Middle Harbour VS Parramatta River (around wollstonecraft/bridge)

[Cballz]

Hi All,

In the past 3 weeks I have been fishing in north arm of Sydney Harbour because it seems to be more productive, landing good flatties, salmon and even my first rat king of the season at 56cm.

I Have since been out in both locations and notice a stark difference on the sounder.

-north arm STACKED with bait... forget bait balls. calling it a ball implies there is an outer perimiter

-Parra near the bridge- DEAD on the sounder

at Wollstonecraft where i live i paddled around berry island, the coal loader and to woodleys pty ltd noticing minimal bait while trying to learn how to catch live bait (from other posts on fishraider)

however in north arm the sounder was hard to use due to the thick and constant bait balls.

the north arm event in the yak netted two 65ish flatties a bit away from tunks park boat ramp,one of which was dead on arrival unfortunately. and another session where i caught this king, a guy pulled in 5 keeper bream on a flat with prawn bait and burley. (none were kept though #responsiblefishing)

it seems to be going off in that arm of the harbour at the moment so if i had to pick I would be up the north arm!

[nal]

Glad to see the local turning on for the summer, I was afraid that the dismal winter we had in middle harbour would replicate itself for the summer, looks like that won’t be the case.

[Little_Flatty]

Nice one @Cballz! As they say, find the bait, find the fish. Looks like you found both.

Like you, my very cursory looks at the Parra suggest things are still warming up as you say. The fish are still there if you put the hours in, but alas, I haven't had the hours to put in!

[Rebel]

Great report.

Well done.

[Tommy TJ]

Good stuff Cballz, have only seen one school of kings so far this season in my local harbour zone (eastern harbour), have seen a fair bit of bait around but mostly only ~2" small fish. Very tempting to bring the yak up to the north arm - seems like you've been doing well recently!

[Cballz]

@Tommy TJ you have to do it! the only thing is the wind, but I guess you can find shelter behind dense tree covered shores to make the session less of an exercise in sailing! one thing I want to try on the yak are the boats around this area.

https://goo.gl/maps/KxNVkoeBWNLu34Ty9

every time in recent past i see bird activity which looks to be more than seagulls harassing people and I saw a video of a guy catching Kings off the hulls a few years ago.

[blaxland]

grew up in Cammeray as a kid loved the fishing there

 

[Yowie]

Worth the effort, a kingie and a couple of nice flatties.

The bait fish swim about in schools, but when attacked, they all try to swim into the middle of the school  🤣 , hence the ball effect. Don't be on the outside of the school.

[Pickles]

Great report @Cballz, thanks for sharing and a fat healthy looking rat, 

[Larkin]

Nice king! Well done 👍 

plenty of bait around is a good sign for a bumper season!