Volitan

Hi. Are there any pelagics currently in Nelson Bay? In the bay itself, that is. maybe long tails, bonito, Mack tuna ? Planning a trip. cheers

No. They are very much a J hook, so should be fished like a J. I don’t recall ever having a special problem getting a hookup with those hooks. Could there have been some very small fish where you were fishing ? Maybe too small to even get the hook/bait in their mouths properly.

Hey Anthman, I hadn’t heard of Lifepo4 till you mentioned it. Looks interesting but can’t get the details I want with Google. Can you show us your battery - and give us details like price, weight, size and ruggedness. cheers Volitan

Whereabouts in Woy Woy is the bait shop ?

How big are these macs ?

I had the same need so bought a Garmin 301c and a sla battery and mounted them in a hard case I bought from Bunnings. It works well and is quite compact, although if you don’t have the transducer mounted then they are never very convenient. I have the same 7 ah battery as mentioned, plus a 5ah one which is about half the size and usually enough for a session. I also have one of the Lucky units which Squidly-Dibbly showed. I bought it very cheaply just as a quick and easy way to get depth measurements and haven’t really used it for finding fish. It’s quite a robust unit and accurate for depth and bottom type but I doubt it’s usefulness for finding fish. I think they are popular with ice fisherman who have a static view of the bottom so when a fish swims past its quite unequivocal.

No, that’s far too random and a good way to waste time. Learn to ‘read the beach’, looking for structure and water movement. Fish will concentrate in channels and gutters and fish will feed near features like the eroding edges of sandbanks where the sand is tumbling into the water. There are plenty of articles on the net about how to read the beach - it’s not difficult and doesn’t need fore-knowledge of the area, maybe just a trip at low tide when the structure of the beach is easily visible. if I was you I would give yourself a circuit breaker and fish the beaches a bit. The water you have access to sounds a bit like the area where I live - I have fished the flat water areas a lot with very poor results, but I always get a handful of good fish off the local beaches. No problem getting legal fish, if your definition of a good result is maybe a couple of bream and a flatty or whatever.

Nice. A tip in case you don’t know. It’s a lithograph so keep it in a shady spot - not on a bright wall because the UV light will make the vintage paper go blue.

Agree with the others - crabs are a likely culprit. Sand/paddle crabs and blue swimmers. if you get the situation where there is something on your line, you start winding but after about six turns it falls off then that is most likely crabs. They aren’t real smart so it takes them a couple of meters of being dragged through the water to figure out that something is not right and let go of the bait. I have a video here showing crabs feeding on bait underwater. It’s worth watching to see how crabs behave with baits - and especially how strong and aggressive they can be and how quickly they can strip baits. Very easy to misinterpret as fish on the line. https://youtu.be/pMyDXSIpahU

Don’t knock it, that’s a first class piece of gyotaku (fish impression). You will see a lot of really good gyotaku on the web but most start out no better then that - and then the artist does a lot of touching up with a paintbrush.

Agreed with the hornet. adding: generally, you should set the drag before you go fishing and then not touch it. Set it to factory specs using a spring balance. Generally it will be 25 or 30 percent of line breaking strain (depending on line type) which should cover loading, shock loading plus and a bit for tolerance. Don’t touch the drag when you are on the water - lots of good fish are lost that way - in fact I’d maybe say most good fish are lost that way. People set the drag right, then a big fish grabs and runs, and the line is screaming out like the angler has never seen before and the angler is getting panicky - they subconsciously reach for the drag to tighten it - but the drag was already set to the max so they inadvertently take it past the limit and the line pops. You will see people do this all the time, in fact I think I’ve lost most of my best fish doing it too. so what to do when you have a good fish on and it’s heading for the snags or just about to spool you? You’re thinking I’ve got to stop this fish now or I’ll definitely loose it. Don’t touch the drag, slow the spool with you hand. Still not ideal though. In fact the right thing to do is just the opposite - take all the pressure off. Maybe flip the bail on a spinning reel, or the drag lever on an overhead. Generally a fish won’t pull unless you pull it (try it next time if you doubt this). Let it calm down and then gently lead it away from the snag. Works most of the time, and when it doesn’t work you were probably going to loose it anyway. cheers

There is some misinformation here so let’s clear it up. It is not against the law for a vendor to refuse return of the goods in this case. under Aus consumer law you only have the statutory right to a refund if the goods are faulty or unfit for purpose. however in the case of goods ‘unfit for purpose’ then you only have a statutory right to refund/repair if you relied on the salesperson’s judgement or representations when selecting the purchase. For example if you said ‘I need a rod for estuary bream’ and the salesperson said ‘this is the rod you need, it is ideal for bream’. you do not have the legal right to refund if the goods are sound but you change your mind, or you find they are unfit for purpose and you relied on your own judgement in making the decision to purchase. I assume the OP’s purchase falls into the latter category. the situation has been muddied somewhat because larger stores (KMart, Bunnings) have adopted a more lenient policy as a marketing strategy, leading to the misunderstanding among many people that they have some type of universal statutory entitlement to a refund. There is also confusion about 14 day periods but this only applies to certain classes of goods/service subject to cooling off periods - most of which were bought in to stop door to door salespeople preying on the vulnerable. a further point, if the goods are faulty or unfit then it makes no difference if they are used, removed from packaging etc - its basically down to how long you had service from the item and what is a reasonable expectation for goods in their price bracket. this page explains it best - especially the second paragraph. https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/repair-replace-refund

A beach with virtually no underwater structure and little wave action to turn the sand over wouldn’t be my first choice of beach to fish from.

