Daniel Frost

G'day mate , I grew up in Forster and my old man Max works at Barcley Marine , near the shopping center etc. When you get there go in and say G'Day he will point you in the right direction , [just ask JewHunter] all he does is fish and he could really help you out with not just spots , but when to be fishing them , collecting livies etc etc . He's fished for everything except for trout and carp , and all over the area so he could probaly give you some low down info on South West Rocks too as we have fished it plenty. Bisbane Bream not sure about how that will be , hard without an electric , but flats fishing would be a lot easier in that size boat , there are massive bream and flats at Forster , I have no experience at Brissy but im sure Slinky could help . Monduran I would definately anchor off a prominent point or island that the wind is blowing on , otherwise anchor in the mouth of a sidecreek coming off a main channel . Just sit there and hammer it fot an hour or two . Bait can be everywhere so it can be missleading on the sounder sometimes ,Otherwise I would look for tightly balled bait with big fish sitting just of the compacted ball , but you need some depth for this and you can troll around sounding covering lots of ground while doing so . Last of all , I would go late arvo into the night if your real keen , a bit of surface in some shallow water and take heaps of Bushmans Tropical Strengh that stuff is so strong it could double as paint stripper! And if you are struggling just drive up to Awoonga it's not far , and have a crack up there . Good luck should be the trip of a lifetime .

Yum ..... Drooling just looking at the photos , Great effort . Great tucker , and good to see you out there 3 days in a row . Solid effort Cheers Bubba

Thanks everyone for the support it's greatly appreciated . Well we had a good prefish on the weekend before and found the fishing past the harbour bridge slow with only the odd fish and only 1 of them was adecent fish . Most of the fish seemed to be hanging in the parra and the lane cove . When it rained all night on saturday I was a bit worried about the fish moving and when we did start fishing I pulled a legal in the first 3 casts but then it was dead for about an hour in the one patch we had caught the fish last weekend . After moving maybe a 100 meters from the boats we fished we found a school of leagal fish from 25 to about 28 cms and we quickley got our bag . Thena move further up parra again under a boat [on the blades] I pulled a good fish and upgraded , the next move was to the Lane cove . First cast Mick hit a small fish , 300 casts later not a touch between us , we started contemplating where to go and finally agreed to move as it was to dead . But instead of taking off slowly drove out with the electric and through a couple last casts , when Mick and his reel both started screaming , GOOD FISH GOOD FISH , his wee noodle rod was buckling over and 1000 reel was crying for help . amongst the morings and he had left on his 4lb leader , after a couple mins chasing around on the electric out of the chockolate water a Beast popeed out his chunky head and we hooted hollered and carried on like a couple school kids , it was the kicker fish we were looking for a Kilo plus fish . You can tell Mick loved it from the photo as he rarely smiles in a photo but this made both our days . We then headed back into the para and upgrade 3 more times in the last 2 hrs of the comp we had caught at least 30 fish and expected most others would have done the same . We weighed in early and were in third place but with at least 50 more angler to weigh in it seemed unlikely we would stay there , but we did and won $1800 cash and $200 in Sunglasses vouchers. What a great day I had a ball and couldn't of done it without Mick . Anyone who's thinking about giving a comp a go should do a bit of pre fishing and get out there and try your hand it can be a lot of fun and most importantly I have learn't more in the last 3 months then I could have imagined , Maybe I will see some raiders at the Lake Macquarie round ? Tight Lines Bubba

Mate iv'e caught plenty of fish on surface but never a big eye , i can imagine they would really give you some stick, congrats it must have put a bend in your bream gear well done . P.s Can't wait to get up there , i will be aming for a 43cm big eye , nothing else matters now !!! Now will have to talk talk to the old man , he will have a special popper for big eye ! So secret you will have to cover your eyes while im casting it . Bubba

Unfortunately , even with the flooding it still beats living in the City . Bubba . P.s The misses would be stoked mate, you would have bathed twice in a month now !

COOKED UP THE SALMON IN A BROWN VINEGAR AND FLOUR BATTER - WAS REALLY GOOD. I USEF TO CHUCK THEM OUT WHEN I CAUGHT THEM, NOT ANYMORE. If you like those salmon then try the bonnies , bleed em of coarse and keep em on ice they cook up well nice firm flesh and go well with curries or just beer batter , it'll taste like lobster after eating salmon. Most people I know have never eaton a bonnie but they are great ,give it a go if you haven't already . Congrats on the fish mate salmon and bonnies both put on a good fight and hopefully you will pick up a king on your plastics or on the troll , good luck . Bubba

Just heard from my father that one of the old Forster Pro fisho drowned today on the Forster Bar . He was an experienced fisho and to hear that he had been going out in a 4.3m tinnie to catch a couple bonito and lost his life really makes you think about risk . Plenty of times I have been fishing off the breakwall and have seen many come close to losing their boat and life due to bad conditions and\or the inexperience of the drivers . So next time your going out especially a bar crossing make sure your wearing your jackets , aware of the risk and confident you and your vessel are up to the conditions . Before we cross the bar we know what the tide is going to be doing and if the swell is up we sit on the breakwall and just check it out before we put the boat in the water , that way you can pick out the safest path and check were the waves are really jacking up and make the decision if it's safe for us to cross or not . It's not worth the risk if your not sure don't do it. . Bubba P.S Would be great to hear any advice or tips for those who are going to attempt their first bar crossing .

