Monster Tailor in Brooklyn - BOM get it wrong big time.

[Pickles]

My buddy Aidan asked if we could go fishing with his cousin visiting from S.A. We set plans for Wednesday, with a  BOM gale wind warning “4m swell and 70kph winds” I suggested we pick another day. Aidan is a bit of a thrill seeker, wanted to  “go and see”.

We launched at Parsley Bay - no boat trailers in the car park and no scales on the cleaning table. 😩. Obvious that few fishos had been out previous few days, but the sea was flat and ☺️ calm, (quite a few logs and debris in the water), so headed to West Head, not expecting to find any livies due to big fresh and muddy water. How wrong - there were heaps of Yakkas, but quite large, (good flesh baits though).

We tried Flint and Steel and drifted from Lion Is, back to Patonga, but no luck. The wind started to pickup, so tucked in behind Juno and put out a few live Yakkas and squid baits and the action started. within a few minutes we had 2 big hits and two dropped fish, hoping they were Jewies, we reset.

Bottom line was, all we caught were sharks and Tailor, but the tailor were the biggest I’ve ever seen. Largest going 70cm. Pic of sounder is live bait schools at West Head.

Go get ‘em Raiders.

[Yowie]

Big choppers there Bob. My guess is they fought rather hard at that size.

Same as when I fished Port Hacking on Wednesday morning, hardly a boat out at all, probably scared off by the wind forecast.

[Little_Flatty]

Thumper tailor Bob, well done on getting people on fish again.

[LuckyFil]

wow those are big greenbacks!

[sashkello]

Wow, that's a proper 3-banana tailor! The biggest I've ever caught was 1-banana

[james Cutler]

Super tailor. Great photos.

[zmk1962]

Well done Bob. That’s a Master Tailor there - some excellent smoking fillets would come off that. 
… and the fight wouldn’t have been too shabby. 
cheers Zoran 

[kantong]

some good sized fillets there, well done on getting out there.

[Steve0]

The banana in the photos looks like a fake. The Tailor doesn't.  Well done.

I have a theory: My experience is that schools of breeding size Tailor seem to run up the coast from Victoria in early June on the far South Coast as cold current push towards the NSW border (able to repeat Tailor week every year after working it out). Your success hints that mid-June is the time to find them around Sydney as they continue migrating North.  If that theory is right, then mid-June next year should find them about again. They may hang about for a week or so, but if experience down South is a guide, they won't be around for long. 

 

[XD351]

Wow that is a big tailor ! 
I think the last time a saw one that big in Sydney was when I was a kid fishing under the harbour bridge- maybe 1980. 
That drift from lion island to patonga seems to have died off as the trawlers flog it to death now . I usually motor in towards the northern shore until it comes up to 8m depth ( look for the palm trees as this is the general area to be in ) and drift along this edge - the trawlers usually won’t run that close to shore . Another spot is directly off flint and steel beach - usually produces a couple of flathead. 
My mate fished out there a couple of weeks back and got dragged half way to palm beach by a 1.5 m hammerhead- which would have been interesting on 3-5kg gear! They lost heaps of gear to sharks and even got a decent gummy .
 

[Larkin]

That’s a big tailor! Well done finding the fish Bob.

Looks like they’re everywhere around Sydney atm.

 

[jenno64]

That is a horse of a tailor Bob! I hope it was respected in the cook up:)

[Pickles]

On 6/14/2024 at 4:53 PM, XD351 said:

Wow that is a big tailor ! 
I think the last time a saw one that big in Sydney was when I was a kid fishing under the harbour bridge- maybe 1980. 
That drift from lion island to patonga seems to have died off as the trawlers flog it to death now . I usually motor in towards the northern shore until it comes up to 8m depth ( look for the palm trees as this is the general area to be in ) and drift along this edge - the trawlers usually won’t run that close to shore . Another spot is directly off flint and steel beach - usually produces a couple of flathead. 
My mate fished out there a couple of weeks back and got dragged half way to palm beach by a 1.5 m hammerhead- which would have been interesting on 3-5kg gear! They lost heaps of gear to sharks and even got a decent gummy .
 

Gotta agree Ian, I’m sure the 2 big runs were sharks and not Jewies (didn’t see the fish before they were gone).

[bessell1955]

Wow, those Tailor are big enough to mistaken as King fish,  Well done.