Boat Harbour 14/8/14

So I got out and fished Boat Harbour last week, it was the 16th of August so winter and I got sunburnt! It was great haha! 

What an amazing stretch of coastline. We saw a large seal meander on through up towards the beach and sat back and watched, it was a bit far away to get a clear photo but what a great site.

The spot we picked had a large rockpool on one side that swept out with the waves every few minutes and a lot of white water movement in front. I used the rockpool to hold berley, I threw a few handfuls of bread mix into it which let it release into the open periodically and spread throughout the feeding channel as food washed off the rocks would naturally.

There were several Wrasse and Drummer about, all very healthy and happy to fight.
Though we didn't get one legal sized they were all beautifully coloured and they were all a lot of fun.

We used running sinkers with a green bead on the line as running sinkers will catch less on the rocks and the green bead would hopefully attract more attention from fish. After losing several rigs I chose to use a float (my favourite form of fishing) and it worked pretty well.

This salmon was caught in the afternoon, on bottle squid under a large float out in open water. It put up a great fight and though they get a bad rap as an eating fish I recommend giving them a go.
Bleed them straight away by cutting between the gills down to the spine. I put mine into a rock pool to let it flow easily but sitting it tail up will help the process too. This removes the blood from the flesh leaves a nice white meat instead of a dark red, stronger flavoured one.
I used it to make salmon patties, which I have made several times before and they are always great. There are several recipes online but I may post mine up later.

As the afternoon wore on and I ran out of bait I decided to go bouldering. It's rock climbing but on shorter lengths without harnesses. Most of the cliffs there were only twice my height so it was fun and a great workout but not too big for something I'd never really given a go before.
This photo below was the section I was climbing and I would recommend it to anyone looking to get out and try climbing.

So in the end it was a great day. I got to see all of Port Stephens from Gan Gan Lookout, caught a decent salmon, saw a seal, found some geocaches, went climbing and spent some time with my dad. Couldn't get much better than that.

Cheers,
Andrew