Seaway Report Friday 3rd December 2010

Conditions

• Wind: E  5-10  knots
• Preceeding 3 Days Wind : ENE - NNE --15 knots
• Barometer - 1014.5 rising to 1017.1
• Swell: 1m E Swell
• Water Clarity 1-1.5m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 11.21pm, High tide at 06.13am  ( 0.01-1.54) Actual top of tide 7.30am
• Time Fished: 04.00am to 08.15am
• Moon Phase: 4 Days before new moon.
• Water Temp 22.9-23.8 Degrees C

Notes

Overcast, Lumpy E Swell. Some schools of baitfish around the north wall after the tide change.  Some suspended weed around the north wall initially but it cleared.  Lots of fish on the sounder around the north wall at the top of the tide.  Only a few small bait schools around wavebreak.  Dirty water in close to the north wall, cleaner water about 20 metres out.  Well defined dirty water line.

Report

On the water by 4am we headed up to the north wall for dawn.  Started off with shallow running minnows & poppers but soon found that the level of weed made them impossible to fish, the water was also quite dirty.  Tried slugs as well but no good.  We moved around a bit checked out wavebreak, the pipeline and a couple of other spots for zip.  Moved back up to the north wall to check on the water quality and it had improved slightly so we started throwing around 30 gram twisties.  Soon picked up a few smallish tailor around 30-35cm.  On a hunch I switched to a megabass vision 110 in a qantas colour and started working the washes.  Wasn't long before it got hit by a decent tailor which got airborne a few times and put up a decent tussle.  That fish went 55cm, another tailor around 52cm followed shortly after.  Dad managed  to drop a nice one next to the boat before landing a decent tailor  of 56cm after a spirited fight.  We landed a few more smaller tailor after that and dropped a few as well.  It went quite for a while so we messed around for a bit while we waited for the tide to slow.  As it did we sent down the big plastics hoping for a jewie, I got hit on the first drop but dropped the fish.  Dad hooked up on the next drift and soon had a feisty 73cm Jewie in the boat, which was his biggest so far on a lure.   I hooked up and had the runt of the litter, a small fish of 62cm.  We moved around a bit and dropped down again and dad hooked up again and soon landed another jewie at 75cm, which is a quality fish.   Went a bit quiet after that so we moved around again while we waitied for the tide to start running out.  Once it did I managed another tailor on a plastic this time, and dad hooked yet another jewie this one going  74cm.  The waves at this time started to crest (runout tide + E swell = bad news) and we got hit by a decent wave over the stern so we decided to call it a day.

So a pretty good day overall, some very nice fish landed but no sign of any surface feeding.  I put that down to the northerlies we had the previous days before which not only dirties the water but seems to slow the fish down a bit.  We still worked pretty hard for the fish we did get but there are loads of fish around.  Another strong SE wind pattern should see the fish up on the surface again and feeding aggressively.