burger

Hope you heal up well @Rebel

Hi All,
M.I.A. I had to go to Hospital for Surgery.
Second time in three years.
No fishing for six weeks.
Hopefully no more.
Cheers.

Towards the end of February I headed out in the bay in search of some Jew, I found them and had an absolute shocker!, I lost 4 fish (& plastics) to line break as I was going extremely hard on these fish to try and avoid being sharked, I also got snagged once, got snipped by a mackerel, and when I finally managed to get one close to the boat it got sharked about 3 metres away, I was devastated but not willing to give up, having lost 7 plastics & jigheads I headed off to BCF that afternoon to restock & get some new line.
The plan was to head out there the next day and see if they were still around, well, what a difference a day makes, I dropped the first fish, but managed 2 in 2 casts after that, the 1st went 95-96?, there was a little bit of chop out there and they weren't behaving themselves on the brag mat

I'll admit I took a pretty ordinary pic of him, but you get the idea. After I gave him the treatment and got organised again, this little guy paid me a visit

With 2 onboard in quick succession, the decision was made to leave them be, as its just too risky sport fishing for them with the sharks never too far away, so I decided to move on in search of some more fun.

That fun came via a little 30cm small mouth, which was a first for me in the bay, a Trevally not much bigger came after him, then I headed back in. It was a pleasant few hours all up.
Fast forward a month or so, with very little fishing taking place because of some average weather, when I saw the conditions for Tuesday just gone, it was an easy decision to head back out in the bay.
Jew were on the menu once again, so I deployed the same plastic from the previous outing and after working him for about 15 minutes I hooked a big grinner, now I "technically" didn't land him, no leader was touched, I swear!, I just let him chill next to the boat while I grabbed the pliers, when I came back to the rod he was gone, result!, the scoreboard remains unchanged.
Not long after that incident I hooked up to what I initially thought was a small shark, it hit the plastic just off the bottom and started to scream off, then it started coming up, rather erratic mind you, thinking it was a shark I wasn't interested in playing it out, with a heavy drag set to try and beat the sharks, I wound it in with little respect, that was until I saw it was a nice Spotted Mackerel, perfectly pinned in the centre of the top jaw there was no way he could've escaped, I swung him over the side and swifly gave him the treatment.


A surprise, and very welcomed addition to the esky, Jew were still on my mind so I kept plugging away, I missed a good hit, then the next flick resulted in a nice little Jew, success!.

Another dodgy pic, he got a little bent out shape in the esky. So far that 1 plastic has nailed 3 Jew & a spotty, he's almost earned his retirement I'd say??.
After that Jew I headed off in search of some Tuskies, having arrived at the spot and deploying the bait, I had a few enquiries early up which saw nervous anticipation almost reach fever pitch, you just never know how big it is until you set the hooks, this one sadly was no beast, and I made very short work of him. Still a very tasty fish though.

Thinking the bite might be on, I hung around for a few hours but couldn't manage anything else, which in all honesty wasn't such a bad thing as the esky already looked pretty good, and I'm well stocked for the next few weeks.
I pulled the jewels out of the Jew this afternoon, they are something I don't usually keep but I might start doing so in the future as they do look kinda cool.

 
 
 
 
 

From my experience big fish spend more time a fair way out from you when fighting them. they work big arcs left and right.
The problem is keeping all obstructions away from between you and the fish.....almost impossible land based and you rely on luck a lot more.
Braid is very very crap when it comes into contact with almost anything that is not water.
The upside of braid though is it cuts through the water far better than mono.
In a boat I would opt for braid with FC leader, knowing i could manouvre the boat around obstacles during a fight. 
Land based I would opt for mono all the way.

I took a drive down to the Tweed river and collected some driftwood for the garden earlier this month. I found a well weathered piece of sleeper that I thought I could make into something interesting. With all this crap weather I  found some time and got out the electric soldering iron and etched a  Kraken into it to add a bit of character. Next piece I  find ,  might make a  Rum tasting paddle with a similar design.
regards
neil

I use Mono all the time. Never had a problem.
If it isn't broke don't try to fix it.
In saying that I have never used braid. Looking at the prices I never will.
I have watched guys using braid & their problems. No thanks.
I go fishing because it is a top sport. Don't need problems with gear.
Cheers.

Nice work Rebel.

Hi All.
Arrived about an hour before low tide. Cloudy & some rain. Had the place to myself, which is great.
Bit quite to start. First up a nice bream. My puppy will be happy, loves bream.
Then a nice whiting
Five more whiting. That was enough, for the family weekend BBQ.
Bait was beach worms. Tried my new Okuma Ceymar 3000 reel. Very smooth.
Off to the Norah Head coffee shop for breakfast. Another top spot.
Cheers.

Thanks Junky 👍

Thanks Junky 👍

Hi All,
My missus and I are heading up to Yamba for 10 days and am after any info relating to chasing Luderick/blackfish.
I know my way around fishing for them as they are my go to fish here in Sydney.
I've done a bit of research and have a couple of river and rock spots to try.
Just after any local info and if you are prepared to share a weed spot, I know how to keep a secet!
cheers,  stu.

Same way I approach all other tides @Bretto77  Just get out when wind and weather allow and if you brain the fish it is a bonus. 

My goal is to just get out more!
The missus and/or I have been crook most of last year, so that should hopefully get easier this year allowing me to get out and wet a line more often.

