Paddy's Channel - another day, another species

[TheCount]

Put in at Woy Woy 6am Saturday morning - only one around.

Spent half hour giving the engine a good run and then settled in the Koolewong end of the Channel with the view to drift back down to the South end of Pelican Island. The wind was horrific and made it hard to stay in the channel and I was constantly pushed to the East and Saratoga.

Mental note - need to get saving for that electric motor.

After sunrise with a few rods out and peeled raw prawns for bait I was anchored next to the oyster leases and started pulling one of the lines in to check if the bait was still good. It felt like I'd picked up some weed but decided to gently reel it in.. As it got closer, there was a little pull-back that brought a smile to my face - as I gingerly kept turning the handle I could see a bit of colour appearing and to my surprise it was a squid on the end! I'd never caught one of these before let alone target them and with little or no effort it was netted, inked and then in the bucket for a trophy to show the household.. Size of the hood went 20cm so that was a nice entree of salt n pepper squid for dinner..

Not long after that another rod went off and after not much of a fight at all, this little guy came to say hi before going back to grow much bigger...

Picked up a baby snapper and a baby bream and both returned quickly...

Apart from the wind it was a nice day to be out. The water is still on the warm side so I'll keep doing the odd trip when the opportunity arises..

[RexSenior]

Hey Mate

Is that a baby Port Jackson shark?

Great job on the squid. It may be worth a thought heading back there on similar tides with a few squid jigs.... I usually buy some fresh green prawns (or net a few) and rub them all over the jig, seems to improve their chances of having a crack at it. Also gives you something to do whilst waiting for the set rods to go off.

Cheers, James

[harold]

You were keen to go out last Saturday. It was that windy it would have blown a dog off a chain.

[DrownNprawns]

Yep a little port jackson I caught one the same size on Sunday in wow woy channel

The wind kept me off the water on Saturday

[TheCount]

Yep, as DavidA says, it's a PJ baby shark.. Felt sorry catching it, perfect hook in the corner of the mouth and all!

That photo is just as you enter the channel from Woy Woy ramp and doesn't show the true effect of the wind.. It was that fierce that I had to ride the back of the waves back to the ramp or be dumped nose first.. I guess they call it swell and it was easily 2feet..

It was either go out or sleep in and I'm not the kind of guy to let an opportunity pass. Need to get one of those head sock things as the wind noise was outrageous. I'll keep going out till the water is freezing when I put the boat in and it's far from that. I need to practice with my casting, feeling the lines when nibbled, different baits etc. and I feel Paddy's is perfect for an amateur like me.. The past six months I've caught 'something' each trip so I'm happy.

Squid jigs are due any day now, so I'll give them a go next week, thx for the tip Rex..

TC.

[meg126]

There's a fair few of them in the system - up near the rip bridge is also a good spot for them among the weed beds on the North Eastern side of the rip.

I was out on Tuesday (a week ago) - warm and like a pond out past box head, fish schools everywhere. The perfect day that happens once a year I reckon. I love this time of year, the system is surprisingly productive.