Shark Bait

No problem, that's what this place is for. Here ya go. Pleanty of reading. http://www.fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.php?showtopic=36153

Yep, I understand where you're coming from....I was probably a little hard on his mechanic now that I look back. It's all good.

Hello stormy. Huey has been very patient with me over the last 4 or 5 years. If ever I've had a any questions about maintenance procedures on my motor, he has always painstakingly helped me through. He has supplied with parts I've needed to work on my motor, as well as supplied me with parts and advice for my friends motors that I've serviced. Since I joined fishraider, I've read with interest Hueys responses to other members enquiries or mechanical issues. I honestly believe he genuinely tries to help people, as I'm genuinely trying to help Pdelux, who is new to boating and fishing. I'm sure he just wants to go boating and fishing without engine trouble, and I'd like to share with him the positive outcome I've had with Huetts. Hope this helps.

If you're running E-10, throw your fuel away and fill your tank with premium. Boat motors DO NOT LIKE E-10. If you're already running premium, find another boat mechanic. Huett marine is gold. I do my own maintenance, and have never used a dealer with my motor, but if ever I needed someone to work on my boat, I wouldn't go anywhere else. They are an hour and a half from my home, so that's saying something. They're worth travelling for. Do a search of posts by Huey, and I'm sure you'll agree. Hope it's only the fuel you're using.

Hey, khalidp, if you don't mind me asking, what were you using for bait? Rick.

G'day khalidp, welcome to the forum. It's a good place to land. Nice fish, and what a top result for a few hours on the water. Great stuff.

Welcome to the machine Parraman. You've landed in a great spot. I only fish around broken bay. Can't help you on the parra river. This'll go back up to the top of the page now. Surely someone else can help you. Rick.

Thanks again all. I'll shoot an email off when I get a minute Gazza, and I'll get back to you all with their answer. Cheers, Rick.

Thank you both very much. So if I'm not mistaken, with the info you have both given me, if I travel around Juno to fish at Patonga and the swell is larger than half a meter (which it normally is), I need to set up the safety gear in my boat for "Open Waters". Do we all agree?

Thanks Gazza. That info tells me I have the right safety equipment for closed waters. What I'd like to find out is where the boundary is for open waters in broken bay. I don't want to venture into "Open Waters" by mistake.

Hi all. I've got a 445 half cab with safety equip set up for closed waters. I like to fish between pittwater and patonga, and wondering if this section of broken bay is considered to be "open waters". So, in short, what should I consider to be the "Open Waters" boundary in Broken Bay? Does anyone know for sure? Thanks, Rick.

I tend to fish the same way land based. Cast out, wait for the line to go slack, twitch the rod and reel the slack in again, wait for the slack etc. It does work, and if you get snagged, don't give up, just means there's structure. It gets hard when the tide starts to move. Always cast up into the tidal flow.

