How to fish Sydney Harbour in Early Spring, By Craig McGill

Early spring is a fraud from a fishes perspective.  Here on land the flowers are out , the days are getting rapidly longer and we are back in t-shirts. But in the water is still a chilly winter  16 degrees.  Fishermen’s  expectations  are artificially raised  as there’s always  a couple of months lag between  land and ocean temperatures.  So it’s not time to dust off the kingie gear quite yet but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some great winter fishing still happening.

Trevally are around in good numbers and are easy to catch  providing  you have a bit of burley and  don’t use too much weight on your line.  Trevs will feed anywhere from mid water  to the bottom but can be enticed up higher with a steady burley trail.  Good baits include peeled prawn and small pieces of salted mackerel.  Use a no.4 hook  and only enough lead so that your bait floats down naturally  , at roughly the same speed as your burley.  Trevs generally like deep water and good places to try are near quarantine ,  Clarke and shark island and north harbor.  They will range further upstream if there hasn’t been a lot of rain and water quality is good . I’ve caught them as far up as  Roseville bridge.  Trevs are very underrated as an eating fish .  Cooked they are very nice  -- easily as good as kingies  -- and raw they are sensational.  Fillet  ,  skin and bone  them and cut them into small cubes , say roughly 1cm square . chill them and then mix through some freshly grated ginger and finely chopped shallots and drizzle on some sesame oil.  Serve raw with a ( Japanese ) soy  and wasabi sauce.

The salmon have started to show at the heads and have turned up in big numbers. As usual at this time of year they are feeding on very small baitfish but they can be taken  on small flies , metal slugs and quite a bit of persistence.   Approach the school down sun   , i.e. keep the school between your boat and the sun  , so to avoid casting a shadow on them which will spook them.  Never go through the school.  They are a great fighting fish so your tackle needs to be in good order , particularly drags , but they can be adequately handled on  4-6 kg spinning gear.  We use  Penn  ‘applause’ 4000 reels on ‘pinpoint tournament’ rods  which are a very capable outfit  and anything of similar price point should do the job. Salmon are terrible eating  and are best released.  At  pinch they make OK  Tai fishcakes and curries – lots of curry.!!!

Keep an eye out for the new boat . Well actually it’s the old boat with a major facelift but it does look pretty schmick .  She’s now white  , so you won’t need to ask me if I’ve  “caught any squid today”  , and new logos , a bit of welding , new carpet  and a good old scrub-up.   Just keep it to your selves for a while though as I’m hoping to get through next season without too much ‘follow the PURPLE boat syndrome.

See you on the water.

Craig