kingpig

The rig is a single hook and i never used really big ones, most likley 3/0. I used a standard ball sinker swivell and leader to hook. Leader of around 600mm or slightly larger. My brother preferred a rig where the sinker was on the bottom. He liked it beacuse he thought he had less issues with crabs taking his bait. The other great bait we used was the head and gut of a tailor. A lot of the Jew I have caught were from Stockton Beach after fishing for tailor. We would clean the fish, take the first head and lob it out as a bait. We would cut the head and gut out in one piece and use it on a two hook snell. We usually either got Jew or bitten off by more toothy critters. Have fun

A lot of people seem to have forgotten one of the best baits for Jew off the beach is accually beach worms. I have caught lots of jew of the sand from soapies to over 40lbs. Most of these have been on worms or halved tailor baits. While you are catching the worms for bait it gives you the perfect oppertunity to check the fishing spot and leave some kind of marker on the beach to find again in the dark. The best rig i found for worm baits is to take the worm and thread the hook all the way on over the eye of the hook and up the line. Pull the worm up the line 6 inches or more if they are big then pierce the worm thought exposing the barb and loop the balance of the worm onto the hook. about 1 inch loops. You should end up with a bait that is like a ball of worm on the bottom and the piece up the line. Use more than 1 worm if they are the short harder type. You will suffer from some pickers but the prize is good. Jew actually come onto beaches searching for worms. Anyway just the way i have caught them since i was young.

The mullet you are talking about are bully mullet or sometimes called Sea Mullet. These guys mainly do not bite in salt water. I have caught them in the Shoal Haven River neart the floor mill using squirt worms but that is the only place in salt water. We used to fish them as kids in fresh water in the Hunter River using either dough (floor & water) or garden worms. Cheers Kingpig

Look around and purchase the unit that has the largest RMS output and the biggest screen available in your price bracket. You will be able to go into the setting of the unit and make it read in metric not imperial. Cheers Kingpig

Just a quick report on the peak last Thursday. My son and I went out form Botany to the Peak last Thursady morning. After a brief but unforfilling attempt to catch yakka in the bay again. (I have only fished in the bay twice and cannot find any). We set the GPS and went straigth to the peak. First jig sent down 400g white & red got hit and i pulled in a King. The fish only went 55cm and was the only king we hit for the day. Nearly every drop after we got Bonnies or bitten of by jackets. I rigged a three dropped rig loaded with squid and caught jackets three at a time. Big ones 45-50cm. Total for the day. 10 Jackets, 8 bonnies, 1 Trev caught trying to catch yakkas. Lost about 10 jigs and a lot of braid. It was a nice day on the water and at least i have a good excuse to visit my local tackle shop. Cheers Kingpig.

Greg Great read and good fish. The style of fishing you are doing is something similar to what i used to do off the rocks a few years ago. It may help if you greese your line like fishing for blackfish to keep the bait floating. Also we used to get whole loaves of bread and cut the crust off. Use the centre for berly and then cut the crust into round pieces with a wad punch. You then take the round pieces and put your hook through the centre using two or three per bait. They float well because you do not squash the air out of the bait. Cheers Kingpig

Man these are not called pig for nothing. My pig gear consists of 7 wrap 12 ft rod loaded with 25 lb line. No swivell no leader straight to Mustard 542 double strength hooks and just enough lead to cast. Have fun it is either over in seconds or you have half a chance. Cheers King pig

no worries I have fished in many places and know a few of them extremley well. The Manning River, Richmond River, the area between Seals Rocks and Necastle. Sydney now for the past few years and the Shoal haven are all areas i know very well. Cheers Kingpig

Ok Rock spots. Black Head at the Northern end of shelly beach. There is usually a gutter running along the rocks on the norther side. From half tide in to the top and just after this gutter sometime holds good Jew. I have caught a few from here on hard bodied lures. Cast over the gutter retrieve slow when the swell pushes in and do not retrieve when it pushes out. This will keep your lure in the zone for a long time and use the swell to make it work. On the south side of this headland and the headland at Lighthouse beach there is always a nice hole of water off the beach. These holes at this time of year with the tide rising and a northerly breeze on dust should produce good numbers of tailor. If the tailor are there so are the Jew slab a tailor and lob him out. Both these holes often hold good bream close to the rocks. Beach:- If you can catch beach worms there are heaps on either Lennex or South Ballina. If you drive over the punt towards South Ballina, do not turn to go to south ballina, keep going almost down to Wardell. You will see a road that leads of to Patches Beach. The beach down this way always has better shape and fishes well. Should be lots of winter bream this time of year. Find a point of sand that has the rising tide washing over it into a deep hole or gutter fish as light as you can some movement is good and you should be able to get some good bream. My best from hear is 45cm. River:- Believe it or not but the river bank in the main street near the new cafe's is one of the best Jew spot in the river. My brother and i have caught many good fish from this bank. I mainly fish it from my boat. If you go there during the last part of the run out. No moon and fish live mullet hard or soft bodied lures you should be getting fish. Pleanty of people fish this area and most will give u some help. If you wander around in the shallow water above the bridge in North Creek and cast some soft plastic into the deeper water you should get Flathead. This should get you started. There are lots more places. get out and try these and explore. Have fun Cheers

I have fished that area for many years and my family still live there. Tell me what type of fishing you want to do and i can help with the details.

