Lake Macquarie Winter Weekday

[lakelad]

First time poster, have been reading the content on here and thought I'd share my movements, help fellow locals and hopefully pickup some tips myself as I need them! 

I've fished on and off over the last few years, and played in the lake and ocean all my life, but recently got the bug again. Although this trip didn't help fuel the fire with no decent fish caught, but was a nice day on the water non the less.

Went out yesterday around mid day, stopping at known reef North of Belmont where I downed my fresh fish and chips for lunch. Before tucking in to the grub I dropped some burley mix (pellet style fishing branded from big-w) and I dropped a pilchard on gang hooks and two bream lines with squid (BP frozen variety..). Although I could see a few small and medium fish on the Lowrance (I'm using the fish icon, haven't learnt to read the fish finder as yet), after an hour with the only bites being mine on the fish and chips I moved on.

Second spot was a well known local location for a sunken barge, plenty of fish on the finder, but all I managed in the next hour was a couple of 20-25cm squire and a single yakka.  I put the yakka in the live well for later and moved onto the channel/lake drop over for a browse. After having a look on the sounder I didn't see anything worth stopping for, it was approaching 3pm now so I decided to cruise with lures out over Belmont bay for Tailor.

As I was trolling Belmont I spotted some birds diving towards Toronto and on the way there I got a smaller Tailor on a Yo Zurri Crystal Minnow deep diver 110mm or 130mm in size. I had a ball sinker before the swivel as I use that rod for livies fishing also, then 1m of 20lb leader. The tailor went in the live bait tank for later that evening (for the record it was legal..). I also has a rapala x-rap deep diver out the other side (blue top/silver bottom with black spots), no sinker, but no attention for the rapala. I have found the yo zurri reliable, this was it's second use and last time I got a bonito offshore, it was next to the Rapala with neither on sinkers last time. This is a small sample size, but so far I'm a fan.

Even though the birds were diving they were covering a large amount of water and never where I was, I was conscious not to cream through the middle so tried to keep to the edges. With the tailor avoiding me well I snuck off the the original reef area North of Belmont for sunset. I threw out the yakka and Tailor, each on two size 7 or so octopus hooks, and a couple of bream rods with mullet and waited. Over the next few hours I caught lots of squire, a few tailor and had the fish finder showing loads of fish most of the time (small/medium and large icons). I was burleying with last trips remaining mullet, salted pilchards and pellets, perhaps the fish were there or the sounder was giving false hope. Either way no legal fish of any variety found my hooks and after the yakka went open mouthed and I cast my overhead not keeping my thumb on it creating a tangle (which I still haven't looked at ) I left the tailor for "one last cast" and headed in about 7.

Overall a nice day on the water, fish and chips and some sun, however compared to the warmer months I haven't caught much at all recently (Water was 14.5-15 in most places I covered). I know there are loads of fish, the lake is very healthy, I'm a bad Lake Mac ambassador on the fishing forum  I see loads of fish heads at the cleaning tables! Would love some tips on techniques and spots in Lake Macquarie (I usually put the boat in at Valentine or Swansea) that can yield a feed at this time of year. Feel free to PM me any local tips you don't want plastered on the internet for ever   

[rickmarlin62]

welcome to raider  im down at summerland pt at moment so not far from u...first up  turn your sounder off once u anchor..constant pinging of sounder in shallow water wont help your cause..second  turn off fish icons  they give false readings   small pods of bait can show as large icons....the lake has been a bit quiet lately as the water is quite cold...I have had 4 outings in two weeks for a couple of flatties a flounder and a few small reds on lures....the water should start warming soon and things will start firing up  good luck on your next outing mate...rick

[masterfisho7]

Nice report 

[big Neil]

Welcome to Fishraider Lakelad. I can only encourage you to keep at it. Everybody has bad days, weeks, months but it will get better. Of course, if you're sitting on the lounge, you won't know this... so plod on mate. Fishing everywhere will improve as the weather warms up again. Cheers, bn

[sam bros]

Welcome to fishraider, Unlucky on the fish

Keep at it and im sure the results will show

[lakelad]

Thanks for the replies fellas. Didn't know leaving the fish finder on makes a difference, bit of a catch 22.. I can only find conflicting evidence online so will give it a go off when anchored up anyways and cross my fingers at the same time

Edited September 9, 2018 by lakelad