rjc123

Awesome fish! The reward for all those hours is so sweet! I've gotta find myself a metery now as well. Cheers, Tom

There are hairtail in the harbour at the moment. Not in numbers yet. On the other hand, cowan is firing for them. Cheers, Tom

Yep, it's a small big eye. Top catch for sydney waters! Don't recall of hearing of one from narra but there's a couple spots they've been known to show up. Odd getting one in the middle of winter of all times though.. Cheers, Tom

I have a few boxes exclusively for z-mans. I dont have any trouble with them melting. Keep them out of the sun if possible and make sure you dont store them with other soft plastic brands. They will melt if you do this. Also store colours individually because over time they may all become one new colour if you don't. Cheers, Tom

Both should go alright. Jew don't mind dirty water at all. I find that after big rains the bream fire but wasn't the case today... Very shut down. Only managed a couple. Not to stop you trying though the cooks is a very different system to the harbour. Cheers, Tom

Alright cheers guys

Caught this on plastics a couple months ago in the harbour. Absolutely no clue what it is. Was roughly 35cm and fat. Looks like a strange LJ or something. Any ideas? Cheers, Tom

Cracker mate! I'm still stuck just under 45 as well... The number of fish (right up to around 50) i've sight cast to on plastics and been smoked by is ridiculous. Only a matter of time til i stop one i hope! What'd you get it on? Cheers, Tom

Yeah xraps and other divers should go well. I'd be surprised if you didn't pick up some good tuna/cobia/macks off the rocks if you fish the right spots. Pop into the local tackle store when you get up there as they'll let you know what's going on. Cheers, Tom

Can't help you out with Hervey Bay, but noosa fishes well in winter. Particularly for pelagics. Longtails, Spanish Macks, Cobia and Jew off the rocks around the headland. Haven't fished the rocks there myself much but know people who have to great success. Spinning metals and poppers is probably your best bet, but to mix it up flicking big plastics around will give you a shot at jew and big snapper. The estuary itself (Noosa River) fires for trevally (many species), Queenies, Big Tailor and other bits and pieces over the winter months. So while you're there i'd check it out for sure. Flatties and Bream aren't too hard to track down around the river mouth as well. To get the most out of the river i'd be ataking a light bream outfit as well. Should handle the pelagics in the river but expect some good fights. I'm heading up next week. Hopefully the pelagics are on. Always hoping for a winter jack Cheers, Tom

Early morning and late afternoon you should be able get yakkas if you burley up. I find fishing unweighted small pieces of prawn an squid fished amongst the burley to be good on the yakkas. You'll pick up bream and trevally doing this as well. Once you get the yakkas I'd put one out on the bottom and one under a float. Salmon and tailor will take the livie under float and you'll have a chance at flathead and jewfish on the bottom. If I were to fish baits here I'd target bream and trevally. Unweighted prawns will do the job. Just work the shoreline and don't cast way out. The better bream are in close. Cheers, Tom

Yes it is, but you can also work the foreshore of the nearby areas

End of Wills Rd in Castle Crag. Good breaming/squidding over winter and maybe a jew if your lucky Good pelagic action late summer/autumn as well

She was very fat! Roughly 4-5m deep i'd say. She was sitting quite close in. Plenty of them sitting on the flats at the moment trying to keep warm.

Nice sounding combo mate! The old sol was a great reel so i assume the newey is even better. I do a lot of my fishing in middle harbour. At the moment, head down around sugarloaf bay and work the foreshore. There's a spot called the "steps" that produces some good fish pretty consistantly. Blades are a good option this time of year. You should pick up flatties, a couple of bream and a few good trevally doing this.

Soon I sense their presence

Yeah in the Middle Harbour area. Plenty of fish around if you know where to look. The salmon are in now. Bust ups everywhere today but all out of reach.

So far im really happy with it. I will say though is it's definitely not a 4-8lb rod.... VERY LIGHT stick. To put it in perspective yakkas would put a good bend in it. They have plenty of lower grunt though so in a way the lightness works well. Fun on the small/average fish and still has enough to stop the bigger fish.

Hey Raiders, Had a free day and went for a landbased session in the harbour. Aim was to find a few flatties and bream (quick jew flick as well) but more so to test out my new combo. Nordic Stage Arael Jaegar 4-8lb stick matched to the 2013 certate (2004 model - shallow spool). Things started quietly but after a little while the first flatty of the day arrived. Only a small fish around the 40cm mark. Moved on and had a good hit at the next spot. Struck up onto A LOT of weight. A couple of headshakes and straight away i was concerned about my 6lb leader A few minutes later a good flatty emerges. Was interesting landing him on the rock wall with no net or lip grips and 6lb leader. She went 70 and a great flatty on silly string. Once again the little 2.5" zman grub in watermelon red doing the damage. As the morning progressed the flathead seemed to have disappeared but luckily the bream were happy to play along. Managed half a dozen or so around the 30cm mark. Only downside of the day was losing a couple of blades to the swarms of tailor around at the moment! Overall i think i certainly put the new gear through it's paces and can't wait to do it again! Cheers, Tom

Sigletts and Tiemco Soft Shell Cicadas for topwater. If you looking for something new to try give blades a go. In the right areas they work wonders. Just don't fish them over dodgy bottom or you'll be likely to lose a few... Cheers, Tom

Unfortunately Darling Harbour is NO FISHING. There are a couple of ferry wharves around the area that are open to fishing but aren't particularly productive from my experience. There's a significant fine for fishing in there so best to play it safe. Always fun walking around seeing schools of 40+ bream all over the place! Cheers, Tom

Onya matty! Knew you'd get one! Gotta get some of those fishtails. They look the goods! Now get out there and get that metery Will be interesting to see which one of us gets there first Cheers, Tom

It's not easy to combine a good bream/flatty stick and a jew stick. You'll always be either slightly too heavy or too light. If i were you i'd be looking at having separate combos for the two. If you were to to be set on one combo, the 4-10lb Daiwa Black Label Technical 6'4" should do the trick. Perfect for muscling big bream out of tight water (still fun on the average fish) great flatty stick and providing your fishing fairly open water then could be a light jew rod as well. These rods perform WELL ABOVE their ratings. I've got a heavier model for jew (6-14lb) and if anything it's a little too stiff for jew IMO. It really depends on your budget but matching the 4-10lb black label to a 1000-2000 reel would be your best bet. Cheers, Tom

Some nice fish Ian, Always good to christen a new combo on some nice fish and hopefully it serves you well. There's a few new colours of the grubz that have recently been released. Can't wait to get my hands on them. They look the goods! Particularly "Greasy Prawn" and "Hardyhead" colours. Cheers, Tom

Depends where. IMO plastics and blades are the go in the cooler water. As previously mentioned the cooler water slows down their metabolism making them a little lazy and lethargic. While you'll still get a few on various HB's, plastics and blades will do the damage. Fish MUCH slower than you would in summer and mix up your retrieves. You'll most likely find the really subtle, slow retrieves to do the damage if using plastics. If you were to fish HB's i'd be fishing deeper divers in deeper water. Things like Jackall Chubbies and Deep Cranks are always good. Have a look at TT 1/12 Ghostblades as well... Great little blade and perfect for winter breaming. You'll pick up some other bits and pieces fishing slow and deep as well. Cheers, Tom