G'day, my name is Rick. I was over in the fishing reports section and saw a post by jasondanielgraham. He asked for plastic fishing techniques to use on Flathead. He didn't get an answer, so I thought I'd share a few things I've learnt over the years. Flathead on plastics is the only way I seem to consistantly catch a feed, so here goes. Starlo once said if you can't catch flathead on plastics, you should take up bowling.....Flathead are one of the easiest fish to catch. They LOVE plastics. If you don't often come home with a feed, it's a smart move to target Flathead on Plastics. I fished out of my boat for 5 years before I learnt to come home with a feed. Plastics were new to me, and if ever I tried them, I'd soon give up and go back to my old bait habbits that didn't catch fish anyway. One day I forgot to bring the bait, so all I had was plastics. That day, my wife and I persisted with them until she started catching flathead. Once we figured out how she was doing it, we never looked back. We've been consistantly catching flathead for about 7 years now. That's all I know how to catch. If you want to catch flathead with plastics, leave other types of bait at home. You'll have to persist with plastics. I use 6 or 8 lb fireline, with a rod length of 12 lb flouro carbon leader. I have most success with bloodworn 70mm squidgie flick baits and 1/8 oz jig heads. It's probably in my head, but this works for me. I tie the jig head directly to the leader, I don't use clips. I use a 7 foot, 2 to 4 kg graphite rod with a 2500 reel. I find it easiest to use my techniue in 2 to 5 metres of water. My bread and butter spot is Patonga, around the moored fishing boats. I always seem to get a feed there. Between Patonga and jouno, there is a bay with a jetty. That's another great spot close to patonga. Between the starboard markers and the shore line at Jouno is another OK spot close to patonga. After heavy rain periods, the water in these spots is dirty and I struggle to catch fish for about 2 weeks. Here is posibly the most important thing I learnt about fishing for flathead with plastics. Drift, don't anchor. Cast in the direction your boat is drifting (generally out front). DO NOT CAST BEHIND. Here's why. When you cast out front, the line goes limp when your lure hits the bottom. If you cast out back, your lure drags along the bottom, so your line won't go limp. You need to see the line go limp. This will only happen if you cast out front. This is very important. So, cast out front. As soon as the lure hits the water, close the bail arm and very quickly take up the slack in your line. Stop reeling in as soon as the slack is taken up. Don't take your eyes off the line. You've cast out front and your boat is drifting closer to the lure, so you'll see the line go limp when the lure hits the bottom. This is the precise moment you flick the rod tip up and reel in 2 turns to take up the slack. The line is tight again, the lure hits the bottom again, flick and reel 2 turns again etc.......Sooner or later you'll flick the rod tip up and the lure will be in a flattys mouth. You'll feel him when you flick the rod tip up. You have to be quick. Flick the rod tip at the precise moment you see the line go limp. Trust me, it works. If you flick the rod tip up and feel some weight, quickly reel in the slack and flick the tip up again hard. 2 or 3 times if you like. I've lost lots of fish because I hadn't set the hook properly. A 2 to 4 KG rod won't rip the hook out of his mouth. Don't lift his head out of the water till you have him in the net. He'll go nuts as soon as his head leaves the water. When I set my drag, I wrap the line around my hand once and set it so it just starts to hurt my hand when I pull line off my reel. This works for me. If you can't detect the moment when your lure hits the bottom (read the line), you could be drifting too fast for the weight you have on. Use a heavier jig head. I normally use 1/8oz, but if the wind is up a bit and I'm drifting too fast, I'll go up to 1/4oz. In deeper water you need more weight too. You can't read the line if you cast out the back. You're wasting your time. Hope this helps, this is what works for me....everything I know. Might see you at Patonga this weekend. Rick.

Thanks. I'll try that next time I go out.

Thanks for that. I'll find him somthing else for Xmas. Cheers, Rick.

Hi all. Just wondering if anybody knows if there are any fishing charter operators on the river at Karuah. My brother lives up there, and I'd like to get him a day out with a charter for his Xmas present. Thanks, Rick.

Hi all. I'm going out Friday night/Saturday morning to chase squid. It's been a while since I was out last. Would I best go to Pittwater or Middle Harbour to chase them?

Hi all. I bought a new 75 E-Tec in march last year. Just before X-mas, it developed an occasional miss with about 50 hours up on the clock. After a run over about 3000 rpm, when I dropped back off the plane to about 1200RPM or less, 1 cylinder would drop out for a while. It didnt happen all the time, but often enough for me to squirt fear pee. I sent Huey an e-mail & described the symptoms. He suggested he would first pull out the spark plugs, check the gap & clean them. He told me the spark plugs needed to be installed in a particular way (indexed)& told me how to do this. 35 hours later (& about 5 months) I've finally run enough fuel through it to figure it wasn't old fuel causing the problem. These things just don't use any fuel, a tank lasts me 4 or 5 outings, so it took a while. The miss was getting worse, & it was time to act. I pulled the spark plugs out & found all 3 plugs installed incorrectly. One of the plugs was installed with the electrode pointing away from the injector, nearly 180 degrees around the wrong way. The other 2 were nearly 90 degrees out. I bought a new set of plugs from my local dealer, set the gap, & installed them as instructed by Hueys service Technician, and all is good. The motor runs like it should & revs to 5200 at WOT again. I didn't buy my motor from Huey, I bought it from another dealer, But I'll be going to Huey for a service. Cheers Craig. I owe you one. Please thank your technician for me. I spoke to him on Thursday last week. He's a good guy. Rick.

