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That's frickin' unreal!!! What a great advert these reports are for 'hopping' over to bali for some GT action! hmm wedding anniversary soon - wonder if I can persuade the wife that we need a romantic spa break somewhere warm.... PAUL TO WIFE: "...I'm not really in the mood for a spa today hon, why don't you go by yourself instead... I'll find something to do with myself for a few hours... maybe they do fishing trips or something like that round here"

I've signed up now. Will hopefully be "with yak" by then to give me greater catching options. Not that winning anything is the point to this anyway - it's a good cause that deserves my $20 and if I can get a whole days fishing out of it even better! High Tides for the 11th (for Sydney anyway) appear to be just after 6am and 6pm giving everyone the opportunity to fish a run-in or run-out tide. Good uck everyone!

Good work Pete as usual!! Glad to see you're returning a few for the rest of us to catch too Paul

Good on you to all of you who have the humility to clean other people's mess - without the likes of you we probably would have lost all of our LB spots already. I've been doing my bit to clean up my local wharf at Balmoral for the last year now but feel I'm fighting a losing battle. Even after cleaning up all of the line, hooks, rubbish etc there's still all of the bits of bait, fish scales, blood etc everywhere - it's disgusting and frankly a health hazard. It's just embarrasing to be there when kids and parents come to take a look. I went to Clifton Gardens last weekend for the first time in over a year - I stopped going there because it was not a nice experience to fish there. I got there before dawn so couldn't see the mess that was around me. Early in the morning a mother brought a little girl down to see what was happening and just as I turned to say hello I saw that the girl (barefoot) was about to step on a hook. I managed to stop her in time but felt so embarrased and it wasn't even my hook. Well I'm done with it now. I'm buying a kayak and will be doing as much fishing as I can from the water from now on. Paul

I had the same experience over Christmas at Balmoral. I was out for a walk with the wife and in-laws in the morning and could see the commotion. A pretty sizable school of salmon had worked the whitebait up to the shoreline and were chasing them from one end of the beach to the other. It was nuts! We went back to the beach in the afternoon for a swim and they were still there. We were literally stood waist deep in the water with the whitebait around us and every 5 minutes the salmon would come in a hit them right amonst us all standing/swimming. Incredible sight to see up close. I sooooo wanted to go back and grab my flick-stick but my wife shot me a look that put that idea to rest Next day the whitebait had moved back out in the bay followed by the salmon

Hi John, I'm not sure I can offer too much but I was there a few years ago and did get out on a charter. I'm frantically looking for their name as the guy we went out with was a top bloke - big scarey looking ex-navy kiwi guy who was nice as pie - but can't find it right now. I'll see if the can dig it out later and will PM you if I do. Anyway we went out in the afternoon and tried a few marks trolling for tuna and wahoo and didn't find a thing until about an hour before sunset, when we finally found them and nailed 3 tuna in quick succession. Great fun!! As for land based, I didn't fish but from what I remember a large portion of the lagoon seems to be unfishable as it is too shallow. When the tide is up you might find it 4-5 foot deep and there are plenty of small reef fish around. If the beach/water is quiet you'll see bonefish around so it might be a good opportunity to target them. We stayed on the western side and I remember the lagoon being that shallow all the way from Arutanga to the airport. On the east coast there are muddy sand flats that run for most of the length of the island. These are again very shallow from memory, but at low tide are stuffed full of small crabs. So my bet is that at high tide there are plenty of fish coming up feed on them - might be worth a prospect. The only land-based deep water I can remember is an area south of the runway. There's a nice little restaurant/bar down there called "Samade On the Beach" I think. Hire a scooter and go down there for a look whether you fish or not! Anyway in front of the beach there is a narrow channel maybe 20-25m wide that is very deep (can't see the bottom when snorkelling) and runs parallel to the whole beach before opening out into the deeper section of the main lagoon. Have a look on google maps and you'll see what I mean. http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&sou...mp;t=h&z=17 Anyway I would bet that is a great highway or larger fish so would be worth a try. On a side note, if you get chance get your scooter license in rarotonga before you fly to aitutaki, then hire a scooter and take it round the island. It's an amazing way to explore it and you'll see lots more!! Have fun, it's an amazing place! Paul

