Port Hacking Friday

[Oscarthebeagle]

Sorry for the late report.
With Fridays forecast and an rdo I decided that out in the boat was the best way to spend the day. Left from grays point arond 530 with a couple of work mates who rarely fish coming along for a trip. Pumped some yabbies and and fished the shallows. Was acting as guide rather than fishing for alot of the time . Things started slow with a couple of undersize whiting.
A 5m runabout went flying past us and not realising I was fishing a shallow drop off ran full speed into 10-20cm of water, running the boat hard aground. We went over to check and everyone together managed to slowly one heave at a time push the boat back the few meters to where it could float. Rescue completed we returned to fishing. My crew caught a nice whiting each, one good flounder released and a few undersize fish they also saw heaps of stingrays, a banjo ray and had a meter long wobbegong swim up to the boat. Taking them back to the ramp I was apologies for how poor the fishing had been they would have none of it saying it's the best day they had fishing and the most they had ever caught, funny how you can have such a different perspective on the same day.
Dropped them at the ramp and picked up my wife and kids to go swimming.
Back to lilli pilli I grabbed a rod and started wading the shallows little girl followed me and asked to fish too. Despite my hesitation in giving a 4 year old a stradic in waist deep, on her, water I cast out and gave her the rod (I like to encourage her interest). Some thing grabed the bait and she was on fighting it like a pro on 1kg line she gave it heaps but this was her toughest fight yet. While fighting the fish we walked back to the dry sand ( which helped me relax) and after a short tussle she had her fish beaten and on the sand, a whiting 38cm. Just than her grandpa and marnie arrived and she was very excited to show off her fish.
We finished swimming and hoped back in the boat for lunch, fished while the kids ate and got a legal bream and whiting to finish off our dinner. Noticed a big shadow in the berly trail and flicked out an unweighted bait which was quickly taken by the salmon. On 2kg line in less than a meter of water it was always going to be a fun fight. It started the fight hanging around the boat making lots of jumps entertaining the kids before screaming off 70 meters or so and cruising around out there with the current on his side I got my wife to pull up the anchor and started after the fish we followed it off the sand flat and into the deep water after a solid 15mins it was in the net. A good salmon at 63cm and badly hooked I kept it.
With the anchor up and not much bait left we called it a day heading back to the ramp we rounded one corner in the river and left our nice Seabreeze and ran straight into the hot westerly and just how hot as day it truly was, but with two tired kids heading back out on the river was not an option so we pulled the boat out and headed home.

Thanks for reading.

Edited November 24, 2015 by mrsswordfisherman
Photos rotated and attached to post

[JET01]

There are some nice whiting in the hacking at the moment....

Great to see the little one enjoying herself. Can't wait until my daughter is old enough!

[rockfisherman]

I'd call it a success. Good day.

Nice feed of whiting, and that's a heck of a salmon at 63cm.

[Yowie]

A good day out, with a feed of fish included.

Have hooked similar sized salmon before on whiting gear, and had to follow them in the boat as they just take off and don't stop.

[Mojo4fishin]

What bait was used for the whiting?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Oscarthebeagle]

Thanks for the replies

My little girl is really starting to enjoy and want to go fishing. And at 4 years old is getting the concept of pump and wind when fighting a fish. She really wantsto

catch a dolphin fish and gets upset when told she has to wait a few years. My 2yr old boy actually says "good night" to the boat each night.

Salmon in the shallows are great fun and 2kg line was my choice ttarget this fish, I had heavy rods, but light line fishing is too much fun.

All fish except the salmon where caught on yabbies/nippers pumped on the sand flat.