paulthetaffy

I would avoid narra lake on the high at the moment. It's been fishing really well on the mid to low tide recently but not on the high, mainly due to the large high tides we've had this week which have been dispersing the fish over the flats. The high tides have also made wading difficult. That said the high tomorrow is smaller than it was when I fished at the weekend to it may not be that bad. Afraid I can't speak for the beaches though. I'll be fishing tomorrow but from first light until mid morning so not much use there either Hope you have a good day! Paul

Hi Jewgaffer, I've fished the little beach that side and also from the park on the opposite side of the bridge and road - I live just up in Balmoral so I'm familiar with the area but just not fished it with livies before. Thanks for the suggestions though. I've been trying to find some foam balls or similar to create a "popup" rig just as your second suggestion - this is very much how we used to present baits above thick weed beds for carp back in the UK! Glad to hear I was along the right lines with that one. A cork seems like a great idea if I can figure out a good way to rig it but I'm concerned it wont be boyant enough to force the livie up. Only one way to find out though! Didn't think about the drop-shot rig though with the livie on it's own short-running leader. That rig should allow the livie a bit more freedom to move around too I would imagine, without letting it come too high up in the water column. I guess I would need a relatively heavy sinker for that one though so that the mainline is nailed in position. Is a long cast necesary there then? It's very difficult to work out where the channels are without a sounder Thanks Paul

I'm thinking of a session soon at spit bridge with live yakkas to see if I can pick up a king or two. I was just wondering how best to fish them there due to the deep nature of the channel? Would you fish them high up under a float (say 1-2m deep) or with a sinker so that they're down on the deck? From research it seems that those fishing from a boat downrig them to be a few metres off the bottom but being land-based it's either on the deck or up high - can't really do much in between. Cheers Paul

Pete, what size hooks were you using as I couldn't hook anything but the flatty's with a 2/0 circle?

Congrats, it's always good when the work and organisation pays off! Especially when you get a good feed at the end of it too! Paul

Fished the Narrabeen flats on Saturday afternoon from 4pm - 6:30pm for 5 flattys, all legal, the biggest going 55cm. The first 4 fell to live poddy's and the last to a SP once I'd run out of livies. The large tides at the moment are making it difficult to wade the flats on anything but mid-low tide, so it wasn't the ideal time to fish, so I'm more than happy to have bagged 5 in 2 1/2 hours. This was my first time using livies at narra and I must say I'm impressed. Every one attracted attention within a few casts, although many were chomped by what I suspect was small tailor which spoiled things. Well worth the effort put in earlier in the day to collect them though! No photo's on this occasion as I didn't have a camera with me. Paul

There's steps at the end of Iluka road that lead you down to the rocks. You can only access it at low tide though, or else the steps lead into the water. Cheers Paul

Top session guys! Just goes to show what fresh bait can do for you. Sometimes you just have to put your trust in being able to catch it though!

Unfortunately I'm land-based so couldn't go hunting. I think the kings only tend to come into the shallow waters around the bays and jettys when the water is clear. At least that has been my experience round MH. Glad to hear you had a good session though, and congrats on the PB. Paul

LOL fair enough We're they big enough for a feed at least?

Headed down to Balmoral at sunrise for a short session before work. Target today was kings on livies. Getting yakkas was hard work due to the plague of baby sweep and tiny (2") tailor attacking everything that touched the water, but once I had the technique down I managed half a dozen pretty quickly. Unfortunately no signs of kings (or salmon / tailor for that matter) and the only action my yakkas saw was from the cormorants. The water visibility was still pretty poor from the rough seas over the last few days and it was full of huge clumps of weed, so not the best of conditions. A few other guys there managed yakkas and little else. On the plus side I did get the odd glimpse of baitfish schools thorough the murk, which means they weren't driven out with the rough seas. Hopefully this means they're there to stay for a while now, which should bring better numbers of pelagics in close. Still a lovely morning to be wetting a line and a nice way to start the day! Paul

pittwater road sell worms and would be on your way up to the beaches. Not sure what time they are open tho. Paul

yeah it didn't feel like a loss at all I got to watch both sunrise and sunset with a rod in hand - that's a great day in my book:) I've already planned my next two sessions this week and can't wait to get back out!! love it!