Congrats, that's an impressive session land-based! I can only assume that was off one of the big wharves near the bridge or balmain or somehwere like that? I haven't heard of any kings showing up in numbers around the MH wharves recently, and when they do they seem to be really fussy and very hard to catch. So I think you've done really well there! Paul

Congratulations on a very productive few sessions!! Sounds to me like you don't have much learning left to do! Paul

You can't go wrong with the basic sliding sinker rig. Just remember to keep in touch with your bait, i.e. don't have a big arc of line above or below the water, otherwise you can easily miss bites. I see so many beginners who leave lots of line out after casting, expecting that the "bite" will be the fish running off with the bait. What they miss is the small taps and jerks where fish pick up the bait, realise there is a hook in it or feel the weight and then spit it out. If you keep in contact with your bait with a taut line you will tune into these taps, know when to stike when others wouldn't, and drastically increase your hookup rate. Clarke's point is a nice "easy" spot with a few places along the wall where you can wedge your rod. I've not caught a great deal there but found that burleying hard makes a big difference to get the bream in - mashed bread little and often will work as a basic recipe. I've found garfish often turn up too, in which case you can catch them using little or no weight, and a small piece of breaded moulded around a longshank hook. Slowly retrieve it too as the gar often like to follow a bait. This is also not a bad method for catching the smaller bream that should turn up if you are burleying. What are you planning to use as bait? Don't eat anything you catch from west of the harbour bridge either as the dioxin levels are too high. Good luck!! Paul

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'll add Yarra Bay to my list! Paul

Thanks for the replies chaps. I think I'll try either darling pt or woolloomooloo. Clifton gardens is open again but I'm looking for something on the other side of the harbour Know what you mean about the birdlife yakkman - I've lost count of the livies I've had nicked at balmoral Paul

Afternoon fellow raiders! I'm planning to take a friend fishing for the first time (his first time not mine ) and I'm after a little advice as to where to takt him. I'm normally landbased around middle harbour but since he lives in the city I offered to take him somewhere down his way (south of the harbour). For his first time I didn't want to put him through the dangers of the ocean-facing rocks so was going to find a nice jetty or wall somewhere on the harbour side between Potts Point and Vaucluse. Trouble is I haven never fished down there. So does anyone have any suggestions? So far I've only come up with Darling Pt wharf in McKell Park, but I'm having trouble finding out whether fishing is allowed there and whether the ferries/boats are likely to make it a nightmare. Rose Bay wharf looks good on the map but is it actually fishable and does it get very busy? All suggestions welcome! Thanks in advance Paul

Depends what hooks you're using really. I use 2/0 - 4/0 circle hooks which are designed so that you do not strike - instead the weight of the fish swimming away rotates the hook in the mouth and catches the corner. Circle hooks or wide gape hooks are perfect for this type of fishing. If you're using a regular J/suicide/livebait hooks etc then you will almost certainly need to strike.

Use a small pea sinker just to force them down in the water - has to be light enough so that they can still swim. Keep in contact with the fish by slowly taking up slack line - the fish will naturally swim back towards you covering more ground. When it starts going ballistic get ready as it is usually followed by the thud of the flatty engulfing it. Pinning it either behind the head or dorsal fin will work but I find with poddy's on the flats that if you hook them through the nose (through the mouth so the bottom jaw is free to move) then they swim nicely back to you and don't tire so quickly. I've not fished them deep or offshore before so will let others answer that, but I suspect they will not be as effective as other livebaits as poddy's are naturally found in shallow or top water. Paul

I use one of the Alvey bait traps. They have holes at either end making it a little easier for the fish to find their way in. But I find this also works against me when I go to get the trap out - you should always approach the trap from the side of the hole so that the fish panic and swim to the other end so they are well and truly trapped. With the Alvey you can't do that as I find some of the fish find their way out of the opposite hole - so you need to approach it sort of side on instead. Besides being collapsable the Alvey also has a few small holes drilled at each end where you can tie some weights to keep it on the bottom. Also one end is removable to make it easier to take the fish out. You really do need shallow water though (I'd reccomend no more than 12" over the trap really) for them to work as poddy's don't like to be down deep. If the fish are in deeper water (if the tide is up for example), one trick I've found is suspend the whole thing under a couple of bobby floats tied to each end on a foot of mono. With a couple of weights on the bottom or rocks inside the whole thing suspends near the surface. I've used this trick at narrabeen a few times when the tides have been up. A bit fiddly but it gets results when placing it on the bottom doesn't work. Paul

