Basin & Iron Cove - 5-8th December

[Ivo]

Well... with finishing up the HSC and the ensuing chaos that was the week after I finished, it seems like I haven't been able to have a decent fish since late August/early September. And let me tell you, the fishing seems to have gotten alllootttt better since then!  Anyway, onto the report. This is a combined report of a shrt camping trip I did with some mates earlier this week as well as an afternoon session the the day after i got back (caught the fishing bug again!). All fish were caught on my lox 1-3kg rod with a 1000 size reel, 6lb braid through to 6lb leader.

 

Day One at the basin (5/12/16):

After setting up our tents it was time to cool off in the water, followed by hurredly running back to grab the nipper pump and collect some nice live bait for the evening. Evening coincided with the low tide, so we walked out on a spit that had formed and cast literally a few metres in front of us into a nice deep hole. Fishing either with a tiny sinker or just a long shank hook, it wasn't long before we were into some fish. Conditions were perfect, although the evening was definately a story of quantity over quality, with only a few fish going legal. That being said, it was a fast and furious few hours followed up by BBQ'd whiting and bream for dinner 

Day two (6/12/16) would prove to be much more interesting, however for all the wrong? reasons it seems. The nippers were firing and we had what we needed in probably 10-15 minutes. Not long after it was out to the water. First fish for me was a nice 34cm bream which would become my dinner. However, it seemed as though a large stingray or two was lurking in our hole. 5 times over the session we would get the gentlest pull, almost like a tiny whiting. Upon reeling in to check our bait we would discover our hook in half! Quite odd. Whatever was eating our hooks seemed to also be keeping the fish away, as the day was much slower and yielded some old favourites the toadfish and weedfish 

Overall it was a fun few days that got the fishing bug back into my system as well as giving me some nice freshfish dinners (always a bonus to not fishing in the city). Before I move on, a quick question for the ID experts out there. Throughtout both days we caught a few fish that looked like yellowtail scad, except they were pushing 35cm in length. I've never seen them that large, do they grow that big? Sorry for no pictures, but hte fish had a bright yellow tail, a bucket mouth and oval stipes along the lateral line, perhaps 5 in total. I've only seen bait sized yellowtail before, but these things were monsters, and ran pretty well also.

 

^ The larger of the flathead caught at Iron Cove

Anyway, after ariving back home i felt the urge for a fish, so i headed down to the local iron cove, rod in hand, ready to tackle the bream. Almighty winds were coming through for the first hour or so, so I did what any respectable fisho does and sheltered in the local tackle store. With the wind down and my wallet a fair bit lighter I set off. ind meant fishing from the points as i usully do wasnt possible, so instead i focussed on the small bays and mangeroves around Iron cove (Drummoyne side). This limited my chances of a bream, however i was soon into a small flathead that went roughly 35cm. A couple of suprise whiting also took my gulp sandworm, while a small bream seemed to take a fancy to the zman grub. I also managed a larger flathead of about 53cm before low light made me head home for dinner. 

Well, that's about it I suppose. Sorry for the long report, I guess im just excited to finally be back and able to fish on a regular basis (and who wouldn't be???). Now, to read all the reports I've missed, I'm sure there's some cracking fish being caught!

 

[blackfish angler]

Iron Cove holds a lot of Flathead . As I live n Drummoyne I do a lot of fishing with lures for Bream and Flathead there can be some good fish to be had by fishing Henley Marine Drive on lures and bait .

[papafish]

16 hours ago, blackfish angler said:

Iron Cove holds a lot of Flathead . As I live n Drummoyne I do a lot of fishing with lures for Bream and Flathead there can be some good fish to be had by fishing Henley Marine Drive on lures and bait .

Nice report champ, was that land base or were you fishing on a boat:)

[papafish]

Also, is the boat ramp a good spot to fish or are there other good spots you could share:)

 

many  

sam

[blackfish angler]

Hi Sam from a boat I was fishing a bream comp . The boat ramp at Rodd Point I have pulled bream and flathead but do the whole bay run with lures from the shore I get a lot of my fish this way .

[sam bros]

Nice report Ivo

First of all congratulations on finishing the HSC, it is an incredibly stressful period and good luck with the results

The fish that looked like yakka could be horse mackeral, they grow up to 50cm and catches of 35cm are common

You caught some nice fish over the trip

 

Well done

[Ivo]

On 12/10/2016 at 9:55 PM, sam bros said:

Nice report Ivo

First of all congratulations on finishing the HSC, it is an incredibly stressful period and good luck with the results

The fish that looked like yakka could be horse mackeral, they grow up to 50cm and catches of 35cm are common

You caught some nice fish over the trip

 

Well done

Thanks for that. I just did a bit of looking into the horse mackerel, and it does look fairly similar to what we were catching. 

 

As for spotsaround Iron Cove, I'm landbased and usually just pick a point and start walking haha.Although, in general, fishing on the Drummoyne side will be focussed more on casting up against the obvious structure (rocks, mangroves, drains etc.), while on the Rozelle side is more flats fishing with a few submerged trees/rocks etc with fish congregating. Due to me coming from Victoria road when I fish, I don't know as much about the southern face along the UTS rowing club/timbrell park, although from around Le Montage through to the entrance of Hawthorne canal always produces at least a few fish.