Sydney Salmon and Kings

Client Angus W wrote last Monday:

Our rented flat has views of the central Harbour so I grabbed the binoculars and checked out the scene. Good school working off Garden Island. A long way away but you can see them rolling on the top just to the right of the boat:

Angus wrote back soon after:

I wanted some of that action! Checking Seabreeze, I found a short window of opportunity – Wednesday:

A couple of calls and new friend Jeremy was available on short notice. He’s a skilled kayak fisherman and an art student, specialising in Gyotaku – the Japanese technique of ‘printing fish’:

Down to Roseville ramp on Wednesday morning and the first thing we discovered was this putrid tuna head. I really should have included something in the pic to show its size by comparison! Absolutely massive, around 25 kilos:

On the water and we only travelled 400 metres before encountering the next tragedy – a cruiser, sunk at its mooring. Selfish to say but, if it goes to the bottom, we could have a fantastic new kingfish spot on tap:

Scored some yellowtail on the Obelisk bait grounds and took off for the Heads. The promised 5-7 knots of wind were nowhere to be found. Instead nasty white caps - and reverb slop off the cliffs - turned South Head to Ben Buckler into a washing machine. We turned back inside and headed up the Harbour looking for signs of salmon. We didn’t have to look hard. Our 602 combo deadly for this work because it will cast our ten gram jigs out of sight. That's crucial because the fish can pop up anywhere and you often have to punch a light lure into the wind:

At $120 for rod, reel (9 ball bearings!) and 3 or 6 kilo braid it’s not a big call:

602 COMBO

We hooked some crackers but in all the excitement I only got pics of the smaller ones. Here’s Jeremy with a salmon on our ten gram jig:

And here’s yours truly, same lure. I like to cast, let them sink a metre or so, then 2-3 quick lifts and let them flutter down. If a predator spots them it looks like either they’re desperate to get away, or they’re so badly injured they’re sinking through the water column. Either way, predators love them:

At ten jigs for $40 – including delivery – you can’t go wrong:

10 x 10 gram jigs $40 including delivery

With the wind and chop dropping we headed for The Peak. A few charter boats on station, which is usually a good sign. Down went the jigs. We were getting hits – but not what we wanted. This 39cm slimy mackerel on our 100 gram jig the biggest I have ever caught. Jeremy took it home to his smoker:

We weren’t seeing anyone else catching anything so eventually the Ninety Minute Rule kicked in. That’s where we make a major change to either target species, technique or location, after 90 minutes of fishing without result. In this case, we decided to move to Twelve Mile Reef. This 70cm hit a live yellowtail:

But even there, the fishing was tough. Two pros drop lining for kingfish there but we only saw them catch one undersize king. Jeremy was hooking up barracouta on our 250 gram jigs:

Around three we decided to head for home. About eight miles offshore the motor decided to surge, then miss. Then, fail.
Called up Jack at Shannon Outboards for advice. After getting me to run a couple of checks he determined there was water in the fuel. That was disappointing because I have a $600 water separator which detects problems and sends an update to the smart gauges. Jack – and Shannon – thought we could fix it on the water. The good news was, seas were nearly flat and the wind was nearly calm. That meant I could remove the canopy and reach the fuel rail at the rear of the engine. We tried bleeding it but just didn’t have enough fresh fuel to replace the air in the rail. At five o’clock I decided to arrange a tow with Marine Rescue:

It was a slow and cold trip but I’m not complaining. We got back in around 9PM. Big thanks to the crew involved:

And on a less important matter but still one I would like to give thanks for. Bouquets to Chad Weston from Sydney North Parks & Wildlife. His team have done a brilliant upgrade of the lighting around Roseville ramp:

Taking the boat to Shannon - where the filter was installed - on Tuesday and confident he will get it all sorted. Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow

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