Valiant Wreck Live Bait: Choose the Bait Your Next Session Needs

A tank full of live bait feels like a good start. At the Valiant wreck, it can also disguise the first mistake of the day: collecting plenty of fish without asking whether they are the baits you actually need.

I made that mistake in February 2024. We went to Valiant near Barrenjoey and caught huge yellowtail. Nothing wrong with a big yellowtail when that is what you want. But I wanted smaller baits and had chosen the wrong starting point for that session. I knew better, and went there anyway.

That is the useful way to think about Valiant. It is a place to investigate, not a compulsory stop on every Broken Bay fishing trip. Decide what job the live bait has to do, see what is actually available, and be prepared to change the plan.

Start with the fishing you intend to do afterwards

Before the first sabiki goes over, ask a simple question: what bait am I trying to collect?

If the plan calls for small yellowtail, a succession of very large ones is information. It is not necessarily progress. If you want slimy mackerel for an offshore session, a tank filling with a different bait may require a change of plan rather than another half-hour doing the same thing.

There is no need to make this complicated. Be clear about the bait species and size you are looking for, and whether you have the gear and livewell to keep it in useful condition. Our yellowtail and slimy mackerel guide covers the catching and care side. The decision here is whether this ground is giving you the right start.

In my report of 17 February 2024, I described the Valiant visit as my first mistake. All we could catch were huge yellowtail when I should have looked elsewhere for small ones. That was an observation from that trip, not a rule that small bait is never available there in February. Check the fish you are catching today.

Read the screen, then test what it means

The public map lists Valiant as a localised wreck reference in approximately 27 metres. Open the Valiant Wreck detail panel and read its source and coordinate notes before using it to plan a visit. The plotted point is not a navigation instruction or a guarantee that the bait will be directly underneath it.

On the water, the sounder tells you where returns are appearing in relation to the bottom. It does not tell you the bait's size, condition or willingness to take a sabiki. Nor does a photograph of an arch prove which species made it.

Find the returns, note their depth, then use the fishing to test your interpretation. If your rig is passing well above the marks, work on depth control before blaming the hooks. If you are catching the wrong-sized bait from a consistent school, moving the rig through that same school again may not solve the real problem.

There is another trap: assuming a busy screen means an easy bait stop. In my 30 December 2023 report, Valiant was showing plenty of bait, but it was hard to catch. The whole morning felt unresponsive. One crew member blamed the full moon. That was a suggestion on the boat, not something we proved.

Keep those two observations separate: fish were showing, and they were difficult to catch. You do not need an elaborate theory to recognise that a bait stop is taking too much of the day.

A cluttered screen is not automatically an empty bait tank

The January 2024 visit gave us a different lesson. There were other boats around, and I reported interference from their transducers on our screen. Even so, we were able to load the tank using sabikis.

The photograph below shows the vertical lines as well as the denser returns above the bottom. The cause is the explanation I recorded at the time; it is not a fault diagnosis for every sounder showing a similar pattern. For interpreting your own display, use the sounder-reading guide and your unit's manual.

The important point is what happened next. The kings on that outing were not interested in our live bait. They wanted jigs.

It is easy to become committed to a method because you have already spent time preparing for it. But catching the bait has not settled what the predators will take. Keep another suitable presentation ready, particularly when your fishing companions are getting a response that you are not.

My follow-up report was quite plain about the result: the experienced crew found a few kings, while I caught nothing myself. Jeremy jigged the king in the photograph below. That is a useful reminder that “we caught fish” does not mean every angler, bait or method worked equally well.

Know what would make you stay, move or change method

You do not need an arbitrary bait-stop timer. You do need a reason for the next drop.

• Stay when you are catching the bait you need, can keep it well, and have room to fish safely without interfering with other boats or divers.
• Reposition when the returns have shifted or your rig is no longer passing through their depth. Check the screen again instead of fishing yesterday's position by habit.
• Change bait grounds when the available species or size does not suit the plan. My big-yellowtail visit is a good example of why “plenty of bait” is not the same as “the right bait”.
• Change the fishing method when the bait is ready but the predators are responding to something else. The January outing justified keeping jigs available, not declaring live bait useless.
• Leave or shorten the trip when conditions deteriorate. The bait already in the tank is not a reason to press on.

These are different decisions. Moving a few boat lengths to follow a school is not the same as abandoning a bait ground. Switching from live bait to a jig is not the same as finding a new fishing spot. Work out which problem you are trying to solve before changing everything at once.

A good bait stop does not validate the offshore plan

In February 2020 I reported good live bait at Valiant, but very little showing on the sounder at Texas. I hooked one king there on a jig. The bait ground and the target ground were giving us different information. Treat them as separate checks.

Another trip, reported in October 2020, started with slimies swarming the sabikis at Valiant. We set off towards Texas, then encountered a steep chop as the wind increased. We turned back, as did other boats nearby. An attempt at flathead afterwards produced nothing, and we gave ourselves an early mark.

That was not a successful fishing finish, but turning around was still the right sort of decision. Filling a tank does not buy suitable weather. Check the current marine forecast and NSW weather-planning advice, keep watching conditions, and allow for the return journey rather than only the run out.

Leave room around a wreck

Valiant is also a dive site. Look for people in the water, dive flags and supporting boats before concentrating on the screen. Follow the current NSW safe-distance rules, including their specific provisions for divers. If there is not room to fish safely, choose somewhere else.

Do not anchor onto the wreck, attach gear to it, disturb it or remove anything from it. Read the map's current notes, verify the position against your own charts and sounder, and check current fishing rules before heading out. A nearby boat catching bait does not give you permission to crowd it.

The best outcome from a Valiant stop is not the fullest possible tank. It is the right bait for the fishing ahead, collected without using up the day or compromising anyone's safety. Sometimes that means a quick tank-fill. Sometimes it means moving on. And sometimes, even with excellent bait aboard, it means picking up a jig.

For the next part of the plan, see rigging live bait for downrigging and getting started with kingfish jigging. The trip examples above are historical reports from 2020, 2023 and 2024, not a current bite report.