Fishing with the grandkids

[saltrix]

Took the grandkids out on the Hawksbury for a picnic and a fish yesterday (twin 10 yo girls).

We usually try for crabs but it is probably a bit soon yet so I rigged a couple of rods with prawn and sandy sprat baits.

On the first drift a bit north of Patonga one of the girls landed this:

Interest then waned so I dropped them off at Patonga and tried myself for 20 minutes and lost a couple of baits and got a 35 cm flathead which was returned.

There was a lot of trawlers working the area, I counted 9 at one time so there must be a lot of fish or squid being caught to pay the fuel bill. Does anyone know what was being caught? They kept out a few hundred metres form the rocks so they were not in the area we fished.

It was a nice day on the water with just a bit a northerly coming up later.

Edited October 2, 2015 by saltrix

[saltrix]

Took the grandkids out on the Hawksbury for a picnic and a fish (twin 10 yo girls).

We usually try for crabs but it is probably a bit soon yet so I rigged a couple of rods with prawn and sandy sprat baits.

On the first drift a bit north of Patonga one of the girls landed this:

Interest then waned so I dropped them off at Patonga and tried myself for 20 minutes and lost a couple of baits and got a 35 cm flathead which was returned.

There was a lot of trawlers working the area, I counted 9 at one time so there must be a lot of fish or squid being caught to pay the fuel bill. Does anyone know what was being caught? They kept out a few hundred metres form the rocks so they were not in the area we fished.

It was a nice day on the water with just a bit a northerly coming up later.

[stevefish]

There was a lot of trawlers working the area, I counted 9 at one time so there must be a lot of fish or squid being caught to pay the fuel bill. Does anyone know what was being

They trawl (Edit the exact same area) 5 days a week about 50 weeks a year, not sure what they catch either. I've been told squid, I've been told they don't take any fish, I've been told not prawns. Upstream cops it as well.

I don't see any new gear so there can't be much money in it

Edited October 2, 2015 by stevefish

[royboy]

I was out near flint and steel on Wednesday and saw three trawlers working the area. Didn't see any pulling up anything in their nets which may explain why they don't look like they've been updated recently.

[Volitan]

Squid, prawns when they are running. Same guys also set nets for fin fish, usually bream, and now piper. Also hit the mullet pretty hard when they run in Autumn (not from the little trawlers though).

And yeah, you're right, a fishing licence in the area is a licence to live in poverty.

[papafish]

Took the grandkids out on the Hawksbury for a picnic and a fish yesterday (twin 10 yo girls).

We usually try for crabs but it is probably a bit soon yet so I rigged a couple of rods with prawn and sandy sprat baits.

On the first drift a bit north of Patonga one of the girls landed this:

kL-FISH-WEB.jpg

Interest then waned so I dropped them off at Patonga and tried myself for 20 minutes and lost a couple of baits and got a 35 cm flathead which was returned.

There was a lot of trawlers working the area, I counted 9 at one time so there must be a lot of fish or squid being caught to pay the fuel bill. Does anyone know what was being caught? They kept out a few hundred metres form the rocks so they were not in the area we fished.

It was a nice day on the water with just a bit a northerly coming up later.

I saw a trawler coming in onto port hacking. the guy caught 150kg of king fish and around 20kg of snapper. commercial fishery. had like 1200 hooks on his boat.