rickster

BRILLIANT, but you've gotta get out more, maybe loosen the strap on the hat, coulbd be a bit tight. Just one question: What colours the sky in your world?

We generally use a rod around 12ft. Remember the longer the rod, the further you can cast, the better you can strike, plus it gives you better control when actually playing the fish. Anything less makes it harder work. Rick

Hi Victor, i fish the rock almost exclusively in summer unless the weather is shit. We see a lot of guys out there that we know will struggle to catch blackies and 90% of the time it's because of their rig/presentation. Best way to learn is carefully watch the experienced guys and how they fish. is your bait presentation the same as theirs,(not too big and covering the hook) are you fishing the same depth, are you berleying(most important). Float needs to be weighted as fine as you can get, but showing enough that you can still see it. don't use anything heavier than about 3kg trace. you may lose a few but isn't that better than not hooking any at all? i still use the mustard green sneck hooks, size 8, no bigger. unfortunately the peak season for the rocks has finished, mate and i actually gave it a good go yesterday morn for 3 fish and conditions were perfect. seems the best these days is from around september until november. and remember, correct clothing/footwear. Hope this helps, cheers, Rick

As with others, if anyone would like to give the harbour blackfish a go, i'd be more than happy to help show this fine art. Best times are yet to come, normally March/April through to June/July. Will be landbased, could be anywhere from Vaucluse to start of Parra River. Your rod or i have a spare, something around 10ft and light, centrepin or threadline, i can supply the rig/float etc. If no more rain can ALMOST promise a few for the dinner table.PM if interested, looking for in about 1 months time. Cheers Rick

That'll be your newest challenge. Remember i've fished the harbour east and west for the past 30 odd years, and sometimes in my boat. Still there may be the odd sneaky spot that still exists, we'll see, i might be pleasantly surprised. By the way, in the time you've been away, a few more spots are accessible and a few others aren't-progress.

Yeah he goes alright Roberta (well taught). Good chance we may catch up for a fish si i'll make sure i take the camera for some pics. Then again if he catches too many of our blackys we should all chip in and send him back to NZ

Hi Royce, since the site update i'm struggling to work out how to PM but lovely Donna is helping me through it. if you know how you can PM me we'll exchange numbers etc. Rick

Hi Royce, with new format i'm trying to find out how to PM. Please let me know if this works. Cheers, Rick

Weed, if can work out how to PM me i can tell you where you can get some.

The next person who says "but gee we need the rain" could not be a fisherman. just when it look lick the nigs were starting to show in the harbour it hasn't stopped raining. still, got out on Saturday, had to work hard at a couple of spots west of the bridge and managed 7 downs for 7 fish and no, not a surgeon to be found. Size ranged from around 500gr to probably just over the kilo. water colour is not the best and we probably need two good weeks of clear skies to get it to where it should be. Ventured out again on sunday with a mate and we had an absolute shocker. started closer to Vaucluse area, water still not a good colour, and worked our way back to where i got fish on the saturday. 4 spots in all and hardly a touch. Getting very frustrated so i doubt that i'll bother trying again until at least...........................bugger it, this saturday. by the way, with the update to the forum, i haven't been able to open 4 PMs that i got on friday arvo so if luderick-angler, terruts, stefan and stylo could possible resend them it would be appreciated. cheers, Rick

You go for it stewy, 20lb braid can't be that expensive - or is it. I'll still back a surgeon going a 100mph through pylons against 20lb braid on most days. you could always go heavier but i'm not sure what the breaking strain of your blackfish stick is.

Definetely busting, we only use about 2kg trace for the blackys, it's like hooking up with an anchor only these don't stop when they hit the bottom. if you have'nt hooked them before on light gear, be afraid, be very afraid!

