First time outside Sydney Harbour

[Linc]

With the 0.7m swell and bugger all wind forecasted, it was the perfect time to venture outside the heads for the first time (in my 4.3m tinny). We boated a dozen yakkas and headed off to slow troll along south head before we got distracted by a massive pod of dolphins, thinking they must be onto something we trolled straight through the middle of the heads until maritime pulled us over for a safety check, then the dolphins took off.

Trolled in closer to south head with 2 yakkas, one down low and one higher in the water column. The odd fish showing on the sonar but no takers until the deep rod buzzed for a few seconds then went slack... our biggest yakka has most of his back taken off in one bite which missed the hook.

After no more hits trolling, we found some nice fish on the finder and decided to anchor in 20M of water off south head, ended up getting onto a bunch of aquarium species so obviously too close to the cliffs/reef, then as we went to move the anchor was jammed solid into the reef after messing around for 20 mins we decided to burley up and fish where we were a bit longer. About 10 mins later my heaviest rig with a tiny live yakka bent right over and starting zinging, this was a huge king for sure as he took off for New Zealand, then he decided to go deep and i couldn't stop him, onto the reef he went and that was that.. So more and we dropped our last livie only for it to get munched in half on the way down... I need a live well so I can keep more livies alive!

After landed some gurnard, sweep, wrasse, pinkie snapper, leather jackets, stripey things.. you name it... we wasted another 20 mins at the anchor then did the unthinkable and cut the rope...(I'll be buying a reef pick on the weekend when i get the replacement anchor. Will also join the chain to the anchor at the back and use cable ties to join to the front as I've seen suggested here.)

We decided to trolls some deep divers out to the artificial reef off south head... that thing seems tiny and wasn't full of life like I'd hoped, we switched to bait and drifted over it to pick up a heap of undersized flatties and pinkies but nothing for the esky. Ended up trolling the deep divers back to north head were we drifted for a while and landed a 55cm rat on a berkley jerk shad and some legal snapper at last.

Tried trolling the divers out along north head to bluefish point and back for no takers again... water temp was in the mid 23 degree mark I'm thinking too cold?

All in all a fun day on the water but quite frustrating losing my undoubtedly PB king and my anchor to the same reef! Great weather though, I've had it rougher than this in lakes before!

Some random pics from the day:

[fragmeister]

Hey Linc,

Sounds like an eventful day.

Always a bummer to lose an anchor but the cable tie idea is a good one.

Sounds like it won't be the last trip past the heads for that tinnie.

Cheers

Jim

[VViCKiD]

After losing 3 Sand anchors, I always carry around a reef pick and sand anchor. I hear sarca anchors r good. But I will need to install a winch before investing in one of those

[Paikea]

Very informative post and great pics! Love the shot of the "Flower Plot" (Red Rock Cod). They are very good eating.

Good to see that Maritime are conducting checks, you must have passed.

Thanks for sharing

Cheers

Paikea

[Linc]

After losing 3 Sand anchors, I always carry around a reef pick and sand anchor. I hear sarca anchors r good. But I will need to install a winch before investing in one of those

Yes I'm heading out to buy a reef pick when I get my replacement anchor and chain... Am I right in assuming you don't need chain on a reef pick?

Very informative post and great pics! Love the shot of the "Flower Plot" (Red Rock Cod). They are very good eating.

Good to see that Maritime are conducting checks, you must have passed.

Thanks for sharing

Cheers

Paikea

Yeah they have the nicest white flesh, just need to be extra careful while fileting, one sent my old man to hospital in what he said was the worst pain he's ever experienced.

And yeah I am always extra careful with the safety gear, especially in a tinny in open water, it's always the first boat they pull up to. There was one bloke yelling to every boat that went past complaining about the maritime who fined him for not having a torch on board... the rules are not that hard to find and you've needed a torch on board as long as I've been boating - at least in Victoria anyway.

[thefisherman6784]

That was a good read

An action packed day of up and downs

Good day anyway

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