Kit

Stay at home kamil... You'll be wasting your time there.. seriously. especially now its so cold, theres no baitfish, and theres not even any pickers. I've been there every weekend except 4 this year and I've only seen 2 baby ones at around 2kg each get landed. As I've been going very frequently, I've pretty much fished every possible tide and moon combination... I've whipped out the good ol UBD now to search for some other spots that might seem likely cos I think I'm just fishing the wrong place.

For reasonable price with great quality I recommend the River2Sea knife jigs..... But I also have a lot of Williamson jigs that have worked equally as well as the River2Sea. The River2Sea knife jigs are around $16 with a pre rigged assist hook. The Williamson ones are around $13 with a pre rigged assist hook. Get the ones with some sort of glow paint on em... at 100m down, the water is very dark. Some glow paint on them will help the fish see and attack the jig accurately. Chris Edit: You can also get the really expensive japanese jigs like the team daiwa etc... these look fab.. but honestly I don't think its worth the extra money.. I've caught just as many fish with the cheaper jigs than someone else on the same boat using the much more expensive ones.

sam.. if its really cold and you want some heat, I'll tell you what I do in winter. I get those foil roasting trays and punch lots of holes in the bottom so that there is enough air flow. I then put on some Easy Lite heat beads and light it up. no need to use firestarters, just don't put too many at first, otherwise the flame is really big... After the initial flame goes out, you can add more heat beads... you now have a heater that will last hours. but just make sure you clean up after yourself... I like the others on this forum get really annoyed at fishermen that leave their rubbish all over the wharves. Everytime I hit my fishing spot i find I'm spending a lot of time just cleaning up after those before me. Its ok to make a mess, just remember to clean it up Chris

Personally I use a swivel and also leader. I join my main line to 5m of leader (usually around 60lb Jinkai). Then I tie the leader to a heavy duty swivel, and the swivel goes onto the split ring on the jig. If you have an O ring you can lose the swivel and tie the leader directly to the O ring, but don't tie the leader to a split ring. The leader will either slide out or the split ring will cut the knot. The kings I've caught aren't huge, but I've pulled ones in just over a 1m repeatedly without any problems with the swivel. oh, and another couple of tips: If you have 2 jigging reels, spool one with the coloured line with marking and the other with just a plain coloured line. If the leatherjackets are there, they always bite through your braid on the white markings! very annoying, but a great way to lose your expensive jigging braid! What jigs are you using? Use jigs suitable to the current and depth you are fishing. Don't be afraid to use big jigs if you need to; the fish won't get put off by it.. We've used 550gm jigs (MASSIVE Jigs like a over foot long) and we've caught kings only slightly longer than the jig itself! Good Luck mate, Chris

Stylo, I'm using fingers, which has never been a problem in the past with fireline. I read somewhere to use pliers as well, but once again I found it really hard to tighten the loops furthest away from the main line tag. I just googled Albright and found different ways of tying it. I tie it this way: but then you can also tie it this way: I'm going to try the second method as i can see how it might help to tighten the end loops better. Cephalopod, A friend also uses the slim beauty and recommended that to me... I googled it and found 3 different ways to tie it! Do you have a recommendation here? Some incorporate an overhand knot, which I thought would really weaken the flurocarbon or mono leader (like a wind knot). Relapse, thanks for the tip.. I'm gonna try the second method I posted above first to see if i can tighten the end loops properly, and then I'll give your suggestion a go. Chris

I might decide on some more torture and flick a few plastics around the turn of the tide these couple of nights... expect a few more reports from me!

Hey Sam, Was the fish fast or slow? And did anytime during the fight did the fish stop moving and just sit on the bottom? (sometimes for minutes at a time) If it was reasonably slow and it did sit on the bottom after a while, then most likely it was a ray... Large rays will always sit on the bottom at sometime during the fight.. they just sit there and you just can't move em whatever you do... Its almost as if they don't know they've been hooked! Another possibility is that it could have been a large Port Jackson Shark.. I've caught them to 17kg and they fight similar to a ray... They don't seem to have the stamina of a ray though, and soon they just become a dead weight and if feels like you're reeling in a wet rag. Back luck on losing the fish.. but I guess its better to get some action than nothing at all Chris

For years I used the Albright to join my leader to mainline... this is a very good knot, I've never had one fail... 10-12 turns up... 10-12 turns back down... wet, tighten, done. This was mainly used on fireline in the 6-10lb range, and Flurocarbon leaders in a similar line weight.. Recently I changed the line on my spinning outfits to braid... as the braid was so thin and I was now concentrating on larger fish, I spooled in 10, 15 and 25lb line weights. FC leaders were in the 12, 17 and 20lb weights.. Here is where I struck problems. I *think* the 10lb braid is OK, but I'm having major problems with the Albright on 15 and 25lb braid. With 10-12 turns up and down I find that I'm unable to tighten the knot properly, the loops furthest away from the braid is not tightening up and if I run my nail along those loops, the loops will slide, lengthening the knot. This makes me think that only the few tight loops are sustaining all the force and hence make the knot easier to fail as the force is being directed to only one point on the doubling of the leader. I'm also getting major problems with the mainline getting caught on the leader tag and/or getting caught on my guides while casting; this is causing heaps of frustration as undoing knots in braid is really time consuming. I'm unable to trim the leader tag too close as the loops are sliding and I don't want them sliding under the tag if stretched. I tried running less loops (7-8) with limited success.. the loops tighten down better, but I don't trust the knot. On a few occasions, I've lifted my lure out of the water, and the Albright has just fallen apart, the loops loosening and the lure falling to my feet! I'm sort of glad I'm having a really bad run with the fishing, as I'd hate to see that leader knot give way if I was connected to a solid fish. So... what knot do you guys recommend for braid in those line classes? Also what knot do you guys recommend for joining braid to leader with say PE5 to 60 or 100lb leader? I've used the Albright with similar problems, and the Double uni seems far too bulky. Chris

