Top bloke and good friend John Verano owns a waterfront restaurant just west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. He’s been watching salmon and tailor busting up all week so, on Friday, we headed out for some light tackle spinning and flyfishing.

Up to the area of operations and cruising around trying to find where the birds were working. Found some bust ups on the western side of Goat Island with two or three boats flyfishing for them, including a couple of charter operators. If you’re in Sydney, here’s where the action was happening:



Not big fish but good fun on matching tackle:



Some larger fish holding around the Red Can marker. Here’s the waypoints:



After a good sesh it was in to John’s restaurant, for sandwiches and coffee delivered to the boat. I could get used to that setup:



After getting caffeine levels in the green zone it was down the Harbour to North Head, where the salmon have been in good numbers on the run out tide lately. Seagulls kicking back in between bust ups, on the new rock platform provided by the cliff collapse:



No big boil ups seen but eventually John got connected:



These white and silver flies deliver every time:



Thanks Johnno! Really enjoyed the day and let’s do it again this week. Got my work done earlier than expected yesterday (Saturday) and had a couple of hours available for the new obsession, carp fishing. The story is that so many friends are frustrated with their fishing this winter. The reason being that they are busting to get off shore for some jigging and deep dropping, but like some evil curse it always seems that the worst weather of the week falls on a Sunday. I say to them, ‘what about Saturday?’ But many are family men and have to take Melissa or whoever to netball, that day. So I’ve been recommending carp as an alternative, for the following reasons:

1 They’re available everywhere in Sydney;
2 A good one pulls like a freight train, on PCP;
3 You can find a place to fish for them in almost any weather

Found some good carp last weekend although I did fall in, while fighting one. Note wet foot with weed attached:



The rig is simple. A 3000 size reel spooled with 3-kilo colour change braid, straight through to a factory made hair rig. These are deadly when used with corn kernels or worms, because the carp can get a taste without feeling metal. There is a lot of weed growth at this spot. So I add a pink adhesive nymphing strike indicator just above the hook. For bait yesterday, a solid chunk of bread. If the fish are active and things are happening, just hold the rod. If fishing is slow, I drop it in a bank stick and wait for the alarm to go off:



Yesterday they were on the tooth but with the heavy weed growth, snags, and bank vegetation the fight is always nerve wracking:



All good:



Manage to catch a few and, not fall in. Too much winning! Back into it next week, Andy