I can't believe the number of maniacs that have PM'd me for details on spots in the harbour to chase surgeons. To hazza, vietgod, cephalod, woodchop and smitty, you guys have my deepest sympathy I have emailed you all the same 2 "hotspots", maybe you can get in contact with each other and arrange a trip. My mate Steve and I will join you, though as he suggested, we won't actually be fishing, we'll be the ones selling the floats and laughing ourselves silly at the number of bust-ups. A lot of fishos probably aren't aware of the surgeons power and speed on those initial runs but it can be quite amazing. get into it boys and enjoy!

Hi raiders, I sit here amazed reading the responses. Having fished the harbour for blackfish for more years than i care to remember, and getting busted repeatedly by these "lovely' creatures, i find it hard to believe so many people enjoy re-rigging. We do land them occassionally, but only using 2kg trace the odds aren't generally in our favour. I must admit that they are a buzz for those first few seconds and I've been known to get great enjoyment (laughing out loud actually) watching my mates hook them, mainly because i know they'll be laughing when it's my turn. Anyone who wants to know a few special spots for these are quite welcome to PM me and i'll pass them on.

Mate and i went out on sunday morning chasing blackfish in the harbour. Worked hard but managed 10 between us in about 5 hours (3 spots)so not brilliant. What is encouraging though is the number of fish we occasionally saw laying about 3 feet below the surface where it's about 20 feet deep or more. Only small groups of a half dozen or so and always on the move. I backed up again Australia Day and fished a couple of spots west of the bridge. Managed 4 fairly quickly, biggest probably just under a kilo, and dropped as many in the first spot i tried. I began thinking, geez, pretty soon i'll be needing help lifting the keeper net in and out of the water. Sure enough one more down in the next hour. Never get too far ahead of yourself. You'd think we should know better. Anyway, took a quick pic, put them back in and tried another spot not too far away. Again burleyed up and in very quick time landed another (all released). Started to get a bit too warm by now so decided to call it quits and actually left them biting. Weed again is a bit hard to find, but that's usually the way, whens there's miles of weed, there's not as many fish.

This is basically a fisheries pond and it's like this all year round and i think they may use it for breeding, unsure. And no, I've never seen this in natural waters unfortunately

This is an enclosed area with a grating at the outlet so nothing can get in or out. you can feed these fish with bread etc and watch the speed of the flathead when they pounce, it's awesome. with the bream and blackfish, when you throw out the bread it's like pirannas attacking. enclosing another pic of more sunbaked lizards.

Make sure you visit the maritme and fisheries pond, ask locals for directions, it's very near to town. Full of bream, blackfish and flathead etc. Enclosing a pic, hope it turns out. You can fish it, just take along a lazy $10,000 for the fine. Rick Make sure you check out the maritime and fisheries pond. Full of bream, blackfish and flathead. It's right in town, ask any locals for directions. you can fish it, just take along a lazy $10,000 for the fine. Rick

Hi again, I forgot to mention that we tried another area on Sunday morning but no success. the was a guy there already there live baiting. He had just landed his third fish, a king around 10-12 pound, to go with a smaller one at around 5lb and a bonito. I think he may have left a light behind which I found, he would have started fishing in the dark as i was there about 6.00am. If he's a raider and reads this, he can PM me and i'll be glad to organise to get his nifty light back to him. Cheers.

Hi, Fished with a couple of mates on Saturday for blackies. Swell was up a little, not dangerous but did get a bit of spray to cool us down. Conditions were OK but first hour a distinct lack of fish. Finally i got my first down, but had been waiting so long i nearly forgot what to do. Strike, just wind or simply enjoy the moment. Decided to strike and a couple of minutes later, a nice fish in the swimmer. Headed back to the rock and Mate Kev is just landing a fish as well. Threw straight back in, down again and dropped him. Bit quite again then another down and hooked up. Not sure if it's a luderick, fighting harder but maybe not hard enough for a pig. Finally get him in and hey! a nice bream around 600-700gm (SEE PIC)taken on the local green weed. Look around and Kev's on again, but unfortunately dropped him right at his feet. At least thing's starting to look promising. THEN up come two hohoho going for a dive. It can be annoying enough when they go in within 50 metres of you but these two ignorant a***holes went in at our feet. We have a lot of rocks around Sydney and the Eastern Suburbs to enter but what they did was downright ignorant. Needless to say, not another bite was to be had, gave it up after about another hour. All I ask is that they show some consideration, especially as they seen us actually playing fish as they were getting ready. Most divers are pretty good but not these two!

