The Single Best Thing You Can Do to Improve Your Fishing Results
Last week’s forecast on Seabreeze:
Wednesday 13th the pick of last week. Phoned around the usual crew but of course most of them couldn’t get off work. Luckily Corey is between jobs and Leo has a friendly boss. The three of us left Bayview ramp around 6:00AM and filled the bait tank with *small* yellowtail at a short stop on the way up Pittwater. Like always, I checked Buoy Weather just before leaving. They’re very accurate on 'day before' forecasts:
A long run – 25 nautical miles - to our special spot. Target: kingfish. The go at this reef is to drop down a livebait between 30 and 90 metres and put that rod in the rod holder. Then, rig a jig on your second rod and have it on standby. Watch the sounder like a hawk and when you see fish showing on the right hand side of the screen drop your jig down fast:
The schools aren’t always big and can pass under your boat quickly but when it all comes together you’re nearly assured of a hook up. Leo opened our innings:
Two striped tuna on one jig! The first one, hooked in the normal way. Number two, with the braid looped around its lower jaw. We boated both:
And almost immediately backed up with a cracker king (his personal best) on our Hercules jig rod:
Our Hercules rod is five feet five inches long, rated 15-24 kg, and has been the downfall of many a big king. Check it out here:
About this time I received a formal protest from Corey:
I had lent my spare jigging outfit to Leo but had a marlin outfit aboard. It’s an old (refurbished) Shimano Beastmaster mounted on one of our bent butt rods. They’re heavy! But I love the Beastmasters:
A king hit the livie on the bent butt outfit. Corey did a great netting job:
We only kept two kings for the day. The one in the pic above went back over the side. With the bite tapering off and Corey needing to get back early we pulled the kingie pin and headed for Terrigal FAD. Note the current:
Had the whole place to ourselves, with small but keeper mahi biting like crazy:
Now I can hear what you’re thinking. ‘You had a good day out there but what about the fishing tip, Andy?’
It’s not about tackle, boats, rigs or anything like that. What’s happened in Sydney this summer just passed has been a season of relentless bad weather. Howling nor’ easters. Big southerly busters. And a lot of these bad weather events seem to happen on weekends, which is the only time most of our readers can get on the water. Here’s what a friend wrote to me about his trip out there last Saturday:
This is what happens too often when you can only fish on weekends. We fished this spot three times in six days and caught metre (and more) kingfish every time. What I recommend is this. Try to come to some arrangement with work that means you can get a day off each week. I know it might be hard but if you can, it opens up a whole new world. Not only do you get to fish on the best weather day of the week, but you quite often have the spot just to yourself. If Friday is a good weather day, take that - because the fish have had lighter fishing pressure through the week. Can you work on a weekend day or make up the time in some other way? Can you take a sickie or an RDO? Give it a try because if you can do it, the rewards are there. When the fishing’s hot, you gotta go. Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow
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