Thanks guys, appreciate the responses.
Were heading up soon and are pretty excited!
I’ve read all Matt’s articles (a few times) and have spots he mention listed to try!
cheers, stu.

Thanks guys, appreciate the responses.
Were heading up soon and are pretty excited!
I’ve read all Matt’s articles (a few times) and have spots he mention listed to try!
cheers, stu.

Hi All,
My missus and I are heading up to Yamba for 10 days and am after any info relating to chasing Luderick/blackfish.
I know my way around fishing for them as they are my go to fish here in Sydney.
I've done a bit of research and have a couple of river and rock spots to try.
Just after any local info and if you are prepared to share a weed spot, I know how to keep a secet!
cheers,  stu.

So you haven't done a run from Brissy to Proserpine for a fish for a day before??    Talk about a lack of commitment!! heheh

A very late notice and unexpected child free weekend revealed itself yesterday morning. While I was not happy about the circumstances, @Kat and I wasted little time in seeing the silver lining.  With a coastal wind warning current it would be tucking up a creek somewhere that didn't involve travelling great distances in the boat. Our regular haunt ticked the boxes. 
We organised some blood worms, packed the boat, some sandwiches etc and off we went to brave the wind.
There were plenty of spare parks at paradise point ramp as expected. We could have launched much closer but a better ramp with a pontoon and no cross current is worth a couple of minutes travelling in the boat, even in yesterday's wind. 
We found a spot that was sheltered from the wind and anchored up. It was less than about twenty seconds before my basically free spool drag screamed off. The catfish that appeared shortly after at the boat signalled the start of what would become a monotonously regular annoyance. 
My next bait was out a few minutes before it screamed off in a similar fashion and I think I actually called catfish again but was pleasantly surprised when a reasonable spotted grunter appeared at the boat. It had actually made a bit of a mess of my 10lb leader so I'm glad I opted for the net.
@Kat couldn't seem to get any interest on her side of the boat yet and started making noise about swapping sides. Very soon it didn't matter what side of the boat you were on it was catfish aplenty. This went on for a while before I landed a solid whiting that was frustratingly shy of the magic 40cm mark.
There were a lot of other undersized grunter, a few legal bream and tarwhine which were released, (and of course the mandatory pony fish).  Kat then landed a good legal whiting, but it was back to catfish and undersized spotted grunter straight after that.
Unfortunately it was looking like we were going to have to endure a lot of undesirables to get a feed of whiting.
We chose to move to try and escape the catfish etc but to no avail. It was the same everywhere, a couple of good fish and then we just couldn't get past the vermin. @Kat bettered me on the whiting tally again and contributed two very solid specimens that were almost identical to the first one I got. But neither of us managed to bust the 40cm mark yesterday.
Catfish OMG the catfish. Wow, to think that @kat wanted to rename her boat to "Katfish".

@ellicat Had the place to myself. Two guys arrived as I was leaving.
The great thing about the Nth. Beaches, there is plenty of places to fish.
During the week there are no crowds.
Cheers.

Sounds like a sensational day rebel. 

My goal is to just get out more!
The missus and/or I have been crook most of last year, so that should hopefully get easier this year allowing me to get out and wet a line more often.

Sounds like a sensational day rebel. 

Hi All,
Arrived around Sunrise. About 2 hours after low tide. Top day. God's country.
First up a Kingie. He wasn't happy 70cm. Went quite, so I moved.
Next up a nice snapper 48cm. Then another Kingie 68cm.
Caught 2 bonito ( realeased ) Another snapper 50cm.
That was enough.
Dawia over there rod. Fin-Nor LT100 reel with 20lb mono & 30lb leader. Circle hooks. Bait fresh squid.
Newport Arms for breakfast.
Sorry no pictures.
Cheers.

Decided to brave the 12 knot SE wind forecast with @Old Scaley today. I thought the Rainbow would be a bit sheltered and launched from Manly and headed across a pretty lumpy bay until we got in behind Peel. Ahhh.
Steve put a trolling board with a 3" spoon out and I put a 6M Laser Pro out. First line over a previously successful spot and Steve was on. A grinner. A grinner that ran across my line and gave us an almighty tangle that required a bit of cutting. After sorting that out we proceeded and Steve picked up a nice schoolie, going 56cm. I changed down to a 2.5M Laser Pro with a smaller profile. Caught weed.
Changed my rig to a trolling board as well. We passed over a bait ball and we were on alert. Double hookup and they were both thumping in the opposite direction, giving a good account of themselves. Steve's got off, but I managed to land mine, going 62 with a bit of missing tail. Steve then picked up another good one.
Then we got another big tangle that required more cutting. During that time the macks moved and we couldn't relocate them. We trolled on but our luck had run out, so we retired the trolling gear and headed down to SE Peel to find the 'Hole in the Wall'. We found it, but being more exposed, was a bit rough for fishing so we headed back to Green Island. Conditions were pretty lumpy still, but not too bad boating in the same direction as the waves.
By the time we got to Green things were looking ordinary, so we called it and headed back to Manly for a 12.30 finish, an hour earlier than planned.
Thanks for braving the conditions, mate.

 

Bugger about the sharks. Between sharks and Crocs it might soon pay to check the throne really well before you sit down... Glad you managed to get some tucker past it all 👍.