humesy

G'day rich I am thinking cuttlefish too. That looks like one in your photo. Sounded like a great session. Cheers mate

Onya Rich. Great stuff mate. That downrigger is a great tool. I totally get the dilemma over using squid but it is well worth the effort when you land your target species. Hopefully we can catch up for a fish again soon

So true. Have seen some well dodgy behaviour at some of my squid spots. And why is it that the people you generally spot at Sydney's nudist beaches are the types you'd least like to see naked.

Better than Caddyshack!

Terribly sad news and a great loss to the fishraider and fishing community. I too was on the end of many a long phone call and enjoyed several long sessions on the water. I recall his disappointment / hidden disgust when I was ready to throw in the towel at 2.00am and after 13 hours fishing. He was a truly colourful character and his stories of owning a snooker hall to driving cabs to winning the French prize at Sydney Grammar were the marks of a renaissance man. His thoughts on fishing were probably beyond the comprehension of many of us. I often hung up the phone more confused about jewfish than when I started. He spoke about having a fish together again about 2 months ago and I would love for it to have happened. His best advice to me was not related to fishing but on how to deal with a boss who was giving me grief at the time. "Give him the smile of the tiger son". RIP

Cheers Mike, Grant and Rich. There is a lot of satisfaction in a catch like this. Not sure about the blue water addiction just yet. Rich, feel free to chuck that deadly squid jig around til we fish next time.

Details/story is as follows. It was indeed a very fishy evening and I had a strong feeling that a local central coast beach would produce. I had a good supply of squid in the freezer, mainly due to a couple of recent fruitless trips on the jewies. Arrived an hour before sunset and started with a few bonito strips and plenty of burley. A short while later a 55cm jew hit the first squid bait to go out and then another (just 30cm) shortly afterwards. At about 8.30, the biggie struck. I was using my 13ft heavy beach rod/alvey set up and it performed superbly. There were rocks nearby so I had the hurt on and the fish was comfortably subdued. The shorebreak was very dumpy and was the only really nervous moment. I actually lost contact with the fish as it washed up on a wave and it bashed into my legs on the way past. It stayed on the sand afterwards and I was ready to celebrate. I had my biggest juiciest squid left in the bucket and I reckon there was every chance of another big fish. I had plenty of cleaning ahead of me and now have plenty of fillets in the fridge so I happily called it a night. It had a totally empty stomach so may have been hungry. The barometer showed 1004 which is low and the change hit at about midnight. Make of that what you will. Happy days!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Happy man, Cracking night on the sand. Caught my PB jewie off a local beach. 115cm using a whole squid. Story to come, too tired now.

They make a gun butterflied bait. Even better as a livie. You are right, they won't last long in the tank but they sure won't last long in the water with a hook in their back if there are kings about. Downsize the hook to help preserve them.

Ditto for tailor, I had live slimies down in middle harbour a couple of weeks ago and I could see the tailor coming in on the sounder. The slimies got hammered, with huge chunks taken in single bites.

G"day Folks Just after some advice on what I might catch at either of the above 2 destinations. I am fairly familiar with Harrington and Crowdy but have not taken my boat up there before. I am wondering about options offshore fromthe Crowdy ramp. My boat is only 4.75m so we are not talking about heading to the shelf. More thinking close reefs for snapper fishing. I am new to that caper so would want to know I am in with a good shout before hauling the boat up the highway. For the Jervis option, I was wondering if there are any kings about in winter. I am not really equipped to tackle the big bruisers but would love to downrig the cliffs and maybe land a metre long specimen. Anyone with experience fishing in late June at either location? Cheers

Interesting sort of bite. I'd have thought a jewie would have left teeth marks. They are normally very obvious on a tailor and the Jew would have to use its teeth to run off with your bait. Maybe it is just your bait getting spooked. A 30cm + tailor might take some drag if it is being harassed and if the drag is a bit light.

