Fishing on the Hawkesbury

Hawkesbury River

We've not been fishing for a little while so the other weekend we headed just north of Sydney to Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury River. We decided it was time to hire a small boat and head out into deeper water in search of some bigger fish. Saying that, we still just had our little kid's rods, the usual frozen prawns from the supermarket and our simple bream rigs. I think that by now, however, we can agree that 'bream rig' is a bit of a misnomer and in fact it's a super all-purpose set-up that can catch just about anything. Anyway it's a load of fun on light gear and on this occasion we had 9 different species in a couple of hours fishing.

 Port Jackson Shark

After anchoring the boat it didn't take too long at all to hook up to our first fish. You never know what's going to emerge from the deep round here and first up this time was a small Port Jackson Shark. This was followed by a couple more sharks, several Tailor, Flathead, Whiting, Bream, Tarwhine, Scad, Estuary Catfish and finally, and certainly the heaviest fish of the day, was Emily's pufferfish. The pufferfish has tremendously strong teeth which form a beak that you certainly don't want to become acquainted with your fingers. The one that Emily caught actually bit through the metal fishing hook!

Baby Mulloway

Estuary Catfish

Anyone for fugu?

This pufferfish is a Lagocephalus sp. which is very toxic and is eaten over in Japan as the (in)famous fugu. After several years training, the fugu chef can prepare the fish such that only a small trace of the poison is left which is enough to give the diner a bit of a buzz. If the fish is not prepared correctly the diner will die. Apparently part of the chefs' final exam entails preparing the fish and eating it themselves!