Up to Harrington last weekend for the first visit in two years. Thanks for nothing, Covid! It was great to be back:
Our total focus was on kingfish and I was pretty sure we’d find a few. Why? Because a friend/client had given me the marks for the hottest hotspot on the mid North Coast:
We headed east on a flat sea. Primed for action, with a tank full of quality live bait and a stack of our 250 gram jigs aboard. About a twenty mile run? But worth it, when our destination was Kingfish Central. But when we got there, no kingfish. And, no reefs. Nothing that would attract and hold fish. It just makes you cry, sometimes. But you can’t let the crew see your grief. In this case, my new crewmember was so relentlessly upbeat nothing could bring him down. Back we went, into the Curphey Shoals, and even though the fishing stayed tough, Stefano kept his cool:
The big thing we had going for us was fantastic weather, for fishing offshore. Next day, local expert Rocket Miller joined us, and things started to turn around. This 57cm pearl perch a welcome addition to the icebox:
The fishing in 38 metres of water east of Old Bar was spectacular. Not the kings we had hoped to do battle with, but a constant stream of big flathead, snapper, pearl perch and other top shelf tasties:
Good mate and top bloke Andrew Wily joined us on his new Fish Pro 170:
He caught the fish of the day - a solid snapper on a white SP:
As always when fish levels in the esky rise, so does crew morale. We finished off day two with a sharking session on the Harrington wall:
But after an hour in the dark - in just a shirt - it all got too cold. No shark bites, but maybe that was because of my bait selection:
So good to be back at Harrington/Crowdy, a place which holds many top fishing memories. If the weather plays ball, we’ll be back later this month. Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow