Sydney Harbour Friday 24th April 2015

[fragmeister]

Hi Raiders,

Went into the harbour early this morning down the Parramatta River from the Wharf road ramp.

The river was full of floating sticks, bottles and logs so it was a cautious trip in the dark.

When I reached Clifton Gardens at around 4am there were some guys leaving who had not caught any fish.

The water was very murky and I didn't fancy my chances getting yakkas there so I fished the last of the run out at Sow & Pigs until first light. When the sun came up it became apparent how murky the water was.

The water in the harbour and at the heads was brown, pretty much the same colour as the Parra is upstream and smelled the same.... none of that typical salty , ozone smell you get in the Harbour.

I decided to go to the artificial reef to get some bait but even there the water was green rather than blue. I did get some yakkas but they were absolute horses. I stayed there for a while dropping a few jigs down with some other boats but no one had any luck.

While I was at the artificial reef a school of dolphins appeared close to my boat.

Check out the video here

I decided to head off to the FAD as the seas were only about 1.4M and predicted to drop even further. On the way there I saw some bird activity so I headed over and cast a stickbait into the boils. The lure was hit immediately and the fish went deep. I fought it for a while and I was convinced it was a stripey. He was taking a bit of line so I tightened up the drag and it almost immediately went slack... the hook had pulled.

I found the school again and hooked up almost immediately with the same result... pulled hook. I decided I would put a popper on with trebles but I was not able to locate the fish again.

I reached the FAD and there was one boat there already hooked on to a fish. It ended up being a King of about 80 - 90 cm... the only one they had caught that day. I fished there for a few hours with my horse yakkas (which were untouched) and a two hook paternoster rig baited with squid and half pilchard. The bottom rig only seemed to attract jumbo sweep.

I could hear on the radio that Browns Mountain was a slow with just a few gemfish landed.

Headed back to take a look at the harbour again in full daylight and it did not look good.

Not sure if the picture does it justice but normally water clarity at the reef is excellent.

I can't see these clearing up for a while so if you are going out tomorrow I would be heading offshore to find some clean water and if you travel down the Parra watch for floating debri.

Cheers

Jim

Edited April 27, 2015 by fragmeister

[xgen]

Hmmm... I planned to go fishing tomorrow morning in the harbour (landbase) but looks like i have to cancel it. Water doesn't look good to fish

[scaffsta]

Harbors like a chocolate milkshake with lots of rubbish.

[bojulabah]

Great feedback an very helpful - do you have the cords for the artificial reef?

[Yowie]

On these sort of murky days, fish further downstream on the run-up tide. A bit of clearer water moving upstream may induce a few fish to bite.

[fragmeister]

On these sort of murky days, fish further downstream on the run-up tide. A bit of clearer water moving upstream may induce a few fish to bite.

I looked for the cleaner water and if it was anywhere it was sweeping around South Head. Most of the boats I saw in the harbour were on the edge of the eastern channel. I guess they were looking to find the cleaner water closer to the bottom of the channel.

[fragmeister]

Great feedback an very helpful - do you have the cords for the artificial reef?

Here is the URL to the DPI guide which shows the gps marks

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/412307/Offshore-AR-user-guide.pdf

[locodave]

Cool video mate! Is that on a GoPro? Looks like a wide angle lens.

[fragmeister]

Cool video mate! Is that on a GoPro? Looks like a wide angle lens.

Yes its a GoPro.

Cheers