harold Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 Well, we picked up our son after school on Friday and straight down to the boat at Bobbin Head. Bags in and off we push. It was about 4.30 by this time and the light was beginning to fade and the thermometer was starting to get serious. We picked up a mooring in Houseboat Bay and put on the gen set by this time our son had already set a line out the back. 2 beers later and the world seemed like a fine place. Jeremy said "Dad, do you have any light sticks in your tackle box?" I replied "no son you took them all and put them in your box." After this I find out we only have 3 light sticks and given we are out for 3 nights I guess we will be using only 1 rod each night. That night we landed a couple of piddly little reddies but that was it. At dinner my wife tells me "I forgot to pack enough food, I left the meat at home." So I decided I would launch the dinghy in the morning and go back to the marina, get in the car and drive back to the little shopping village. Saturday morning was cold but the air con did its job and we were fine. I returned from shopping and we noticed a houseboat pull up at the other mooring, the boat had a lot of kids onboard and a jet ski on the back, having had a lot of experience being close to such boats I decided we should move so we pushed off and headed to Waratah Bay. We picked up a mooring at the back of the bay and launched the Kayaks. I stopped and chatted to the 7 guys who were on the houseboat beside us and they said they had caught 4 Hairtail on the Friday night. They went on the say they have fished there for the past 10 years and it is the only place they can catch Hairtail. I asked them if they were members of Fishraider and 1 said his father was. On Saturday evening the guys on the houseboat asked if we would like a couple of Hairtail to eat as they had cooked up the others. We said yes so I took the dinghy over and Mimi prepared 1 and the other went in the freezer (thanks Vic and friends). Saturday night saw about a dozen boats of various sizes and configurations anchor in the bay and from what I gather only 2 or 3 boats landed fish. I believe 1 boat caught 6 fish. We did not catch any and were really hampered by only having 1 light stick for the night. Some boats had half a dozen out. Sunday morning we were really fogged in and as we were running low on water (my wife and son think the boat is somehow connected to the mains) so I decided to head back to the marina so I loaded the dinghy and kayaks on the front and pushed off. I turned into the river and was faced with fog so think I didn't want to enter it. The radar showed boats in a few places so we turned around and headed to clean water at the Basin. We picked up our club mooring and put the water maker on and fished for an hour and a half until we were nearly full again. We then headed back to Waratah Bay and picked up the front mooring. Jeremy started catching readies and he suddenly said there were squid following the fish up so on with a squid jig and sure enough we caught 3 good size squid which Mimi cooked up. (Sorry no pics). Sunday night we caught 1 Hairtail about 1.1 metres in length. We pushed off this morning and was berthed by 8am and the next 2 hours was spent cleaning the boat. By the way, during the excitement of squidding some prawns were knocked into the scuppers so this morning I had to get in the water, go under the boarding platform and clean out the scuppers to avoid the stink of rotting prawns. It was bloody cold in there I assure you. We didn't have a big fish catch but we enjoyed each other's company and I guess that is one of the great things about being a family. I am off to the tackle shop for light sticks tomorrow as next weekend is a whole new couple of days, weather permitting. Stay safe and go catch some fish!
stevefish Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 I don't mean to crush you, but light sticks will last a couple of nights.
Scratchie Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 Great report Harold. I'm not hearing of many hairtail lately, so they might be waiting for our social. I agree, it's a great time to spend with the family. Cheers scratchie!!!
mrsswordfisherman Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 Good post Harold - had a laugh while reading it too
mrsswordfisherman Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 I don't mean to crush you, but light sticks will last a couple of nights. geez stevefish your light sticks must be run by batteries
batfishing Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 Harold, water maker, there's your issue, for all intents and purposes, you are connected to mains! Oh an yesterday we were in Botany Bay tied up off Towra Island, I'm looking at the Labrador telling him he's an idiot the Lowrance is showing 13C ......then the strap on his boarding platform broke and it sank in 3m of water. I agree it was bloody cold! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
bessell1955 Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 What a great report in relation to you family and passion to fishing.
ray henry Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 hi harold i was the old bloke on the house boat ,that gave you the hairtail ,glad you and your family engoyed them .thanks for the bottle of wine ''very nice ''also those under water lights at the back of your boat look great.i think they attracted the squid.hope to see you in the bay again cheers ray and boys.
kyngfish Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Hi the bull, How did you go with the hairtail and any other bi catch.
ray henry Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Hi the bull, How did you go with the hairtail and any other bi catch. hi kyngfish around a dozen hairtail ,most went back ,plenty of leather jackets had to move around for flat head and crabs .squid around at night .we were busted off many times .on light gear.cheers ray,
harold Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 hi harold i was the old bloke on the house boat ,that gave you the hairtail ,glad you and your family engoyed them .thanks for the bottle of wine ''very nice ''also those under water lights at the back of your boat look great.i think they attracted the squid.hope to see you in the bay again cheers ray and boys. Ray, thanks again for the Hairtail, it was a lovely gesture and you and the boys seemed to be having a great time.
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