With the tide obviously starting to flow I shot over to an area
that usually works well before the tide picks up to full strength and was
probably 15minutes late getting there as we were straight into fish and were
pulling them in 2 or 3 at a time until the tidal flow picked up too much. We
stayed there until the flow meant we were only picking up small fish from that spot and then
shot across to an area just on the edge of the main current for a drift which
produced 3 or 4 more fish in that 35cm – 40cm range but too many small fish as
well so off to a spot that we fished in the middle of the heavy tidal flows
last time we were out before Christmas.
Learning to fish the harbour has been a bit of a hobby for the past 3 years as my work makes it really easy to shoot out for a quick fish when getting away for a longer day isn’t always possible. One of the features of harbour fishing is the heavy tidal flows and for many people that means catching little or mainly small fish unless they move out of the main currents, but often these low current spots aren’t the best areas. I have gradually tweaked our rigs and techniques to make the heavy tides more fishable and that has been very productive.
Last time we were out I told my very keen fisho 14yr old son that I had an idea for a
new heavy current rig we should try out. He reminded me of that this morning so
whilst we were anchored up and struggling a little in a normally productive spot
I told him where the various components were in the tackle box and he assembled
the ‘beta’ version of the rig. I dropped it over the side and it almost
instantly bent over with a 40cm fish. Told the family what a fishing genius I
was (as you do) and dropped it back in to see fish number 2 jump on a few
seconds later. We had 4 rods with identical baits in the water and the new rig
was 5 to 0 up on the other rods in 10 minutes. We even dropped it over on the other
side of the boat etc but it was the only one catching and all fish that were
slightly better than the average so far.
A passing boat throwing a big wake knocked us around and the
anchor dragged which meant the new rig didn’t work (need to be anchored in a
strong flow) so we picked up the anchor and re-anchored over my spot again after
a failed attempt where my daughter playing skipper and son playing anchorman managed
to miss the mark by a mere 250m. A bit more boat handling training and we were finally
anchored back over the spot only to find that the tidal flow had started to
ease and the new secret rig wasn’t catching as much as the normal rigs. Can’t
say absolutely conclusively that it works yet but will certainly rig a couple
of these to try in the heavy flows next time we head out. Might be another cool
addition to our harbour fishing learnings.
We had headed out this morning on a mission to fill the bin
so the family could do a round of some friends and elderly people my wife knows
with some fresh fish gifts. Amazing and
scary how many people can’t afford fish and have no way to catch their own.
Anyway we were back by 11:00 this morning with our 28 snapper. We could have
probably had 40 (if limits allowed) but very quickly after realising we were in
for a good day started releasing anything that was close to needing measuring. All
caught on circle hooks so not a single gut hooked fish all day. Like many of
these harbour trips we spent more on bait than fuel even on a 31ft 300hp boat.
Photo was taken when I remembered but after I started cleaning fish so wet hands and possibly some fish guts on the lens explain the photo quality but still a good looking bin when we probably never got more than a km or so from the marina. Average fish was around 37 - 38cm so size a little less than the last trip. Biggest around 43cm and kept a couple of early ones in the 30 - 32cm range. Bulk of the fish around 35 - 40cm but all the 'beta rig' fish 40cm+which was a little intriguing and possibly makes some sense as well.
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