craigbutcher

Yeh pretty unsual hey, however, we where them underneath a ski jacket to keep the legs warm through winter. We head out around 4am, so it's pretty chilly at times! Thanks!

HI Raiders, Changed from our regular spot this morning offshore and fished in close, out of the current for a change. Berleyed hard with pilchards and a pannie and a nice LITTLE MAKO SHARK! Filleted the little crider up, and it's game on for dinner! Butch

HI Raiders, Fished around the 20metre mark offshore around the northern beaches this morning at 4am. Set the beley trail for the snapper before first light, and jigged for some pre-dawn squid for bait. Hooked and dropped a good squid which was a bummer, however, we continued to berley & fish with WA pillchards. Landed a 52cm pannie, however, none of the big snapper we have been seeing over Winter. Oh well, got a feed and that was enough to keep us happy. Out there in the morning again tomorrow before work to target snapper from another zone, hopefully they play the game. Butch

HI Johno, I agree with Blair that anchoring and berleying is a great way to get a good run of snapper behind the boat. Every snapper session I attempt now (around the northern beaches offshore scene) is coupled with at least 2kg of cubes (mostly being pillchards). This method can often turn a slow start to a session into a strong finish, as the fish will often come from miles away to get into the cube trail. 8 out 10 fish are full of our berley which indicates they made their way up the cubes and onto the floaters or plastics. Cheers Butch

HI Mate, Any picks? Give us a look at these lovely little Jewells! Butch

You are a dead set legend mate. We have spoken a few times outside the heads around the colours! Blow away by early season Kings. We encountered a big school off Bluefish earlier this week, however, I gave up on them as I presumed they were just big Salmon. Nice work!

G'day mate, anything from 1.8 to 3.0. I use size 1.8 - 2.0 when achored, and size 3.0 on the drift so the jig gets down in the kelp. Butch

Yeh for sure, they are around in reasonable numbers. Lost a big one on a paternosta rigged handline sitting on the kelp. This squid was pulsing like the P&O FAIRSTAR!

HI Raiders, Went for a squid this morning from the boat. Launched at manly and moved around looking for the CEPHANOIDS! Anchored and worked the kelp, and also drifted some areas as well which produced. Managed 5 of the criders which will be both 1) Bait for snapper offshore Thursday 2) Dinner this week. Took my neighbour Angus out. He got a nice squid for the morning!

Oh my Goggle! Massive freaking SQUID LEGEND! Unbelievable! Must have broke the 3KG MARK? Fully blown away! Butch

Well done Ray, how was the heart rate? 43cm PIGGY on light gear! Stretched!!!!!! Your line must have stretched like a bungie cord! Did you use Mono to leader? Love it! Butch

Nice work Ray, always impressed with your reports! Butch

HI Mate, Good luck on the weekend. My good mate targets blackfish with a passion and crosses paths with the odd drummer each session (much to his dismay). The 6-8lb Blackfish leader will not stop 99% of the pigs, however, you can always get lucky and land one (which he sometimes does). For this PIG I was using 30lb leader. Needed every bit of it to turn it's head out of reef, felt the reef cheese grating my leader on the way up! Let us know how you go! Butch

Yeh there has been some big pigs this season. Good to see! Big blackfish mixing it up too both in the harbour and off the rocks. Good times!

Hi Raiders, Got out at 4am this morning in search of 1) SQUID 2) PIGS when the Sun came up. Squid didnt play the game, mind you, only 3 casts and moved on. Berleyed hard with bread and chook pellets and fished the North Head washes. Landed a good 50cm Drummer on Cungee & lost what felt like a solid Groper. Spewing. All good though, got a feed.

