# NSW My report from SWR



## Marty75 (Oct 23, 2007)

Well, just got back to Sydney from SWR and here's my report.

Arrived Thursday Feb 25th where my partner and son were already staying with her parents (nice place to retire that's for sure!). Rest of Thursday and Friday had family duties and promised the in-laws and extended family fresh fish from the coming week ;-) Went down to the camp ground on Saturday to say g'day to the gang. Found Grant who told me about Stu's run-in with the boat that morning - man what a scary story. Decided on an early launch the following day.

Saturday - alarm rings at 04:00 and spend the next half an hour getting the yak and gear ready and onto the car. 10 minutes later drive into the campground near the ramp. Get my gear ready and then launch into the darkness to try and find some livies. Unlike the others who went around the break wall earlier (unknown to me at the time), I made a beeline for a livey spot across the other side of the bay where the charter operators stock up before heading out. Took my a while to find them but in the end got half a dozen big slimies and a couple of yakkas. Trolled livies all morning for zip and only picked up a few bonito on the troll which we had for dinner that night (bonito sashimi - yum!) Later that morning on the way to deeper water I bumped into George and Micka as well as a couple of the their mates and pointed them in the direction of where I got my livies. Couldn't catch anything on the livies that morning (even rotating them around the keep them alive) so I gave George and Micka a couple as I made my way in). Word around the traps was that nothing much had been caught that day.

Sunday - got on the water about 05:30 and as I was launching Stu came down for a chat. I hadn't met him before but he told me his story of the collision with the boat. Later that day I saw 1st hand the damage it did to his yak. Anyway I headed out on my own but couldn't raise any livies for the life of me. Even later that morning when myself, George, Micka, John, Nelson and a couple of others had massive bait balls surrounded just outside the breakwall we all had trouble catching any livies. Could see thousands of them only a few metres below but they wouldn't take any bait jigs. Fish were smashing the surface also so out came the 10gm slug and I managed to pull a few bonito out from the horde, nothing else. Gave a couple away to the others to use as livies and I rigged one up myself before we headed out to deeper water. After about half an hour my trolled bonito rod was no longer pulsating so I wound it in to find the line bitten clean off. At that point my other line which was trolling a bluewater lure decided to take off. The lure was about 30m away at the time and after shouting out to the others that I was on the fish started to give me a tow. I fought him for a few minutes before guessing that it was a shark and decided to switch off my shark shield to hopefully get a closer look. Sure enough a couple of minutes later a bronze shark somewhere between 1.5 and 2 metres long appeared near my kayak before taking off again. I had ID'd him as a hammerhead and George also got a look at him. At that point I had been out for a good 5-6 hours with not much to show for it and the other guys didn't seem to be catching much either so I decided to head back in and see if I could tow the shark back the 2 kms or so I was out from the ramp. I hadn't landed a shark off the yak before but did catch a small whaler beach fishing once which tasted great so decided that if I could land him we'd be eating fresh flake for dinner that night. So I started the slow trek back to the ramp with the shark trying to pull me in the other direction. Thankfully John (one of Micka's mates) decided to come back with me to offer assistance. It took about half an hour to get back around the breakwall. The shark was still trying to head back out to sea and taking strong drag. I called the missus while heading back telling her that I've hooked a shark and that I was bringing it back with me. I was fishing 25lb braid with 60lb leader so I was just hoping that the teeth or skin wasn't going to wear through the line.

As I got closer to the ramp I could see a young girl on a surf ski and some kids playing in the water so I decided to jump out of the yak in waist deep water to try and get some more leverage on the fish. John grabbed my yak as I got the shark closer. By this time a small crowd had gathered watching the small dorsal fins getting closer until John gaffed it for me and dragged it up on the beach. Est length 6ft (I'm 6'1) and 30kg. Tasted great that night and the next- crumbed and fried flake fillets. Gave some to extended family and neighbours and even brought some of it back home with me.




























Monday - Didn't get to fish but was at the campground in the afternoon to see Louis come back to shore after fighting the marlin. Awesome effort!

