Ojay Samson

i'll keep it simple. > headed out to brooklyn yesterday, arrived there at 930am with 3 other friends. > hired a boat for 6 hours and bought hawks prawns, squid & pillies > putted around till decided on 1st spot, 1 of my friends caught his first jewie within 5 minutes of soaking line on squid strip, and was the first fish to be landed > was only about 40ish cm so quick photo and back it went (photo is on his phone). > next fish was on one of my rods with a hawsk prawn for bait. nice fat bream was pulled in. >this process happened 5 more times for me with the fish ranging from 32cm to 28cm, with only 1 undersize throwback breamat 22cm, and also 1 average size eel. > other mate caught the 2nd biggest bream for the day using my lent rod and while my rod was out of the water due to hook retrieval from a previously landed bream (jokingly claiming at the time that fish was suppose to also be mine but my rod was out of the water for 5 minutes and he got lucky haha). > 2nd mate caught 1 keeper flatty, eels and catfish eels > 3th mate caught eels and catfish and the intial jewie >moved around some more after the intial spot and success once it died to no joy. the rest of the day we were catching stinky catfish eels, we would have all caught between 2-4 each. > also caught 3 common eels, with 2 released and 1 big one being kept. > all in all a good day, and we were all buggered at the end ..the sun took its toll even with a bimini. >also managed to catch a steel scaffolding girder using the anchor, took 3 of us to heave the anchor up to the boat just enough so we could see what it was and release the anchor from the girder. this thing was longer than the boat itself. > off the water by 4 and driving home by 430. >i donated 2 breams, 1 for each friend who went without one and walked away with 3 for my parents. > something to note, we were all very impressed with how fat and conditioned the bream are in the hawks compared to the ones in sydney. the ones caught in botany bay and harbour all seem malnourished in comparison. very impressed with how hard they pull, pound for pound they seem much stronger in the hawks, powerful little nuggets. Cheers all, pics for your viewing pleasure.

If it's anything like my soron stx 20, just get a pair of needle noise pliers and spread them outwards till each plier head rests in the grooves on the screw down plate holding the drag washers in. Turn Counter-clockwise I think to loosen from memory.

