Last ditch Sydney Harbour effort.

[Ducksta]

So I was thinking recently I needed to get a bit of fishing in before it gets crazy round here (both for my time, and school holidays and what not) and speaking with my brother we didn't really have any time that lined up to shoot out.
So I did what anyone in such a predicament would do. I used an annual leave day after picking a morning with good tides to chase pelagics in the harbour.
The intention being to cast at any surface activity and try for a couple of bigger kings on live squid.
We went out again with Dan at Sydney Sportfishing. We have hired boats previously as well - but by the time you add a sounder and electric on the rental, or if you run the motor all day (ie. idling along with live squid) - fishing with Dan for a half day is actually cheaper. (Next move will be somewhere I can store and use my own boat, for sure.)
Anyway we hoped to put a couple of king fillets through the cryovac for safe keeping for a few meals over summer, and have a bit of fun.

Off early
Early.jpg

Pulled in to one little bay with bait being blasted everywhere and at first it didn't seem to happen for us.
Steve was throwing a small metal, and I had a small zman on. But the bait being annihilatedall around us was probably under an inch.
Dan picked up a small trevally and a large salmon sinking his offering under the action but wasn't super consistent like that either.
Two other boats drifted in to the same bay and were firing casts at boils as well. They didn't pick anything up either so that was heartening.
Then a ******* ****** on a SUP literally paddled through the active school and tried to catch something standing on top of them.
That sent all the fish down, and he took off again. All of a sudden a school came up and started feeding toward us, and were on bigger bait this time - so we had a completely insane 8-10 minutes on hard feeding tailor (plus another slightly larger trevally) double and triple hookups - almost a fish a cast. Awesome.
Filled the esky with enough of those species that we would consume yesterday and put plenty back as well. Don't really like kill shots, but who stops to take pictures when they are chewing off their heads?
Not so many years ago, you would never have believed you could have such a session on 40cm tailor and not be changing plastics every cast. (2 got bit off) But hooray for ZMan.
KillBag.jpg

Then we went looking for those kingfish fillets...
Livey.jpg

Got a nice double hookup - watching the second one eat a bait after it followed to the boat - but neither of them was legal unfortunately. 2 prime baits down! haha
DoubleRats.jpg

My brother got his first jewfish - and his second fish of the day within 2cm of legal.
We ran it in to the open to got the touristy photo.
First.jpg

I ended the day with the only legal king.
LegalKing.jpg

Headed back around lunch time which is before it got REALLY hot here yesterday.
Had to take a picture up towards the office to email in and let everyone know I'd be spending the afternoon with air con and cold beverage.
Harb2.jpg

Had a reasonable lunch going on the BBQ while I cryovac'ed the king.
Lunch.jpg

[Didley]

Well done Ducky, and great report thanks.

[3Macks]

Great morning for you John. Hope you kept a couple of squid for the table.

[Ducksta]

Great morning for you John. Hope you kept a couple of squid for the table.

Not this time mate. We usually manage to keep a couple but not this time.
Usually we use the small ones as baits and just keep the larger ones. But the best bites are coming on bigger squid at the moment.
The one pictured was the largest (I think? Or close enough.) and is actually what accounted for the jew - but was a dead bait by that stage.

[Bazil Brush]

Top report Ducksta, great morning on the water.

[tackle_buster]

Well done Ducky, great morning on the water and a fresh feed of fish to boot.

[al49]

Top session ducks day looked great as well

[Mick Baker]

Great to have a good day on the water and a meal or two of fresh sea food.It was certainly warm yesterday but not as bad as today.30 degrees at 8am today and 38 now with strong winds.YOu picked the right day.Cheers,Mick.

[Blackfish]

Good on you for getting out and its great to see a Sydney report.
The Harbour does fish well considering.

[Ducksta]

The harbour is pretty amazing in my opinion. Can be a hard nut to crack (even with a great guide) and is by no means my preferred system. But very rewarding.
Need to see more quality Sydney reports to counter the shit the psycho greenies are peddling about multi year studies not finding any legal size fish.