Tough two mornings

[Little_Flatty]

Yesterday I went out for a fish at the North Sydney wharf precinct. I was accidentally signed out of Deckee so I missed the wind warning! I'd got there, it was blowing a gale and seeing as I was there anyway AND I could fish safely (albeit NOT comfortably), I decided to give it a go. Got one down, which I missed and I called it, hightailing it for a nice bakery on the way home.

This morning I went out to Clifton Gardens to see if I could get myself a luderick for dinner. Got on the water at 6am and started berleying. It was difficult to get sight of any fish as the water was quite wind rippled. As the sun came up, I put on my polaroids and all of a sudden, it was like looking into an aquarium. Fish everywhere, and not just luderick, elbow slapper whiting and more!

That was no help to me however. Nothing much was biting and I was struggling with some amateur-hour rig tangles. The one down I got early on, I mistimed. Just totally foolish of me. The fish appeared to be responding to berley however.

Towards the end of my session (it's always the end of my session!) I got a down. I tightened up and hooked up to what felt like a decent fish. An amateurish net job later, I was on the board:

Put another bait out but same deal, fish rolling about and not interested, so I went home. At least I had dinner.

Edited Sunday at 02:04 AM by Little_Flatty

[Green Hornet]

You achieved your objective Mike of a fish for dinner, so well done and a fish that size should provide a couple of prime fillets. Enjoy your meal.

[Burger]

Dinner sorted, job done! 👍

[R E G I C Y C L E]

Nice fish, how do you cook them?

[Little_Flatty]

2 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

You achieved your objective Mike of a fish for dinner, so well done and a fish that size should provide a couple of prime fillets. Enjoy your meal.

Cheers Pete, yeah it’s going to be tasty😎

2 hours ago, Burger said:

Dinner sorted, job done! 👍

Thanks Stu, yes it is  

1 hour ago, R E G I C Y C L E said:

Nice fish, how do you cook them?

Thanks mate, my family likes them scaled and steamed whole with soy, ginger, garlic and shallots, Chinese style. My eldest is excited.

[Ryder]

Wind is the bane of every Blackfisherman, when it gets up so strong there is almost nowhere you can hide from it.

You could try some spots on the south side like Chiswick, Propeller Park or Rose Bay.

Sounds like the fish today were more interested in spawning than feeding, you’ve done well to get 1. I haven’t fished Clifton Gardens but I’ve been told to fish off the far right corner, not out the front.

[Little_Flatty]

1 minute ago, Ryder said:

Wind is the bane of every Blackfisherman, when it gets up so strong there is almost nowhere you can hide from it.

You could try some spots on the south side like Chiswick, Propeller Park or Rose Bay.

Sounds like the fish today were more interested in spawning than feeding, you’ve done well to get 1. I haven’t fished Clifton Gardens but I’ve been told to fish off the far right corner, not out the front.

Thanks @Ryder. Clifton can be tough but the average size of the fish is good. I go down to 4lb leader in an effort to counter the skittishness of the fish. I also try to avoid the end of the wharf, and often spend time polaroiding for fish before settling into a spot.

Haven’t tried Rose bay, but have had my eye on it!

[Yowie]

As I have said before, one fish is better than NO fish. Something for the effort, and big enough to take home.

[TheFishyFisherman]

Better than nothing at least. Good job for getting dinner!

[R E G I C Y C L E]

3 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Thanks mate, my family likes them scaled and steamed whole with soy, ginger, garlic and shallots, Chinese style. My eldest is excited.

Sounds tasty! Post a pic of the finished product!

[Larkin]

Another few sessions eh Mike! You’ve been busy

Good to take a fish home for a meal now and then. Can’t beat fresh fish you catch yourself. Enjoy the feed mate!

 

[Little_Flatty]

4 hours ago, Yowie said:

As I have said before, one fish is better than NO fish. Something for the effort, and big enough to take home.

Sure is Dave. Wish I had more time but had things to do.

3 hours ago, TheFishyFisherman said:

Better than nothing at least. Good job for getting dinner!