Yeah Mate , this weekend i will be up the hawkesbury and give it a crack , My mate and i have fish baits for jew up there plenty of times but have no spots for bream , we had a prefish on sat and sunday but we only found one spot the had a few legal fish . To be honest im a bit worried about getting a bag but if you don't get in and make yourself persist at finding the buggers I will never get any better . What about you ? Any comps your going to have a crack at in the near future ?

Yeah I love it . Now all I need to catch is a Women to match it !! Bubba

Mate I will have to get up to visit and get in a pre fish on the Tweed , can't wait to get back up there it's a great spot you have there ! The comp was really fun although a bit stressful because as you know im a pretty competative and didn't want to bomb out . To get into the grand final made my day , but i would have just been happy with catching the 5 , as it happened all went well on the day due to pre fishing and finding out a few lures which really seem to be above and beyond the rest in my box . To start the day there was 51 boats and we wanted to get away from the obvious spots which would be getting hammered by the masses , it's busy up in Forster anyway at x-mas time with the population double due to holiday makers . We headed straight to a couple big fish racks , with the tide at high on start time it was the only real chance of getting into them , unfortunately we only got 1 just legal and then made the call to go right up the coolongalook and found some really dirty water where i had been getting a lot of fish on surface lures . this paid off and we had our bag by 9.00am and although not monsters it gave us the opportunity to look for upgrades and it takes a lot of pressure off . We went back down near wallice island and fished big poppers and sammy's in leases but they seemed dead so we then hit some rocky shoreline without any more success . With a couple hours left the breeze had picked up and was perfect for hitting the flats . [The week prior prefishing with JB JEW i had found a hump , I call it the magic hump because of the shear number of fish we caught and i had marked in the first 30 fish we caught . Each drift was about 30m apart and this showed where the fish were concentrated on the hump] So i drove straight to the hump and we got 3 fish in 5-or 6 casts and they were all upgrades giving us a nice bag , we then kept fishing this an a couple other areas on the weedbeds but couldn't get another upgrade. So all in all i had a great time and really enjoyed the whole competition side of fishing . It makes you work hard and pushess you to learn more about a particular type of fish . We should have got some photo's holding the fish but we were fishing pretty hard and forgot about that , anyhow here is what i have of the day . Bubba

Escape of the Anchors . You could try an anchor wanker , they basically consit of a foam ball and a key hole shaped bit of stainless which is attched to your anchor and the stainless has an opening clip which allows you to slip it on your anchour rope , then you just drop it over the side tie the rope to your bollard and at a fairly slow speed you drive back up and around where you have anchoured , the water pressure will push the foam ball down onto your anchor and it can help disloge the anchour and it should float up to the sueface and is then very easy to pull in , at worst your anchor rope breaks and the foam ball will float back up . . Congrats on the King , keep putting in hours like that , and more will follow , Cheers Bubba

The first couple of days in Forster I hit my tried and tested racks with very little success and then Roberta and I ventured up the Wallamba without any change then after x-mas it slowly turned around for me, unlike the weather . After 2 weeks I had forgotten what the sun looked like as it was overcast every day and there where showers as well . Not CHristmas weather!! Anyhow , I found fish in a couple new racks and out on some weedbeds . One morning getting smoked and busted off on the heavy gear 7 times in the racks then finding only one fish in the area the foloowing day , I went home and decided to try the weedbeds the next day . My mate JB JEW a fellow raider met up with me on this moring and we had an awesome days fishing , starting off on the weebdebs and then some racks in the arvo .He is a lucky bugger and has caught Jew 2 of the 3 times i've taken him and it didn't stop today as we pulled up at our first spot and within 1 or 2 mins were into them and the action was hot for hours . How many fish we caught im not sure I lost count , it really made up for all the slow days over the preivous week or so . Most of the fish were caught on shallow divers either fat or skinny in natural colours on the weedbeds and big poppers in the racks using 25lb leader and a 6kg rod really helps get their heads up and gives you a chance, a slight chance. . We had the new boat I call it Hellboy which got us up to the weedbeds fast and i think JB JEW was surprised at the speed from the look on his face . Here is one of the fish , we got some good ones and JB JEW learn't a lot about breaming a great day and he was heaps of fun to fish with. Mate you will get a good one if you keep swinging, Never Give Up !!

i should be up there on the 3rd of jan 10 hitting the lake everyday in my 3.5 ally craft If you like surface lures it's a great time to hammer somer whiting , in the paddock and around the markers past hells gates . Those cheap clear poppers work well as well as shimano poppers and the top end jap stuff walk the dog style lures . make sure you give it a crack at first light though before there is toooo much traffic .

This x-mas im about to head up to Forster Tuncurry for 3 weeks of fishing , any Raiders heading up that way ? Usually im fishing inside for bream flatties and whiting ., with the occasional trip off Forster Harrington and Tuncurry Breakwall . Thinking about even heading up to Taree and having a look around there . Has anyone been for a fish in any of these areas in the last couple weeks ?