It was only two weeks ago I promised myself that I would not fish again till at least September when it warmed up a bit. My 3 previous trips were so bad that I could not even arouse the interest of pickers. Come Saturday night, the missus had gone out with friends and I was sitting at home infront of the tele... strange thoughts started coming into my head and I started thinking about how I'd heard "Jewfish are bigger in winter" With the Olympics starting to get boring I decided to break my promise and once again brave the cold... I wanted to prove that "Jewfish are bigger in winter" was not a myth... I sooooo sooooo wanted to land my first and also debunk the myth that "Jewfish actually exist" I headed out, planning to arrive at 8 to fish the change of tide and run out. I was landbased on Sydney Harbour. Had 2 rods out, both with squid baits. While waiting I tried to catch some livies on a handline.. By midnight, it was becoming increasingly obvious that I wasn't going to get anything... I could not get any livies, and my main baits weren't getting any attention. I changed baits a few times to keep them fresh; each time reeling in I found my bait looking exactly the same as when I cast it out.... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! at 12:30am, I made the smart (ha!) move and packed up... All the way driving home saying to myself: "I told you so!" Einstein said the definition of insane is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. If thats the case, I think I reached insanity many years ago. Sunday.... boredom strikes again! Went down landbased to cast some plastics for Jew in the Georges... spent about 2 hours around 3pm fishing the turn of the tide... not even a single hit! fished again chucking plastics for an hour around the 9pm change of tide... no interest.. once again not even a single hit... They say animals learn from a mistake after 3 times and will try something different... animals are smart things aren't they?? So it looks like my efforts to debunk the myths mentioned above have only supported another myth: "there are no fish in winter" Sorry to those who read this report expecting to hear about a monster jew... but I think there are simply no fish in the sea!! This is still a fishing report.. just not a good one I'm sitting here now thinking when I'll give in and subject myself to some more torture Chris....

You can keep bream in freshwater. I once tried "converting" a bream to fresh water over a period of 2 days.. it died after a week. Next time I didn't bother with the conversion and just put them in my freshwater tank.. they lived in my freshwater tank for over 6 months.. not sure why they eventually died.. could be due to overcrowding of the tank.

I've got a recommendation for this too.. If you are thinking of keeping them, don't goto the aquarium and buy them for whatever they cost.. I think normally its like $5 for a tiny one, or $20 for a big one... or its like $50 for a marron.. I just goto the fishmarket and buy the liveliest ones I can find and put them in the tank.. they cost like $2 each for a redclaw yabby the size of a $20 aquarium bought one; and marron cost $40/kg or something. its really cool watching them eat frozen bloodworms .. its amazing how they can use their legs to pick up the worms without even looking.. and they eat really quickly. warning about keeping yabbies with fish... the yabbies will eat your fish.. and they will usually choose the most expensive one and when the yabbies shed their shells, the fish will get their revenge and eat the yabby or at least peck it to death while their new shell is still soft.

yep, as Greg recommended, feed them peeled prawns. Don't feel them things like pillies (or that berley bomb).. the problem is, oily fish like pillies will leave a coat of oil along the top of your tank.

Hey Alex, Iron Cove around Le Montage is a very productive spot (for catch and release, I don't eat the fish there). I used to fish that area a lot. My gear consisted of a light graphite lure rod, a 1500 reel, 6lb fireline, 6lb flurocarbon, 1/16th jighead, and a variety of softplastics. You just cast out and work your way along the walkway. We mainly caught flathead there but also a fair few bream. Try and fish it on the run up and the high tide. Low tide the water is too low there. I think its just winter and the fish are off the chew right now. I was fishing last sunday arvo around birkenhead point and I couldn't even see a single fish in the water after walking and casting for a fair distance. Good luck, Chris

hey Dan, SlinkyMalinky made a post about this a few weeks back. He found a good way to do it and that was to put some ice on the male part of the join for a few minutes before trying to separate it again. Chris here is Slinky's post: http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.php?showtopic=32250

I was fishing on Sydney Harbour chasing Jew again on Saturday night. It was very quiet... Not even any pickers on my squid baits.

great tip slinky.. have you found it ok to use the graphite powder? like will the rod tip fly off if you cast it hard enough? Chris

