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This one from our Expert Peter Stofka

 

Part 1

 Before you read any further, consider Broken Bay in Sydney. For all those interstate it is like your main city boat ramp to the close and deep sea fishing grounds from the capital city.

These are crowded, hard fished and difficult fishing spots that really need clever anglers to catch fish.Before we go any further see if you can relate to the following scenario.

 

SATURDAY MORNING 6AM

 At the local ramp its still dark but the line-up is starting. There is quiet chatter as everyone prepares their boats to launch. There are always new boats now, Haines, Seafarers, Quinines and the like…….big rigs with all the quality electronics, bristling with quality Shimano and Penn rods and reels costing as much as some of the old guys boats The common denominator is the anticipation of success amongst all the boats!

Anyway boats in the water and we are away……….all good so far. This anticipation lasts only to Barrenjoey Heads and the open sea.

 

SATURDAY MORNING 6.47 Open Sea

   First of all what hits everyone. Rarely is the sea fully calm, more often there is a bump or chop to make things uncomfortable. Even these big new boats will ride rough and the skipper has to learn the first lesson of the day…………..SLOW DOWN!!!!!!!!! There is not small boat that will ride any sea perfectly. It’s better to plod away and take an extra half an hour. Luckily most fish in deeper water will still be there. Some days the decision will be made to turn around and fish the river. The problem with this is that to successfully fish the river you need totally different bait and gear so this decision will probably mean catching nothing. Anyway supposing it’s calm and we continue….

 

SATURDAY MORNING 7.30

So boats are heading everywhere but where? It seems they get a few kilometres offshore and then they can’t find the spot that such and such recommended or you found the marks on the net. While the depth sounder is quality you still can’t tell gravel fro sand or hard reef. The GPS tells you to anchor here but getting accuracy is very hard .Also they might have a different datum in their GPS to you so there could be an error of 200metres. After anchoring in no mans land and catching nothing for an hour your self doubt is growing. Its not like fishing the river where you have shore marks close to follow……..this is very difficult. So now what?

 

SATURDAY MORNING 9.20AM

After trying not to scratch the new gel coat pulling up anchor we now start doing what the sheep do in the paddock. If there is a fish trap nearby we will anchor next to it……..after all the pros know what they are doing!......The problem is that the trap is probably 80metres in and unknown direction away from the buoy you just anchored next to. At least with this strategy you have a bit of a chance to catch one or two. However if there are no traps then we look for other boats that look like they know what they are doing. Because of your inexperience you will both drag your rock anchor through the gravel and end up in their burley trail or you will just drift away. To the person you have just anchored next to you have now attracted your other inexperienced mates who also don’t know. They will now see two close boats and be doubly tempted to anchor close too! Much to the original guys disgust very soon there will be “rent a crowd” Amongst all these boats there will be a few who will try drifting. However by now the nor’easter is kicking in and the drift is too fast. Because we don’t have a sea anchor to slow us this won’t work either.

 

SATURDAY NOON

So back at the ramp cleaning table and shock horror! All that investment and time and you have caught a few rock cod sergeant bakers and other sh..t. But to make matters worse there is a guy who fished the morning in a little old tinny cleaning his catch of beautiful snapper and bream. SO is there a bit of you in this? I have fished the ocean for twenty years and even I sometimes am guilty of being lazy or unprepared…….so read on.

 

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