Q1 - most waterways have closed seasons. You need to check the regulations on fisheries website. Q2 - for waterways with closed seasons the best time is usually the first couple and last couple of weeks of the open season. For lakes open year round, usually avoid the hot months as trout will be lethargic. Generally early spring and autumn give best catches, but there are exceptions to this rule for which you need local knowledge. For most trout fishermen, being on the water on opening weekend is a must - in fact some years opening weekend and the next couple of weeks are the only times I fish most streams. After a couple of weeks they’ve gone off. Q3 - no, Oberon probably produces as well as and more consistently then any other lake in the region. Q4 - baits work best at dusk and daybreak. In the absence of any local knowledge, early morning and evening are always the best time to try. Q5 - Power bait is probably the most consistent trout catcher. Fluoro yellow is good as their eyesight is particularly sensitive to that end of the spectrum so it really stands out for them. You should probably take some lures to chuck around as well, in case the bait isn’t working. If you want to reduce it to just one lure type, I would take Tassie Devils for lakes and small celtas for streams. Celtas work well in streams because the action begins immediately you start the retrieve, which is important when the stream may only be a couple of meters wide. Q6 - A running sinker rig with single hook about 1 meter below the sinker. Use the lightest sinker you can - I used to use 2 or 3 sugar cubes with holes drilled in the middle as a sinker - the sugar cubes would give you some weight to cast but would dissolve after a few minutes giving you a weightless line. Trout are much less suspicious of a weightless line. Q7 - Generally trout are wary and take a stationary bait very cautiously. Therefore always go as light as possible. 2kg is not ultralight for trout.

My dream

Hi Saladboi. Getting back to your original question about best way to fish that region. i fished the area for about 20 years until recent droughts . My best trips were done by taking 2 cars, parking one somewhere on the Coxs and driving the other one further upstream and then walking and fishing between. You get access to the inaccessible. For one walk we parked the car at Lake Lyell right up the arm where the Coxs enters, and the other one at Lake Wallace, where the Coxs goes under the Great Western Highway. The lower car had to be taken in the night before and left there else it would be too long to get it all sorted in a day. I did that trip twice and yep, you do get access to unfished water. the second route was to leave a car at Dudawarra bridge on the Coxs River Road, and drive up to the point where the river goes under the Jenolan Caves Road. both trips are doable in a day, stopping and fishing in the best looking pools. We took lilos which was fortunate as you can lilo past the difficult bits. I don’t think they were essential but you will be doing some long detours otherwise which cuts down on fishing time. these trips were hard work but very enjoyable because you are going only one way and everything is new, there is no long boring walk out the same way you came in. I guess the other advantage is you are fishing all the way, from the moment you start walking, not doing a long walk in to the fishing spot. and yes, I did fish Little River a few time by walking up the Coxs, after walking down the usual track from Packsaddlers. I also got to it once by walking down from the Six Foot Track, after parking in the Megalong Valley. It didn’t really merit the walk, but that was a long time ago and maybe things have changed. Other spots to check out would be accessing the Coxs via MCKanes Falls Road and fishing upstream (my preferred spot). Also, I had a couple of good days in the Sandy Hook area, although both these two spots would be highly seasonal - and things may have changed in recent years. my preferred method was dry fly, so I wasn’t after a lot of fish - just a really good fishing situation where you can see feeding fish and pursue them. For the long trips I used spinning tackle, as it travels better. cheers

And not transiting through a hotspot, like Sydney Airport.

Great photos Jon, although the first one made me feel sick just looking. Do you do any post-processing or is that straight out of the camera? actually, I haven’t kept up. What camera is it?

