Yowie

If you are using 15 lb main line and 8 lb leader, you are effectively fishing with 8lb line, as the lightest line is your actual breaking strain, that being 8 lb. Keep at it and you will become experienced in no time at all. 🙂

25 lb line needs a fair bit of drag to break it. Fishing for blackfish, you would probably be using 6 or 8 lb line, no more than 10 lb. These lines are where you need to be careful with the drag.

Keith, A bad move by beginners is to tighten the drag when a fish takes off. NO,NO,NO, don't do it. If you need to apply a bit of extra drag, place a finger on the spool to apply a bit of extra pressure. Don't jam your finger on hard, that will be the same as locking up the drag. Using your finger will apply a little bit of pressure, however, if the fish takes off really fast, it is easy to lift your finger from the spool so you don't bust the line. Once you become more experienced, you can add a little bit of extra drag by turning the drag knob on the spool when the fish is running. Only need to turn the knob a few degrees to change the pressure, not half a turn which may double the pressure on the line. Good luck.

I remember that one going 'missing'.

Another good story. I have fished by myself from the rocks, however, well away from the water. No two waves are the same, they may look similar from a distance but will suddenly change right next to the rock shelf. Have I been wet by a wave? Yes. Have I been a bit worried? Yes. Have I learnt the power of the ocean? Yes. I replied to one of your stories about fishing the Royal National Park many years and standing on a boulder about 8 feet high, and getting wet. Well, I headed past that rock shelf just the other day, and that big boulder is no longer there, obviously washed in.

This is the thing about weather, windy on the coast, and a few kms away, it is almost calm and flat seas. With a big southerly buster, everyone cops it!!! Great photos. I fished south of Sydney yesterday for bugger all, but had humpbacks jumping and fin slapping near my boat. And tourists pay to see this happening. 🙂

Thank you. I will be heading back to eastern Vic (nowhere near Melbourne) in the next week or 2, so I might stop for another fish.

Good work there Jon. I was heading back from Victoria last week, and stopped overnight at Narooma for a break. I took a rod with me, bought some pillies at the tackle shop and headed to the beach just north of the river, for a couple of hours until dark. There was a good gutter in close to the beach but it was quiet. Dropped a reasonable salmon in the wash, and landed a little one about 25cm 😡. Which beach were you fishing? The photo looks similar to where I was fishing.

Good work, nice bucket of fish.

Something to take home.

I have found a couple inside the stomachs of jewies in Port Hacking.

2 x 75cm sounds good for eating, plus others for fun, a good day out.

I've fished the Hacking for many years, found some spots that produce fish, but there are places I have not yet fished.

No two waves are the same, which is what inexperienced fishos cannot work out. All looks good, then one big mother of a wave just appears out of nowhere. They do not have a plan of escape when the big one pops up out of nowhere. Like the time I described fishing on top of a large boulder, all looked good, then the big mother suddenly built up out of nowhere, with nowhere to escape. Dig your toes in and hang on. I have fished, in younger days, on higher platforms, then one wave will still froth around your feet. Stand your ground and brace for impact, and expect backwash to hit you again. I have seen people try to outrun a big wave, not a good idea, they were bowled over.

Quite a tasty feed there. 2 blue spots and 2 marbled flatties. Reds may be small, but still good eating.

Good work Keith, a good sized tailor also.

Would not be them. The critters Keith would probably be referring to are similar looking but usually around 3 to 6 mm long, very mobile swimmers and they live in the sand. Something like a sea louse - many species in the family. Any smell of fish or other food and they swim straight out of the sand and onto it. They will even attack your legs if you are standing near them and cleaning fish in the water. I have been bitten a few times by them.

Threw back the same number, as they were too small to keep.

Good work Blackfish. Another way is to stab your fingers with the dorsal spines. If you feel almost immediate pain, and it last for an hour or so, it is a spikey flattie. 😂 The dorsal spines contain a poison.

Or you could be using "a stone's throw away" as my mother always does. 😝

Well, I headed to the same spot today, early morning, and this is all I caught. The tailor was the only decent bite, all the rest were small reddies nowhere near the size limit. Amazing what the difference is a week apart. In the photo is a tail section of what appears to be a sand whiting, spat out by the tailor once onboard. I'm guessing that the whiting was about 30cm long. It was very fresh, no stomach decomposition so there will be a whiting swimming about very slowly and with no tail, unless another tailor finished it off. 😂 I spoke to another fisho later near the Lilli Pilli bathes, who pulled out a salmon. He said there were a few about, then the school disappeared after the school herded baitfish into the shallow water over the bank.

Another interesting story from you about rock fishing. During high school, a couple of the boys said, "lets go camping and rock fishing in the Royal National Park", so we did. One of them took a tent big enough for the 3 of us, only he forgot to pack in the floor section of the tent, so we had the sleeping bags on the ground, where we watched big spiders crawling between us during the night. We were near a rock platform, somewhere north of Marley. There were a few waves breaking over the platform, nothing dangerous, so we looked for a while. All seemed good. I found a large boulder on the edge of the platform, and though it would be safe to fish from there. I climbed up, and guessed it was about 8 foot high. Cast out and all looked O.K. Some time later, one large wave appeared out of nowhere, just way bigger than any other waves before or after. Nowhere to go so I stayed put. The wave was about chest deep over the platform, not a time to climb down the rock and run away. I crouched down, turned my back, braced my legs and jammed my bare feet into the boulder surface. (seemed like a good thing to do at the time) The wave hit the boulder, and it surged over the top of me (I'm already about 8 feet above the platform) I just dug my feet into the boulder and hoped for the best. I could feel my feet slipping along the rough boulder surface, but did my best to stay upright. When the water had disappeared, my toes were hanging over the edge of the boulder, a bit further and I would have been down on the platform into the water. Very soaked, rod and reel soaked, but thinking , Farrrkkk, that was interesting, the other 2 bastards laughing at me. Don't under estimate the ocean!

That is a good sized blue spot.

Other ocean species have a thin coat of slime on them ,including blue spot flatties at times.

Different species for a change, with a good sized Ling as well.