NSW: 25/4 Gunnamatta Bay - Fear of Donut

[Darwin]

As usual, weekend is my fishing day. I was looking at BOM to choose the best day. Last Saturday was sunny & a little bit windy at 10 to 20 knots but had higher tide at 1.5m. Sunday was cloudy with 1.44m tide & 10 to 15 knots wind. I was going to fishing at rising tide on both days. I found that both side of coin are mermaid that had head and tail. End up I selected Sunday hopefully there were less UV torture and fish might be more aggressive in darker water.
I had been fishing at Port Hacking since this year. Basically, I had tried most of easily accessed bay. The one left over was Gunnamatta. There is a boat ramp at Tonkin Street. The water is a bit shallow compared to other boat ramp, so it is better for kayaker as less boat is going to use it. I also found toilet but no fish cleaning table. The one missing in toilet is water tap. At the end, I found one near the cricket ground which opposite 3 car parking spot. Therefore I can connect my hose to clean up my gears.
My plan was running anti-clockwise trip to cover right hand side of Gunnamatta bay from boat ramp. My first stop was the Marina near the boat ramp. It might be too new. There was not much bite happening. I only caught few little fish. I found that the pontoons & piers were made by plastic. It might be marine life resistance, so evolution requires longer time to build up there. It was time to move on to try traditional bream tactic by targeting private pontoons. I did not try boat belly as I got too much area needed to cover. The odd was against me, the only thing popped up was donut or under age pinkies. I noticed that most of the water depths of pontoon were less than 4m. I found that depth between 4 and 6m is more productive. Over 6m takes a bit longer time for jig to sink. It becomes harder to handle when windy. The bloody small tailor may take your bait before it reach to bream habitat. The cloud of donut turned into rain fall. One after another, donut after donut! There were no more pontoons to be turned. My esky had only one 25.5cm bream. It was not enough to feed my true monster fish eater dad. Here came the rescuer. The tip of my rod was bended. I set the hook once and feel what kind of fish on the other end. It had a strong and consistent pull power. Definitely, the strength of fish was better & lasting longer than bream. She was dived down all the time. More than likely, it should be a Silver Trevally, so I didn’t strike the fish again. I got to be very careful to handle her. I was using 1.5gm #4 finesse jig. It depended on where I hooked the fish but the small hook might anchor near the lips. The mouth of Trevally is very fragile. Too much tension could only break her mouth. If I let her free diving to bottom, there could be many sharp objects to cut off my line. This time, I kept about 5m away from piers. It allowed me to have more open space to move my Revo and move my rod to fight the fish from different angle. I let the drag as it was. It sounded beautifully. My drag became a violin. She played using her mouth as a bow. Whenever the string pulled away from my drag, it created another excitement of music. I put my foot on peddles to drive my Revo to deeper water, the wave breaking from the bow of my Revo. It intensified the movement of this Violin concerto. Here came the wind blowing in front on my face. That was a chilling feel of winning or losing this battle. Lesson has been learnt from previous trip. I need to be patient. I need to be the conductor of this masterpiece. It should be the conductor to dictate the performance of this music. It should be the fisherman to dictate this game! The desperate ran of this hopeless Trevally came to the end after 3 minutes. It was the beginning of my finale. It was time to put my last instrument into water. That was my landing net. Same as every music end, you need to scoop the fish few times in order to get her into the net. That’s the end of my Gunnamatta music and how I escape from Donut!

[kayakone]

Another Golden Classic trip report from Darwin!

Also, his dad be very lucky man .

Loved it.

Trevor

[Squidder]

One of your best reports Darwin, a really terrific read Well done on that nice trevally!

[kritz]

Love donuts at the opera.

I fished the other end of Gunnamatta bay and down to fishermans Bay Sunday morning and only managed one solid tailor that I thought was going to be a tailor. Wasn't a lot happening.

[Daveyak]

Great report, Darwin.

I wish I could "escape from donut".

[camel]

Another top report Darwin,

Those Trevally give a good account for them selfs. We'll have to catch up for a fish someday soon.

Ant

[ohagas]

Fantastic report Darwin. Hope paddywah doesn't miss it. You need to write next verse of Kazakhstan national anthem.

[patwah]

Fantastic report Darwin. Hope paddywah doesn't miss it. .

I have it printed and placed in my Darwin file.

Great read once again Maestro!

[Darwin]

Fantastic report Darwin. Hope paddywah doesn't miss it. .

I have it printed and placed in my Darwin file.

Great read once again Maestro!

Hi Pat

Thanks for your comment! It's my pleasure to share my fishing fun with everyone. I wish my next catch will bring me surprise, so I can have something more exciting to write!

Cheers
Darwin