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Hairtail


mammoth64

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I hope I am not in the wrong place here. I am planning a trip with a mate out to Hawkesbury River, was going to head up Cowan after some Hairtail,

I've only been out after them once and was unsuccessful. I was wondering if I could get some pointers, I have rigs sorted (watching videos) but can anyone tell me should I burley for them. Also if anyone would like share a few spots to try it would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers and tight lines

Greg

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Greg. In over 40 years of fishing for them I think I have only ever missed one 0r two  winters where I didn't go chasing them sometime in winter, the last 3-4 years they have come on the chew pretty early in the season so the next couple of weeks should light up if it stays to form.

My favorite spots are Waratah bay and Pinta bay both part of coal and candle creek.

Berley is part of fishing for them and try and use the same stuff you are using for bait, don't use a lot of bread in the mix as this bloats them and puts them off the feed.

I have caught 100;s of the things but still get the trip where I come home fishless. It gets very foggy up there at night so if you see the fog roll in you are probable there for the night unless you have gps tracking and good spot light to see your way back to the ramp. I use Apple tree bay ramp and it's a national park so there is a fee to enter the park and heavy fines if you don't pay, there is ticket machine close to ramp. I have national pass so don't need to pay. Think it's about $13 a night.

Don't put any part of your body near mouth, be very careful.

Frank

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7 hours ago, mammoth64 said:

I hope I am not in the wrong place here. I am planning a trip with a mate out to Hawkesbury River, was going to head up Cowan after some Hairtail,

I've only been out after them once and was unsuccessful. I was wondering if I could get some pointers, I have rigs sorted (watching videos) but can anyone tell me should I burley for them. Also if anyone would like share a few spots to try it would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers and tight lines

Greg

G'day Greg like FrankS says burley is important part of fishing for them, using same burley as bait best idea. My own preference is live yellowtail caught on site and burley with chunks of them. Importantly, when you get a couple of bites from hairtail, have a container of ready-cut chunks and make sure you throw small handfuls out every couple of minutes which seems to keep them round. From my experience, unless there's masses of them(there sometimes are) they seem to move around the bay a bit when actively hunting. It's also a good idea to have a constant trail of finer burley going to keep the baitfish around the boat the whole time.  Also by setting your baits at roughly 3 levels 1) where you can easily see your lightstick 2) Where you can barely see it and 3) About 3 metres off the bottom seems to work best for me.  I always use 2 ganged 4/0's in my hairtail rig and countless times have lost one only to have it come straight back to the bait-even after fighting it- provided you drop it back a few feet and give your lightstick a bit of movement. I love fishing for them as they're like no other fish. Like FrankS, Waratah and Pinta Bay(in Jerusalem Bay) are my(and many folks!) favourite spots, but they can turn up anywhere in Cowan. Years ago Akuna Bay at the end of Coal and Candle Creek was THE place to go and the Korean fisho's have been catching them off the shore at Illawong Bay Feb, March and April for many years, fishing with completely different rigs to mine. Good luck when you go.  Cheers Wazza

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4 hours ago, big Neil said:

Hey Frank and Waza. What's the eating quality of Hairtail like? bn

Neil. I like them, others think they are not good eating. I take a hessian bag and wet it and scrape the silver off them while they are still warm, cut them in cubes about 5 inches long pre cook some chopped onion and tomato and add this to the fish on the first turn in the pan ( not too hot ) about 4 minutes first side then add tomato and onion ( keep it pretty simple ) then 3-4 minutes on 2nd side. The flesh is thin and white so cooks pretty quickly, a bit of hit and miss till you get used to the right heat. The bones are large so easily separate from the flesh.

You can add whatever you like but I prefer to not add too much other stuff so you can still taste the fish.

You should get yourself up here some time this winter and I will take you up to try for some and you could experience the taste first hand.

Frank

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9 hours ago, big Neil said:

Hey Frank and Waza. What's the eating quality of Hairtail like? bn

Hi BN I love eating them! I cut them into about 8 inch sections and then fillet them, they're one of the easiest fish to fillet and you get every bit of edible meat without bones (great way to cook for kids also). I see that FrankS scrapes the silver off, and his cooking method sounds pretty tasty. I scraped the silver off the first couple of times but don't bother any more as I quite like it and you can just lift it off when cooked if you don't fancy it. Deep or shallow fried with either egg and breadcrumbs or simply flour they are delicious. More than once I've seen people argue over the last piece/s on the bbq also!

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I’ve been going nearly everyday for the past month stayed out till 4:00am and found a pattern when they usually bite, 5:15pm to 7pm

11:00pm to 1am

3:30am to 4:00am

other times better to chase bream and the odd Jew, 

big jews start to bite from 11pm and onwards 

good luck hope this info helps

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thanks so much to everyone for the replies and advice. Planning on heading out on the 25th planning on staying over for the night, if the weather holds together. Berley I'm using is minced pillies, prawns and squid (old bait) with chicken pellets and tuna oil holding it all together and frozen in blocks. After reading the recipes I'm hungry now :)

Would be good to catch onto some bi-catches especially a Jew.

Definately be posting the resulting pics, even if it's an old boot and a plastic bag hahaha.

Again thanks so much

cheers and tight lines

Greg

 

 

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On 5/10/2018 at 8:15 PM, eastwood1980 said:

I’ve been going nearly everyday for the past month stayed out till 4:00am and found a pattern when they usually bite, 5:15pm to 7pm

11:00pm to 1am

3:30am to 4:00am

other times better to chase bream and the odd Jew, 

big jews start to bite from 11pm and onwards 

good luck hope this info helps

That is interesting. Throw some posts up with your daily progress @eastwood1980:)

Swordie and I went on Thursday afternoon for some hairtailing. We were at Waratah Bay and Jerusalem Bay. No hairtail around for us.

Judging by the years gone by and when we hold our Fishraider hairtail event it is a little early and not cold enough. 

Do a search here in fishraider as there are many, many hairtail posts. 

There is also an article in the article section 

It is getting mighty cold so don't forget to rug up and take hot coffee 

 

 

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