[JKB1]

This is my virgin fishing report folks.
Be kind ;-)

I went down to South Durras for the weekend with a mate to chase snapper. I camp at Murramarang every summer and have fished around Wasp Island many times, but never got a keeper snapper out of the kayak there. Everyone says come in winter, so we did.
I watched the weather reports daily and it seemed like it would be OK, so we drove down Friday evening and launched at the South Durras ramp at 7:30 or so. It was low tide. Messy but not too bad. The launch was easy till we both got surprised by a big green wave about 100m out rounding the rocks. I made it but my mate didn't. His Ian Miller custom baitcaster is still down there somewhere........
Both upright again we paddled out and found the water much dirtier than I expected. Stupid really to think it would be anything else but dirty after all the rain and filthy weather. Duh!
We decided to troll up towards Depot Beach. Reading all the stuff about trolling hard body lures for snapper I put a Dr Evil on and started peddling at a gentle pace. I picked up a tiny leatherjacket about half way there.
My mate got his first couta on a shallow runner soon after.
As we got closer to Grasshopper Is the water cleared up considerably and looked really fishy. My Dr Evil got whacked by my first legal yak snapper. I was happy.

I gave my mate my spare Dr Evil and about 20 minutes later we got a double hookup as we trolled side by side.
I netted another nice snapper while unfortunately his buddy got away.

All this time it was raining and rather uncomfortable. We were both getting cold despite wearing steamer suits with booties and jackets and beanies. Especially my mate after his swim.
We slowly trolled back and picked up three or four massive couta. What horrible things!
Happy, but lamenting the loss of the rod, we warmed up and took the rest of the day off.

This morning was beautiful. calmer, clearer. Sunny!!!!
But no fish. We trolled all around Wasp Is for only one small snapper and a sergeant baker :-(
We drifted a while trying soft plastics for naught. We probably should have done the 5km to Depot again but were to lazy.

All up it was a great trip (discounting the launch disaster). I'd never taken a snapper on a lure or SP before and was absolutely wrapped with the effectiveness of the trolled Dr Evil!
Virtually no by catch. I think I like this snapper trolling thing!

 

[JKB1]

I love it when a plan comes together. After I got the first snapper I had a grin on my face that only a few hours in the wind, rain and freezing cold could wipe off ;-)
As much as I love Murramarang we might have to change camping spots to Depot Beach after this weekend. 5km each way is a lot of wasted fishing time in the Outfitter.

 

[robsea]

A rewarding trip and congrats on your first trip report. Shame about the lost rod. The weather was pretty crook down this way this last weekend and you guys did well to brave it.

cheers

rob

 

[nanook]

Nice red there mate!, hmmm Durras "Hey GLewis do you still fish??!"think its time for a visit!
Cheers

 

[JKB1]

The weather was pretty crook down this way this last weekend and you guys did well to brave it.

South of Wasp Is it was like a big washing machine, even yesterday when it was a lot quieter it was still nasty.

A thermos of hot coffee before we started paddling back from Depot would have gone down well.

 

[JKB1]

Nice red there mate!, hmmm Durras "Hey GLewis do you still fish??!"think its time for a visit!
Cheers

I was fully expecting to pick up a couple of nice fish there yesterday - But the amount of weed and junk floating around South Durras and the back of Wasp Island was pretty bad and I remember that when rock or beach fishing, floating weed normally coincided with poor fishing. I don't know if that's common experience, but I would wait a while for it to settle down.

I took a drive to North Head for a look on Saturday afternoon and somebody had collected a bunch of big adult cuttlefish shells and left them near the stairs - so it looks like the cuttlies are on the go.

 

[JKB1]

And thanks to all for reading and the comments!

 

[cam22]

Hey

Me and a mate fished depot from 8am yesterday morning to about lunch got a small under size snapper and a few stinky pike.
The ramp at Depot was like a Sydney parking lot .
I expected to see a few more reports on here today but guess most were not fellow akff members.

Cheers

Cam

 

[JKB1]

Cam, the sunny weather must have sent the snapper hiding. There were two other kayaks out at South Durras yesterday morning and I don't think they did any good either. But it was sunny and dry!

 

[koich]

The snapper reports from down that way aren't as promising as usual. You probably did pretty well to be honest John.

 

[JKB1]

Well we got the snapper in pretty much one spot. 50m this way or that and we could have completely missed them. A sounder/plotter is definitely one of the next yak purchases.