Kit

Hi Grant, Would 6/0s be too small and have contributed to my spat hooks? The hooks were suicide and were either Mustad or Penn (can't quite remember). But they were much smaller than my 6/0 black magic hooks. (the black magic 6/0 are only a little bit smaller than gamakatsu 8/0's) And can you explain more about when you said how the fish took the bait, it sounds like a good fish? Both rods got hit in quick succession not long after the wind died down. What annoyed me the most was that I had to cut the hooks after pulling up the port jackson. That meant both my rods were out of the water while I re-rigged.... It was a good 10 minutes before I could get both back in the water; by then it was probably too late I'll be back to try again tho! after all these years, not about to give up now! Chris

Some of you may have been reading about my efforts to land a Jewie. With Saturday night being a few days before the full moon, a high tide coinciding with just after sunset, I thought it would be a great chance for me to bag my first jew...... except.... no one could predict the wind!!! I hit the wharf around 4pm.... Jumped straight in with the handline to get some live yakkas... Unfortunately, there was hardly any baitfish around so it wasn't until around 5:30 till I got my first like yakka (as bait) in the water. It was blowing a gale and I could barely cast out 10 metres! The wind just got stronger and stronger, and even my mate went home at 8pm cos it was too cold. But I persevered... I was determined to catch that elusive Jew. At about 9pm the other guy who was fishing on the wharf packed up as well; but before he left, he gave me his leftover squid that he had caught there the week before. That bait went straight on my hook and cast out.. the wind had died down a bit now, but was still quite strong.. I could perhaps cast 12 metres out this time I sat back and waited. and waited. and waited. At around 9:30pm something showed interest in the squid bait... the baitrunner clicked over ever so slowly along with a few dips of the rod tip. I left it... about 2 minutes later, the rod bent over and the baitrunner clicked as the fish took a run. I lifted, set the hook and felt the weight of a sizeable fish... "I'M ON!" I shouted to the missus... who immediately ran to grab the net. My heart was racing with excitement... all I could think was "is this the one? finally?!" I could feel the weight and the pulsating headshakes of the fish through the line.. After about 5 seconds (which felt like an age), the weight was gone, and the pulsation stopped... my heart sank.. the fish had spat the hooks.... either that, or the fish was only lipped hooked and the hooks pulled.. My snelled 6/0s came back with no fish on the end I inspected the line above the top hook, and it was slightly scratched.. The missus could feel my dissapointment... oh well But within 5 mins; I heard the beautiful sound of the baitrunner clicking on my other rod (baited with a live yakka)... the clicking signaled that something had taken the bait and went on a short run. The clicking stopped, but the rod tip still had a bend in it... "strange" I thought... so I left it... after another 5 mins the rod tip bent further and the fish went on a run... I set the hooks and felt something heavy on the end.. but it was a dead weight... I wound it in and there was a 6kg Port Jackson on it... not suprising really.. since it felt like a wet rag! So that was my excitement for the night... the rest of the night was uneventful and I was plagued by pickers. Close.... but no cigar... the first one, I think, coulda been my first Jewie.

Hi Byron, Thanks for your comments. I've been interstate for work so haven't been fishing for the past two weeks. I'm keen to hit the water again tomorrow though. With the full moon early next week, a high tide coinciding with sunset, I'm hoping to bag my first one tomororw night. I'm also keeping a close watch on the barometric pressure. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report back this time tomorrow. Chris

ahhhh. makes sense.. Yeah, all these were caught a night.. and in the harbour.

Here is an interesting finding.... I've always ran light lines for fish like bream and whiting etc.. I always thought that fishing line that was too heavy would put them off. Recently I've spent a lot of time targetting jewfish. While I've been targetting jewfish, the missus will have a light outfit set out for bream or whatever comes along. The missus has caught quite a few big (35+cm, 1+kg) bream lately on the light outfit; but strangely enough, I have caught equally as many (as by catch) on my heavy jew setups (30lb main line, 30lb leader, 6/0 double hook rigs, big snapper leads). All of the big bream I've caught on my heavy setups have been on butterflied yakkas or squid though, none on the livies. Has anyone also found that bream are not as finicky as we make them out to be? Chris

When I go fishing, I normally buy a loaf of bread to use as berley or bait for baitfish. After I go fishing, I use a few slices of the bread and use it like soap on my hands... keep on rubbing it into your hands like it is soap for a minute or so.. afterwards your hands won't smell of bait.. it may smell of bread for a little while, but that goes away.. it works for me! Sometimes, I wear latex gloves when I go fishing in winter.. keeps the hands warm as your hands don't get wet and so won't get chilled down by the wind.... It seems in winter, once your hands get cold, you can't do anything to warm them back up again. I had a bad experience using latex gloves though... years ago I was fishing at Roseville. I noticed a car going around the carpark and then stopping next to where my car was parked... So I grabbed my maglite and walked up to see what was going on.. Turns out the car going around the car park was a copper.. and he had stopped next to my car to do a rego check wondering what the hell my car was doing parked there in the middle of the night. He saw me walking up with latex gloves and a maglite.....trouble!!! back then there was that old abandoned building next to Roseville boat ramp.. they thought I had gone into that old abandoned building breaking glass and causing trouble... Got my whole car searched by the cops! I had a rod in a rod bag inside the car, and they even asked to check that incase it was a gun or something!

