Port Hacking Report – 8/7/06

Woolooware Bay has some great areas to fish - nice big sand flats, moored boats, mangroves and old oyster leases which are home to bream, flathead, whiting, trevally, jewfish and another half a dozen or so species that will give you a good work out on some light tackle.

‘Woolooware Bay?’ you say. ‘So why does the heading say Port Hacking report?’ Well, it’s because I didn’t catch a thing when I went to Woolooware Bay! Not even a little tacker. I had two tail-grabs off my soft plastics and that was it. That’s fishin’ for ya’…

But I still do have a report, though the fish weren’t caught from a kayak. However, the info may help you get out in your kayak and maybe get amongst them.

I’m currently working on Gary Browns and Scotty Lyons’ new DVD on fishing Port Hacking and we were out filming the blackfishing segment. Gary and Scott cover the where, when and how to catch these fantastic fish and the day reinforced a few basic rules that we all should follow when fishing.

The day started slowly and after about an hour Gary hooked the first fish of the day. It was a nice fat specimen, probably close to 40cm’s length. That was the only fish caught here so we went searching.

We tried about 7 locations all up. Each spot looked the goods with a nice current flow and each spot had produced in the past. Berley was regularly cast about but it wasn’t until our last port of call only about 300 meters from the boat ramp in Yowie Bay that we hit pay dirt.

It started slowly again but after about 30 minutes, Gary landed one. Then Scott was on and as he was winding it in, Gary hooked up again. The berley had done its job and each bait was getting a down of the floats. Scott hooked what we thought might’ve been a drummer but after some great lunging runs he landed a beautiful Sturgeon. About 10 minutes later the berley ran out and just as quickly the fish moved off.

The final tally for Gary and Scott were 7 blackfish and one Sturgeon plus half a dozen undersize fish, too. The importance of the berley could not be over emphasized as well as the simple act of perserverance - if you don’t find the fish at one place, move around until you do find them.

Of course, this doesn’t always work! I know, I moved all over Woolooware Bay for zip, but it was still better than sitting on the lounge watching TV. Ausbream have another social day on the Parramatta River this sunday, so visit us next week for the ‘kayaks vs stink boats’ report. Happy yakkin’, everyone.

Cheers,