Hello raiders, I haven’t done a report in a while so I figured now’s a good a time as any. I'll try to keep the post succinct as possible all the while by trying to bore the readers too much. So made an ad hoc plan a few hours before while he was at work and asked if he was keen for a fish on my boat after his shift at 7am, after a bit of back and forth with him trying to convince me to go rock fishing at botany heads instead and with my decline in that idea (due to a very opposed girlfriend to that idea) we ended up agreeing to do the original plan and take the boat out instead. he arrived at mine at 9am and with a bit more fart-@rsing around going to the shops to buy some snacks (something he said he'd do before coming to mine so we'd be ready to leave asap...) I made the executive decision of scrapping the plan of initially heading to botany bay to fish and instead launch at my local boat ramp at Rhodes to maximise fishing time and fish the para river and harbour system. finally got on the water and after a 30+ minute boat trip on some pretty calm flat water, finally reached the cockatoo island area to have a fish around there and its surrounds. (Only have a 6hp so it takes a while). Initially tried around the Drummoyne wharf area for no takers, stayed there for about 20 minutes till we re-positioned. We then went to a spot my friend knew but I’d never fished before (apparently it’s a very on and off spot according to him, and fortunately it was on this day). Sent some dead bait out with little pickers taking hits at it, namely pinkies. There was some decent fish activity going on down there though as I could see on my sounder some large bait balls doing constant drive-by’s under the boat. after about 20 minutes we got our first hit , with a nice flatty taking interest in a rod of mine which I just threw out, would of took it on the drop and got it on a prawn. Boarded that and put it in the keeper net after measuring it at just fewer than 48cm. All the while the bait balls kept passing under us. A few minutes later my mate hooked up on his rod with gang hooks and a dead pillie... after a few minutes of fun a nice 55cm assize salmon was boarded, a first for my mate and thus a PB also for him, this thing was nice and fat with very wide shoulders. It went quiet for a bit with nothing touching our baits or my SP rod until my mate decided to change up his hooks to small long shanks to try get one of these things in the bait ball schools below us..... Yakkas! We filled up the bucket to catch some live yakkas for bait, only caught 4 for the day. I rigged up my medium duty outfit readying it for a live bait (static 5000 fj & sahara 4-8kg rod), made a paternoster rig with 1 hook for a live bait and the 2nd hook for a gang hook with a squid strip hoping id have some luck and catch myself a nice fat aussie salmon too. I then proceeded to put a decently big live yakka on, it would have been around the 20-22cm mark as it was at the time the only livie we had. Sent it down slowly as to not foul the setup on the drop. while on the way down the line started tugging more than I thought normal (I mean I knew the yakka I had on was pretty big and could feel it wasn’t having that hard a time tugging the line around), but this felt a bit different. I decided to give it a nice lift to see if it felt heavier than usual.... yep it was. Whatever was on the end, I just woke it up and a nice tussle was under way. Thinking it was another Aussie salmon I was pumped, until I got the surprise of my life and saw colour...a croc! It was action stations a few tense moments shouting at my mate to ready the net, in it went and cheers all around were had. The flatty took the large yakka which was surprisingly also netted again albeit pretty much on the brink of death, he got hit hard and his face and mouth was mangled. This was PB flatty for me with it just touching over 70cm; yep I caught a nice female. Not one for catching much fish I decided to keep it as my family, go and I do love eating flathead fillets when I do manage to catch them (mmm tempura battered flathead fillets). after this my fish finder experienced some technical difficulties with a positive terminal letting go and decided to call it quits an hour or 2 after that, also the fact that my mate had been up for more than 24 hours was also a factor. got home, and found out about what unfolded that day with the 2 boaters losing their lives at botany and thought to myself how it felt like a really good decision to try the harbour instead, couldn’t help but feel I may have dodged a bullet that day, may they rest in peace. Here are photos of that day and an extra photo with a coin and smile for eligibility purposes to enter the cotm for December (sorry for this pic as my dad was in the middle of filleting it up). 1st fish @ 47.xcm flatty 2nd fish @ 55cm aussie salmon 3rd fish @ 70cm flatty cotm dec 2014 eligibility pic (50c piece & a smile) Thanks for reading

I have experienced this as well, the very first time I took my tinny out, also in botany Bay, near Mollie point. It lasted for a few minutes then went away. It sounded like static or bubbles coming off the hull. Was a bit scared being first time out on my boat and sounded like something not normal was happening. Hasn't happened since but always wanted to know if there was an explanation. Also it was during the day before midday, and it was a normal day, blue skies with clouds here and there.

Absolutely amazing! Land based holy tamoley! Well done

nice work bud

*Ba Dum Tss*

im interested in this.. never saw this thread till now... is this a go or no? will have to start working on my post count if the former. Edit: scratch that... make it so, im over the proposed 50 post minimum ha!

haha your 'slow starts' are my very 'eventful outings'... congrats buddy, well done.

Dont they already have that power? i remember fishing at a wharf one night with a mate and saw the water police do a drive by... 5 minutes later they came back but this time docked at the end of the gangway and asked to see my fishing licence along with my mates. I have also seen standard general duties officers who were bothered enough to get out of their cars and check licences at popular wharves too... I have no complaints about this btw... i actually like this fact that they check people. what they dont seem to check are the catches people have which are generally in their buckets etc and undersized.