HATE TO SWIM IT!

The reason that there's so many is the same reason we get cockys and black trevally off the rocks when blackfishing. I blame Adam and Eve for eating that damn apple, It's Gods way of punishing us, there can be no other logical reason. Rick

Just finished hols so unfortunately back to work today. Managed quite a few days chasing the nigs and generally been OK considering the conditions over the past couple of weeks. Too many southeasters and flat seas but that's what we have to put up with at times. Got out a couple of days at the end of the week, Friday was absolutely perfect, no wind, overcast and just a lovely drift. Only fished about 2 hours for 8 nice fish, biggest being just under a kilo and my last drift of the morning. Back out with my mate Steve on Saturday, same spot but vastly different conditions, now a strongish northwester that soon switched around to a solid northeaster. Had to work hard between us but still managed 7 fish each in trying conditions. Stupid enough to waste our time again Sunday, no swell, strong southeaster and bright sunshine. Neither of us had a bite and Steve remarked at one stage that his bit of weed had actually grown, it had been on that long.

Hi all and merry xmas, haven't posted for a little while as couldn't get any pics out of my mobile to computer. just bought a digital camera and being the electronics wizard that i am, only took my wife a few minutes to show me how to use it. anyway, we've been getting quite a few nigs lately when conditions have been kind but finding it hard to get two good days in a row. ventured out yesterday to a favourite spot on the southside and couldn't complain about the weather etc. overcast, rising tide, not too much swell and only a very light southeaster. had the spot to myself which is very unusual and started fishing just before 7.00am. by7.30 had four in the bag, biggest about 750gm and thought with the tide getting better, a bit more wash and drift, it gonna only get better. WRONG! Conditions ideal but took me another 2 1/2 hours to get only three more though did drop a few. Left about 10.00, put the fish back in to fight another day (next week?) and greatly looking forward to the hols and hopefully a good run with the weather. Cheers.

We all have mates that we tend to fish with most weekends. I'm no different and an absolute blackfish fanatic, but sometimes you play russian roulette organising days out with certain individuals. My mate Kev, or Axe to his closest friends, is one such person. To say Axe can have a bit of bad luck when it comes to the weather conditions is like saying the titanic took a bit of water. In actually fact, for years Axe was just simply known as Cyclone. No further proof is needed than the weekend just past. Usual phone calls on Friday and Axe decides he's not happy with the swell and wind forcasts and he's gonna give the rocks a miss on Saturday but will probably head out on the Sunday. So Steve, Kenny and I join up, hit the rocks on the southside with conditions ideal, as we expected. High tide, not too much swell and the wind behind us. Probably haven't seen the nigs so thick and agressive as Saturday. End result that in about 3 hours or so we hit the half century, a lot went back. Even a couple of a...hole divers who got a little close didn't put the fish off. A great morning. Axe is now as keen as to get amongst them on the Sunday so organise to catch up. To say that Axe and the weather don't exchange Xmas cards is pretty spot on. 6.30 on Sunday morning and conditions look ideal, not a breath of wind. Axe rings telling me he's on his way and when i get close to our spot, gee, is that a southerly blowing. 15-20 knots southeaster, seas have flattened and conditions very very ordinary. How does he do it? This is getting way past coincedence. We persisted but were lucky to get 6 between us. Still, we'll be out there again next weekend so if any of you are making plans as to what day might be the best, by all means contact me and I'll give you the thumbs up as to which day(s) the Axe WON'T BE FISHING.