Sydney Harbour, 13/11/11 - Snook attack

A 67 cm Snook

November 13
8am-11.45am
High tide 1.71m at 10.19am
Wind:  light SE that turned NE about 11am.  Perfect conditions.

The day began promisingly when the water erupted about 100m offshore; as The Fisherwoman said, it really was boiling as what was probably a school of salmon tore up a large school of bait fish.

Big fish

That inspired us to hit the lures in the hope a few of the fish might stray closer to shore. I selected a hardbody whitebait imitation - not too big ... about 4cm or 5cm.

 On the 7th or 8th cast I got hit about 20m from shore. It headed straight in before realising land was fast approaching.

Too late!

What nice jaws you have

Within a minute I had the biggest Snook I've ever seen flapping round at my feet. It promptly severed the braid and then chucked the lure a good two metres away.
The fish later measured 67cm. By far my personal best.

After the action died down we switched back to bait. There were plenty of Cockney Snapper, Leatherjacket and the odd Rock Cod and Wrasse around so just after the turn of the tide The Fisherwoman switched from green prawn to squid strips.

What is this fish? Oval cod?

Nice flathead

Second cast she pulled in a beautiful fish we are yet to identify - a cod or groper, dark brown with bluesy black spots ... see the photos. Perhaps an Oval Cod?

The very next cast she pulled in a 42cm flathead. Nice.

After that it was all downhill as the little fish took over. All in all an incredible day of fishing. I'll rewind a little here to November 6 - again land-based but this time in Shellcove Bay that separates Kurraba Pt and Cremorne. The water gets deep quite fast and there's a good mix of rocks and sand flat.

The mystery fish

There's some nice rock fishing into the cove and we managed a host of little Cockneys and I landed two Flounder at 28cm and 27cm - dinner with salad!

Prior to that on October 31, we fished the same venue as today and caught a mixed bag of wrasse, parrotfish and Cocknies but the highlight was a Kingfish that screamed in after a large green prawn head I was bringing in on fast retrieve. It took a dive at the last minute, missed, turned side on, literally splashed its tail in frustration and then swum off.

If it had hit the prawn and hooked up, the 2kg-4kg gear I was fishing with was liable to have been minus a lot of line - for good - in a very short space of time. Still in would have been cool to get the bite.

COOKING TIP: Uncertain of how to cook a large Snook, I hit the chat rooms. The tip was smoke it. So we did. Being dedicated trout fisherpeople we have our own portable smoker. So rub some brown sugar and salt into the belly, smoke for about 25-30cms at this size, less if smaller, serve with a nice salad - beautiful.

The flesh is very reminiscent of that of South African smoked cod - and the colour is similar.

COMING SOON: We get back to what we love most - Fly and lure fishing for trout ....

Sydney Harbour 02/10 + 08/10

The Fisherwoman with the Crested Horn Shark

October 2, 2011
Rising tide 9am-midday
1.56m high tide at 1.15pm
Strong southerly 15-25 knots

Awkward gusty conditions made fishing - even land-based fishing -  difficult but we still managed some fish.

The outstanding catch was a Crested Horn Shark by the Fisherwoman.

This is the first we've seen for at least eight years up the northern end of the harbour.

Crested Horn shark

They used to be quite common but disappeared as the water quality diminished and the harbour was commercially fished out but like many species they are making a comeback now commercial fishing has been banned and the water quality has improved aft the dioxing problems.

Note the shark's colour in the photos. Perfectly camouflaged for the weedy rocky bottom.

We also caught a couple of large parrotfish around the 0.75-1kg mark and a large rock cod - ugly as all he'll with large gaping mouth but said to be good eating.


October 8, 2011
Rising tide 4pm-7pm
1.47 high tide around 6.52pm
Light flimsy winds

Plenty of fish, most of them very small to small. Baby snapper galore, most with appetites bigger than their bodies. A couple weren't even hooked - just grimly hanging onto  prawn flesh.

Eastern rock cod

At one stage 4 eels were feeding on discarded prawn heads.
Caught a couple of the large parrotfish, a medium-sized rock cod, the Fisherwoman added a leatherjacket, we also brought in some wrasse of various species.

About 6pm, I hooked into something very big that immediately tied me up in the weed bed. Twice I got it out; twice it tied me up again. Eventually after a 10 minute battle it bit me off. Had strong head shakes to it whenever it left the safety of the weeds but didn't behave like a large black bream and just scoot off.

The Fisherwoman then hooked what she described as the biggest fish she's had on a handline in years (she prefers a handline - even onshore when she can get away with it). It was getting dark when she got it nearly close enough to see - at which point it bit her off. She spent the next three hours cursing about the one that got away.

Bait on both days: green prawns - peeled and sliced into 2 or 3 pieces, Hawkesbury prawns used whole, squid strips, yellowtail cubes.

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.

What it's all about

The Swampy River at Geehi in NSW 

The choice of the picture is deliberate.

For me, fishing is about space, nature and the sheer simple pleasure of being out there one on one with the piscatorials.

Freshwater fly and lure fishing for trout is a passion; it is elemental; simple yet mightily complex. It is a never-ending learning curve.

Saltwater and estuary fishing has it's magic too: the wily bream, brave trevally, cunning flathead, strong snapper, delicate flounder and gentle whiting, to name but a few we chase.

We? The fisherman is blessed with a fisherwoman equally as capable with the saltwater rod and reel, even better with the freshwater rod and fly.

Doing this grand sport and endless adventure together makes it all count. This blog is about The Fisherman, The Fisherwoman, The Fish and The Fishing.