Port Hacking

[Yowie]

Headed out early this morning, up from Lilli Pilli. Had a boat navigate a bit close to me in the fog as I was moving along, the other boat going too fast for the foggy conditions, looked like Captain Numbnuts at the helm.

Anchored in the deep, a bit of burley out then the jackets appeared in big numbers under the boat (next time, no burley). Happy with the larger-than-normal reddie for up river, a couple just over/just under the limit, and trevally. Released another trev. Kept a couple of jackets for mum, most were smaller. I killed one of the small ones (busted it's jaw removing the hook) threw it in and the others jackets attacked it like a plague of pirahnas. Do not fall overboard as you would be bitten to death by these cannibals.

Pumped a few nippers as the tide changed to run-up, and drifted around Lilli Pilli flats for nothing. Headed to Maianbar flats for an hour or so for the whiting, with one nice one amongst them, just wading about in the shallows.

Be wary of kids in over-powered tinnies, roaring about in the half light, no navigation lights. One boat came very close when I was trying to wave him away, so I yelled at him to "go away" - he did not come near me again. Cannot see how that is classified as exercise. 

[Scratchie]

Nice effort Yowie! 
Fair sized reddie but that whiting is a monster! 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[Larkin]

Thats a really good snapper for the hacking & a beast of a whiting. 👍👍

 

[Yowie]

2 hours ago, Scratchie said:

Nice effort Yowie! 
Fair sized reddie but that whiting is a monster! 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

Thanks Scratchie. Wondered why it would not come near the boat, it just kept powering away. Weighed nearly a pound and a half.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Larkin said:

Thats a really good snapper for the hacking & a beast of a whiting. 👍👍

 

Thank you. Not a lot but a couple of nice ones to keep me happy.

[zmk1962]

Top stuff Dave. Glad you got out and landed some scale. 
 

4 hours ago, Yowie said:

One boat came very close when I was trying to wave him away, so I yelled at him to "go away" - he did not come near me again. Cannot see how that is classified as exercise

Oh I dunno but I think yelling accompanied by vigorous gesturing is exercise for sure. Bit like karate kiai shouts during a coda methinks !

cheers Zoran 

[jenno64]

Great bag there Yowie and the red and horse whiting would have brought a big smile I reckon. Maybe you could sick those canniballistic leatheries onto the rogue tinny pilots🤪

[Yowie]

42 minutes ago, zmk1962 said:

Top stuff Dave. Glad you got out and landed some scale. 
 

Oh I dunno but I think yelling accompanied by vigorous gesturing is exercise for sure. Bit like karate kiai shouts during a coda methinks !

cheers Zoran 

Thanks Zoran. Happy with a couple of feeds. Reddie on the BBQ tonight, very nice.

Well, I was yelling and gesturing,  , some sort of exercise.

[Yowie]

21 minutes ago, jenno64 said:

Great bag there Yowie and the red and horse whiting would have brought a big smile I reckon. Maybe you could sick those canniballistic leatheries onto the rogue tinny pilots🤪

Thank you, I was happy with those couple of nice fish. 

An RPG would be better. 🤣

[Rebel]

Great haul again. Well done.

[Yowie]

13 minutes ago, Rebel said:

Great haul again. Well done.

Thank you.

[thaichilli]

Great catch and report as always  Hacking always gets busy over school holidays, that would not be a problem if everyone would do the right think. 

[Yowie]

14 hours ago, thaichilli said:

Great catch and report as always  Hacking always gets busy over school holidays, that would not be a problem if everyone would do the right think. 

Thank you. Pesky kids. 😂

[ilkfish]

Hello Yowie,

Thats a great snapper and whitting. It shows that the Hacking has great fish, even in winter. Especially for those who put in the effort to get there early (for the snapper).

[kingie chaser]

On 7/1/2021 at 3:42 PM, Yowie said:

Be wary of kids in over-powered tinnies, roaring about in the half light, no navigation lights.

 

On 7/4/2021 at 8:50 AM, Yowie said:

Pesky kids. 😂

Well done on the catch, as usual you know what it takes to make it happen in your local 

 

On the behavior, it must be hard being an ex officer to see people just being so reckless, but then again your never going to change some people & then if someone does wise up there are 40 more to replace them 

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by kingie chaser

[Yowie]

3 hours ago, ilkfish said:

Hello Yowie,

Thats a great snapper and whitting. It shows that the Hacking has great fish, even in winter. Especially for those who put in the effort to get there early (for the snapper).

Thank you.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, kingie chaser said:

 

Well done on the catch, as usual you know what it takes to make it happen in your local 

 

On the behavior, it must be hard being an ex officer to see people just being so reckless, but then again your never going to change some people & then if someone does wise up there are 40 more to replace them 

 

The kids grow up (well, most of them) and calm down a bit, however, there are always other young ones to replace them (brothers, friends). Some go up market - jet skis. 🤪

[Larkin]

Hacking still has good fish in the winter. Just have to burley up.

