Broken Bay - 25 May 2016

[Brew]

G'day Raiders,

I decided to go out and give it a go yesterday even though the swell was forecast to be around 3 metres. I figured that if it was too bad I could always find a bay or go up the Hawkesbury River.

I set off around midday and headed to West Head to get some yakkas. The swell was definitely up however it seemed reasonably smooth and West Head was ok except there was higher than predicted winds. The gust were quite strong which made it a little uncomfortable at anchor.

As mentioned in my last post there are heaps of yakkas at West Head at the moment. Last time it was a little frustrating getting them so I changed my rig to a simple rig of a small hook at the bottom, another hook off a three way swivel, up to another swivel and sinker. The real difference was the hook size as I bought some really small hooks similar to the ones you get on the live bait rigs.

This did the trick and with plenty of bread in the water and squid on the hooks I had ten yakkas on board in just under an hour.

Now I needed to decide where to go.

I headed out to Barrenjoey Head to see if there was any protection however the swell or wind was ruling that out as an option. I then headed over to Box Head thinking I could get close and find some protection however when I got there all I could see was foam so I assumed at some stage a big wave was going to break there. I kept an eye on it for 15 minutes and no waves broke, even the larger ones, however I wasn't going to take a risk and moved on.

I headed back to Lion Island and tucked into the northern side where there was some protection. The waves were breaking around the eastern tip however it was good where I anchored.

So time to fish.

I put the first yakka in, bridled, and under a float. It lasted about two minutes but no hook up. It came back as a head with a clean cut just behind the gills.

Put another out and after about 5 minutes the same thing!

Ok, two can play this game. I sent the next one out with the hook above the lateral line just behind the dorsal fin. 10 minutes out and bang! But no hookup! It came back as just the tail. Seriously whoever is taking the fish can't be that smart, just lucky.

Fourth yakka went out with the hook just behind the head and after about half an hour, bang and finally on! After a short fight with plenty of aerials in came a salmon. I kept it for slab baits later.

At this stage low tide was getting closer and the ocean starting doing things I hadn't seen before. There were breaking waves in places that I have never seen waves before. That was enough for me, time to change spots.

I headed back into Broken Bay heading in the direction of Juno Point when I saw fish breaking the surface and surprisingly the water was a lot calmer here even though it was pretty exposed. Dropped another yakka in but no luck however I did catch a legal flounder on a bottom bait while I was waiting. One of my dad's favourite to eat so I put it into the live bait tank to deal with later.

No luck on the school breaking the surface and left soon after after throwing some metal at them for no result.

I then anchored up at Juno Point where the swell and wind was ok. Put out another yakka and soon had it come back half eaten. With my last 4 yakkas I managed another two salmon and two that came back after being taken but spat out which was interesting.

So no live yakkas left and with a live salmon and a couple of slabs of salmon what is a fisherman to do?

1. Bridle up the live salmon and send it out to play with the big jewies?

2. Send out a big slab of salmon?

3. Send out a fillet of yakka?

You guessed it - all three!

I had heard of some seriously big jews taking whole live salmon so I thought as the tide was changing soon it was worth a go.

Soon I had a fish on and it had a decent run. Which one you ask? The fillet of yakka of course.

This was on my bream outfit so the fight took quite a while and avoiding the other lines and netting solely had its challenges. Finally up came a jewie but only a small one at 47cm.

After that on the same rod I got a 32cm bream but the big slab and live salmon didn't get touched. The live salmon must of covered a football field of distance over the hour it was out so I guess it would have had to pass a big jewie at some stage.

Thanks for reading and here are the photos.

Ps. the salmon eventually swam away happy that his night was finally over.

[budzsta]

Awesome report!

Didn't think many people would be out yesterday...

[Thekoi]

Fair play for fishing yesterday great report