Hi all. Fished Patonga 3.30pm saturday with a friend of mine who had never caught a fish before. Fishing with plastics, we caught 6 in an hour and a half. 5 were legal, & he caught four of them. We were stoked. From there we went to Barrenjoey to chase Tailor. We were trawling Rapalas in 7 metres of water when we got snagged & lost 2 lures. From there we cast into the wash on the rocks, trying different spots. Caught nothing. From there it got dark & we went to Little Wobby chasing School Jew. We were there for the turn of the tide for about 2 hours for nothing. Normally I'd stay in one spot & sook about not catching fish, but this time I figured we'd move & try another spot. We went to the 3rd pylon on the northern side of the railway bridge & set up our squid again. Just got comfortable & the eels moved in. Two eels later at 10pm, we figured it was time to head home. A top evening on the water, we got in to some flatties & my mate will be grinning for a week. Oh,....Thanks brickman for the advice for fishing Barrenjoey. I'll try again next time. Cheers, Rick.

Thanks heaps Gary. Makes me feel much more confident about what I'm doing. I'll give Barrenjoey a go tomorrow evening & let you know how I go. Rick.

Thanks Brickman. I've noticed when I speed up abit, the rod has loaded up with a fish. I thought there might be somthing in it.

Hi all. I haven't fished broken Bay for a while, & I'm taking a friend out fishing tomorrow evening. I'll be launching the boat at about 3pm, & coming back in about 9pm. With my fishing ability (lack of), I'm thinking of 3 options. I can soak squid strips around Little Wobby or the rail bridge for jews (I'll be using bought squid) & low tide is about 6.30pm. I can trawl lures around Barrenjoey & West Head for Tailor. (How fast should I trawl. Should I do 3 knots or faster?) I'll only have about 2 1/2 hours light. Will this still work in the dark. I can throw plastics around Patonga for Flatthead. Again, I'll only have about 2 1/2 hours light. The last 3 hours will be dark. Which option do you think would be most likely to catch us some fish? You might think I should try for flathead while it's light, & when they go off, soak some baits for Jewfish. I don't think chasing Jewfish at low tide is brilliant, but that's only cause I don't often chase them at low tide, & it may be my best bet after dark. Your thoughts? Thanks, Rick.

I caught a 40cm black fish on the lane cove with an 85mm squidgy bloodworm flick bait. Couldn't believe it.

Barrenjoey is the head land the broken bay light house is on.

Hi all. I fished patonga, juno, rail bridge & little wobby ontuesday, wednesday, thursday & friday last week. Used squid baits, plastics & live yellowtail for bait. Fished hard for flathead & jewfish night & day. Caught buggar all. On Friday morning i spoke to a trawler operator in Patonga. I asked him for advice. He told me that Cowan & Pittwater have clean water, but the hawkesbury & broken bay aren't holding fish yet after the fresh. He told me none of the fishing boats are catching anything out of the Hawkesbury. He also said there's no squid anywhere they're licenced to trawl. He suggested my best option would be to fish the northern side of lion island (where they still net flathead) or pittwater. I went out & drifted off Lion with liveys & plastics Island for about 3 hours till I had cramps from throwing up. Caught nothing. From there I went back to West Head. I noticed a charter boat trawling lures through the white wash, & figured he knows best, & gave it a go. A 55cm tailor & a 75cm salmon followed. They went off the bite at about 10am. From there I went to The Basin & caught a 60cm flathead on an 85mm flick bait. Persistance payed off in the end. Pulled the boat out & went home for a rest. Cheers, Shark Bait.