finin

Gday all, yeah dont judge a book by its cover. Harbour absolute glass this morning all the way to the heads, would of been a glorious sight for those on the Carnival Cruise ship this morning. By the time we got to the heads, a nice SE swell began to wrap around Hornby Light. Nice long period and about 1.5- 2M. Went out into green water, huge plume out of the heads at 23.9 till around 60-70M, then blue at 24.9. Current probably .5kn downhill, with the wind we were doing .8kn. Wind began NW at 5kn then gradually grew easy 15 then eventually swung NE by 900 at high tide and was at 15kn by lunch and managed to throw just on .5M wind swell on top of the ground swell gave up when this got to much. Fishing...disgraceful, didnt get a bite for the first hour and thought wtf am i doing here blah blah blah , rod goes off and a healthy huge baker is bought in , quickly necked and thrown over on a shark trace to float around back to blah blah blah. Another hour passes with two yowie fish, me looking at thousands of baby blueys floating by the size of your pinky nail and wondering when the worlds gunna end. The silence of the brain working overtime is broken by the rod going off and catching Australia. So re-rig and have another go., in the meantime m8s rod goes off and something decent looks on, slowly after betting on the outcome on possibility comes a faint tinge of blue and red, snapper at 48. Hmmm maybe things are changing gave it another 1/2 hour for a little 40cm blue spot. By now it had begun to get a little uncomfortable, lost the toss and headed in. My tip stay home for two weeks. Weathers up the proverbial and too much fresh and on top of that moons up.

Nice little feed there yowie, how do you rate the gurnard? I get a few now and again but dont rate them personally. How do you do em up?

Yes took a chance, but worth it and the bottom has warmed as well. Didnt find it to bad in the morning chasing kings as the cliffs protected us from the wind. Swell wasnt a major problem bit rolly but you get that. The wind did get stronger as we moved out. Bradcrosso oh well ive been lying about weight for a while then, time for new scales i think lol, anyway the neighbour has a smile so thats good weight for me. Dan 88j, m8 80M.

Gday all, well lucky i must say. After the weather we have had through caution to the wind and ventured out. Harbour was a little quiet a few boats around sow and pigs and that was really it. Harbour is a bit filthy but strangely from the heads out, blue water and 24.8 all the way to 80M+. I actually thought the usual mushroom of brown would extend out due to the rain but no. Grabbed a heap of livies from the old pilot station, even wondered if we would get any due to the water. But they were there in abundance took about 10 min of work to get them to appear all small, index fingerlings. Headed to the colours and marked kings at the sth edge, Swell Sth1-2M, odd set at easy 3, wind 10-15 SW, current at 1.4 going uphill. 1st drop to the bottom, up w winds and straight on , continued like this for an hour every king at 53 and a bit and a less. Tended to wise up at the end so we switched to squid strips as they gave up on livies. Decided ro let the kings go and headed wider to try for a snapper or two. The trying didnt last long as first bait down, a livie lasted exactly 35 seconds and what i thought was a jew, changed colour to a nice 74cm 2kg snapper. Decided to ply it for a while and ended up with 2 more at 36 and a few of yowies favourite, mowies. Wind had picked up to around 20kn, so happy with the day and went home.

Yowie thats disgraceful, not even a mowie there lol.

Arnie, nice feed m8. Great looking whiting. Imho red mowie rates as one of my top5 table fish. Have only ever caught one on a line before and also on a peeled prawn.

Flounder and butter, jealous.

So after speaking to AMSA and the Water Police an EPIRB should ONLY be used if in imminent danger. No fine etc unless for stupidity. So what constitutes this, it is up to the individuals decision, so brings about a very open interpretation to it. So how do we reduce the risk of having to set one off in the first place? Make sure all is well before you go. Are you and your boat capable of going where you are going? When was the last time you went over your boat? Electrial, battery/batteries charged, engine run before you leave home? etc.. Weather.. Have you checked it? Still doesnt matter what you do beforehand, things will happen at sea but the odds can be reduced beforehand. In regards to communication your radio should be wired to the battery on a seperate circuit and fused in accordance. So in having a short or whatever somewhere it wont affect and alleviates having to go through wiring to look for a fault. How many of you carry spare electrical bits on board or would even carry a volt metre. I have all plus can carry a fully charged spare battery. You have a phone so if in range use it. If you blokes spend that much time offshore and can afford good electronics, try saving for a sat phone. More useful than a radio will ever be. No problem at sea is an emergency unless you make it one, except a breach or fire. Everything can generally be fixed if you carry the right tools and spares or mothered till port. With the amount of boat traffic off Sydney, depending on circumstance id be happy to float around till someone was near,, ya gunna do it anyway waiting for help, yes a flare, a V sheet would suffice, for me the EPIRB is the ultimate last resort.

Sorry dogbox, but why would you use an EPIRB, for an electrical problem. You will get into all sorts of sh@t for that and probably be billed the cost of a search and rescue.

JonD awesome stuff there.

Tips for trag lol, can be caught any time of day as jews off Sydney. Absolutely Sh@$ on jews for taste and are finally making a comeback, biggest ive seen over a metre at the heads last year. They have just come out of spawn so should be more active over the next few weeks once the moon settles. Can be caught on prawns, squid , pilleys, fresh baits. Look for reef anywhere from 10 to 80M. Most coastal areas have a local trag ground.