+1 for flatboy's advice. Spot on the money. Personally i have only landed 4 jews on plastics but did OK in Brisbane Waters last year, mid winter, out of a kayak. I love the still days/evenings and was fishing quiet waters. My favourite lure was the white 5" or 7" Gulp jerkshad. In my opinion, if you were after jews on lures, I'd start in a smaller waterway than the hawkesbury. Success there be it on bait or lures depends on a solid knowledge of the fish's habits (where and when based on currents, where the baitfish are, etc.). There is a huge amount of water but maybe again, upstream in the quiet waters is the go in winter. Definitely keep the noise down in your tinny though and try to get out on days when there aren't too many boats out. When you have been out a few times, re-read Sol's book. I reckon there is heaps to learn from between the lines. The chapters on what they eat and where to find them are particularly informative. Best of luck.

Sounds like a kingie to me. In my experience the kingie fight is normally an angry one with sharp jolts through the line with the fish headed towards the bottom. A jewie run is more steady and likely to head parallel to the bottom in one direction for the first five or ten seconds if that makes sense.

Outstanding effort. Who said the Hawkesbury is dead? Great job; sounded like some heart stopping moments there

Been making the most of a couple of cracking days to be out on the water. Took the boat down to Sydney on Friday and met Mark (MJG) at the boat ramp who was returning home after his successful kingie mission. Had a brief chat and launched at gentlemans hours in pursuit of bait. The hardest part about squidding for me is normally finding the buggers but on Friday it was landing them. Dropped 4 nice inkers and only landed one. Headed off to where Mark had recommended but ended up wishing I'd been up early. The kings must have moved on and the wind chop was up so after half an hour downrigging we gave up. Tried North head where I'd picked up a mixture of bonito and mac tuna. The sun came down and we anchored up in Middle harbour for a jewie. Dropped my mate off and picked another squid and tried one last spot. I gave myself til 10 o'clock (some 12 hours after launching) and finally had a hit just as I was about to pull stumps. I was confused as to what it was as it felt like a dead weight and there were no headshakes. Turned out to be a foul hooked jew of 65cm. Tonight was a much more efficient affair. I took the 10 yr old kid from next door as his Dad is about to start chemo and the family are doing it tough. Went on the spur of the moment as conditions were perfect. Launched locally and managed to speed over to pittwater to pick up bait. The young fella hauled in his first yakka after barely 30 seconds and kept up the pace until the tank was full. I was far less successful in the squidding department. We again hooned back across broken bay at full speed and arrived at the jewie spot an hour before high tide and right on sunset. Jesse's rod was first to go on a squid strip, frozen from Friday, right on high tide. He managed his first jewie measuring 52cm and wasn't he stoked. The fish was returned to fight again. My rod went five minutes later and up came a well conditioned 80 cm jew who'd smashed a large yakka. The only trouble was we had become surrounded by a patch of weed so thick, it looked as if you could walk on it. The fish was barely visible and had to be netted with a massive lump of weed. The jewies are firing, get out there. Evening scenery Jesse's first Jewie One for me

I wouldn't use circles personally and I wouldnt use the baitrunner mode. Your best odds of a hook up lie with J hooks and a reel set at fighting drag in a solid rod holder. I just don't think there is enough hook point exposed on a circle. Letting a Jew run with light drag before striking just gives it too much opportunity to reject the bait. Jews normally hit lives with force in an ambush attack Missed hookups are a part of the game. If you do get a solid hit but no hookup, try your best to leave the bait down for another five minutes. Jew will sometimes smash a livie and kill it then come back a few minutes later to swallow it. It could also be another fish in a school taking advantage of a stunned, semi-dead fish but I get the feeling it is the original assassin returning to finish the job.

Read somewhere else that the manufacture of the B series of baitrunners is being finished and the stock that remains is all there will be. Grab one now if you are a fan.

