craigbutcher

Yeh great advice there guys. I make sure I do a squid session both offshore or in the harbour each week, and spend a whole session just chasing squid. By spending a morning or arvo etc just chasing squid, with only squid jigs in your boat (no other lures etc), you learn how to find them when they are not where they usually are. It's funny that spots that produced 10 good squid per session say 3 months ago are now not producing squid at the moment. And spots that I didnt land any squid at 3 months ago have been producing. TIPS; - Clear water, best with the income tide. Rain and outgoing tides can be the enemy of EGI FISHING. - Good squid jigs, YAMASHITA or YO ZURI, The jigs need slowly woft, not sink! - Let the jigs woft slowly around the grounds (I drift with 2 rods out). I dont EGI style jig with voilent rips too much, I just let the boat produce the action by subtle lifts (tháts just me, though others are different). - When you catch 1 squid, hold it for a few seconds around where you caught it and let your mate cast in behind it. There will often be a mate behind. - Move around if not hits with 20mins. SQUID are transient, they are not always on the same grounds from day to day. BUTCH

Hi Eastwood 1980, Mate fish as light as you can. you want to bait to work down the berley trail slow. I have got snapper just under the surface in 32m of water, no kidding. As you get down on the bottom you will catch the BAKERS, BANJOS & PESTS. Keep you baits on the middle water and drifting slowly!

Yeah Paul, you will mate. Sounds around the 30-40m mark anywhere where there is current and a little bit of broken reef. Achor up and berley like a mad man! 4kg of pillies or yakka cubes, they all work! The Snapper will come eventually... Last year Gav & Muzza two brothers from the fishing club told me they were fishing around the 40m mark on a known reef for like 2 hours, no real hits. They just kept berleying and berleying. As soon as they were about to pull the anchor and head home, all hell (heaven) broke loose! ZZZZZZZ... I think the final takings ended up being 15 big snapper up to 5kg, 3 solid Trag and 1 Big Jewie! Amazing session! They reckon it was light turning a light switch on, every rod started to go. Epic! Butch

HI Wahoo 76, better clarify without sounding like a D?;K:*&D in my last post... We still have plenty of days when it's just not happening too. Absolutely! I just make sure I spend lost of time listening to guys in the northern beaches fishin club and learn as much as I can. They talk about what spots to fish in a north current, what spots to fish in a south current. I just listen and learn and try not to say much... All the best bud! Butch

G'day Wahoo 76, yeh buddy, we do usually get a reasonable fish each session as long as there is some current, however, in the early days spent a lot of time with not a lot of success, I at one point was fishing lony 3 times per week. One important thing to release with REDS is they love Current, and plenty of it! Spots that ARE OUT OF THE current (protected from current) such as MUGS reef and some of the close reefs are not good places to chase reds, as they like a good current. "NO RUN, NO FUN". Fish those zone where the current is raging and there is some form of structure. Opportunistic feeders sit in the current and take bait which is moving with the current.

Hi Mate, no was taken of SQUID STRIP which i caught, however, froze and defrosted twice, very ordinary bait. However, we got nailed on Yakka fillets too. They arent very fussy offshore some of these REDS when you get that berley working! Butch

HI Paul, Depends on the terrain a bit bud, most reds won't reef you as it's not their nature, however, the big ones can quite easily on their aggressive strike & first run! I was running only 20lb braid & a long 20lb fluro leader, and I have fished as light as 10lb for them, however, you can loose big fish and I have lost some big reds fishing too light! Their first run is explosive, then they ease a little! Butch

HI Raiders, Did a session last night off the northern beaches. Within 5 minutes of baits floating down, line screams off, I said to my bro “set the hook”, he didn’t set hard enough and it managed to get away…. Ahhhh. Good red! I am calling 5kg at least. 30mins later, and some berley has been deployed. I have my bail arm open as I drifted a float down the berley trail, I look down and can see the line flying off my reel with the bail arm open. Quickly snap the bail arm down and I am on. Good red! Around the 4KG MARK. No Jews, however, had some fun on the reds last night! Butch

It's gotta be done though bro. I cant fish much as I have kids, so when I can find spare time, I fish no matter what. 30knot southely, 20knot north easter! Go for it! Berley up!

HI Frank, Yep it aint pretty out there in the northerly at all! Especially the launch and retrieve! Plenty of sea sickness tablets for the constant bobbing up and down! I love it though! Butch

OUTSTANDING SESSION!

