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My Australian fishing mentor Ollie had been on the phone the night before saying that the weather was looking favourable for fishing one of his favourite rock marks the next day. As arranged then Ollie picked me up at my daughters apartment at Freshwater and we were parking up "near" the mark for just after sunrise.
Now Ollie always goes on these trips well tackle laden so I offered to carry about half of the gear for him. He also asked me to don a spare pair of cleated boots that he had dug out for me. The yomp to the mark really had me well goosed I can tell you - especially wearing those cleated boots !!!!
We arrived at the climb down point to the mark when he casually said that the weatherman had got it wrong and that it was too dangerous to fish. Actually I was not too disappointed as the climb down looked very steep,especially with all of the gear we were carrying. While we (me) were having a breather before the one mile yomp back to the car Ollie spotted a Little Penguin swimming in the bay and pointed it out to me. Nice one Ollie,my first mainland Australian penguin.
We then headed off to Little Manly Point Park inside Sydney Harbour itself. This time we only parked about 200yds away from the mark and our fishing platform was a flat stone jetty. This is a picture of the mark and very nice it was too. You can clearly see the shark protected area for swimmers about 100 yds to our right. I had actually been swimming in it with my daughter and grandson just about a week earlier.
Ollie explained that our main quarry on this occasion would be kingfish but that salmon,bonito,jewfish and sharks were possible. With this in mind Ollie crumbed up some bread into the water and had us fishing light rigs with tiny hooks baited with small bits of pilchard. Livebaiting with yellowtail was again the method we would be using. Check out this picture of Ollie after yellowtail.
To be honest I do not know why I bothered as Ollie had 3 fish in the aerated bucket before I even had a bite.
We rigged up the heavier rods with 3oz sinkers on a running ledger with livebait on a 4/0 hook. It was then simply a case of casting out,setting back the drag to zero and waiting for some action. Nothing happened for about an hour then Ollie's line started shooting off. Once he struck into the fish all hell broke loose - "its a bronzie" he shouted. His bronze whaler shark then proceeded to give us a fine aerobatic display,what a scrap it gave him for about 10 minutes. Now came the tricky bit of landing and unhooking. Ollie handed the rod to me which I was well happy with. He then scrambled down the rocks to our right and I stayed on the jetty top trying to coax the shark to him. It was not happy and made one more dash for freedom before I could lead it to Ollie below. Ollie just got hold of the leader as the shark bit through the line and away it sped. Due to the mayhem this is the only picture I managed to get of the shark. We estimated it to be about 4 feet long. Nice one Ollie.
We were down to one livebait in the bucket so we concentrated on catching a few more whilst keeping a close eye on the big rods. Within minutes of catching that shark Ollie had another screaming run and stuck into it.
It was a salmon this time which gave a great account of itself. Ollie said that his freezer was full of salmon for shark bait so this fish was carefully released.
Ollie then caught a very good bream on his livebait but for some reason I never took a picture of that. Anyway the bream was also returned to the water. At last I had a run on my rod and struck into my very first bonito. They are very mackerel like and fight just as hard. It was not big as bonito go but it was a new species for me so I was well happy. This fish also was returned to fight another day.
All went quiet for a good while when the water just seemed to explode about 70 yds to our left with baitfish jumping everywhere. We had spinning rods set up for just this occasion so raced down and started hurling metal lures at the spot. No sooner had we cast out then the activity ceased and the predators,whatever they were had moved on.
We had just got back to our main rods when Ollie had a run and he struck into a bonito.
Now this fish was not destined to go back as Ollie decided to livebait with it to see if he could raise a shark on it.
We gave it another hour with no more action and by this time Ollies livebait had become a deadbait. It was decided to call it a day at this point to which I was quite happy as it was now uncomfortably hot on the exposed jetty where we were fishing.
What a great session it had been and what a superb coach I had in Ollie. My next report has me flying over to Western Australia fishing in the Indian Ocean.
John
Now Ollie always goes on these trips well tackle laden so I offered to carry about half of the gear for him. He also asked me to don a spare pair of cleated boots that he had dug out for me. The yomp to the mark really had me well goosed I can tell you - especially wearing those cleated boots !!!!
We arrived at the climb down point to the mark when he casually said that the weatherman had got it wrong and that it was too dangerous to fish. Actually I was not too disappointed as the climb down looked very steep,especially with all of the gear we were carrying. While we (me) were having a breather before the one mile yomp back to the car Ollie spotted a Little Penguin swimming in the bay and pointed it out to me. Nice one Ollie,my first mainland Australian penguin.
We then headed off to Little Manly Point Park inside Sydney Harbour itself. This time we only parked about 200yds away from the mark and our fishing platform was a flat stone jetty. This is a picture of the mark and very nice it was too. You can clearly see the shark protected area for swimmers about 100 yds to our right. I had actually been swimming in it with my daughter and grandson just about a week earlier.
Ollie explained that our main quarry on this occasion would be kingfish but that salmon,bonito,jewfish and sharks were possible. With this in mind Ollie crumbed up some bread into the water and had us fishing light rigs with tiny hooks baited with small bits of pilchard. Livebaiting with yellowtail was again the method we would be using. Check out this picture of Ollie after yellowtail.
To be honest I do not know why I bothered as Ollie had 3 fish in the aerated bucket before I even had a bite.
We rigged up the heavier rods with 3oz sinkers on a running ledger with livebait on a 4/0 hook. It was then simply a case of casting out,setting back the drag to zero and waiting for some action. Nothing happened for about an hour then Ollie's line started shooting off. Once he struck into the fish all hell broke loose - "its a bronzie" he shouted. His bronze whaler shark then proceeded to give us a fine aerobatic display,what a scrap it gave him for about 10 minutes. Now came the tricky bit of landing and unhooking. Ollie handed the rod to me which I was well happy with. He then scrambled down the rocks to our right and I stayed on the jetty top trying to coax the shark to him. It was not happy and made one more dash for freedom before I could lead it to Ollie below. Ollie just got hold of the leader as the shark bit through the line and away it sped. Due to the mayhem this is the only picture I managed to get of the shark. We estimated it to be about 4 feet long. Nice one Ollie.
We were down to one livebait in the bucket so we concentrated on catching a few more whilst keeping a close eye on the big rods. Within minutes of catching that shark Ollie had another screaming run and stuck into it.
It was a salmon this time which gave a great account of itself. Ollie said that his freezer was full of salmon for shark bait so this fish was carefully released.
Ollie then caught a very good bream on his livebait but for some reason I never took a picture of that. Anyway the bream was also returned to the water. At last I had a run on my rod and struck into my very first bonito. They are very mackerel like and fight just as hard. It was not big as bonito go but it was a new species for me so I was well happy. This fish also was returned to fight another day.
All went quiet for a good while when the water just seemed to explode about 70 yds to our left with baitfish jumping everywhere. We had spinning rods set up for just this occasion so raced down and started hurling metal lures at the spot. No sooner had we cast out then the activity ceased and the predators,whatever they were had moved on.
We had just got back to our main rods when Ollie had a run and he struck into a bonito.
Now this fish was not destined to go back as Ollie decided to livebait with it to see if he could raise a shark on it.
We gave it another hour with no more action and by this time Ollies livebait had become a deadbait. It was decided to call it a day at this point to which I was quite happy as it was now uncomfortably hot on the exposed jetty where we were fishing.
What a great session it had been and what a superb coach I had in Ollie. My next report has me flying over to Western Australia fishing in the Indian Ocean.
John
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