I ended up fishing a few places: - Henley Beach Jetty: Caught some Tommy Ruff and undersized whiting here - West Beach breakwall, caught some more Tommy Ruff, some undersized bream, and a heap of undersized salmon trout - Westlakes: caught nothing, you're right about this place, it looks pretty dirty. It seems that all the fishermen in the Adelaide Metro area just concentrate on catching Tommy ruffs and Salmon trout.

I guess the problem is, fish travel really far distances... the bream you catch in the hawkesbury, could have been in homebush bay last week. And a 30+cm bream would be 20+ years old.. thats a lot of travelling! I am very interested in your question too, but i think the toxicology reports can't be accurate as you don't know where a fish has been. Chris

Thanks Jason! I'll definately be practising catch and release.. The hotel I'm staying in doesn't even have a microwave! So theres no chance I'll be able to eat anything I catch. I'll let you know what happens.. but I might just do some jetty fishing in my spare time Chris

Hey guys, Anyone know of any good fishing spots close to Adelaide City? I'm here in Adelaide for work until the beginning of next week. I drove down to Glenelg and Henley Beach today and saw fishermen catching tommy ruff from the jetty.. I bought myself a really budget combo (really should have packed my own gear) and wanna do a spot of fishing on Saturday perhaps. Any recommendations? ... I can't drive too far tho.. it must be close to the City. Probably some bream or other small fish should be able to satisfy me! Thanks Chris

Ok, I've taken what you guys have said on board. A couple of people have PM'd me too, so hopefully soon with the advice given I can finally land the 1st one! Thanks for the help everyone, and if anyone has anymore to add, please do!

Yep... previously on another site, someone sent me a PM saying that I should focus on fishing the Jewie Food Courts rather than the transit lanes. Except.... I simply don't know where these food courts may be. Its hard getting information from people; and if I'm fishing the (wrong) spots all the time, then I'm unlikely to run into gun fishos... I think its time I whipped out the UBD and try to sus out some spots myself...

Thanks for the replies guys. As I said in reply to Byron's post, its just seems like a futile exercise to me... 8 years is a long time... I've put in ALOT of hours. I think my main problem is that I'm fishing the wrong spots. I fish spots that have supposingly produced in the past, but as I also said, I've only ever seen 1 school jew ever being caught at these spots (and at 3kg, it wasn't very big either). Let us know how you go Zenman... I don't have any beach fishing experience though. In terms of bait, I always use a live yakka (or a fresh caught dead yakka filleted or butterflied), and squid on the other rod.. Squid has been very hard to come by lately, so I've been buying the best ones I can, sometimes up to $30/kg, and they are so fresh the flesh is still clear.. funny thing is.. I've never had any runs on the squid.. all the runs I've had have been on the yakkas. I've "threatened" to retire before, but I never actually did... I've been fishing since I was a kid and don't think I could ever give it up... but this is really starting to p!ss me off!

I think my post may have played a part in Byron writing this post Its another great post by the way. After trying consistently over the past 8 years.. I think for me, its starting to become a futile exercise... I always leave the house with the hope that "tonight will be the night", but in reality, I expect to come home empty handed... I fished supposedly "known" spots.. but I suspect the spots I do fish are the wrong ones. Problem is, I don't know where else to fish other than those that have supposingly produced in the past.

