned up all the stocks already mate!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II via Tapatalk mobile

[SMn]

Hi Mousse, shame about the previous report mate. Nice work on the fish, are you still using the Alvey 650a5?

[Mousse]

Hi SMn,

Yeah, mate still using the Alvey! Haven't done any estuary / light fishing since I've bought it so I've not needed to use anything else.

[SMn]

Hi SMn,

Yeah, mate still using the Alvey! Haven't done any estuary / light fishing since I've bought it so I've not needed to use anything else.

Top stuff mate! Well done!

[Novicefisherman]

Nice brown groper there. Haven't had a fish for gropers for a while now. Use to get brown gropers on 12 pound mono, great fun. Hold on and hope they don't reef you. Where is this spot by the way?