Middle Harbour and Pittwater over Easter

[steeevooo]

 

Fun weekend on the water with the new tinnie we purchased. 
Picked it up on Friday afternoon and headed straight out into Middle Harbour. 

Launched at Roseville and tried a few spots around Bantry Bay and up towards Seaforth, using fresh squid and pilchards. Not a great deal of activity, as there was either no bites, or little buggers hammering our baits. 

 

We did have a king underneath us for a while at one point, but not interested in any of our baits or lures being just being curious. Pretty frustrating! Tried weighted and unweighted baits, stickbaits, metal lures, Rapala hardbodies, but no luck.

 

Then on Saturday launched early in the morning from Clontarf beach (note: it's a hell of a lot easier to launch than retrieve there, with wheels spinning in the sand. Luckily a group of blokes having a bbq nearby came over and helped us drag the tinnie over the beach). 

 

We then tried either side of the spit, as well as near Clontarf Marina, and popped over towards Balmoral to try there also. We had whole squid down again and were trying our best to get some live yakkas. All we managed to get was dozens of tiny snapper and leatherjackets in several spots on the our rigs targeting livies, and not much activity on the squid we had out...

 

Sunday was a day at home, then Monday headed out again, this time to Pittwater. 

 

We first filled a bucket with live poddies we caught at Narrabeen Lake, thinking at least something live should get us some action.

Launched at Bayview around lunch time, did a loop around Scotland Island, then along the eastern side through the moorings. Mainly just tied on to unoccupied buoys, and anchored in a  few places also. Again very quiet apart from 1 or 2 of the spots we tried, where we pulled in more pinkies, but at least bigger than the ones in Middle Harbour, and some almost legal size. 

 

Finally right before heading home we landed a decent 34cm bream on a strip of squid, and that was a keeper. 

There was a storm rolling in and it probably would have been a hot time for some action, but we didn't want to risk getting stuck out there at sunset with the storm clouds overhead.

 

Overall, a fun weekend, but nowhere near the action we were hoping for. 

Maybe we were in the wrong spots, or the conditions just didn't have them on the bite, who knows...

 

Keen to try Pittwater again soon. It seemed nicer than Middle Harbour and the fish were at least a bit bigger. Hopefully more luck catching live yakkas next time. Also need to learn where some of the wrecks or reefs are around there, might go out with someone who knows the area better than i do.

 

Thinking it would also be a good idea to invest in a fishfinder....

 

If anyone has any tips for spots around Pittwater or Middle Harbour I'd love to hear them. 

Or any other suggestions for how we could improve on chasing the big ones

 

 

[fragmeister]

Sounds like a lot of fun in the new boat.

Was the king in your burley trail?  If so they will get very suspicious if they can see a hook in the bait especially if they are close to the surface... if you bury it in the bait completely and you have a fluorocarbon leader then that will often take in if they are already picking bits out of the burley trail.

 

Cheers

 

Jim

 

[steeevooo]

1 hour ago, fragmeister said:

Sounds like a lot of fun in the new boat.

Was the king in your burley trail? 

We didn't burley up a great deal to be honest, apart from handfuls of chopped up pillies. 
Thought that burleying would just attract the pickers!

Maybe that's where we were going wrong?

 

[Scratchie]

Congrats on the new tinnie! It opens your fishing options! I would say a fishfinder would definitely be of benefit. Mainly helping you with depth and structure. Also it can help you find bait schools. 

Mat least you got out and gave it a crack! Good luck next time! 

Cheers scratchie!!! 

[dododog]

Burley is the key inside the harbour , especially on boat , land base at least you get resident fish like jackets  , bream around sturcture