Sydney Harbour - a mixed bag

Almost prehistoric. the dusky flathead has some nasty
 spines on its back and a mouth full of teeth suited to
crushing crustacea and fish

Beautiful morning with the wind pirouetting from flukey NE to NW to S to SW to a session-ending 40 knot southerly. Temperature  23C to 28C - perfect for some land-based fishing. High tide was 1.48m at 11.38am but it seemed well above the 1.30m mark when we started at 8.30am.

Plenty of small fish around and between The Fisherwoman and The Fisherman we caught a mixed bag of about 30, mostly undersize Snapper mixed in with some wrasse, a belter of a rock cod (that came in with that great gaping mouth wide open as usual), a lovely red, blue and green parrotfish around the 1kg mark, a medium-sized leatherjacket,  a yellowfin bream (surely one of the loveliest of estuarine fish with those sparkling silver flanks offset by the bright yellow fins) and the catch of the day - a 47cm flathead, which is headed for the barbecue.

Most of the fish were caught on either estuary prawns or uncooked peeled green prawn cubes and pieces, the latter proving the most effective.

Our target when fishing this spot is to try and drop the bait either on the edge of the sandy channels that run through the kelp beds (the wrasse and other reef fish scoot out and grab the bait and then hightail it back to the weed - if you don't stop them) or out on the more open sandy flats - in the past that has proved lucrative with some dinner plate sized flounder and several more flathead in the 40-50cm range.

There were several large black bream closer inshore, picking their way through the kelp beds and reef edges along the sea wall but they weren't interesting in biting on either bait or soft plastics - fussy buggers.

A highlight was the appearance of the local blue groper, a beautiful 7kg-8kg specimen who idly nosed amid the kelp beds but couldn't find any obvious delicacies and moved further down. A large moray eel cleaned up discarded prawn heads.

The fish bit best up until 11am but got quiet the further the wind swung to the south. All in all a nice morning fish.