Over many years i have built and used a wide variety of blackfish rods. They are a specials piece of equipment and the one you choose will be the one you feel the best with. For my two bob's worth: My current rod is the best one i have every used and i have had a few 9 at the last count. It is a Butterworth blank MTE5126G. I use this rod every where i fish for blackfish river or rock, and build it so i could do this with it. Along with an alvery blackfish reel and home made floats this gear rocks. I ever use it to fish for whiting off the beach with a light lead and a small treadline reel. happy building Kingpig

If the bait was not on the bottom it is very unlikley to be a ray of any type. I am not going to speculate on what type of fish it was but it must have been somthing with powerfull jaws and a hard mouth. The hook would not bend with amount of pressure you could exert with this line but the fish can easily bend it in its jaws by working the hook form side to side in its mouth. A mid size red could easily acheive this.

Hi Jewhunter I have fished for bass in Richmond river and tridutries for many years most of the areas very tidal. My experience is that bass seemed to fire better on the end of the run out tide and the highs were almost dead. If you find anything different i would interested to know. Cheers Kingpig

Mate the river in Ballina has many many areas to fish for Bream. There are rock walls that run along the entire lenght of the river on the town side and the southern side. Inside the souther side wall Porpiose wall around the entries is good but be careful of the jacks. Go to the RSL club and drop a chip in the water off the balcancy and see the result. The Richmond River fishes very well unless they continue to have the exteme fish kills that have occured the past coule of floods.

I get my stessl mako up to about 34 knots in good conditions. it has a 115 fitch 2 stroke. Cheers Kingpig

Sorry but i have to disagree. The best time to see the shape of a beach is at low tide. You get see all the sand bars and gutters. The half way out and in cycle of the tides produce times when the maximum amount of things, pipies ,shell and other stuff is being washed out the sand and into gutters and run off areas. It is also the time you can get beach worms. When the tide is high fish have a lot more water to work in and they spead out when the tide is lower they tend to school in the gutters or places where wave action is washing across a sand bar and into deeper water. Unless you are fishng for jew or tailor then in my opinion you loosing a lot of prime fishing time.

If you use chain the anchor gets pulled into the into reef or sand or mud by the weight of the chain. The chain will lay on the bottom and make a big difference. In fast currents or places were a swell will push you up your anchor rope and the tide then pull back it is very important. The more chain the better but the heavier it is to lift. If anchoring in deep water invest in a Anchor Yanker. It is device that clips onto your rope with a large float on it. You drive the boat up and around you anchor rope an the anchor gets pulled up by the motor not you. Just drive up current of where you want to fish. Drop your anchor over and hold the rope. Apply some pressure to the rope so the chain does not catch in the anchor on the way down. When it hits the bottom let some rope out and then hold the rope to feel if the anchor is sliding on the bottom or holding fast. If holding tie off the rope over the fishing spot and go for it. If not repeat the process. Make sure your shackles that join anchor to chain are tight. Use a pair of pliers or some other method to do this. Do not be fooled the screw will come undone and the anchor lost. Cheers and good fishing.

Herring are great bait and that is a herring. At 20cm he may be a bit big for a live bait for bream buy i have caught some big bream on 5-6 cm models at Ballina. He would make a jew bait live or split butterflied. If targetting smaller fish than split him from vent staight across to fornt of dorsal. You end up with a head end and a tail end great bait. Cheers & Tight Lines Kingpig

Do you want to buy or dig them

High Guys I camped on the river a week or so back up at a place called Coolendel. We put a canoe in there and went up the river through about 6 rocky runs that you had to drag the canoe up. We camped over night and came back the next day. We caught plenty of bass from 4cm up to about 45cm. Only about 7 of the fish were above legal size but there are plenty of fish. I estimate that between myself and my son we caught between 40-50 fish. In the dark they went crazy you could cast in the middle of the river and get a fish. Cheers Kingpig

I have used type of reel often. One to look out for the pin that catched the line to wind it onto the spool. This pin is subject to a lot of wear becasue the line runs around it. If a groove develops it will cut your line. Some of them may have a different system now but to ones I have used all ha the same issue. I caught some big bass using with them.. Cheers Kingpig

I have kept native for a long time. Most of them are very aggressive and do not mix well. Barra will grow extremely quickly and eat just about anything alive. If one fish get a fraction larger that the other then the small one will be eaten. There was a guy in Campsie, Ninth Ave I think, that specialised in natives. One of the best fish I have kept is jungle perch. They are aggressive but not as bad as barra, sarra or grunter. If you want non aggressive try rainbows. They come in a variety of colours and with the correct lighting look great. Be careful of taking fish from rivers and putting into tanks with other fish. They carry parasites and came be very harmful. Cheers Kingpig

Nanook I fish for pigs a fair bit. I also use a fly rod for a lot of species but and I have never tried to catch a drummer on fly. The best method I use for drummer is to burley heavy with bread. I have a 6144 rod with an old mitchell 500 reel and 25lb low stretch mono. I use the lightest lead I can so my bait does not hit the bottom but washes around to a mustard 542 hook in size 2. The best baits I have found are peeled prawns or abelone gut. There is a ban on the use of ab gut currently to try and stop the spread the spread of a virus. I do not konw if this helps. Cheers Kingpig

Forzasab I have fished in this region for the last 20 years. What type of fishing do you want to do? The area will cater for any style you want. Cheers Kingpig

Peter The two big ones we got were the only 2 all day and we lost no gear. Cheers Kingpig