Congrats! I think everyone remembers their first kingy. You'll soon have kingfish fever and want to catch them all the time

The plan was to fish the evening high tide until the sun went down for flatties, kings, tailor, salmon, jews etc using fresh squid and livies. First job was bait collecting so was out just after dawn to spit bridge for squid. Tide was pushing through too hard to get a squid jig down so gave up and sped over to balmoral. Arrived to find the place heaving but found a corner to flick from and managed a single arrow squid that i dropped just as I swung it in By this time the sun had got up so gave up on squid and had some breakfast LOL Back to bait collecting I zoomed up to narrabeen lagoon to get some poddy's with my newly purchased bait trap (telescopic plastic one). Worked a treat but could only catch the tiny ones about 2" long. After an hour of emptying hundreds of them back into the drink I gave up with the trap and switched to a rod with a single #12 and bits of bread. Half an hour later and I'm back in the car with a bucket full of nice size poddy's. Drove home and put the bucket in the kitchen with an aerator, fresh batteries, and instructions to the (very puzzled) to look after my new fish and went xmas shopping. 5pm and we head over to clontarf, find a nice spot among the kids and boats and out go two poddy's. Then nothing. Then more nothing. Then one of the rods starts flapping and gets my attention - im thinking that's a panicked poddy! Then it stops and there's weight on the line. The missus pulls in a big fat blue swimmer which falls off before I can get to it Then a whole lot more nothing until the sun sets. I finally crack and put out another rod with some pillie cubes just so we can catch something and have half an hour of catching tiny pinkies until it gets too dark. Did manage to run into a fellow raider - toikle (Nick) - who I think managed a few small whiting and pinkies on prawn and nothing on the live poddy's he had out. Lots of other people fishing there too and I think the only thing that wa caught was one small lizard. So in conclusion, lots of effort for a big fat zero!

so what do people reckon - live poddy's around clontarf moorings / spit bridge worth a go?

You can fish all of these places AFAIK - only no fishing I know of is into the protecetd swimming pool areas around balmoral / little manly etc. Size 6 might be a bit on the small side - I generally use 2 or 4 bait holder's (like the one's you linked) for prawns, size 2 or bigger for pilchard cubes / tails. As for rigging it depends entirely where you're fishing. Both spit bridge and blues point have very deep water so you either need to fish with a float up in the water column or without a float nailed to the bottom. If the tide is up the fish will come up nearer the shore into shallower water so you might be better with a float. Buy some float stops (little rubber beads) and some flurocarbon leader (around 14lb I'd say to match your mainline). You put a float stop on first, which you slide up your line maybe 1-2 metres. Then put on a bead if you have one (not essential), slide on your float, another bead if you have one (not essential) and a sinker. Then tie on the swivel and to the other side of that your leader - about 70cm should suffice - and then your hook. Some people put their sinker below the swivel so that it runs down to the hook. It depends on what bait you're using and how much weight you need for your float so play around with it. Finally slide the float stop up the line to the desired depth (distance between float stop and hook). I'd say 2m should be a good starting point and move it until you find the depth the fish are feeding at. If you're fishing up in the water you will do considerably better if you use burley to bring the fish up to you. With this rig you would mainly be targeting bream/trevally/blackfish if you're lucky. Use some mashed or crumbed bread mixed with a little water and throw out little and often. It makes a huge difference to use burley - can't stress that enough. If you want to use a different approach and get the bait nailed to the bottom then use exactly the same rig but take off the float and float stop so you end up with a simple running sinker rig. I quite often switch between the two during a sesson. Try to use as little weight as you can so that the bait sinks slowly through the water column. If you are using prawns you are likely to get lots of "pickers" hitting your bait as soon as it hits the bottom. It can be frustrating at times at which point I quite often switch to larger baits like a pilchard tail or even a half pillie (look up how to rig half pillies with a single hook). Because of the pickers I find one of THE most important things to do is keep in contact with your bait. What I mean by that is when you cast out, as soon as the rig hits the water keep the line taught but steadily let line out as the rig sinks until you feel it hit the bottom - the line will then go slack and you can flip the bail arm. This will still leave a big slack arc of line in the water column so you should wind in slowly a few turns, trying to take the slack out of the line without moving the rig on the bottom. By taking the slack out of the line you are more likely to see the taps from pickers taking your bait. If this happens for more than a few seconds without a "proper" bite then it is likely that the pickers have taken your bait completely so wind it back in. More often than I care to remember I have caught fish in this first 5-10 seconds whilst tightening up the line whereas many anglers dont even realise they have had a bite and leave an empty hook in the water. If you're nailing bait to the bottom then you're more likely to catch a flathead or larger bream, especially if you use a larger bait such as a half pilchard. Also don't discount using bread as a bait, especially for bream under a float. There are many many rigs & baits that can be used at these places and by far the best way to fish is to target a particular species and use baits and rigs appropriate to them. But these are just a few starting points that will hopefully get you a catch of some sort without buying too much more kit. Hope that helps! Paul