The river is filthy. There are some massive logs/trees floating down and I would the whole thing as a navigation hazard at the moment. The bright side is I don't get that pitiful longing that normally happens when I commute and cross the rail bridge with a beautiful dawn and swirling currents, tide lines and eddies. That empty feeling that says, you are wasting your life, the jewie of a lifetime is right there waiting to smash a livie and you are sitting with a bunch of fellow wage slaves, on the way to another groundhog day at the office. Sorry for the rant, I do enjoy my job but bring on the next school holidays so I can do what I do best. Pursue my hobbies. Yep, that river is filthy

Cracker fish mate, well done. Been reading Shadowing the Ghost of the Estuary lately by any chance?

G'day Mike. I was pretty lucky. It's a really tricky bit of water with fierce currents, sandbars and rocks and multiple port/starboard markers which are confusing. Because it was so dark, I couldn't make out where the hill and land was and I had just had to steer around a trawler. It was only a night mission really because I couldn't sleep. All the hairtail action was in the early morning and the Jewie action was in the afternoon. I reckon those old middle harbour spots should fire at the right time. There was a post recently about a 99cm and 65cm fish (about a month back) and the photo looked like it was from your old favourite haunt. I'd be trying to track down the schools of pilchards for the best of the action. A live pillie won't last long if there is a kingie in the neihbourhood and if there's a big school, Mr. Jewie could well be lurking too. I got smoked on a butterflied pilchard (that had been caught locally) in that spot at about this time of year, a couple of years ago. I was tempted to head down but it is a bit of a mission to get there and back from the Central Coast. Anyway, just my theory. Cheers mate

totally stuffed so will keep it briefish. Set the alarm for 3.30 this morning but found myself wide awake at midninght. Lay in bed thinking of all the different spot/tide options and by 1.30 thought stuff it; might as well get up and do it. Managed to tiptoe out without waking the Mrs. who would have thought I was off my rocker. (she might not be far wrong). Anyway, launched at Woy Woy and headed around towards Broken Bay in complete blackness. Then horror of horrors; the sound of the hull hitting the rocks. With near zero visility, I shaved too much off the corner coming round Half Tide Rocks. Shook me up considerably but thank god I was going at a sensible slow speed. The tide was coming in and I was able to refloat the boat. Miraculously, there is almost zero damaged bar a few scratches on the spine type bit of the hull running straight down the centre (please insert correct nautical term here). Picked up some yakkas but no squid at Palm Beach Wharf then headed up into the Hawkesbury for the top of the run-in (as per my insomniac scheming). My first bait had been in the water all of 10 seconds before it was hit by a metre long hairtail. Donked him on the head as I read they were good eating. Then landed another bigger one who took a live yakka. Caught a few shovelnoses and a small hammerhead before calling it quits. There was masses of whitebait schooling up with tailor in the mix chomping away. There was a beautiful tide line between the murky old run-out and the clearer run-in where all the action was and it seemed a good place to cast a few lures and drop a livie. No joy though. No joy in spot B but managed to grab a snooze. Spot C quiet as well and then headed over to West Head to gather more livies. Only lousy sweep but a few bonito were hitting the surface now and then. The next baitgrounds were far more productive where there were hoardes of hungry yakkas. Decided to finish up the search for a jewie back in Brisbane waters and this proved a good move. Spot A was interesting. I learned about it from a DVD and have been sceptical as it doesn't seem fishy. But one yakka got a fearful mauling at the hands of a jew; he came back covered in teeth marks and with his eyeballs literally bulging out of his head, indicating he had been crushed. Also missed a hit on a butterflied yakka. Spot B finally yielded a fiesty 70cm jew who fought well above his weight. Had several livies pinched so didn't have a very high conversion rate but I am not too fussed. No pics sorry. Also feel a bit sorry for anyone who froze their arse off on an overnighter this past winter in pursiut of a hairtail. There seem to be a few about on these balmy summer mornings and evenings Adios

Great stuff Jim, You can finish the holidays well satisfied nowwith having landed a stonker. I hope do the same with a big jew tomorrow.

You're human! Very reassuring. Great fish Nick

Nice work, plenty of good chewing there. Congrats on a new bub too