Well the last 2 weeks have continued to provide some great inner harbour fishing. I am hearing from others about fantastic early morning fishing in the upper harbour now with kingfish, snapper and gurnard being caught! We have been focusing on the lower harbor around the container wharves down to Northhead with continued success. Below are pics of grandfather and grandson competition we had on the boat last week (grandfather was winning by was pipped at the post in the last half hour).
As I have said before we used to drag softbaits through this area for years and this technique seems to work really well targeting the snapper with their heads down feeding on the crabs, shellfish and other crustaceans. I have been doing the same with the Sliders through this area and find that this technique targets the bigger specimens as well. Once the Slider hits the bottom (I use an 80-100gr for this style), we simply drag in along the bottom and the snapper chase and the bite the lure as it bumps it’s way along the areas they are feeding in. It also means that you have the lure in the zone longer (right in front of their faces) rather than when you wind up from the bottom moving it away from them.
Paul Senior was kind enough to let me trial some of the new bruised banana Sliders last week and they worked extremely well using this drag technique (in fact the one in the rod holder seemed to catch the bigger fish). We fished them on 4kg setups and wow I am so impressed with the fight these scrappy fat fish put up in the current in 14-20mtrs of water. While these fish have been spawning we are still finding them in great condition with large fat deposits in their guts.
While we will be venturing out wide again now that the bigger snapper are biting out there it is great to know that we have a backup plan on the way home on the light gear!
See ya out there.
Cheers Capt. Snap (Nik)
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