Good stuff Andrew, nice to see me and my mate didnt put a fishing curse on you a couple weeks back at watsons haha.

hey raiders, went out this arvo due to a power outage in my my area. went out with the mrs with the plan on visiting a frozen yogurt shop, suggested last minute before leaving the driveway that it might be a good idea to bring a flick stick just in case... started driving to a random destination the gf picked on google maps and just followed it. rigged up the 1 rod and sent it on its way. 2nd cast of the day and i got a nice hit, to my surprise it was a nice flathead. i didnt have a net so i tensley eased it onto one of the steps on the wharf only to just heave it out and run up the stairs hoping it didnt snap off to the top. i got to the top of the wharf and the fish fell off the line... i said "wow that was lucky"... to my surprise the fish bent the snap swivel straight connecting the jig head to the line.... i more than likely forgot to snap swivel in the locked position before i sent it on its way so that was pretty lucky.... either that or the metal on it is pretty cheap and bent straight out of the locking part. anways was pretty happy about that. fished for another 30 minutes or so until we called it quits after snagging the bottom on 3 separate occasions and getting over having to re-rig everything again. not to mention one of the lights on the wharf turning off.... if someone was sending me a sign i finally got the message loud and clear haha. the truth-o-metre showed the fish at 52cm. cheers raiders

Was out on the Bay 3 weeks ago to from midday to night and only caught 1 tailor and 1 bream. Couple other pinkie throw backs to.

I'm in +1 please ! Thanks Mrs swordfisherman.

thats an awesome trev... would of been lots of fun! congrats & well done on letting her go...i dont know if would of had it in me to C&R that ripper.

WOWZERS!!! excellent work on a amazing catch

Put me down as another interested party. I've been wanting to get one for a while too

Excellent work... fairly sure you boys are the envy of most anglers out there, well done!

anyone know of what might be the best beaches to hit up this afternoon (29/7/14) to try target a sambo and such?...im planning to head to one to try chucking out some halcos and such and try my luck, from all the reports im reading it doesnt seem worth it taking out the boat atm so a nice beach session chucking metals and such with the gf in tow will suffice...

When I was out on Tuesday the harbour, namely around goat island , I saw the suspected salmon school at around 3pm... I was thinking about taking the tinny out again tomorrow but from all the reports I'm reading it doesn't seem to fruitful out there. Might need to rethink tomorrow's plan haha

Hahahaha! That would have been hilarious. Almost sounds like a set up for a skit show as to how unbelievable you made it sound. Cheers for the laugh.

i was at goat island on Tuesday seeing lots of surface action with gulls flocking over school of baitfish being worked by larger fish breaking the surface, they were darting back and forth along the pylons as i could see the school on the fish finder..tried to get in on the action chasing them back and forth in the tinny to no avail..they werent interested in my 5g gold halco twisty it seemed... only bit of action i saw all day on the harbour... disappointing to say the least. they disappeared jsut as fast as they appeared for me

I have the exact combo you mention above being the catana and sienna combo, have had it for about 5 years now as my first foray into graphite rods and my first 'flick stick'. For its price I am very happy with it as most of the other people who have used my rod comment on how nice it feels to fish with being light and sensitive. It currently serves as my gf's rod when she comes fishing with me /my backup rod, it's spooled with fireline crystal 8lb. at the moment my new flick stick for chucking lures and such is a shimano symetre 2500 FL spooled with berkley tournament 8.8lb and on a pflueger trion sp702. I have much more confidence in the symetre reel if something bigger were to test it compared to the sienna, however I have not had the opportunity to test this theory out yet s I've only had it for about 2 months. I was looking at a few other graphite rods to match the symetre in the 100$ range and ended up going for the trion due to all the positive reviews on it. I find that the taper on the trion needs to be a little bit faster for my type of fishing as I find the rod tends to bend too much when putting action in it. You can't go wrong with either choices though, don't let the price of the catana combo fool you, it's a great combo for the price. Especially if your new to graphite rods and learning to take a bit more care with them compared to regular glass rods. Good luck with whatever you choose.

thanks for clearing that up fellas, cheers.

Should have reported it. Also, do we need to have 2 safety chains connected when towing a trailer? I've just been using the 1 safety chain when towing my tinny... The 1 safety chain connected to bow shackle and trailer post, and the 1 chain connected between trailer hitch and ball. Is the spare circle on the tow bar for another safety chain to connect to the trailer and car?