Sydney Harbour landbased lure fishing for beginners

[Hyles]

Hello everyone, I have been fishing in Sydney Harbour for a few years using bait, and recently I have decided to try lure fishing. Could anyone please recommend a landbased spot in Sydney Harbour ( East of the Harbour Bridge) , give some information on the species available and what lures I should cast ?

I  bought a few Jarvis Walker chrome slice lure and metal stinger lure as I thought they would be suitable for the casting on my 8 foot rod. But I dont know what specices I can target with them and where I should target these fish. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. 

[Little_Flatty]

@Hyles,

Take a picture of the lure/packet and also take a picture of the information on the rod ahead of the foregrip (that will tell us the line/cast weight rating) and we can tell you whether or not the combo of lure/outfit works. Then we can also suggest alternative options.

Metals are good for pelagic species like Tailor, Salmon and the various tunas. It's not my domain, but landbased, some raiders have got fish in the vicinity of the harbour bridge. The other experts on this community will be able to help.

[Rebel]

Welcome aboard.

Milsons Pt. is the go, near Luna Park. Try some Sugarpen lures.

Cheers.

[Hyles]

2 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

@Hyles,

Take a picture of the lure/packet and also take a picture of the information on the rod ahead of the foregrip (that will tell us the line/cast weight rating) and we can tell you whether or not the combo of lure/outfit works. Then we can also suggest alternative options.

Metals are good for pelagic species like Tailor, Salmon and the various tunas. It's not my domain, but landbased, some raiders have got fish in the vicinity of the harbour bridge. The other experts on this community will be able to help.

Hey boss, I have just taken some photos of my gear. First one is a Penn Defiance II 9 foot rod with 25 lb mono line (7500 reel) , second one is a Jarvis Walker 8 ft rod with 20 lb mono line (6000 reel).  Please suggest the species that I should target with these set up, and any locations. Thanks ! 

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[Little_Flatty]

5 minutes ago, Hyles said:

Hey boss, I have just taken some photos of my gear. First one is a Penn Defiance II 9 foot rod with 25 lb mono line (7500 reel) , second one is a Jarvis Walker 8 ft rod with 20 lb mono line (6000 reel).  Please suggest the species that I should target with these set up, and any locations. Thanks ! 

IMG_2848.HEIC 1.04 MB · 0 downloads IMG_2851.HEIC 770.08 kB · 0 downloads IMG_2846.HEIC 1.53 MB · 0 downloads IMG_2847.HEIC 1.02 MB · 0 downloads

I can't find any cast weights for your Penn outfit, but as a guess, your lures probably need to be 20g and up.

For your Jarvis Walker, the rod specifies that your lures will need to be between 14 and and 42g. I wouldn't go too far beyond these for your outfit (and lures of this size will definitely catch you fish in the harbour on the right day/time).

You can probably work with both these outfits for some time (with metals) but the experts here will probably suggest getting a different outfit for lure casting, or at least swapping over to braid at a later point.

Casting metals with both outfits is probably workable, but it's unlikely you'll be able to fish soft plastics for bread and butter fish. Depends if this is something you're interested in as well.

I'll leave the rest to the pelagic experts on this community as it's not something I do often. That said, it's common enough that pelagics turn up that I always have a Halco Twisty in my bag.

Apart from that, here's a couple of articles from @PaddyT that might be relevant. If I remember correctly a lot of it is rock based but there should be some applicable information all the same.

 

[Hyles]

4 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

I can't find any cast weights for your Penn outfit, but as a guess, your lures probably need to be 20g and up.

For your Jarvis Walker, the rod specifies that your lures will need to be between 14 and and 42g. I wouldn't go too far beyond these for your outfit (and lures of this size will definitely catch you fish in the harbour on the right day/time).

You can probably work with both these outfits for some time (with metals) but the experts here will probably suggest getting a different outfit for lure casting, or at least swapping over to braid at a later point.

Casting metals with both outfits is probably workable, but it's unlikely you'll be able to fish soft plastics for bread and butter fish. Depends if this is something you're interested in as well.

I'll leave the rest to the pelagic experts on this community as it's not something I do often. That said, it's common enough that pelagics turn up that I always have a Halco Twisty in my bag.

Apart from that, here's a couple of articles from @PaddyT that might be relevant. If I remember correctly a lot of it is rock based but there should be some applicable information all the same.

 

Thank you so much for the advice, just one last question. Does braid generally work better for lure fishing ? (A salesperson did recommend me buying braid but I have never tried it before, so I chose the high vis green mono instead) . 

[Little_Flatty]

4 minutes ago, Hyles said:

Thank you so much for the advice, just one last question. Does braid generally work better for lure fishing ? (A salesperson did recommend me buying braid but I have never tried it before, so I chose the high vis green mono instead) . 

As a rule, braid casts better and the low stretch helps the sensitivity. But there are plenty of applications where anglers prefer mono, like beach fishing with bait. It also makes the setup a bit more complex. Most of the time you'll need backing for your reel, and you'll also need to tie a leader on the end of your braid.

[Rebel]

Beaware Braid can be a pain and costs heaps compared to a good Mono.

Cheers.