Yeh good call mate. We pushed through some really green water and managed a few good fish! Still waiting for the blue water to hit this month! Comon! Butch

G'day Mike, mate the snapper would have weighed around 4KG, nothing huge, however, good for the young bloke from Bondi! No scales on the boat to get proper weights!

Hi Dave, Give me your mobile and I will text you the GPS MARK tonight when I get into the boat. It's NE of BLUEFISH POINT, north of the sydney heads. Butch

HI Raiders, I had a week off work with no kids for 7 days so I went out chasing both estuary and offshore species. First good fish of the week came from my dad who landed a BEAST! 46.5cm WHTING ON LIVE NIPPER! Went so hard, looked like a little SOAPY! The next day, I went out the 40m mark and sounded up some fish. Heaps of RATS and a couple of good Kings around the 80cm mark. Good fun on relatively light gear. We picked up some Makos & school sharks in the berley trails off the MUGS. Lost a beast last night, the MAKO did the death roll and snapped my gaff handle clean off! At the start of the holidays, took my little mate from Bondi fishing for Jewfish & Trag. He landed a corker snapper just as the sun set. The main issue with the kings was the water was still GREEN AND CHILLY! Need some better warm currents to come down the coast before they really start up! Butch

HI Mate, I dont berley bomb mate, I simply cube with a 1cm sized cube each miinute or so, and give the berley bucket and crush every 15 mins. The berley bucket oozes little bits all the time though consistantly. You will see snapper nearly on the surface sipping berley when they are really on! The best snapper guys I know from the local fishing club $%&$%#$^# smashes up STRIPED TUNA & SOLID BONITO FISH frames in the berley. This heavy mass of (predominantly) bone structure sinks past the sweep and moves off with the current. The local club champ PETER RYAN has the club record of a 12kg snapper taken from very shallow water off sydney. His favourite snapper baits are STRIPED TUNA HEADS! And large BONITO HEADS! Butch

HI Mate, Everything from pillchards, to chook pellets to fish bones and Carcasses from Sweep, pike, slimies, yakkas, sargaent bakers, bonito, Tuna etc. Berley hard and the fish come! Butch

HI Tasksta, Yes I motor out to the 30-40m mark and start prospecting around the edge of the reefs for good structure and some markings of fish. With snapper you can sometimes see a 1 or 2 fish just off the bottom holding, but not neccessarily bait. Sometime more. I always anchor on the contour lines on my GPS (for the drops offs etc). I dont neccessarily always look for fish holding, if I know that the vicinity I am in produced snapper previously. This morning there was no fish on the sounder till we berleyed for around 45mins, then a wave of snapper came through the cube trail, big marks mid-water. The real secret is getting that cube trail working! I have landed big reds just off the harbour heads, all the way to long reef on those drop offs and reefs. Another secret is current! You want fish the zones with strong current. Snapper will hold is strong current zones and rarely out of the current. Fish the strong current areas. Butch

Haha, yeh Ray, I am making hay whilst the sun shines! And eating plenty too bud! How's fishing up at the Central Coast bud? Any Reds this week from your boat? Butch

Yeh Shakeel, they are definately in numbers off sydney heads and wider. Just need the berley trail and they eventually come!

Haha, no t'shirts at the boat ramp choppa, filleting snapper and chopping up squid is dirty business!

HI Raiders, There are still some reds in the shallows off Sydney at the moment. Managed 2 pannies this morning and lost 2 screamers as well! Good to see them still in close! Butch

Solid kingies bra! Question for you, when you are running livies in the harbour, how heavy is your braid, leader & what rod and reel do you run with? Interested! I sit around the 40lb POWER PRO braid and 50lb leader with SHIMANO SUSTAIN & TEREZ. Lose a few stonker kings though! Butch

HI Mate, Yeh I fish offshore at night around long reef and fair bit. Very dangerous though if you dont know the terrain and unproductive if you dont have good locations / GPS marks for certain species. Fishing for Jewfish and Teraglin at night is very productive (in certain areas of the reef) and snapper too, however, early morning or late arvos for me are the best for big snapper. Teraglin usually don't bite during the day at all, so night fishing for them is often imperitive (however, I have hooked them in the day on the odd occasion). I you want to night fish, make sure you have fished the area in the day many times before and use your GPS MAPPING SYSTEM to map a safe route (if you have a GPS). Most of all, take care.

Yeh bro, they are extremely nice hey! Havent caught for a few seasons now though, so I am a fair while between mouth fulls.