Sydney harbour winter wonderland

[happygilmour]

Hi all,

not sure if it was the best decision as i woke this morning at 0530 to hook the boat up and go for a fish with a mate, Doc, as I ventured out to my boat and see it was covered in ice







A chilli minus 4 greeted me as hit the ramp to meet Doc. i looked and felt like a michelin man with layers and layers of clothing on and still cold.The sun was rising as we ventured down stram of the parra river heading out to the harbour proper. A quick blat at full noise had my brain freeze up and pretty sure a tear might of frozen on my cheek but couldnt feel it by then anyway.
Doc looked just as cold so we motored slowly up till the sun got a little higher and some warmth could be felt.

Plan of attack was to troll middle head for a salmon,tailor or kingy and drop plastics on schools of fish if sounded up. After 1 lap I headed a little further out when my egrell s10 baitcaster loaded up. A quick look behind had the fish jump which gave away its identitiy as a salmon.



A few more passes and i was on again but to a better fish. unfortunately as i was just getting colour the hooks pulled. With things slowing down we decided with the good conditions to head out and down south head for a troll. As we rounded south head I could see a fin in the water near the rocks.First thoughts was for a shrak but as we got closer the fin turned out to be from a large seal sunning it self in the shallows . Never seen a seal so close to the harbour- does anyone ever seen them before there?

Started to troll not far away and started regulary seeing sounding like this

hopes were high for some action but after changing to 20-30ft divers for only the below fish to Doc, a sergent baker his first encounter to them.

and i to a red rock cod thingy

Soon after we were both surprised to have a whale pop up and breach 10m from us. Whats next i thought to myself.

It was time to head back to inside the harbour to chase the bream on lures. Swapping rods we headed back down towards the bridge and start fishing. the area is where i have caught small snapper and today was no different with this one below falling to a berkley blade.

Soon after we pushed back past the bridgeand Doc was first out of the block with a solid 32cm fork length bream on a silver squidgy wriggler.

I was next with a pigion pair off Docs first bream. It was taken on a squidgy wriggler in wasabi colour. The bream was caught of a pontoon.




Hit another of my regular haunts and doc was lucky to extract another good bream from deep structure which went 33cm fork. The spot was slow so we left and headed for new area's. Found a nice looking area and started fishing. Doc worked a hardbody and i a blade. The blade was crunched by a solid fish in the shallows and played up good. The best bream for the day hit the deck at 36cm fork length.

We tried hard to get the last bream for a 5 fish bag but couldnt nail another legal bream so we called it the day with 4 solid bream, 2 each.




All bream relased to grow bigger for next time. Had a ball, froze my monkeys off, saw seals and whales, caught fish and a great winter day on the water.

Cheers

[Gilly]

Hi! Happy, Dad here (Gilly) soundslike you had a blast. Yep! I signed up and have become a member!! Fancy seeing a seal and a whale!! Thought you AA guys swore off the hard stuff!! Nothing like that happens up here in the North!! Can't say I would enjoy all that amount of ice early in the mornings. The temp here dropped to a chilly 19 this morning. Only 3 more degrees lower and we would have set a record for up here!! Silly buggers living dow there where it gets so cold you can't enjoy a beer.

[happygilmour]

Apparenty the coldest temps recorded in sydney in 61 years today!!!!

[adidaspeteman]

Perth is freezing too, coldest winter recorded I hear.

Nice fishy day out mate, that ice reminds me of Beevors trout fishing photo's in the snow...... one word, THERMALS!

Do you like the Berkley Big Eye blades? I have had liitle luck on them, to beefy a profile for my and Perth bream liking.

[ffejsmada]

Turned out to be a good day on the water there Aaron.

I love the sounder shot, good looking bottom.

Jeff.

[happygilmour]

Hi Pete,

first time using the big eye blades, saw them in a two pack fro $18 which looked like good value so grabbed them. They really arnt much bigger in profile to other blades out there and only 34mm long. I normally use Evergreen little maxs from my bass days but dont have many left. The blade style lures are more of a reaction bait so beleive colour and type of retrive is more important than the shape.

[Didley]

I love the sounder shot, good looking bottom.

Jeff.

Yeah, love that sounder shot, but I'm not getting the other photo, the 1 with the bottom in it!

[adidaspeteman]

Hi Pete,

first time using the big eye blades, saw them in a two pack fro $18 which looked like good value so grabbed them. They really arnt much bigger in profile to other blades out there and only 34mm long. I normally use Evergreen little maxs from my bass days but dont have many left. The blade style lures are more of a reaction bait so beleive colour and type of retrive is more important than the shape.

I bought a big stack of them when they first came out. After giving them a go side by side with other blades I do not use them anymore. They are a fatter profile then Jazz, Ecogear etc. I find the bulkyness of them to restrict the vibration of the lure, especialy on slow twitches...

[Blackfish]

Geeez you guys deserve a medal going out at that time.
How bloody cold was it.

At least you got a few bibs and bobs plus some nice Bream.
Well deserved.

As for the Seals I haven't seen them in the Harbour but plenty have.
I've seen them near North Head just as you head out around the corner and had one within a couple of metres of me at Newport Reef scared the .....
out of me.

[c carney]

I think i will stay in North Queensland that looks way to cold for me.