Into the seaway at 3am spent more time looking for Tarpon and dad managed to hook one at around 60cm but unfortunately lost him at the boat.  That was it for the morning as far as tarpon goes, I don't know where they are holding this year but its not where I have been fishing for them.  Perhaps the high water temps have kept them back in the canals and up the rivers, I know there have been a few reports of tarpon up there.

Anyway dawn arrived and we tried the usual around the walls, had a few hits and hookups but nothing stayed connected.  With dawn arrived the crowds so we headed north away from the pack and chased tuna for a while.  Landed plenty in the 30-40cm size on 20g twisties and gilles 15g but nothing too exciting.  Had a quick look at the northern artis plenty of fish around them but didn't get a hit on slugs or plastics.  Called it a day around 9am.

Not much of a report that one but at least we got a few fish.

Managed to get out for a quick fish on wednesday between 9am and 12pm, spent most of the time searching for salmon to no avail though I did see one other boat get a small one.  Dad picked up a flathead while we were working the shallows with flickbaits, I hooked something good but the hooks pulled 30 seconds into the fight.  Found plenty of small mack tuna in the seaway near the pipeline, a bit fussy at first but as we got closer to the top of the tide they started hitting everything.  Dad also got a 63cm GT casting into a school of feeding tuna which was a nice surprise, especially at about 11.30am.  Plenty of bait around in all the usual places but not much action overall.  Swell is still huge and slamming the walls hard, too rough to fish them effectively.  Water clarity is excellent from an hour after the start of the run in.  Water temps 18-20 degrees.

Into the seaway at around 3am straight away it was obvious that I was going to be restricted to the west of the pipeline and broadwater.  Wind was around 10-15kts of southerly,  a strong tidal flow plus a  2.5-3m swell was making the entrance a dangerous place to be so we tried wavebreak, the back ends of the walls and a few spots in the broadwater, had a few hits but got nothing until dawn.  When dawn arrived and the tide began to run in the walls calmed down a little bit and we worked the edges with minnows and twisties catching 3 tailor between 40 & 45cm, one of which was badly injured which is surprising for this time of year.  Usually you dont see the injured ones until october.

We moved back into the seaway as some birds were gathering and the occasional fish was hitting the surface, plenty of bait holding near the cardinal mark but we got nothing there.  Had a look around and found some tailor feeding on surface occasionally in the western channel in front of runaway bay and we picked up another 7 tailor on squidgie flickbaits there best going about 45cm.  Spotted some birds working in close to south straddie and headed over there, saw some salmon feeding sporadically.  Had some casts at them but didn't get a strike.  One other boat there did hook one though.

That was pretty much it for us, called it a morning at around 9.30.   An ok morning for us but could have been better, would have liked to get a salmon.  Still, I do enjoy fishing when it is rough like that, much more of a challenge than flat calm conditions.  Water temps are still quite high at around 18-19 degrees, lots of bait around.

Managed to get out for a fish on saturday at around 1pm til 8pm, pretty quiet though.   Managed a couple of tailor on minnows around the north wall but that was all we landed.  We did find some nice yellowtail kingfish (70cm-90cm)feeding on the southern side of wavebreak for about 5 minutes but they wouldn't hit any lures we tried.  Apparently they were feeding on the wavebreak flats on sunday morning but I didnt hear of any captures.  Nothing over the pipe or in any of the usual areas we looked at.  Plenty of bait holding on the wavebreak flats and on the south eastern point of wavebreak but I didn't see anything into them.  Lots of boats around and nice conditions but for some reason the fish weren't that interested.  Saw Kane out there but not sure if he got anything.

Lots of bad weather around at the moment and that has had me thinking a bit about fishing in the worst weather.  I've had a few trips over the last couple of years where the weather has been absolutely shocking, yet the fishing has been red hot.  Talking it over with a few other guys they have also had some awesome fishing sessions in strong winds and driving rain. The caveat seems to be that you need to find the fish first and if they are holding in an exposed area fishing will be difficult, if not downright dangerous.  So with that in mind I'm going to do a test for the rest of the year and try to fish some bad weather at least a couple of times a month, I don't expect the fishing to be easy at first and might donut a couple of times but with a bit of luck I'll be able to work out a pattern and know where to look.

Well after the good reports from the weekend I was keen to get out on the water and see if i could find some fish.  Unfortunately most of the bait, the birds and the fish were gone, such is the here today gone tomorrow nature of fishing.  Fished Monday afternoon from 2-7pm, the only place that had any fish was the pipeline which held a few GT's between  3.30 and 4pm, we landed 3 biggest going about 60cm.  Looked all over, no surface feeding anywhere. After dark didn't yield anything either.

Tuesday I went out with Wade in his boat, started off at 4am and pulled a nice tarpon around 60cm but that was it until dawn.  Around dawn we saw a couple of shortlived  bustups in the seaway but they didn't return and we couldnt find them on the sounder, nothing around the pipeline.  Had a look in the broadwater but there was nothing.  At the top of the tide we tried for jewie's with 7 inch jerskhads and got a couple of fish best going about 65cm.  We headed offshore and went down as far as palmie but all we found were small mack tuna.  Back to the broadwater we messed around for a bit before finding some small tailor sitting on the bottom of the channel.  We trolled up about 10 of those biggest going about 4ocm.  Around 3pm we had a look at the pipeline found one small school of gt's and got one fish around 55cm off it, but that was all.  We scouted the usual locations but once again nothing, very little bait, no birds, no bustups, no fish.  Trolled up a few more tailor but still small fish. Called it a day around 6.30pm.  We worked pretty hard but at least we managed a few fish.

I won't be targeting GT's again this year as I have other fish I want to catch that need more time dedicated to them.  I'll also be taking a break from fishing for a couple of weeks to get some other work done but I'll still be on the site everyday to keep an eye on things.