I pretty much use the above techniques but I usually use a small handful of breadcrumbs in the trap. Once you've placed it on the bottom give it a quick shake to disturb the crumbs and make a "cloud" in the trap. It's fine if some of them come out as it gives the fish a path of food to follow in . I've found that using a trap generally gets me small mullet, mostly too small to use (1"-2"). If I'm going to be targetting flathead I usually resort to using a hook and bread as A.dawg has said. That way I nearly always get them around the 3"-4" size, perfect for flathead. They're not always too easy to hook though and the technique takes a while to perfect but once you have it you can usually get a bucket full in a hour. I use a size 12 longshank with a piece of bread gently moulded around it to about the size of a pea. I use a small split shot about 6" from the hook to give a little casting weight and to offset the bread so that it sinks slowly. Once cast I keep a tight line on it by retrieving slowly so the mullet pretty much hook themselves when they take it, which is usually within a few seconds of it hitting the water! Of course it helps if you have mullet around too Paul

I had every intention of fishing Balmoral but it was already pretty busy when I got there at 5:30am so decided to give it a miss. I really can't wait for Clifton Gardens to open again so that the pressure is relieved on Balmoral - last Saturday I went down there at lunchtime and counted 36 rods in the water - 36!! I think that place can take maybe 10 max before things get tricky! Anyway back to the fishing! It was a beautiful sunny and calm morning so decided to check out Bradley's Head in the hope of spotting some Salmon and Tailor bust-ups and getting a lure to them. The water was flat calm and sure enough the bust-up's were easy enough to spot. Unfortunately for me they all seemed to be just a little out of casting range. I noticed quite a lot of baitfish in close - unusual for here really - so went after a few to use as livebait. Turns out most of them were small tailor, but managed to get pick a few slimies and yakkas out of the mix to use. There was a feirce current kicking through so I had a to use a heavy sinker rig with them - far from ideal - but pinning them through the nose seemed to keep them alive for a good period. First livie out got smacked after 10 minutes peeling line off very quickly. Flicked the baitrunner switch and struck but the hooks didn't set Just as I was reeling in we saw a horse of a king come through the school of baby tailor at our feet, in no more than 6 ft of water! It was easily over a metre and certainly the biggest king I've seen up close like that! Second livebait went out with the baitrunner on and I went back to casting lures. There were plenty of bust-up's happening and 5-6 boats had now surrounded them and were drifting from the zoo down to the head. From the looks of what they were catching they were tailor. Still none in close enough for me though I glanced at the livebait rod just as it got a good thump but no line taken so immediately called it for a flathead. So I lifted the rod and felt the weight there and struck into it. A nice fella that went 50cm - yum dinner! By this time the wind had got up and was starting to make things difficult but I had one livie left so thought I'd give it a quick cast. This one took about a minute to get hit in typical flathead fashion - one big thump as they engulf it and then slowly moving off. Struck into it and brought it to my feet only for it to throw the hook before I could lift it This one was smaller and since I had the other in the bag I wasn't too bothered at losing it. The sourtherly was now gusting good and proper so decided to call it a day and went home for breakfast! Not a bad few hours really! Tried a new recipe for the flathead if anyone's interested - lemon pepper marinade. Half a lemon zest, half a lemon juice, few tbs of olive oil, salt, and a good 12-15 turns of black pepper. Marinate for an hour or two in the fridge and then pan fry the fillets for 2-3 minutes depending on thickness until they're cooked 2/3rds through. Then put the pan under a hot grill to finish the top of the fillets until they're just cooked. Enjoy! Paul

Thanks everyone for all of the replies and suggestions of reputable operators. I think they did what they could in terms of putting us on fish so it's just the conditions that I'm annoyed about - or rather that there was no mention before we went out that it might be poor and we were pretty much just told to get on with it. In fact I recall one of the crew saying "you may as well get out there, once you're wet you can't get any wetter"! I do understand that it cost them wages, bait, and fuel though, which is why I didn't make a fuss about paying. So I'm just going to take this one on the chin. A few of you have been kind enough to offer to take me out on your own boats - that's very generous of you and I might just have to take you up on that. When the wife finally lets me buy my own I'll certainly repay the favour! Cheers Paul