Forget seabreeze, willyweather, and even bom, the only good thing about bom is the synoptics. Seriously go with passageweather. Has not faulted me for 5 yrz. Your other option is to learn to read a weather map and learn what clouds are what and their meaning. After learning clouds you wont need a weather map. They are even more important as they show local weather in advance. You can basically time weather off a cloud.

Caught them on, bread, maggots, pillies, prawns, live prawns, nippers, worms, pineapple of a hamburger, pastry, red snake, chicken, chicken garlic, chicken parmessan, popcorn, soaked twistie. Used to get 80ton of bream a year when we were allowed to trap in the harbour. Considering we arnt allowed to trap how many ton would be swimming around the joint? The bream at birchgrove are in plague proportions and there are kilo fish plus amongst them as we feed em nearly everyday.

Yowie im still laughing, i will never get you to appreciate a mowie, however i rate his brother the red mowie in my top 5 table fish. Rock&beach my half are given away, i only keep certain fish, none of which are these. Wizza cant wait.

Gday all, great day for it if you were out and about. Woke up to a light nor wester at home and thought its going to be a stinker. By the time we got to the wharf the air already had heat in it and even when the nor easter hit at around 10 there was still no relief. Plenty of boats heading out and many by the look of things geared up to have a stab at the little blacks about, some of them i wouldnt even go past the heads in lol. Went north as we new the nor easter was due and would make for a nicer run home then punching into it at the end of the day. Current at around .6 knot downhill, blue water and temps of 24- 25. 6. And bugger all swell, ne at less than half a metre. Fished around 60M, again fishing is slow, bottom a little cold again, but the fish are starting to fire up. Landed some really nice bluespots today, that were really fat and it seems they have let go, very much on the chew on fresh slimies. Only managed two legal snapper, a lone pig and a nice mowie at 53. It is hit and miss went to r different marks before we found them. Thats about it.

Gday all, well if you were lucky to get out today there were marlin galore, some inside 30f. Had a free jumper who must of been on drugs as we watched this black tail walk for just under a mile in 45M. Heard boats hooking up at the heads, heard of a boat that wore a small black across its front screen, dont know outcome. Plenty of fish dropped as well. Marlin off manly, bondi, maroubra, botany. This run wont last long, when it stops off the goldy, then we have about two weeks for these little blacks.

Nice fish m8, well done!

Spearer 1, nope heres daybreak. Mail has it that there are fin wide around 40kg. But you have to find the edge of current- no current.

Well done m8 keep at it soft plastics are rewarding, great offshore too, still find our bigger fish come in on plastics.

Yeah it was pretty cool to go through it, Hit it coming in again.

Gday all, went for a run this morning out to 700f. Had a strong southerly this morning and coupled with last nights left over ne swell was a little messy. All the way past the 12mile. After a few mile we broke through the wind just before dawn, which became non existent and the water glassed off to the horizon. Current is screaming to the SE at 4.5kn. The water is that insane colour blue and temps were from 21.7 out to 25.6. Visible current lines everywhere some containing massive coral spawn others none. Lots of bait here and there, sauries and flying fish but the ocean seemed devoid of life, no birds no dolphins.

Sigma, just down past rosa gully around the 50M line.

Gday all, happy whatever day we are not allowed to call it.... Harbour this morning was almost glass, funny no wind high, just a little surface wind and quite a few boats heading out. Went south again not much of a swell but did pick up during the day to about 1M from the se. Current still running to the north at 1kn. Water is green but oh my god we have a warm bottom and 21.8 up top. Fish wise the flatties are on the chew in the 50s a good mix of blue spot and tigers all still heavily roed up, mixed in amongst them are some really nice red spot whiting all on peeled prawns. The amount of slimies around is awesome perfect horses everywhere and great size for eating and very fat, its no wonder the little blacks are in close. Couldnt find any snapper whatsoever and thank christ the pike and pick axes have disappeared. Highlight of the day was a mako on a sgt baker. M8 hooks what seems to be a nice fish but his rods one of those light tipped shimano taipan things so they bend at the sight of a shadow, anyway up comes this baker and a little mako grabs it and runs puts up a little fight and it comes to fhe boat, bites through it, gone... M8888 drop it back in, lets it drift down.. junior comes back and its on, great 10 min fight comes to the surface... sink the gaff in, launch it into the boat only to watch the.little bugger only about 40 kg go balistic and manage to launch himself back out. Still cursing about 40kg of fish cocktails still swimming. Thats about it, tomorrow looks a cracker for those going out. There are some decent fish about.

It appears i have hurt some peoples feelings...Firstly i would like to apologize to anybody that lives out west and to any new australians for my harsh words. I am a waxhead and i too have done stupid things, So there you go we are all guilty t times no matter where you are and come from! Please lets get this rogue wave thing right. They are called sets and generally the last is the biggest. Anybody who surfs knows what a set is, love em.

Dave 3097, m8 botany wide fad has been holding fish, there are a lot of guys just trolling them up. Dave its hit and miss ive seen marlin in 60m over the last few weeks. So m8 its up to you.