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This afternoon session sees Paul (my daughters fiance) and myself fishing at Forty Baskets inside Sydney Harbour. We had no fresh bait so called called into Harris Farm Market,Manly,as they had a good fresh fish section. I bought a medium sized squid off them and blagged some "fish bits" which turned out to be swordfish.
Paul drove us over to the nearest street to Forty Baskets Beach and after parking up we headed down some stairs to the shore. I have to say that this was a very posh area and you could not buy a house here for less than about £2,000,000.
As soon as we got onto the shore we started tackling up our spinning rods and as we were doing this who went rowing past in a "tinny" but my ozzie fishing mate Ollie. I am sure he fishes 24/7 and never goes to sleep !!!! This time he was after live squid for kingfish bait.
We headed east up the beach towards some rocky outcrops. In the next picture you can see the suburb of Fairlight on the other side of the bay,the protected swimming area and a few tinnys in the foreground. Nearly all beaches in the harbour have safe swimming areas due to the large number of sharks thought to be present in Sydney Harbour.
Sharks pose Sydney food-chain puzzle
Once on the rocks Paul decided to bait up with squid so I opted to try a sliver of swordfish. Immediately I started getting bites but could not hook up. I then went through the process of dropping the hook size to try and see what the little critters were.
Eventually I did manage to hook up and it was a small bream. Paul in the meanwhile was having the odd bite on squid but could not hook up. At this point we decided to to head back up the beach and try fishing on the outside of the swimming area.
When we got there Paul opted to "walk the plank" and fish on the extreme edge of the structure. I did consider it but being somewhat older and less agile than Paul went for the easier option of fishing from some stairs at the side. LOL
Paul dropped down his hook size and was rewarded with a small bream. After this first fish he got another four or five bream and I did similar. The seabed in certain parts of the harbour must look like an aquarium with the amount of fishlife. No wonder a large amount of predatory fish are drawn in !!!
I had been fairly quickly munched out of swordfish for bait so decided to try a bit lure fishing. I gave this about 10 minutes,trying a few different lures but all to no avail,not one take/pluck. I then set up my running leger rig again and baited up with squid tentacles. I cast out towards the anchored boats and was getting virtually a bite every cast but could not hook up.
Eventually I did hook up and after a spirited fight swung a new species out of the water towards me. It was a Chinaman Leatherjacket. True to my angling nickname of Snatcher I had foulhooked it in the back !!! Oh well it swam away ok after this quick picture.
The light was starting to go now but Paul did manage to get this flounder before we packed in. It was a new species for Paul as well so even though we had caught nothing big it was a nice little relaxing session.
On the way back to the beach I noticed that someone had a boat called "Budgie Smuggler" so could not resist taking a photo of it.
On the beach we got talking to a local and she said that a few days ago an angler had caught a 6 foot Bronze Whaler shark at this mark !!!! Just goes to show.
Bigger fish are in the harbour and livebaiting/deadbaiting seems the way to go for them. Well on my next trip to Australia I will be armed with a second heavier outfit for just this purpose.
My last report will have me fishing inside the harbour at Fairlight and making headlines in the local papers.
John
Paul drove us over to the nearest street to Forty Baskets Beach and after parking up we headed down some stairs to the shore. I have to say that this was a very posh area and you could not buy a house here for less than about £2,000,000.
As soon as we got onto the shore we started tackling up our spinning rods and as we were doing this who went rowing past in a "tinny" but my ozzie fishing mate Ollie. I am sure he fishes 24/7 and never goes to sleep !!!! This time he was after live squid for kingfish bait.
We headed east up the beach towards some rocky outcrops. In the next picture you can see the suburb of Fairlight on the other side of the bay,the protected swimming area and a few tinnys in the foreground. Nearly all beaches in the harbour have safe swimming areas due to the large number of sharks thought to be present in Sydney Harbour.
Sharks pose Sydney food-chain puzzle
Once on the rocks Paul decided to bait up with squid so I opted to try a sliver of swordfish. Immediately I started getting bites but could not hook up. I then went through the process of dropping the hook size to try and see what the little critters were.
Eventually I did manage to hook up and it was a small bream. Paul in the meanwhile was having the odd bite on squid but could not hook up. At this point we decided to to head back up the beach and try fishing on the outside of the swimming area.
When we got there Paul opted to "walk the plank" and fish on the extreme edge of the structure. I did consider it but being somewhat older and less agile than Paul went for the easier option of fishing from some stairs at the side. LOL
Paul dropped down his hook size and was rewarded with a small bream. After this first fish he got another four or five bream and I did similar. The seabed in certain parts of the harbour must look like an aquarium with the amount of fishlife. No wonder a large amount of predatory fish are drawn in !!!
I had been fairly quickly munched out of swordfish for bait so decided to try a bit lure fishing. I gave this about 10 minutes,trying a few different lures but all to no avail,not one take/pluck. I then set up my running leger rig again and baited up with squid tentacles. I cast out towards the anchored boats and was getting virtually a bite every cast but could not hook up.
Eventually I did hook up and after a spirited fight swung a new species out of the water towards me. It was a Chinaman Leatherjacket. True to my angling nickname of Snatcher I had foulhooked it in the back !!! Oh well it swam away ok after this quick picture.
The light was starting to go now but Paul did manage to get this flounder before we packed in. It was a new species for Paul as well so even though we had caught nothing big it was a nice little relaxing session.
On the way back to the beach I noticed that someone had a boat called "Budgie Smuggler" so could not resist taking a photo of it.
On the beach we got talking to a local and she said that a few days ago an angler had caught a 6 foot Bronze Whaler shark at this mark !!!! Just goes to show.
Bigger fish are in the harbour and livebaiting/deadbaiting seems the way to go for them. Well on my next trip to Australia I will be armed with a second heavier outfit for just this purpose.
My last report will have me fishing inside the harbour at Fairlight and making headlines in the local papers.
John
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