It was fantastic to get out on the water fishing again, and this time I had my old man with me. (which he also reminded me it had been a few years since we had been out – not good)

With the new engine on the back, which literally sips the fuel compared to the last fuel hog, there will be a lot more trips coming up.

It was a little bit disorganised, which was my bad. For some silly reason I let work and my fiance going oversea for a big work trip get in the way of planning this properly. Won’t let that happen again.

We launched at Pittwater and got under way for Barrenjoey headland. With an easy 45km/h registering through the GPS and 2.1 km/litre fuel burn I was quite chuffed with my new little engine.

We drifted from Barrenjoey out to sea for about an hour and a half. We pulled up a few little snapper – but it went quiet after a while. This is where the planning would have come in. After a short “where do you want to go next, I don’t know where do you want to go” conversation, we took of for Lion Island.

Drifting there we pulled up a few reef wrasse – again nothing to write home about. At least we were on the water fishing. We tried the bommie off Box Head, this time for nothing.

We tried another spot near Flint and Steel… lots of wrasse again nothing special.

I will note, be careful of the teeth on these guys. It is not really clear from the photo, but they have some rather large incisors which they will use to quite happily take chunks out of your hand given the chance.

With despair starting to set in we headed over to Patonga to drift the sand flats for some flathead. We had a few bites, I even pulled in a small tailor on small plastic I was flicking about.

It just wasn’t our day (the planning thing coming in here again I fear) for being on the water and catching fish. However, Dad did pull up a few very small Port Jackson sharks at Juno Pt. They are a protected species, so back in the water they went (the were still only babies). Just a quick heads up, these guys have a nasty spine on their dorsal fine, so be careful when you are handling them.

If they decide to lash out, there is a very good chance they will spike you if you lose your grip. For their size they are surprisingly strong little critters.

In the end we headed home with nothing for the table… still, we are both in agreement. Any day on the water is a good day on the water.

Hillboy

PS. I am not going to mention the parking fine and the lack of signage or hidden rules which don’t form any part of your driving test for a standard class driving license. Apparently there is a rule which states you can’t park a vehicle over 7.5 metres in length for longer than 1hr. What a load of rubbish! This basically means if you own a large family car and you have a trailer on the back, you can’t park it on the street for more than 1 hr!