Good day on Pittwater - Friday 20th

[Volitan]

I went to Pittwater today - getting there at daybreak to chase kings and pelagics on lures and flies.

It was a really wierd day fishing. Quiet on the surface, lots happening underneath, and a sudden change of fish species.

Straight up I found a current break thingee in one of the Western bays. Foam and weed caught in a straight line. There were schools of baitfish sheltering but nothing apparently chasing them. The next couple of hours I worked this patch with lures and flies boating three 45cm+ tailor (biggest I've ever seen there), one salmon, one king boated and 2 lost, 2 frigates, about a dozen tiny mack tuna, and one amberjack. The odd thing was these fish were obviously hungry and the bait fish were there, but no surface activity at all - except for a brief bust up by the kingfish as the current line was breaking up.

Amberjack ID was confirmed by anal fin ray count. Photo attached. Anyone else caught one of these lately ???

The number of tiny mack tuna in the system is amazing. 10 years ago I would catch one or two of these a year. Now there's millions of them - but all tiny - one was only 230mm long. They are macks too - confirmed by adipose spots, large mouth, teeth and elongated first dorsal. I spent some time catching these hoping bigger ones would come along, but they never did. Catching micro-tuna gets old pretty quickly.

I'd like to know where else in the Sydney area they are popping up and if anyone has caught a decent size one yet ??

They seemed to have turned up about a week after the frigates. I wonder what other roaming tropicals we'll see in the coming weeks - spotted mackeral, cobia, longtails.

After getting sick of catching tiny mack tuna I went on to the Basin, where there were even more tiny mack tuna, and some very aggressive kings surface-feeding though I muffed all hookups with these. Very, very boat-shy.

Another unusual thing that happened is that I was trolling a minnow-style surface lure when an immature sea eagle flew down and grabbed it. It didnt want to let it go either, and flew off in the other direction with line screaming off my reel like I've never seen before. I didnt know what to do because I didnt want to be responsible for driving a treble into its talons (magnificent creature), and then perhaps having the lure break off. Close to being spooled I had to do something so tugged the line and the eagle dropped it. A little while later I was trolling back over the same spot and the same bird flew down to do a repeat performance, but this time I cut the engine and let the lure go dead still - and the bird realised it wasnt a real fish at the last moment. I would have thought these guys would be far too smart to be fooled by a lure.

On the negative side, I broke my fly rod and dropped the handle of my spinning reel overboard. Only a cheap reel but it did bring a sudden end to the day.

cheers

Arron

[Yowie]

A possibility with these small macs and frigates, is there might be a large kingie sitting underneath the schools, so a live one dropped down on heavy gear could produce a result.

The tailor size is picking up, which happens around this time of year. Greenbacks won't be far away.

Edited February 21, 2015 by yowie

[Volitan]

A possibility with these small macs and frigates, is there might be a large kingie sitting underneath the schools, so a live one dropped down on heavy gear could produce a result.

Fishing again two days later I had a bunch of kingfish cruising around my boat and every time I hooked a mack they would chase after it. I think its just a reflex thing because I didnt see any genuine attempt to grab the macks. The harder the macks went the harder the kings went - great to watch because those little macks are pretty fast. I tried a dead one but of course they ignored it.

Maybe bigger kings would have been different. These ones were typical size rats.

Cheers

Arron

Edited February 26, 2015 by Volitan

[Guest no one]

Good onya Aaron, sounds like a couple of good sessions! I still need to explore Pittwater, might be a good time in the coming weeks

[Volitan]

Good onya Aaron, sounds like a couple of good sessions! I still need to explore Pittwater, might be a good time in the coming weeks

I reckon give it a miss till next year. I find Pittwater goes off at about this time most years - and Sydney Harbour and Botany will be much better.

I reckon things quieten down in Pittwater because unlike Sydney Harbour its only a small, shallow system (yeah I know there are some deep parts) without a lot of habitat, so it gets flogged fairly early. Also, the biology of the pelagic fish there is based almost entirely on Australian Anchovy (Engraulis australis) which start getting a bit threadbare about now.

That's my observation anyway - I'd like to hear what other people think though.

I only go there because I haven't bothered registering my boat yet and I think I'd be nailed pretty quick on Sydney Harbour or the Bay.

cheers

Arron

Edited March 2, 2015 by Volitan