Easter at Harrington

[ireallylovefishies22]

Friday

Arrived at about 1:30pm at Harrington. After dropping our luggage off at the holiday resort, we were off for a fish! First stop was Harrington lagoon, where we tried to look around the edges for some yabbies as bait, but only managing a few. Realising we wouldn't have enough, we went off to buy a few prawns as bait if we were to run out. Starting off at the breakwall, the first cast with a live yabby yielded a small pinky snapper, about the size of my palm. Not a good sign. Over the next two hours we continued to get plagued by the small bream, snapper and tarwhine, which would tear apart the bait as soon as they hit the bottom. I decided to explore further along the breakwall, which proved to be a very good decision as I discovered a nice flat full of yabby holes. We decided to move there instead, and after filling up our bucket with some more nippers, we began to fish on the sand flat. The small bream and whiting were still going nuts, but some were a bit bigger, approaching legal size. After getting fish after fish, we left for dinner as it was getting dark. 

 

Saturday

Woke up nice and early and headed to Harrington Lagoon for a fish, recommended to us by the cleaner at the resort. Arrived around 8am to swarms of solider crabs scurrying about the flats. It was really cool to watch the thousands of crabs all scurrying in synchrony, and we stopped to take some pics. On our way to the spot, we found an octopus that somehow stranded itself on the sand when the tide went out. I thought they were meant to be smart😂? Anyway when we got to the water edge I sent out a rod right away with a live yabby. Not a minute later, the rod loaded up in the holder and I was onto a fish! In came a nice flounder, around 32cm. Over the next hour or so, we continued pulling up quality fish, with bream being the main culprits. As the sun rose higher into the sky, however, the fish in our particular vicinity began to slow down. I wandered over to a sandy area that extended further out to the lagoon, unlike the steep drop offs we were fishing earlier. On the way out, I spooked a nice flatty, guessing around high fifties. I was pretty mad at myself for forgetting to have a cast before I walked into the water, but I casted out anyways. After a little while of the rod sitting in the holder, I saw the tip bend over slightly before the rod went completely berserk. After a quick fight, I pulled in a new PB flathead, going 58cm🥳! After dispatching the flatty, I rushed back over to the same spot, walking about 30m into the water before having a cast. This time, I decided against walking back to shore and setting my rod in the holder, so I stayed put. After a few minutes without a bite I was considering walking back again, when I got a nice tug at the end of my line. I struck hard, and the speed and power of the first run had my heart racing. After a decent fight, I beached the fish. It was a new PB bream, going 38cm! I must say getting 2 PBs in 2 casts is not something I do every day. Ended the morning with 1 nice flatty, 5 legal bream and 2 big flounder for a feed. On the way back to the holiday resort, I put in a mud crab pot near a mangrove creek.

       

After the success of the morning, I decided to hit up Crowdy Beach to try and learn to catch beach worms. I've tried it once before, but the conditions weren't ideal and I was getting smashed by big waves every few seconds. However, Crowdy Beach had big, flat areas of sand, with small waves washing very far up the beach. It looked like the ideal spot. This was definitely the case, as the first wave with my hand bait drew up a worm! Despite this, my excitement of finding a worm so early on led to me rushing the capture, allowing the worm to escape. Over the next half hour, I refined my technique, even grabbing a worm at one point to have it slip through my fingers. But, after I became more consistent, I began to be more successful in grabbing the worms. My biggest issue was having them break on me; often I would grab them, have them tense up in the sand, and having to dig them out. I was applying constant pressure, but after I started making progress on pulling them out, they always break. If anyone has tips to prevent this it would be greatly appreciated. 

After gathering a handful of worm pieces, I decided to put a rod out with a piece of worm for the last 10 minutes. This resulted in a nice legal whiting and a shovelnose shark, both were firsts for me off the beach.

 

Sunday

Headed off to Crowdy beach again after the success the day before. However, no fish were landed in the next 2 hours. Before leaving, I decided to grab a few more worms for later in the day. 

After a bit of sightseeing and lunch at the lighthouse, we were headed off to the breakwall at a second attempt to get some fish. Again, on the way, I checked my crab pot, which yielded nothing but a small bream. I moved it slightly upstream before dropping it down again. Some of our friends took the long walk over to the very end of the breakwall the day before, and had caught some nice tarwhine and luderick. This time, we joined them, and after a long trek we arrived towards the end of the wall without another person in sight. It was very snaggy here, and we were constantly losing our rigs and fishing line. However, it would be worth it as in total, we managed 4 legal bream, 4 legal tarwhine, and a big butter bream to try for the first time. 

 

Monday

Woke up early to pick up our crab pot, only to find it had been nicked! We looked around the area, to find that the other pots around the same place were also missing...coincidence? I think not! Left Harrington at 10am with heavy hearts. Took over 6 hours to get back to Sydney, (almost double the time it took from syd to Harrington) the traffic was crazy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ireallylovefishies22]

Some other pics that would not fit into the post

 

   

[saltrix]

Nice report

[Yowie]

Sounds like a good time to be had - nice fish, plenty for a few feeds.

Problem with the long weekend and crab pots - thieving bastards about. If the pot was missing, probably a crab or 2 inside it.

[ireallylovefishies22]

22 minutes ago, Yowie said:

Sounds like a good time to be had - nice fish, plenty for a few feeds.

Problem with the long weekend and crab pots - thieving bastards about. If the pot was missing, probably a crab or 2 inside it.

yeah im spewing about that lost pot, ive had it for quite some time and was keen to get my first crab with it. this was the only spot ive every tried that actually looked good for crabs, the other spots didn't really look ideal.

[DrRaymondSnapper]

I love Harrington. So much to offer for a keen fisho.  Lagoon , beach , breakwall , river flats . Sorry to hear about the lost crab pots. People who steal crab pots should be used as bait in them.

[jenno64]

Great narrative and some nice fish. Easter thieves about too🤔

[big Neil]

An excellent report. Some very nice fish caught, well done.

Always somebody around to take the shine off the trip...thieving a...holes.

Cheers, bn

[bessell1955]

You just can not leave anything, as the share farmers will strike.  No good.