Thanks for all the feedback. There was no mention that the weather might be a factor before we went out. To be fair when we were picked up from Balmoral there was just a light drizzle and the bay was flat calm. It wasn't until we got near the heads that it got ugly. But they still should have known what the conditions were like outside and warned us. I had thought I'd gone with a reputable operator and they probably are. I didn't question the amount I was paying at the time because we settled at the boat ramp on return and I was trying to do so subtly to keep the amounts from my in-law (it was his present). Perhaps I should have said something then. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and email them to see what they have to say but I fear I might just have to chalk this up as a bad experience and go with someone else next time. Amazingly the other guy in my party (who had never fished before) had a great time and despite not catching a thing and getting soaked through can't wait to go out again!! Paul

As some of you might have seen from my post in the trips section I arranged a charter with a well-known sydney operator for some bottom bashing over Christmas. It was actually a 60th birthday present for my father-in-law who was here visiting from the UK for the holidays. Having checked the weather a few days prior I was quite concerned to see that rain and wind was predicted, as was a 2.8m swell. Sure enough we woke to rain but the water at balmoral (where we were picked up) was flat calm so we thought that was encouraging. That didn't last long though and by the time we got out of the heads we were crashing straight through the 2-3m swell and into a the rather gusty 25-35kmh winds. The heavens opened too and by the time we were at our first drift none of the 8 fishos on board wanted to step outside. I finally caved and stepped out into torrential rain, braced myself on the bow of the boat to avoid going into the drink, and started fishing. I could hardly open my eyes from the driving rain but had to at least try and fish. A couple of the others came out too and managed a couple of undersized flatty's but there were very few bites so we moved to another mark. A little more fishing there and a few more undersized flatty's and the decision was made to move to a third mark where we got a few more bits and a handful of flatty's on board. I'm not certain where we were as we couldn't see really see land but I think we were five or so miles off bondi To be honest we were all quite nervous about the conditions and 2 of the 8 fishos on board - including my father in law - wouldn't even come out of the cabin as they were too scared of the conditions. 3 others got really sick (including one of the crew who went and led downstairs) and so after about a total of an hour of fishing we headed back in. The operators made it our decision to go back but I can't say I had too much choice - we weren't catching anything, it was driving rain and we were soaked through, it was so choppy you had to brace constantly, my father in law wouldn't even step outside, and a few of the fishos were really sick. Between the three people in my party I was the only one to catch a legal fish - a 40cm flatty. We still had to pay the full fee though ($165 each) which makes that just about the most expensive flatty ever caught. I don't know if we should ever have gone out in those conditions and I know it was ultimately a group decision to come back but I do feel ripped off. A couple of days later I ran into some of the other fishos who were onboard and they were going to complain to the operator. I'm not sure whether I should do the same. The operators were insisting that conditions were pretty typical but I can't comment as I've only ever been out in flat conditions on a large whale-watching boat. So my first experience of boat fishing wasn't quite what I had hoped. I guess I'm going to have to save my pennies and book another charter - though I think on principle I'll go with another operator next time. Paul

Good to see that the lake is still firing. I might try and get up there again myself in the next week or two - that's if I can get my head out of Kingfish mode (still haven't landed one!) Paul

Just curious what happens if the target species is only accessible by boat, or are they unlikely to choose one like that?

Yeah sorry I meant that you wouldn't detect the run until it had taken it far enough for the clip to reach the sinker. Let me know how it goes! Cheers Paul

I've been thinking about using this rig myself as it's been suggested many times on here, but am a little concerend about bite detection. Once the livie is in the water it can obviously swim anywhere from the surface to where the sinker is - when you get a take am I right that you wont detect this until the fish has taken the bait far enough for the snap swivel to slide all the way to the sinker? Or if you do detect it you can't set the hooks until you have wound in enough line for the sinker to meet the swivel? Couldn't this be many (10-20) metres if the water was deep or if you have cast quite far creating a shallow angle? Cheers Paul

Doesn't surprise me at all. There's no way you'd ever get me in the water at Clontarf! I might even think twice about Balmoral now too!! When was that taken? Roberta, LOL! PM on it's way as I'm interested. Paul