Thanks

3 hours ago, R E G I C Y C L E said:

Sounds tasty! Post a pic of the finished product!

Didn’t end up cooking the fish tonight but will do when I cook tomorrow. Fish has been cleaned with black lining removed and is chilling in the fridge. I don’t scale until just prior to cooking.

1 hour ago, Larkin said:

Another few sessions eh Mike! You’ve been busy

Good to take a fish home for a meal now and then. Can’t beat fresh fish you catch yourself. Enjoy the feed mate!

 

Thanks Chris, sure is hard to beat. I am very lucky to be able to fit in the fishing that I do.

[Little_Flatty]

6 hours ago, Ryder said:

Sounds like the fish today were more interested in spawning than feeding, you’ve done well to get 1.

This hadn’t occurred to me. Yes, the fish I caught was full of milt, so that supports your theory. Have seen them like this before. Makes for challenging fishing!

[Little_Flatty]

Slightly unrelated to my original report, but check out the change in my catches album from 2021 until now.

2021:

2024:

Still chucking lures, but evidently I'm very obsessed with float fishing for luderick!

[bessell1955]

A nice, Lud.

[Pickles]

Great report Mike, it’s so frustrating when you know the fish are there and you can even see the milling around but they just won’t take a bait. I fished Clifton a fair bit from the boat and get some good fish off the naval wharf, but not sure if you can access that by foot?

The wharf at Clifton gets crazy at times with the number of folks that fish it.

Rosebay holds quite a lot of Luderick and off Nielsen Park is also good if you can get there easily. Also good whiting bream and flathead on the sand flats near the float plane hangar. Many years ago I used to fish the war at Rose Bay which also produced plenty of good yellowtail for live Bait.

[Little_Flatty]

3 hours ago, Pickles said:

Great report Mike, it’s so frustrating when you know the fish are there and you can even see the milling around but they just won’t take a bait. I fished Clifton a fair bit from the boat and get some good fish off the naval wharf, but not sure if you can access that by foot?

The wharf at Clifton gets crazy at times with the number of folks that fish it.

Rosebay holds quite a lot of Luderick and off Nielsen Park is also good if you can get there easily. Also good whiting bream and flathead on the sand flats near the float plane hangar. Many years ago I used to fish the war at Rose Bay which also produced plenty of good yellowtail for live Bait.

Cheers Bob, I need to spend more time at Rose Bay sometime soon. I’ve only ever had a halfhearted swoff with the fly rod over the flats but there’s heaps of likely looking territory in the area!

Travel wise it’s the same amount of time as all my other weekend haunts, so I really have no excuse.

[faker]

On 10/13/2024 at 8:38 AM, Little_Flatty said:

Yesterday I went out for a fish at the North Sydney wharf precinct. I was accidentally signed out of Deckee so I missed the wind warning! I'd got there, it was blowing a gale and seeing as I was there anyway AND I could fish safely (albeit NOT comfortably), I decided to give it a go. Got one down, which I missed and I called it, hightailing it for a nice bakery on the way home.

This morning I went out to Clifton Gardens to see if I could get myself a luderick for dinner. Got on the water at 6am and started berleying. It was difficult to get sight of any fish as the water was quite wind rippled. As the sun came up, I put on my polaroids and all of a sudden, it was like looking into an aquarium. Fish everywhere, and not just luderick, elbow slapper whiting and more!

That was no help to me however. Nothing much was biting and I was struggling with some amateur-hour rig tangles. The one down I got early on, I mistimed. Just totally foolish of me. The fish appeared to be responding to berley however.

Towards the end of my session (it's always the end of my session!) I got a down. I tightened up and hooked up to what felt like a decent fish. An amateurish net job later, I was on the board:

Put another bait out but same deal, fish rolling about and not interested, so I went home. At least I had dinner.

I had info that fish are starting to head off to the heads now back to rocks especially larger specimens

[Little_Flatty]

5 hours ago, faker said:

I had info that fish are starting to head off to the heads now back to rocks especially larger specimens

Hope not, I just got my hands on some good bait before the rain comes in and kills it! But I guess this does coincide with luring season on the increase…