wchh

Arrived at the beach for a lazy 8:30 am start. Low tide and there were only a few surfers and they were miles out to catch those occasional waves. Fishing wise I was the only one casting, with another to my north trying for worms. Caught the bream within the first 15 min, which went 35 cm. Felt mission accomplished at this point. I had a few more pilchards with me so stayed on and caught those flatheads (smallest one next to the bream in the photo is 34 cm) and the last fish caught was the dart which is also 35cm. At around 11:15 AM there were a few young lads decided to have a swim just in front of where I was standing. Had enough fish in the bucket and not wanting to catch the swimmers, I gave up the gutter to them, threw the leftover pilchard and came home. All in all, had about three hours good time on the beach and sorted this week's fish supply. cheers charles

I fished on Wanda beach last night until 10:00 pm. The water looked perfect but I didn't get any thing to keep. There were at least 15 people on the beach, I only saw two keeper fish caught. Then I went back this morning fished in howling wind from 11:30 to 1:30 pm. Caught 5 fish with one flathead went about 55 cm. Seems we should all try to fish daytime when it is fully moon?

Hi Neil, I measured with a steel ruler: they are about 27 mm in length and 12 mm in width. Charles

Thanks Rick, very informative!

I won't be too surprised if you pull a barramundi out of hacking! I will spread the news if you do not catch a good bag next time!

Thanks! It takes a while for the excitement to wear

As Bruce posted earlier: I will take a break until I have some room in the freezer

Hope this comes as consistent as your hackings routine!

Hi Rick, I harvested one pair in 2010 and used in my profile photo. I did not look for them on later fish, until you reminded me this time. I found them on this fish, they are a lot bigger!

Yes, I also took home a good flathead about 50cm, one tailor about 40cm. Those were caught around 7:30 pm. In addition to the three fish I took home, I caught 6 or 7 just legal (31-33cm) tailor all went back but one gut hooked fish was kept for the jewbait. Turned out this small investment did win a decent return!

Thanks guys! This fish put up a very tough fight. I had to walk along the beach with it quite a bit before I could wash it up. Took about 10 minutes Roland it. I did manage to put on my glove while I was fighting the fish so there was no injury this time! Last time I had to fight a fish this hard was when I got eagled at Mona Vale beach!

Caught this one off Cronulla/ Wanda beach last night right on high tide. Tailor fillet was the bait. 30 lb mainline, 40 pound leader, single 4/0 suicide hook, usual setup for my beach sessions length was 123 cm. this made my last PB of 1 meter (caught on 21/10/2017) stood for only two months Charles

I always see people fishing along Brighton/ramsgate beach but rarely see them catching anything. Your catch is by far the best result I have ever seen! Well done!

I was fishing Maroubra beach last night and had the whole beach to myself. Wind and a bit of rain cut the session short, but managed one bream, one flathead and one tailor. Got back to Cronulla beach this morning, caught many 30-32cm blue spotted flathead. Only one legal dusky of 45cm came home with me. Some weeds in the water otherwise condition was OK.

Too bad to lose the big one. Great result on the other fish by all means!

30lb mainline, 30lb leader and the 2# hook put me at the lower side of confidence level. I had no issue to beach the fish setting the light/medium drag but was very mindfull not to pull once the fish touched sand. Due to I was solo, I had to put the rod on the sand and handled the fish bare handed. I must have put my hand very close to the mouth if not into it. The whole process made 3 of my fingers a total mess. Lessen learnt: always wear a glove as a minimum, better still have the gaff handy.

Meter bream ? That must be very rare. I am yet to crack the 50 cm mark as the larger one of the two I caught on 40 lb leader two weeks ago went only 44 cm and refreshed my previous bream PB by 3 cm. 40 lb and 80lb leader are two of the choices I use on the beach. I normally use 40lb with a section (about 20 cm ) of 80 lb in the front. This conmbination minimises tangle of lines , handles the biggest tailor OK and I found fish from the beach do not mind leader size that much. I even caught whiting on 80 lb leader. It must have been the wave action made the stiffness of bigger leader less noticeable?

My last beach Jew was caught in 2010 off Mona vale beach. That fish was 92 cm and stood as my PB jewie for all those years! The record was finally refreshed with a full meter fish last night. Fish was caught from Cronulla beach, @ 8:00 pm sharp. 12ft beach rod, 30lb main line, 30lb leader(a piece of the mainline). Half of a smallish pillie on a size 2 suicide hook. I was targeting bream and flathead as it was still a couple of hours before high tide. Appeared the fish was hungry and jumped out too early. Charles

I cook dart "braised", first shallow fry the fish both sides until golden brown. Remove the fish from the pan and add a bit of more oil to sauté green pepper corn, ginger, shallots, garlic. It the fish back in the pan on top of the sautéed stuff then add vinegar, soy sauce , salt and a bit of water just to cover the fish. Cover with lid and bring to the boil. Turn to low heat and simmer for about one hour or when the liquid is reduced to just about to dry up. Serve hot with steamed rice. As dart is small fish, you will need a few fish to make a meal, at least one fish for each person. How does this sound?

I use Uni knot or improved clinch knot. Owing to the bigger diameter of the leader, I wrap about 5 turns

Made to the beach 15 min to 8. Caught a keeper tailor at the first cast. Baited with a big fillet @8:05 ; within the last hour and half, there was not even a touch. There is not much wave, just smaller ones with long period. Too quiet. I will give it another 15 min and then go home. Charles

That is a very nice looking bag of flathead! Well done, as usual!

Yes, Neil, that is a dart. Two weeks ago they were on Wanda beach in big numbers. I did not catch any yesterday thought they must have moved on.

Made a 3 hour beach session each on Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday was a group event with 4 of us trying to manage 2 rods. Later the other 3 decided to have a walk so that I can concentrate on my fishing. Kept two tailor caught ealier of the night and donated one to a shark, and the other was demolished by a bigger tailor which was landed. Come home with 4 fish with total count of 13 when we finished the session at 8 o'clock Sunday was a solo trip with an aim to catch tailor and use as bait. Arrived at about 5 pm and found the beach was packed. Caught a few small tailor all about 20cm. Without a keeper tailor for bait I had to keep going with my pilchard. Along the way trying for tailor, I caught two flathead with the larger one went 48 cm. On my last pilchard I finally caught a keeper tailor but this one was too big and it was 8 o'clock and a bit so packed up with three fish came home with me. The trip did not come to the plan. I might give it another go tonight if not tired out during the day's work. Charles

The gutter in Maroubra does move around a bit due to wave actions. I went last Sunday and saw two reasonable gutters. One was at the north end of the beach and the other was at the south end right in front of the surfing club. I normally go a bit earlier when there is still a bit of daylight and the tide is less than half full. Another trick is: if it was totally dark or tide is full, look for the signage of " dangerous current " left there by the life savers and try about 50 meters left or right of the signage.