Tuesday - fitted a downrigger to my Revo and spent a couple of hours testing it out in the bay. Nothing caught but the downrigger works a treat - bring on the Sydney kingies! :twisted:

Wednesday/Thursday - No fishing (crap weather and sea conditions). Forecast looking bleak so decide to clean up the yak and gear for the trip home.

Friday (Not kayak fishing related) - Last full day before heading home Saturday. There was a break in the weather and the bar was behaving itself so headed out on the stinkboat with the missus's uncle. Bait fished out in front of the jail for stacks of under sized flathead  Saw Louis the marlin legend out fishing on his own in the swell. Decided to troll for bonito back to the river bar. Got one on a Rapala slash bait just off the break wall and decided to head closer into Trial Bay itself when the Rapala CD11 got hit and straight away I knew this was a better fish. Heavier weight with fast runs and staying on the surface. What could it be.... A couple of minutes later the culprit had identified himself  Literally hooked a hundred metres off the beach in Trial Bay and maybe 3 hundred metres from the boat ramp in less than 15 metres of water! Fresh delicious boneless and skinned fillets that night - Yum! Just a shame I couldn't have caught him off the yak a few days before. And In a spot I wasn't even fishing... was fishing along with most of the others in 40+ metres of water offshore. Couldn't believe it.



















All in all I had a great time up at SWR. Unfortunately the fishing conditions weren't the best but me and the family still ended up with fresh fish for dinner on a few nights. Looking forward to the next trip up there - bring it on!

Marty


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## paulb (Nov 12, 2006)

Some cracker fish there Marty, what SWR lacks in quantity it makes up for in size !


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## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

Was good to meet ya Marty and glad you got a few hookups while you were up there.


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## yakattack (Jan 12, 2008)

Good stuff Marty love the spanish how would that go from the yak ?

Cheers Micka


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## MrX (Feb 7, 2008)

Well done Marty. Nice to catch a beast from the yak as big as you (almost). That spanish mac looks spectacular (next to the little bonnie).


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## johnny (Aug 12, 2007)

oh martymart!..got to be a special listing that hammerhead....and the spaniard-did you dig its first hit n run?great stuff!How did Nelly,John,George,Micka ,Spooled[sorry if i didn't get everyone!] go?


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## Alster99 (Nov 20, 2008)

Awesome stuff Marty! Great report and great result. We must catch up for a fish again one day... preferably while you are in form like this! :lol:


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## spottymac (Aug 29, 2005)

Hi Marty, Good to see you got a few nice fish, 
Its a great spot down there and I will be back to have another crack at it,


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## tahch3 (Oct 27, 2009)

WOW that hammer head is huge!!


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## yakattack (Jan 12, 2008)

johnny said:


> oh martymart!..got to be a special listing that hammerhead....and the spaniard-did you dig its first hit n run?great stuff!How did Nelly,John,George,Micka ,Spooled[sorry if i didn't get everyone!] go?


Gday Johnny if Bonito count then we did fantastic :lol: But seeing that they dont count for much in regards to what could be on offer up there then not so good over all. Had an absolute ball though met a few of the other fanatical kayak fisherman which was great and learnt a few more tricks for the memory bank. Witnessed lou hooked up to his marlin and watched as it leaped of into the sunset with lou in tow. Definately booked in for next year and probably looking at getting back up in a month or so.

Cheers Micka


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## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

Good to meet you Marty and well done on the mac. Looks like we should have spent more time trolling the river mouth.


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## Marty75 (Oct 23, 2007)

Paulo, the spanish mack was caught literally 300m from the ramp we were using to launch our yaks but towards the main beach there INSIDE the bay, probably only 100m from the shore. Couldn't believe where we caught it!


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## Poseidon (Aug 17, 2009)

Well done on that cracking hammer Marty and it was fun joining you on the paddle back to shore.. It gave you a good fight and the kids loved it when you beached it didn't they! Nice spanish too, you would have been chuffed if it was yak-based 

Cheers,

John.


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## Nofish (Jan 12, 2008)

Nice work on the toothy. How big a shark is too big to eat?


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## BENNYV (Jul 4, 2009)

sounds like a pretty good week to me.


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