Disappointing first weekend out on the hawkesbury

[jgrant666]

Hi all,

Just bought a boat, our first for the family, and took it out for its first runs this weekend.

Friday we launched at 6am from apple tree Bay. First up drifted from flint n steel to hungry beach a bunch of times but barely a bite. The headed over to the eastern side of Juno point and fished about 2hrs but still nothing doing. Sick of all the wash from the cruisers by this stage so headed back into Cowan Creek for lunch and a swim, then onto pinto Bay where the wife caught a blue swimmer crab (if that even counts, it just refused to let go of her bait!)

A shame we didn't catch our dinner but still had a lovely day on the water

Today we went out again launched at parsley Bay about 7am and headed up to the vines, but nothing doing other than the missus catching a catfish. Gave up 2 has later and spent an hour drifting round either side of milson Island before heading to the road bridge but no bites there either. Kids were super bored by that stage so went down to possum beach for lunch and a swim before calling it a day. Again disappointing that we didn't catch anything or get many bites but as they say a bad day on the water is better than a good day at work!

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[pistolpete33]

Hey mate congrats on the new boat!!

I've had mine for about a year now and pretty much did the same for the first few trips ie wandering around the Hawkesbury without any success. We now mainly fish areas around Pittwater on the high tide shoulder (2 hours before 2 hours after). I think high tide was 3pm today but not sure what time you hung up the rods???

Try a drift off Patonga beach and if you're lucky you might land a few whiting. Head over to West Head and burley up and you'll catch a few yellowtail (small but fun to catch for the kids!!) plus good live bait. Short trip over to Barrenjoey (back side of Palm Beach) and jig for squid.

Good luck!

[jgrant666]

Thanks PistolPete!

I might need to look into our Hook sizes as well. we've got a couple of those little boxes you get at Big W with a bunch of different sizes in them but no idea if they're the right size for estuary fishing or not. I remember when I was a kid we used to use about size 2/0 hooks for big Bream but maybe we're better off with something a bit smaller that leather jackets & whiting might go for as well.......

We've got squid jigs so jigging barrenjoey and the weed beds/sand flats behind palm beach was actually on the cards for our next trip out probably weekend after next. Drifting patonga sounds like a good plan as well.

On Sunday we started about 2hrs before low tide and fished right through the change till about 11:30, so might the last of the change before high tide

[pistolpete33]

2/0 long shanks will do fine and don't forget to get a few hard bodied lures. Really good if you come across schools of taylor. Heaps of fun and you can get them for a few bucks!

[jgrant666]

how would we know i we've hit a school of tailor? will you see them near the surface or do they disturb the water? we've got some minnow type lures that dive to different depths and a couple of tassie devils but haven't really tried them yet

[pistolpete33]

Yeah just look for birds working and diving into the water (they're going after the same bait as the taylor). You may also see the surface water being broken from the activity and looks like the water is boiling. Any flashy lure will be a good chance of getting hit.

Golden rule when you come across a school is DONT DRIVE STRAIGHT THRU THE MIDDLE. That's a sure way of driving them away. Just float around the edges, engine off and cast into the activity.

[Guest no one]

Don't get put off bro - it's hard fishing right now, 35c doesn't help either!

Fish are sensitive creatures... Big changes in pressure, temp and even fresh water run off can affect fish so they won't feed. So the 35c days weren't too productive for many fishing shallow water due to the water temp, boat traffic, rise in pressure on the water.

[jgrant666]

Thanks mate, nah we certainly won't be put off! Gonna hit up Cowan Creek tomorrow and see how we go round Jerusalem or yeoman's bays, if not much doing might try a drift for flatties in the weeds behind palm beach

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[jgrant666]

So we managed a little better today! Started off just inside Jerusalem Bay, not much doing so after an hour we moved round into pinto Bay & anchored about 2 boatlengths off the sand flat. Got quite a few bites then my eldest noticed some squid chasing our baits so I rigged up a couple of squid jigs. I managed to land a good sized calamari which we'll be cooking up shortly. My eldest also hooked a couple of squid but dropped them near the boat, we'll have to practice some more. Also landed a couple of undersized bream & snapper

By this time the tide had well n truly turned and was running out so we moved over to a spot off a little beach so the kids could have a swim. Whilst they were gone the missus and I landed a bunch more undersized bream and snapper.

We may not have got to keep much but we all managed to land something at least this time out so everyone was happy, all in all a lovely way to spend a Sunday!

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[jgrant666]

Oh and thanks @beginner, I started playing around more with lead and hooksizes, and it does seem to make a difference

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[jgrant666]

@pistolpete - I'm sure I felt a couple of leatherjackets mouthing the bait but couldn't manage to get one to bite, maybe hook size was still to big for them. We'll keep at em though!

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[pistolpete33]

Glad you had some success over the weekend. Those calamari are sweet!!! Keep at it mate.