When i grew up in Forster many moons ago , we would go prawing a fair bit and used to tie up off a lease at the back of pipers bay . If you are leaving from the main boat ramp you just go down through the paddock turn left through hells gates and then as your travelling down the main channel on your left about 100m or so before the leases on the left hand side end , there is a sneaky little gap you can drive through . It's only 4ft to 8 ft deep and you can see the flats behind the lease . this way when the prawns come off the flats you have no pro's or anyone between them and your boat . It's pretty much at the back of the caravan park , Lani's i think . The only warning i would give you is to get there early if there is a lot of traffic or pro's out , and you can also so access this spot from Forster Keys , at the end of King George Parade . Last time the old man and I went to this spot it started off pretty slow and so i would put i live prawn on a light jighead and drop it over into the lease for a bream . But the best method was to put one direclty under the boat right behind your lights and we caught a lot of whiting and small faltties this way . MMMMMM Prawns... Bubba

This was caught off the northern breakwall at Harrington , what a great easy safe spot to fish . It was a bout 2 years ago at x-mas , around midday perfectly clear and hot , just on high . My mate big Johnno got one a bit bigger and it was his first time casting plastics for jew . His was caught just before the top of the tide . He used a big dropbear slickrig and i had a green orange and gold , saltwater sqidgy , one of those big one's that looks like it's made for tuna or small marlin . You could easy drift livies along the wall in the boat or slow troll them or a big sp or hb . Each time ive been there i see a couple locals go up the end of the break wall and chuck around a couple plastics just on the turn then walk back . The bar at harrington can get pretty messy on the outskirts especially on the run out and also if the north easter has picked up as it seems to do most arvo's up there at christmas . Keep a lookout for me if your heading out the bar at harrington over x-mas , i'll be sure to hit this spot at some stage . Dolphin fish should be around as well the one's ive caught up at Forster have been 2 to 4 kg with the odd fish aroun 6 to 8 kg , a lot of fun on light gear . When you finish fishing at harrington i would suggest a visit to the pub and try the tucker , it was great each time i've been there , and haard to drive past without stopping . . Good luck Bubba

This is the new Bubba Mobile , had the motor put on today , hoping to have it in action this weekend . Skeeter ZX 170 with a 115 HO ETEC . Should be a bit quicker then my current 3.75 Quinne Exploer with 20 HP Merc . Hopefully it won't blow off what little hair i have left . Bubba

Really happy with Nitlon and Sunline Flurocarbon leaders , as for using a 250m spool of Vanish im not a 100 pecrent sure with vanish... but spools that size are generally main line fluro's for fishing staight through from reel to lure or bait .The small spools of Leader are generally harder and more abrasion resistant they may carry the same brand name but can often have a different formula to give you different properties that are better in a leader line . Sunline also does small spools of mono leader for surace lures it's very clear hard and has performed well for me . Bubba

About three years ago i worked for Minn Kota [sales] and i know they used to do a model that sits on the back of your outboard , it's about an 80lb model , which is just the motor basically no shaft or steering head and you steer by using your current steering wheel . once your on the plain it is out of the water and creates no drag, also your batteries can be down the back or middle of your boat then . This can give your boat some stealth in the estuary and shallows . It would still be available i hope , not as popular as the tiller or bowmount models , obviously , but it is the best way i have seen to put an electric onto a boat like yours , Bubba

My old man always talks about 1020 fish a plenty , but he also talks about the different affect the barometer has on a major predator eg Jew , in his experience he has always told me to look for a big storm coming in and a crashing barometer, then get out there in the wind and rain . He has caught many over the years and these are usually big solid fish so I don't argue with Big Max on this point.

Good to hear your getting plenty of use out of that new boat , im glad it's gone to a good home . Now you can use your little car topper as a tender to the mothership. Those muddies are a bloody good catch off the back yard and they have better looking heads then both of us ! Have you got a name for your boat yet? Bubba.

You will see me up there for x-mas holidays about the 23rd dec to the 11th . You should come for a spin with me on my new boat , I don't have it yet but im supposed to be picking up a skeeter ZX170 with a 115HO mid december , we could hit some of those summer whiting on the surface lures and a few bream. Like last year i will probably spend a bit of time up the wallingat as well . Let me know if your keen . Dan Bubba Frost

What a Bugger , Oh well there is always next time ! When I was about 10 or 12 my dad used to take me rock fishing one day we catching mac tuna for a bit of fun but ended up losing our few metals we had taken and so my old man just pulled out the barrel sinkers from his tackle box rubbed them against the rocks for a minute until they were shiny and put his line streight through and tied a treble on the back . It worked really well and i have done this many times as a poor youngster or when I too had no metals with me . Bubba

Well I was glad you hooked that Beast in the few remaining secounds we had ,and not me after you cracked your 4th beer . Had a ball mate , just like when we went to Weipa , can't wait for the next adventure and it really made my day to see you join the club Congrats mate , your a Champion . . P.s Here is the fish from Awoonga, Bubba