At least you managed to get into them Tuffy - I've been stood on the point at bradleys head on numerous occasions watching the tailor and salmon bust up just out of casting range, wishing I had a boat to go after them They've been going off along that stretch between bradleys head and taronga zoo for a few weeks now. Always a few boats drifting around there first thing in the morning - I guess you're one of them! Paul

I thought about getting a trap and I might do just that if I have any luck with them this time. I don't think I'm going to be able to get to a tackle shop before Sunday so might have to resort to line caught this time. Should be easy enough to catch though shouldn't they? I've seen enough kids bagging up on them at narra

Hi there, I have had the same issue on many occasions with the misses so can suggest a few spots for you - mostly middle harbour though as that's where I'm based. Spit reserve west / pearl bay - bream/flathead Spit bridge reserve north/east side (below fisher bay walk) - bream/flathead/salmon/kings/bit of everything Clontarf beach - bream/flathead/whiting/tailor/salmon/occasional snapper - BBQ and toilet facilities Little Manly cove (gas works) - easy deep water access - blackfish, bream, big trevally, occasional pelagics (salmon/kings/tailor) - BBQ facilities Bradley's head - concrete jetty with nice views of the harbour and not a bad spot on the run-in / run-out. Can get everything here including monster whiting when they come past. Cremorne Point - another favourite picnic spot with great views of the harbour and a chance to catch anything although bream/snapper/blackfish/trevally are prevalent Karruba Point - easy deep water fishing and a nice picnic spot. Have had my PB snapper from here at sunset. Blues Point reserve - deep water in close with a chance of kings / jews plus most other species. Great view of the bridge toilets for the misses Clarks Point reserve - similar to Blues point and also has toilets. Narrabeen lake - there are a number of places around the lake that has parking and picnic spots. Some great bream and particularly flathead fishing to be had here (look at recent reports). All of the above have parking close by and all can be fished relatively easily with not much in the way of snags. PM me if you want any tips on fishing these places. Cheers Paul

Hello fellow raiders! I'm just after your thoughts on using poddy's as livebait in MH (land-based) for Kings / Salmon / Tailor / Lizards / Jews etc? I'm going to be fishing the evening high tide on Sunday with the misses (read we're going for a picnic and I'm taking my rods ) so thought it would be a nice relaxing way to fish to stick out a few livies and see what turns up. I'm most likely going to be at clontarf or possibly spit bridge north. I would normally use yakkas but everything coming out of Balmoral (my local reliable yakka spot) seem to be too big to use as livies - they're all 20-25cm+ So I thought I might nip up to Narrabeen lake on Sunday morning and grab a bucket of poddy's to use instead. I've heard that poddy's will stay alive longer than yakkas too (they'll be in a large bucket with an aerator all day) So will these make a good alternative to using yakkas when used in MH? I'm also going to try for some squid on Sunday morning but they're not likely to stay alive until the evening. I've actually never fished exclusively for poddy's either but have burleyed enough of them up at narra to know where they are. Presumably something like a #12 long shank under a float with small pieces of moulded bread is the way to go? Thanks in advance! Paul

Most of the info you're looking for can be found here http://www.mpa.nsw.gov.au/ There are a number of reserves where line fishing is allowed but you're not allowed to collect anythng else (pippis, cunje, crabs, etc), not even for bait, so that's more likely to be of note to you. I'd love to wet a line at Shelly - I've spotted some monster flathead there of well over 100cm. Not surprising to see though since fishing is banned. And that giant cuttlefish is truly awesome - we had a staring contest once for a few minutes

Hi, You're best bet is to head to your local tackle store and ask for their help. Tell them your budget and what sort of fishing you want to do and let them see if they can put something suitable together for you. Yes they might cost a little more than Big-W or &&*&*&, but it will be worth it as you will inevitably get far better equipement. There's nothing wrong with buying the occasional bit of kit from a supermarket - I do myself from time to time - but please do your best to support your local tackle stores as much as possible. They will also be able to give you valuable local knowledge on areas / baits / techniques. I'll also echo myocard's advice on lots of reading. Fishraider has a wealth of knowledge on it, if you can use the search effectively, and there are other sites too (sorry raiders!) that will explain things such as the different types of line, what's best for what type of fishing, basic knots etc. Good luck & happy fishing! Paul

Cheers Pete. I didn't weigh it but it must have been that kind of ballpark. I loving catching trevally of any size as they always give a good account for themselves. But that one gave a good scrap for the first minute or so - which always feels like 10 minutes I know what you mean about the hooks pulling - they have such soft mouths that they can tear easily if you're too aggressive.

Yeah that's the one. I wandered down there one day last year to find some shelter from a strong northerly - glad I found it now!! It's quite sheltered and looks stunning when the water is glassy and high. To be honest it hasn't been the most productive of places for me but I think I'll be going back after today.