I went out on Friday 10am - 2pm. Took my 12 year old son out with me.

We caught

3 Aussie Salmon. 46cm, 55cm & 63cm - super fun on our 2-4kg bream rods with 8lb braid / 12lb leader.

1 x 68cm flathead 

1 x 37cm trevally (was chased up by a 60cm+  king)

got cut off twice - on decent size tailor

Used cubes of salted pillies. Non stop bites - all big fish -  just ran out of pillies, (only took 6 with me) so moved on to try a couple of my squid spots.

Only 1 x 15cm squid caught.

we started with live nippers - only caught undersized snapper - but the change of bait had the fish on fire.

always good idea to swap things up if it’s not working.

[Yowie]

19 hours ago, Larkin said:

Hacking still has good fish in the winter. Just have to burley up.

I went out on Friday 10am - 2pm. Took my 12 year old son out with me.

We caught

3 Aussie Salmon. 46cm, 55cm & 63cm - super fun on our 2-4kg bream rods with 8lb braid / 12lb leader.

1 x 68cm flathead 

1 x 37cm trevally (was chased up by a 60cm+  king)

got cut off twice - on decent size tailor

Used cubes of salted pillies. Non stop bites - all big fish -  just ran out of pillies, (only took 6 with me) so moved on to try a couple of my squid spots.

Only 1 x 15cm squid caught.

we started with live nippers - only caught undersized snapper - but the change of bait had the fish on fire.

always good idea to swap things up if it’s not working.

Sounds like a good day out for this time of year. Burley does help, but recently small chinaman jackets have been a problem eating burley, baits and hooks.

Salmon are always good sport on light gear - try them on a handline. 🤣

[Welster]

What a cracking whiting nice tasty fillets there.   You have a knack of fining the good size reddies as well.  

 

[Yowie]

2 hours ago, Welster said:

What a cracking whiting nice tasty fillets there.   You have a knack of fining the good size reddies as well.  

 

Thank you. A couple of old blokes told me about a couple of spots about 50 years ago - they still produce fish. When I get old  I might tell someone else.

[Larkin]

3 hours ago, Yowie said:

Sounds like a good day out for this time of year. Burley does help, but recently small chinaman jackets have been a problem eating burley, baits and hooks.

Salmon are always good sport on light gear - try them on a handline. 🤣

Gotta give that a go. 😂 
it’s been many years, but I remember fishing little turiel bay as a ten year old with a school friend - we would row out in a tinny from his grandfathers home. We weren’t allowed out of the bay and fished only with hand lines.

plenty of good sized jackets back then. 

his grandfather used to tell us about catching hairtail in the hacking back in the day.

not sure if true or not.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Larkin

[Crabstar]

Nice haul! The jackets are always a pain, but if there is enough meat on em, keep em!

 

Good size reddie for inside too, well done.

[Yowie]

11 hours ago, Larkin said:

Gotta give that a go. 😂 
it’s been many years, but I remember fishing little turiel bay as a ten year old with a school friend - we would row out in a tinny from his grandfathers home. We weren’t allowed out of the bay and fished only with hand lines.

plenty of good sized jackets back then. 

his grandfather used to tell us about catching hairtail in the hacking back in the day.

not sure if true or not.

Anything is possible.

An old fisho, Bill Murray, lived next to my mate, and that was across the road from me. Bill told us of the snapper in Gymea Bay in the 1920's, up to 20 pound, however, the sharks chewed off a few.

Bill fished the Hacking all of his life. When arthritis developed in his hands, and fishing with hand lines became difficult, he said he would tell us of a few of his secret spots, however, he found  Goanna Oil that helped his arthritis, his hands became normal and he never told us. 😖 

Bill's best catch was a 55 pound jewie on an 8 pound hand line. When he tried to take it onto the bus  🤣  the bus driver refused at first, but eventually drove him to his home.

During World War 2, most boats were commandeered by the government, but Bill hid his rowboat in bushes and paddled out to continue his fishing.

As for myself, I have pulled out a few different fish over the years. A small groper at Yowie Bay wharf, a Spotted Mackerel, a Maori Cod, Teraglin. One year some nannygai turned up off Lilli Pilli, 1 to 1.5 pound each, bigger than any I have caught outside.

For a couple of years, Hammerheads sharks were swimming around Lilli Pilli, only small ones from 2 to 3 foot long, but a bloody pest on handlines, then trying to get your hook out of their snapping mouths. Black Spotted Cod, some could not be stopped before they found a hole under a rock. That's all I can think of at present, but there are others.

[Pickles]

Dave, that’s a really good whiting - (did you you hear about the monster 72cm whiting caught in Tassie last week? Hard to believe it’s bigger than legal size for Jewfish.)