craigbutcher

Good fish bra! Goes to show they are certainly off Sydney in that offshore high current zone. Just bumped into Pete Ryan from the long reef fishing club, His PB off Longy is 12kg, the club record, fully weighed at Narrabeen Bait & Tackle and official! 12kg!!!!!!!!! They are out there bruz! Butch

Hi Johno, 84cm bud and 6.5kgchamp. Not as heavy as I'd hoped for but still happy! Butch

Hi Raiders, Didn't post this snapper I caught off Sydney a couple of months back. Good solid fish, took plenty of line in 35m of water of 20lb braid and leader. Nearly had me in the rubble and kelp, was brushing me along the kelp the whole fight. Fully had to lock up on this beast to turn it's head, plenty of current too which it was trying to use to it's advantage! Butch

G'day mate, Don't be shy on using circle hooks for these silver beasts. Stick the rod in the rod holder and set the drag at fighting weight. The fish will take the bait and circle should do the job and hook itself. I use circles for Jews & Snapper offshore a lot of the time. Especially when fishing a berley trail. Butch

Little flatty caught offshore, pretty weird for a dusky to be offshore... 1.2metres! hahahaha! Only 80cm or so...

G'day mate, Yep I use both plastics and floater baits depending on the current and what we decide on the day. Good reds in close on plastics at the moment and out really wide too. Local boys drift plastics in 200 feet of water too with incredible success. Big 2 ounce jig heads and big 7 inch shads! Yew Butch

HI Raiders, Hooked into some early season Reds this morning before work. Berleyed hard before sunrise and by the time the sun was peeping over the horizon, the Reds turned up Biggest was 3kg. Butch .

Nice one GROPER! Excellent report mate and great to see the fish wife in action. "The family that fishes together, stays to together".

Yeh it's very interesting bud, I never considered the effect of offshore current on fishing spots, but it does seem to have a profound effect! See you out there bra! Butch

G'day Rob, This was another spot mate. As the current was a south current Saturday we fished the south reefs which fire better on a south current. On sunday the current was trickling north, so we fished a spot in close which like the north current. It's all about the current for us as where we fish. Lots of spot fish really well on the south current but are dead on the north and vice versus! How's fishing mate? Butch

HI Mate, Not very deep bud, around the 30m to 40m mark, hard reef. Yeh I feel your pain, we have plenty of those RAT session and they can be painful! Got no advice for your mate but to just stick at it till that RED LETTER DAY shows up! Butch

HI Raiders, I had the opportunity to fish the whole weekend (no work, UNI or kids), so I decided to fish early Saturday morning, Saturday arvo and Sunday morning all offshore with the great weather! One issue, water was down from 24degrees the prior week, to 20.5 - 21! Bad sign! Spent a lot of time getting primo squid baits, up to 2 hours each session just chasing bait before fishing. After the live squid were in the bait tank, we shot out around the heads into some of the local KING HAUNTS. Ended up cracking a 12kg king, a heap around 10kg, some big Jews and a lone GROPER which slammed a squid bait in 30m of water!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good times! Butch HI Raiders,

Hi Mate, Your only dilema will be stopping an XL PIG in light string, it's certainly acheivable, however, many times the XL will the tussle. The big ones destroy light gear champ! I have caught em up around the 50cm mark and I have been struggling to keep them out of the reef at times, even on 30lb leader! They respond well to berley bread and also take bread baits very consistantly. Squeeze fresh white bread around a 1/0 hook and hold on mate. You will slam the odd groper around the stones too using these methods,I have caught both browns and blues in the mix! Butch

Well done PAPAS you flipping legend!!!!!!!!! When are we getting out for a session bud? Got a new boat coming in 4 weeks, lets do an offshore session on the snapper? BUTCH...

Hi There, any pics to varify?

Haha, yeh bro, before I was a fisherman, I was a fit Kick Boxer. Now I am turning into a FAT OLD FISHERMAN! And loving it!

HI Raiders, Landed a nice 80cm Red last week, here is a short video of the fish! Butch

HI Marlin01, The TRAG are on the bottom during the day, similar to Jews offshore, on the bottom! Not always though, but majority of circumstances... They start to work their way up to mid-water at night. I catch most of my TRAG on paternosta rigs. Thanks Butch

Yeh thanks Guys, she went 6.345KG, good fun on light gear haha! Mate the current is SOUTH at the moment, running fast too which is what you want to catch bigger reds! Get out around that 40m mark, use your chart plotter to find the edge and berley berley berkey Took 2 hours of berley before this guy made his way up!

Where are you based? Mate, got kids so weekends can be a hard one, I usually fish before work 4am till 7:00am. Keep me posted! And thanks for the offer! Butch

Absolutely brother, how's fishing been? Yew! Butch

Thanks guys, the bait was a floatered SQUID HEAD and was probably mid water, 15m down in 30m of water. I was locked up trying to stop it running me into the reef, it hit like a KING, however, slowed up after the first long run. It then sat hard in the current and it was a slow wind up! I find big Snapper are not on the bottom, as soon as I hit bottom, wind up and drift back down. They are always feeding mid water, that's why plastics get hit usually on the drop, even when no berley has been dispersed! Yew Butch

Dear Raiders, Has a day of tattoo work booked in the city, so decided to go for a quick snapper session. Out on the water at 4am, fished till 9am and then came in for some filleting work.... Berleyed for 2 hours, no real fish! Then all of sudden all HEAVEN broke loose - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! 20lb leader with no lead, ZZZZZ! Good RED over 80cm. Good times! Butch

Mate I have used whiting heads for bait, however, it got dusted by a shark. My mate uses BONITO HEADS, SLIMEY HEADS, FRIGATE HEADS etc and all work well! The problem is the sharks though, they love the heads too!

Yeh they are on Groper. How's fishing buddy? Mate, you've got more RECORDS than THE DEEP SOUTH! Love your work! Butch