Back to reef bashing - Sydney

[GoingFishing]

Gday Raiders

Have hung up the boots for the year on chasing offshure summer species, with mild success but learnt a lot this year.

So back to reef bashing. Haven't dropped a paternoster with a pillie or prawn in almost 5 months !

Yesterday was the day and first time out in almost 6 weeks, the wife and i decided to celebrate mothers day on the Saturday to avoid the crowds and so that we could free up Sunday for a fish (She's a keeper !). Arrive at Drummoyne boat ramp at gentlemans hours - 8am. Virtually empty with no que and no confused, slow and annoying "once a year boaties" - perfect.

I went solo as i couldn't find any buddies for the day and the plan was to reef hop starting from due east of North Head and work my way all the way up to Long Reef. First reef produced a legal reddie and a nice big jacket, then a nice sized squid. Kept moving, off Manly Sewerage Plant, Queenscliff, out wide, then in shallow, out wide again, then Dee Why, then Long Reef, picking up the odd fish along the way.

The fish didn't really start to bite until i was off Long Reef wide in 60m of water. This was about 1 hour after the tide change, so not sure if it was the tide change or the location that turned the fish on. Here snapper, flathead and surprisingly, schools of trevally were all concentrated around the same area. Kept one trevally for mum who likes to eat them but must have thrown back another half dozen legal. Snapper were about in good numbers but fish of 45cm were mixed with fish as little as 20cm. It was a lot of fun and with 3 rods going i had some sore arms by the end of the session.

Surprisingly my three best flathead spots didn't produce a single flathead - very odd. No moon perhaps? Lots of theories.

All in all, was a cracking solo session for a first time bottom bash in 5 months. Hopefully with many more reports to come from me in the next few months.

PS - conditions were dreamy - low swell with large time separation, barely a breeze. At times you could head a pindrop.

Thanks for reading.

Sam

 

 

[Rebel]

Great haul. Well done.

[lakelad]

Nice haul, and the wife is definitely a keeper. 

How'd you get the squid @GoingFishing, do you throw a larger size squid jig out when bottom bashing just in case the squid or cuttles are there?

[noelm]

A bag of ice would be nice to keep them in good eating condition, nice bag of fish for just random drifting.

Edited May 10, 2021 by noelm
Typo

[zmk1962]

Top shelf stuff Sam. You consistently get the reddies. Have to start calling you SSCRATCHIE soon - Sydney Scratchie!

cheers Zoran 

PS - our belambie sesh must be getting closer!

[Yowie]

Nice bag of reds - looks like a marbled flattie in there.

I try telling my mate we need to try some deeper water at times. He DOES NOT like fishing in 60 metres - to far to wind up he says - 45 metres is his limit, though prefering less.

[GoingFishing]

2 hours ago, Rebel said:

Great haul. Well done.

Thanks Mate

1 hour ago, lakelad said:

Nice haul, and the wife is definitely a keeper. 

How'd you get the squid @GoingFishing, do you throw a larger size squid jig out when bottom bashing just in case the squid or cuttles are there?

Cheers Lakelad - squid was an absolute fluke - foul hooked itself on my size 5 octopus hook :). No idea if there are cuttles there but at 60m i havent encountered many in deeper water. Cuttles i find usually in the shallow water.

45 minutes ago, noelm said:

A bag of ice would be nice to keep them in good eating condition, nice bad of fish for just random drifting.

Thanks Noelm. Very happy with that lot.

Regarding the ice, i have a large kill tank which i keep full of fresh seawater. I had only drained it to take the photo, then fill it back up again. Most of the fish are still alive when i get home.

Also theres absolutely nothing random about my drifting ! Its all very calculated actually. I have been reef bashing Sydney for years, cross referenced my navionics charts against seafloor maps provided to me by @saltrix, tested and trialed almost two hundred spots to find the few that work consistently. Every reef i visited yesterday is already marked in my fishfinder and i have been to those spots at least a dozen times before. Which spots i visit on the day are determined on the conditions of the day, target species, drift direction, wind direction etc

In summary - not random ! The result of tonnes of homework, trial and error.

23 minutes ago, zmk1962 said:

Top shelf stuff Sam. You consistently get the reddies. Have to start calling you SSCRATCHIE soon - Sydney Scratchie!

cheers Zoran 

PS - our belambie sesh must be getting closer!

Thanks Z - i am humbled. Ill have to start cracking a few reds over 90cm to earn any sort of clout that Scratchie has ! 

Bellambi will happen soon mate - May to August the best months for it. ill be in touch

5 minutes ago, Yowie said:

Nice bag of reds - looks like a marbled flattie in there.

I try telling my mate we need to try some deeper water at times. He DOES NOT like fishing in 60 metres - to far to wind up he says - 45 metres is his limit, though prefering less.

Thanks Yowie, i wasnt sure if it was marbled or tiger. But good eating none the less.

RE deep water - some days i will find fish anywhere from 20m in depth all the way to 70m.

days like yesterday, i would say 90% of the fish were caught on reefs around 60m in depth. Not sure why, moon ? tide? recent rains and fresh water.

But - my hard and fast rule is to keep moving till i find the fish. I try a spot for 20-30 mins max with no bites i pack up and move. I move from shallow to deep to shallow to deep again and 

[GoingFishing]

@noelm try having a read of these topics i posted a while back.

 

and not my topic but there was some good discussion with fragmeister on this one.

 

[lakelad]

22 hours ago, GoingFishing said:

Cheers Lakelad - squid was an absolute fluke - foul hooked itself on my size 5 octopus hook :).

Well that's a nice surprise! We were anchored fishing Saturday night in the lake bait fishing for bream/snapper/trevs and an unlucky blue swimmer swum over and right into our net, I didn't knock that back either

[Pickles]

Great report and a really nice feed there.

[GordoRetired]

On 5/10/2021 at 2:58 PM, GoingFishing said:

@noelm try having a read of these topics i posted a while back.

Just had a read of your 3 technique topics. Very interesting reading. I fish in a very similar way to you but picked up a few good tips from the articles. Thanks for posting.  👍

[GoingFishing]

19 minutes ago, GordoRetired said:

Just had a read of your 3 technique topics. Very interesting reading. I fish in a very similar way to you but picked up a few good tips from the articles. Thanks for posting.  👍

Thanks Gordo - Hope you will catch a few more next time !

[masterfisho7]

Nice report well done 

 

[Scratchie]

Nice work mate! Bit of everything there. 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[GoingFishing]

On 5/21/2021 at 7:27 PM, masterfisho7 said:

Nice report well done 

 

Cheers mate

2 hours ago, Scratchie said:

Nice work mate! Bit of everything there. 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

Thanks Jeff - was good to be out. Ive missed bottom bashing. Bellambi this weekend hopefully