G'day Squid boy, Yeh mate, to be honest we go through a lot of berley to get the big guys in the boat and always fish with fresh bait! In terms of berley, arrive on the reef at 4am and cube (small 2cm cubes) pillies. Go through about 2kg in 2 hours. Basically a full pilchard cubed up each 2 or 3 minutes, once they drift off in the current, another pillie. Berley hard core! We also focus on catching live squid (you get these before sunrise on a lot of the reef) to put down squid strips as bait. Snapper love squid / cuttlefish with a passion! As well as live squid, use fresh baits such as GARFISH, YELLOWTAIL, SLIMIES, BONITO, MAC TUNA etc "FRESH IS ALWAYS BEST". Even Sargaent Baker fillets are great bait! The reds will come for you Squidboy, just keep berleying and gettign out early or late. 38cm (like yours) was once my record from longy, now its 75cm mate. Took a while to get there, however, now we seem to crack at least a 4kg one each session. Speak to GUYS like SLINK on Fishraider mate. I learnt from him and his good mates MUZZA & GAV MCMANNUS. The really do very well on the reds! Got this one in 20m of water cubing hard recently... Butch rs

Nice squid there mate, very good effort too with the strong winds, as squid usually shut down in strong winds! Mate the snapper were tough for us last week too, a handful of 40cm fish, not the usually large species. One thing I noticed, there were cold currents last week and big moon phases. Still plenty of snapper from now till Nov 2012 in close though. Berley hard! Butch

Hi Mate, To be honest the lake shuts down during the colder water temp months. The lake has been open, however, it's been pushing 15oc water around the lake. In saying that, there is always the odd Taylor, Bream, Whiting & Flathead if you work hard for them. The Best bet is to use live estuarine baits such as small poddy mullet or live nippers. These always work well for me when I fish it during the warmer months of the year. Keep your leader down to 4 or 6 lb and use little or no lead. These combinations can increase your chances when the fish are shut down. Good luck Butch

They are enormous Pigs legend! Well done. What pound leader were you using? Must have been at least 20lb to turn their heads! Well done Butch

HI Beaver, Yeh the sweep can be a nightmare, however, there are a couple of things that seem to aleviate them a little 1) Try fish a bit deeper, the further out we fish, the less the sweep we seem to encounter. 2) Rather than mash up pillies in a berley bucket and bring the SWEEP just behind the boat, cube, and throw the cubes down current away from the boat. (That way the sweep dont sit right at the end of your boat). You want your berley to travel as far as it can to attrack more action from around the reef. 3) Cast baits down current, away from the boat too if the sweep are sitting just behind the boat. All these are variable & dont always work, however, here is what we try sometimes. Butch

Hi Zaki Everyone has their favourite method for reds. Personally it's all about getting on the reef around 4am whilst dark and dropping squid jigs / squid jags down and getting fresh squid or cuttlefish (they feed extremely aggressively before sun up). We anchor up on the ledge, right next to the drop off and feed cubes down a berley trail while it's pitch black with unweighted squid heads / strips in the trail. For myself personally, this is an extremely successful way to fish for reds. Usually takes around 30mins up to 2hours before the big reds come up the trail, however, if you wait patiently, they will come with enough berley. When we open up the reds to gut them, the big ones usually have a cube or two in their guts from our berley trail. I have people tell me that big reds wont feed at dark in the morning, I can guarantee you they do as I have caught 5kg reds whilst it's pitch black before sun up. Granted, most of the big reds appear at first light. Berley for me is the secret weapon. Butch

HI Zaki, All Sydney reds mate, actually all caught within 25metres of each other on the reef. Long reef mate, very good for snapper this time of year until Nov when it warms up too much for the big fellas. Cube hard and you will find old man snapper. Butch

HI Guys, All where taken in around 18-25m zone offshore around 1-2km. The secret is always bucket load of cubes / berley, and finding good snapper zones i.e. drop offs, gravel beds, structure etc. Berley allows anglers consistancy in snapper fishing (I reckon). You may get lucky landing a red when not berleying, however, to land a big one each session, berley needs to flow. Any other snapper reports for this season so far? Butch

Hi Raiders, Been a good season on the reds so far this season off SYDNEY. Dead / dying cuttlefish floating at the moment right accross sydney & the reds are in cuttlefish ATTACK MODE! Plenty of berley & fresh baits such as SQUID / CUTTLEFISH are doing the damage! Any updates from other raiders on the season so far? Butch

Good size PIG bro, anything over 40cm is solid PIGGY!