So here is a quick explanation and photo of the drop camera rig I use. Here is the rig. Components from left to right are: A handcaster with 50mtrs of 100 lb mono. There is a bolt and wingnut fitted under which I can quickly pinch off the line. I can clip on a float when needed. A sled made of reo mesh. Its just one piece of reo mesh cut and bent. A very cheap GoPro clone. A 2kg diving weight (probably overkill). An onion bag, which I fill up with bait. Its all held together with cable ties. All up it cost about $60 including camera and housing and took about 40 mins to make. There is a fair bit of trial and error that went into this design however so its probably worth copying. I can drop this at any angle and it lands upright, can be dragged without overturning and retrieves with minimal resistence. The camera is from KMart and cost $39 including fittings and housing. Its rated to 30 metres and I've had it at a measured 27 meters with no leaks. Its 1080, 30fps, 450mah battery, 2inch LCD - pretty ordinary specs but its all the same in my local murky estuary water. I have two and they have both performed faultlessly although you know KMart and their no-hassles refund policy. I prefer a low cost camera because I leave it unattended and know that sooner or later I wont get it back. However if you wanted better vision there are two upgarde levels. For about $120 you can get similar camera but in 4K and wifi. The next step is GoPro or Osmo at around $500. This one is probably worth looking at if you are satisfied with 30 metres depth: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/kogan-4k-action-camera-bndl-sd-card/ Housings. These cameras usually come with a housing rated at 30metres. Look a bit harder and some clones have housings rated at 40, 45 and 60 metres. Most of the basic GoPro housings are rated at 60metres. With a 45 metre depth housing you have everything in Brisbane Water, Hawkesbury and Botany Bay covered, although I understand that you guys who fish out wide wont find that much use. Batteries. A 450mah battery gives you about 50mins recording, which fills a 16gb card. The batteries are generic so you can upgrade to 900 or 1050mah and a 32gb card. Lights. LED technology has made underwater lighting very inexpensive. I have a $20 one on order. cheers

For real time viewing, you would need a GoPro or a clone with wifi, and a phone with app to view it on. wifi doesn’t work underwater - or rather it only carries for a few inches, so you have to use a cable. There are commercial heavy duties ones available, cheaper commercial ones for recreational use, or you can DIY a solution. Plenty of people are doing it with just $20 worth of cable, and nothing else - like in this video I think the main limitation would be depth - on which I can’t comment, although plenty of people report 20 metres. I haven’t tried this because I’m not really interested in live viewing as I mostly drop the camera somewhere, then come back to it 40 minutes later. as there seems to be some interest, I’ll do a post tomorrow showing how the camera rig is made.

Whenever I go fishing I'm plagued by questions about the environment underneath - like what type of bottom is it, what fish are down there, what food sources are available, why am I loosing baits but catching no fish, are there even any fish there at all - all those sort of things. Recently I built a drop camera to answer these questions. Its just a simple construction of mesh-reo with a 2kg weight, a float, two el cheapo Gopro clones, and an onion bag with some bait in it. I set this in all the places I fish and each drop gives me about 40mins of video. The knowledge these videos reveal is amazing. The videos are huge files so after watching on the pc I have just deleted most of them, but lately I've been posting a few snippets on Youtube. This is an example You can go to my channel for a few more. Just search for thebackwardpointinggodwit - my username. Please be aware its not my attention to offer videos that are aesthetic or interesting - the purpose is to map the underwater world where I fish. If that place has no fish - then so be it. And its not my intention to become a public Youtube channel - its just a resource for me. In fact, I think the most important videos are the ones which show 40mins of absolutely nothing (because they tell me where not to waste my time fishing). Because I don't have a boat I've mainly been limited to public jetties. Lately I've been borrowing a canoe and this gives me a bit more reach but I'm still limited to shallow areas - the ergonomics of using a drop camera from a sit-on-top make it difficult to work deep water. Things underwater are slowing down now for winter, but I will be targeting the Rip Bridge area, Putty Beach, Patonga and Pearl Beach in the next few weeks. I will put up snippets although they will mainly show the bottom and environment as fish are becoming scarce in shallow. FYI; I keep a records of fish species seen - so far up to 60 species in Brisbane Water. cheers

If you want to know more about it look up Enteromorpha intestinalis. I think it’s now actually reclassified as Ulva intestinalis. sorry I can’t give you a common name - there are so many and I don’t know which names are used locally. it can grow like fine hair or be flattened - depends on growing conditions such as salinity but all are the same species.

Trolling sinker https://budgetmarine.com/catalog/fishing/terminal-tackle-hooks/floats-sinkers/lead-cigar-trolling-sinker-w-swivel-4oz/

You could use a trolling sinker. I have a couple and they are pretty easy to use and no great water resistance. I don’t feel they are any worse then a down rigger in the limited circumstances I use them - which is not particularly deep - I think it’s 8 metres. the ones I have are 4 and 8 ounce and are like a very thin barrel with wire loops at either end. I think they are 100mm long or thereabouts. Not perfect but a good Compromise for those without downriggers. not too sure how they would go at 25 metres though. I have used the 4 ounce one which gives a nice slow troll at 10 metres.

putty beach at sunup is worth the effort. That Bouddi NP area is something special. I like Tallow Beach too. James, dart are very common on Putty and nearby beaches, in fact probably the most numerous fish. Summer and autumn. Luke, Actually it may not be your ability to read the beach which is lacking - Putty Beach has almost no structure. Killcare Beach (the other end of the same beach) has a bit more structure but not a lot. If you can find a channel that’s 300mm deep then that’s a big one.