queensland Manly

[josmo99]

I bought myself an Intex Seahawk 2 inflatable to use as a floating fishing platform. I wanted something that would fit nicely into a hatchback without having to buy roof racks for a kayak.

Tried it out at Manly. It didn't take too much effort to inflate and a bit of exercise never hurts :cheer:

I started off catching some gars, a few of those snubs were pushing 30cm and took braid off the drag while going aerial. Good fun and even better in tempura. Drifted/paddled around and caught a couple of keeper bream in amongst the kindy fish, then the hardyhead got smacked. The fish spun me around a couple of times and when I saw it, I thought straightaway: big flathead thrashing in inflatable is not a good idea. Had to play it completely out before attempting to use a small modified butterfly net (yes in deciding to save space I left the landing net at home!). Turned out it wasn't played out at all, went berserk when in the boat and got stuck in the net. Ended up spiking me through the mesh (better me than the boat I guess). It was too big to fit straight into the little esky so had to do a Houdini on it. It only measured 55cm but was sure a handful ... or two!

After that excitement, I stuck to catching hardyhead for next trip's bait before packing up.

Overall, not the worst maiden voyage ever.

[pancakes_and_haggis]

Looks like a decent trip, what did you get them on?? The gar?

Callum

[Do$tylz]

nice man. Manly harbour does fish well and is generally quite protected from the wind.

Try the inflatable down at lota creek on low tide. Pump some yabbies, drift out to the middle and lob it out

[josmo99]

I headed to Lota Creek first but it's still discoloured. Our first trip to Lota Creek in the tandem kayak was excellent: flounder, bream, tailor, whiting, gar, shovelnose, err fat catfish (but great fighters). The next trip was right after the heavy rains in late Jan. Water was like chocolate, caught nothing except catfish.

I fished in the bay north of the marina. At high tide it's easy to launch from anywhere along the wall and the evil oyster encrusted rocks are well submerged.

PS. We kept one catfish from the first trip as it looked clean. Tasted just like basa, white bland flavourless flesh. I suppose if I was starving ....

[josmo99]

Looks like a decent trip, what did you get them on?? The gar?

Callum

It was better than a big round donut

I usually fish for gar using either bits of prawn or bread/dough. Depends on their mood, they seem quite fickle during the warmer months. The snubs come and go. Sea and river gar are like moths to a flame in the berley trail but they're easier to find in winter. I was hoping to tangle with some big 3-by-2s, now they ARE fun.

[pancakes_and_haggis]

ive often seen them in the canals here at raby bay, and your post inspired me to get off my ass, so im just back from an hours bread fishing, heaps of rat bream but the gar didn't want any of it, there extremely finicky even on a seriously seriously small hook, and i mean i couldn't get 6lm fluro through the eye of the dam thing, you put ur bait about a foot under a float??

[josmo99]

Do the bigger gars ever make themselves known? I usually only see the one inch (ok, maybe not that small) pencil ones. The bigger ones stay out of sight.

A foot or less. The longer the leader, the more little bream and trumpeter things (?) you'll catch. You'll get the odd big bream too, but on a gar rig, they get away more often than not especially around the stones. I don't bother using fluro, 6lb thin mono is adequate. I've used green, clear and blue mono, doesn't seem to make any difference.

I've had days where I hook gar after gar without missing a beat then times where I know they're around but they are so tentative in biting.

Next time you wanna go gar fishing, let me know.

[pancakes_and_haggis]

Yeh mate I'm heading out tonight I thInk for a few hours see if I can snare a few round Wellington point?

[powerfish]

Thanks for the report. I have fished quite often around that area and never targeted gar. Might give it a crack next time I am down that way. Aren't you a bit nervous fishing in an inflatable with all those sharp hooks around? I would be.

Cheers

Chris

[josmo99]

Thanks for the report. I have fished quite often around that area and never targeted gar. Might give it a crack next time I am down that way. Aren't you a bit nervous fishing in an inflatable with all those sharp hooks around? I would be.

Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris

I usually try for a few gar then move on to other things.

As you fish Manly quite often, do you ever hook trevally of any sort? That's one fish I haven't had any luck finding. I've been told they are very common in Moreton Bay but the last one I got was 2 years ago on a live yabbie fishing for whiting so it was a fluke.

I'm more worried about scraping submerged rocks or having the rubber spiked while landing fish. The first inflatable I used was a pool toy and it didn't take long for a flopping bream to perforate the floor. This boat has two main chambers so I'd be fairly unlucky to puncture both at the same time. I also try to stick close enough to shore.

[powerfish]

Hi

No trevally (I have caught two in my life, 1 at the pin and the other in a small creek off pumicestone passage so I mightn't be the best person to ask). Around the Manly Harbour and lota Creek I have caught the usual bread and butter species bream, whiting, flathead, flounder, tailor, shovelnose, snapper to 39cm - it used to live under a yacht named Spindrift - pike, estuary cod and even school mackerel one day from the William Gunn Jetty.

I have seen trevally hitting bait further south in the canals around Cleveland but never hooked one.

Cheers

Chris

[josmo99]

No worries, thanks!

Being such a beautiful day, we took the kayak out to Manly this morning. Saw heaps of big gar (and I mean they were stonkers) but they weren't taking any bait. The small ones on the other hand were in a feeding frenzy.

The highlight was a 33cm tarwhine. I've never seen one this big before, catch heaps of 20cm ones in the harbour. The surprise was a 32cm grass sweetlip caught drifting in front of the rock wall over seagrass and mud. Must have been a stray. Caught and release a small shovelnose and lost what felt like a decent flattie.

It was a nice day to be out on the water. Even better, there wasn't a jetski in sight.

We used to fish William Gunn a fair bit before the marina extension went in. I still go there during the cooler months to catch squid - or try to.

Update:

Here's the fish we got yesterday.

Compared to what the others were catching offshore yesterday, these are only minnows. The sweetlip was good though, the last couple we caught were horribly weedy in taste.