Summer Hairtail and Blue Swimmer Crabs

[whiskey299]

First time chasing hairtail in summer in the Hawkesbury River and I’m very happy I didn’t come home empty handed. 

I took annual leave from work as the conditions were ideal today, a small tide change and little to no wind forecasted for the morning. Got to Parsley Bay Boat Ramp nice and early, rigged up and launched at first light. Water temp was a nice 24-25C. Biggest hairtail caught today was 1.5m.

Spent probably almost an hour getting to the spot and setting up the crab pots and dropping them at various locations. In a boat this would have only take 15mins but on a yak my speed is limited.

Fishing was very slow to start off with, I didn't catch anything until 9am when I hooked a small jewfish. After that I spotted something different on the sounder and before I knew it, the drag was screaming! Finally got it boatside and the hook pulled I'm devastated as this one was a good fish, would have easily been over the 1.5m mark. Rigged up another bait and another pulled hook! Decided to use half a herring instead of whole and I didn’t loose anymore fish after that. With each drop I would continue to hookup until the tide hit the lowest point and the fish disappeared. So I focused on checking the crabs traps which were all empty! But I decided to wait it out for the run in tide to kick in and luckily I did as all the crabs were all caught in a small 1 hour window! By then the wind was raging as forecasted, so I packed up and headed back in.

While I was fishing I actually got checked by fisheries. They were impressed by my hairtail catch and said to hide it from other fishos lol. They visually checked my crabs and told me to stay safe and don’t get blown away (wind was really picking up by now, white caps everywhere). It’s the second time I’ve ever been checked and it’s good to see them about. Even managed to score some freebies! 2 x crab rulers and a sticker.

Gear used:
Rod: Daiwa TD Black V2 Mangrove Masher 642MFS
Reel: Daiwa 21 Caldia MQ LT3000
Line: #Tasline Elite PE1 (15lb)
Leader: Sunline FC Rock 20lb
Bait: whole/half frozen herring
Hook: Double treble with 20lb multi core wire

 

UPDATE

I’m just using a 3 oz sinker, about a 1m of leader attached to a snap swivel. Attached to the snap swivel is 2 trebles using multi core flexible wire. I do it this way as they can swallow the hooks, so I unclip the trebles and dispatch the fish. Once dispatched you can bleed it on the side of the yak, gut and recover the hooks. Up to you how heavy you want the sinker to be but I find the 3 oz works well with the wind/current to keep the line almost vertical. With the 1m leader I used to use FC leader,  but now switched to using multi core flexible wire, because I’ve lost too many rigs from big hairtail swallowing or cutting the entire rig including the sinker! Optional is a flashing light attached where the sinker is. When I first discovered hairtail in the area I was targeting jewfish and wasn’t using lights so I know you don’t need it but I think it helps attract them. When attaching the bait is use the elastic bait thread to secure the trebles. I find using a light rod setup works best as you need to watch the tip for subtle bites. 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by whiskey299

[Little_Flatty]

Nice! I didn’t realise how viable an option hairtail were as an option! Another quality feed for the weekend.

[Robbo from Sydney]

Wow. I always thought they were only caught in the dead of night during winter!  

[Yowie]

Very nice work from a yak. The teeth are the only problem with yak fishing, especially hairtail teeth.

[whiskey299]

18 hours ago, Robbo from Sydney said:

Wow. I always thought they were only caught in the dead of night during winter!  

I caught them earlier this year in the middle of the day back in April this year and my PB 1.6m

Back then I wasn’t as prepared and still finding what technique worked for me. Everyone has different ways to rig, some ppl use gangs I prefer trebles.

18 hours ago, Yowie said:

Very nice work from a yak. The teeth are the only problem with yak fishing, especially hairtail teeth.

they certainly are! Lucky they don’t trash around like other species. Even with their mouth closed there are still two expose teeth that’s very sharp. So when bagging them in plastic bags I have to wrap a cloth around the head.

Edited December 8, 2023 by whiskey299

[Isaac Ct]

Great stuff mate, thats an amazing trip out.

Well done.

[Larkin]

Well done Brad! Some nice fish and good haul of crabs.

it’s one species I’ve never caught - wouldn’t mind giving it a go one day.

What’s the rig you were using?

[bessell1955]

That is a top result, well done.

 

[whiskey299]

11 hours ago, Isaac Ct said:

Great stuff mate, thats an amazing trip out.

Well done.

 

9 hours ago, Larkin said:

Well done Brad! Some nice fish and good haul of crabs.

it’s one species I’ve never caught - wouldn’t mind giving it a go one day.

What’s the rig you were using?

 

2 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

That is a top result, well done.

 

Thanks all.

Chris post has been updated hopefully this helps. 
there might be other ways to rig but this works for me. 
you could try gangs instead as I believe that’s what more people use.

[LuckyFil]

Great report and pics and very informative . Thanks

Fil