TDH, The pickers were affecting my dead baits (squid strips and Cowanyoung fillets). The Cowanyoung I was catching were about 30cm long and too big for me to use as live bait. Its not that I mind using baits this big, but I have trouble casting them. The current was ripping through that night and even with quite a large snapper lead, my lines were getting dragged across by the current. When fishing landbased do you find you need to cast far to get jew? and do larger livies generally attract more attention? Chris

Yep, While I don't generally keep em, I have eaten them before and they were very nice. In the past, first thing I did was cut off the barb on the tail (so you don't get spiked), and then you cut off the wings. the wings are full of meat. Careful not to overcook them tho because they can get quite dry. I've also had ray in a fine dining restaurant once. It was cooked and the meat stripped off and broken up (sort of like canned tuna), it was then flavoured and then put on the plate in a small clump.. that was really tasty I remember prawning at Ulladulla once and someone netted a small ray. We cut off the wings of the ray and boiled it with the prawns. Peel back the skin and the meet was very sweet and tender. Chris

Hi soft-on These baitfish weren't getting chased up from underneath by something big though. They were zooming up from the depths, breaking the surface, and then zooming back down like they were trying to eat something on the surface of the water. And when I did hook em, they fought a lot harder that usual. Perhaps there were heaps of tiny insects on the top of the water that I couldnt see and the fish were feeding on those???

I was fishing landbased on the Harbour last friday night. Of late, its been hard getting yakkas. I've only been getting Cowanyoung and they've all been huge... and even then they have been few and far between. Last Friday there was a big high tide and new moon. When I got to the wharf I could see hundreds and hundreds of these Cowanyoung coming up from the bottom then breaking the water.. They weren't really jumping, but it looked like they were eating something on the surface. I couldn't see anything on the surface though, could only see the splashes in the water as they came up. I managed to catch 2 of these buggers, one on pillies, and one on a bait jig. And just like previous weeks, they were coming up to the bait and just lipping it.. they were very hard to hook on. So does anyone know what this means when they are so active? and if they were so active why was it so hard to catch em? There was obviously something special about friday night as there was a lot of activity in the water. On another note, no Jew on Friday night, I was plagued with pickers. My baits getting hammered by pickers the instant it touched the water. I got annoyed and cast out a small bait on a sz2 hook, then pulled up a tiny eel about 15 mins later. Chris

Hi Mate, I used to fish the rocks at Clovelly a lot when I was a student at UNSW... Used to keep my rods in the car and fish Clovelly whenever I had a break! The gear I used to use back then was quite heavy, but i managed to catch a few fish. I had a 10ft beach rod, a large threadline and 20lb mono. I used to run a big bean sinker (ball seems to roll around a bit), running down to a swivel and then about 1m trace with a 3/0 hook. I used to get some crabs off the rocks and use them as bait.. otherwise bait like cunje, prawns or squid seemed to work very well too. which side are you fishing? the carpark or off the rocks on the other side of the beach? I've caught fish from both sides but the rocks on the other side of the beach can get a bit hairy when the waves are big. Try and fish it on a low tide, I found the sea tended to be a bit calmer on a low. I used to catch some big bream, parrot fish, and lots of sharks! the sharks sort of look like port jacksons without the markings, I was told they were blind sharks but I'm not too sure. The biggest shark i caught there was 17kg and it measured well over 1 metre and was great fun, taking about 10 mins to reel in. It was caught on a whole garfish. I've also seen other people catch Salmon and leatherjacket there. On the other side I mentioned earlier, there is a small channel in the rock.. try fishing in that too.. I've heard of drummer being caught there with bread. I remember once I was fishing there using strip baits and was catching tiny rock cod after tiny rock cod. The bait was being nibbled and I thought it was another rock cod but then whatever it was just took the bait and ran.. whatever it was, it was really fast and powerful (unlike the other sharks I previously caught)... the first blistering run lasted about 10 seconds and took nearly half my line.. after that it bit through the line just above the hook. Maybe a shark of a diffrent kind.. or maybe a big tailor... drummer maybe?? good luck mate... keep at it, clovelly is a good spot.. Chris p.s. fishing can get frustrating at times, but keep at it... I've been chasing Jew for years and I can't manage to get one if I needed one to save my life... but week in week out I just keep on trying.. some people say when you get your first, it gets easier..

is it any good? cos i didn't know which one to get when i was in Japan. I've only ever seen varivas split rings, but never line in any tackle shop..

I'll be land based on the harbour somewhere trying for that Jew that keeps on eluding me! I honestly don't think I'll get anything, but I'm not about to give up now!!

Hey mate. cool pics. I was in japan about a month ago and i went to Joshuya and Sansui in Tokyo.. They seem to be big on Varivas line over there, thats a brand we don't have here in Australia. Chris

Hey mate, I catch em at Bella Vista too not as big as 70cm, but some up to 3kg.. they're great fun on light line!!... I know of an Eastern European guy and an Asian guy who catches em there and eats em too. In Asia and Europe, carp are actually farmed for food. Having said that, I don't think Asians really love carp... Actually, I don't think I've ever even eaten one before! Chris