Swift Craft In Sydney Harbour

It was a glorious day of a proper outing for Swift Craft, or Swifty which we've grown affection for. Chen was free from work on Sunday and why not a better day to take the boat out for a spin before it'll be sold off. I've checked the conditions and it's gonna be low swells and winds for the entire day. We were supposed to get out from homebase by 5am but being such a long time since I've woken up for 1st light conditions, we left pretty late. This time round, Chen remembered to fit the bung in and removed the muffler. We headed off to Tunks Park boat ramp and the way in from Cammeray was a little tricky. But still, we managed to find our way into the ramp. Looks like a good condition ramp with a pontoon too for me to board the boat. The launching was done pretty straight forward with not much drama this round. It was a pristine morning and the water was as glassy as a champagne glass. By then, we were officially in Middle Harbour waters and soon managed to find our way out to the main harbour. Pretty soon we went past Middle Head and straightaway we saw our usual spot, the Wedding Cakes. My initial target was for salmon chasing but no school could be spotted probably due to our very late start. Nonetheless, we headed to the cakes without buying any baits except for some old pilchards. Tried anchoring at the cakes but the anchor that we had was too light and couldn't hold the bottom at all. So, had no choice but to get skipper Chen to manouvre swifty near the mooring so I could at least tie the boat onto the structure. It was done and soon, we managed to berley a little to get some yellowtails as live bait. Once we got enough, we motored across to Sow and Pigs reef to try drifting. Since there wasn't much wind, we weren't even moving at all. Caught nothing there except to see some trevallies responding to Chen's berley we decided to change spot. Got straight towards the Heads with me holding my rod trolling a live yellowtail while Chen drove the boat. Trolled for nothing and we decided to stay near North Head to do some bottom bashing. I continued soaking my live bait while Chen opted for a dead filleted yellowtail. Suddenly, his reel zzz but he was hesitating and the hook wasn't set properly. The next bait he threw got him a flathead but it dropped boatside. By then, I axed the idea of using live bait and opted a fillet as well. Voila, it works and I managed to boat my 1st decent flathead for Swifty with a 50cm Sand Flathead. By then, a giant tanker is about to cross our path and so in double quick time we drove back to Middle Harbour. More drama unfolded when we lost our way back. All in all, it was a eye-opener trip except unfortunately for Chen he forgot about his handphone in his shorts pocket and it got busted when we were launching.

Since there were a couple of pics I've taken, I decided to try a slideshow instead and made it into a flash format. To control the slideshow and see the captions, point or click on the bottom of the pics.

These pics will be such a cool memory of the boating hobby I've done in Aust. Team StMike hooyah!

Ronald