Hi Raiders, I've posted this on another forum as well, so you may read this somewhere else too. I'm not quite sure if this is a Dummy spit or a cry for help....but one thing it is, it's my last ditched attempt as I am seriously thinking about giving the game away... I've wasted far too much time doing what I so call "love" Chasing Jewfish land based around Sydney is what I'm refering to. Over the past 8 years, I've consistently been fishing weekends from the Sydney wharves. I've fished Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, Parramatta river, cooks river... I've used live yellowtail, dead yellowtail, filleted yellowtail, butterflied yellowtail. I've used dead tailor, tailor fillets, butterflied tailor. I've used live squid, dead squid, squid strips, expensive bought squid I've fished in summer, winter, autumn and spring I've fished afternoons, evenings, night, right through till the wee hours of the morning I've fished the full moon, the new moon and everything in between. I've fished the run in, run out, top and bottom of the tides I've fished with no drag, medium drag and full drag. I've fished with braid, I've fished with mono I've fished with single hook rigs, I've fished with two hook rigs. ARGHHHH! My gear consists of 12ft beach rods, Shimano Baitrunners, 30lb braid or 30lb mono. 30lb leader, running snapper sinkers, Chemical sharpened hooks. I'm constantly gathering as much info as I can and trying things that have worked for others... the end result from my 8 years of (almost) sustained effort? zip, zilch, zero jew... not even an undersized one! plenty of people have told me they've caught "heaps". But after all this time, I've only ever witnessed 1 being caught land based... for a while there, I thought it was all a myth, and they didn't really exist!! I know those that catch them consistently land based don't like sharing their secrets.. But I'm desperate... I don't know what else to try now. Any advice that anyone can give will be greatly appreciated.. Please remember, I am land based.. and if any secrets are shared, I promise they will remain secrets.. Can anyone save this fisherman?? Thanks guys Chris

Hi Nats, Unfortunately, contrary to what people say about fishing, luck has a lot to do with it as well. and it really annoys me when some random fisherman comes up, doesn't know what he's doing and just bags one! xtosea knows, I've been chasing Jew from the wharves around Sydney for years.. and I still haven't gotten one.. xtosea also knows how @nal I am about my setup, I tie every single knot perfectly, preset every single bait the best possible way... And I'm sure I'm using the right gear, right bait, right rigs, fishing the right time..... if you're unlucky, you're just unlucky.. good luck with it mate, hope you get one before leaving.

Hey guys, I actually posted this on another forum as well, but keen to get your opinions on it. I'm considering getting a new jigging outfit. But unsure on the reel. I'm looking at the Daiwa Saltist 30T and 30TH. Now I intend to use this outfit for jigging in about 100m of water. But it may end up being used perhaps for some bait fishing or bottom bouncing. I've heard arguments to support both sides, but what are you guy's opinion on the high or low speed ratio?

Drifter, thanks for the explanation

Jo, I just checked the map, and it would seem that Norwest Lake connects to Ponds Ck and Cattai Ck.. eventually the bit that we fish is located on Edgewater drive, I've walked completely around this pond and it doesn't connect anywhere. It does have a bit for overflow, but that doesnt connect to anything either. Hopefully we'll catch so much that we'll eventually clean out this pond of carp, but with the things breeding like... well breeding like carp, that might not be very likely

Hi, Just digging this thread up from the grave. What are fish ladders? Myself and ehor (on this forum) fish Bella Vista very often for carp. But I have heard from a few people walking their dogs that it has been stocked with Bass.. can anyone confirm or deny this rumour? we have been yet to catch one yet. but that could also be due to the fact we are using bread and corn for bait I have also heard a rumour that Bella Vista waters connects up with Toongabbie creek underground, which would be where the carp are coming from if it were true Chris

that same place is having a big Shimano sale, so you can pick up a baitrunner for cheap

Paul, I'm assuming you're fishing out of a boat, cos from the shore you'll have alot of trouble casting out the weight and baits needed for jew using the 6'6" rod. From the shore I use a 12ft beach rod... I've always used overheads, but recently purchased a Baitrunner 4500 spinning reel as casting heavy weights with an overhead, I wasn't getting the distance I wanted. Line in the 30lb region should be fine for jew. Some fishermen prefer Mono as it has more stretch than Braid. But nowdays more and more people are switching over to Braid, or thermally fused braid, just ensure you use a long mono leader (don't be afraid to use up to a few metres), that will give it a bit of stretch. I like the Platil Millenium Braid, also Tuf Line XP is good too, but I would probably prefer the Platil as its a bit thicker. Having line thats a bit thicker will be better for your overhead too, as it will help stop the line digging into itself when you are winding under tension. Chris

If you're after a baitrunner, get to A.m.a.z.o.n (i had to put the dots in the name cos it gets changed by the board automatically for some reason) at Wetherill Park QUICK! They are having a big Shimano sale. I picked up a BTR 4500B last week for $180. ($189 + my VIP card discount). the 6500B are $199, 3500B are $179. When I was there last week, they had already sold out of the 3500 and 6500 but were taking orders for a $10 deposit. The sale ends this weekend by the way!

REKLESS, is this the fluro yellow Jarvis walker braid you can get from Kmart? from memory it was quite cheap, like $40 for a spool or something. thats pretty bad quality... has anyone else had experience with this line?

I think i've joined this discussion a bit late, and now I'm confused. Anyway.. I just bought a Baitrunner 4500B, and I'm about to purchase some 30lb line for it. Which line do you guys recommend in this breaking strain and for this type of reel? I've read good things about Spiderwire Stealth. any other suggestions. thanks Chris