GCC

Tends to be safest in the afternoon North Easterlies. Been thinking of getting down there. Do you climb down or walk down the boulder area? I've been wondering how safe the climb down is now.

I am surprised that no one has suggested that you should have put the live frigate mackerel out under a float. Also, sweep can catch big kingy's and that's what probably took yours.

Great mornings catch! How do you go with paddling across the harbour with all the boat traffic? Also, do you anchor your kayak when fishing Sow and Pigs or do you drift? Just wondering how dangerous it is to fish around those areas with the boat traffic around. I haven't given it a go yet, but I want to launch my kayak around Watson Bay and have a go at Sow and Pigs

I would like to attend. Cheers Glenn

Fished Port Hacking from my kayak yesterday afternoon (Thursday) - first collected nippers then drifted the flats nearby. Caught 2 whiting, both 39cm. Couldn't tell whether I had a travelly or tailor on as the fish fought so well and one jumped a few times. Was really surprised and very happy to find that both were whiting. Also caught a 27cm bream. All fish caught on a 4lb handline on nippers. Very little surface action. Kept getting followed around by a small stingray. Fished Port Hacking this afternoon (Friday). Tried the flats without success. Tried the deep at Lilli Pilli for nothing. Then, saw a few surface splashes nearby and fortunately had a rod set up with a silver slice. First cast into the school and I caught a little 32cm tailor. That came home for the dog (our dog loves fish). Otherwise, no whiting and no bream. Ate the whiting for dinner tonight (Friday) - they were awesome. Grilled the bream and it was first class as well. Sorry, no photos. Cheers Glenn

Mate, that place is hopeless through the day, especially at the time you were there. All you will catch are 50 cent sized reddies. You might catch a leather jacket if you are really lucky. It's a quiet spot and you need to go there at sunrise or near sunset and stay during the night. You might occasionally get salmon after sunrise, but the schools cruise past and don't really stay for long. You could try for hairtail at night if you catch yellowtail at sunset or after, but plan on camping down there for half the night at least.

That explains those slaps noises I hear at night - definately crocodiles in the Cooks river.

Hi all Also, Paddyyak, have it located the transducer properly? Look up the kayak forums to find out how. I siliconed a plastic lunchbox containing to the bottom of my kayak, inside the boat. I sit the transducer inside the lunchbox and fix the lunchbox with water. There's heaps of info about setting up a fishfinder in kayaks on specific websites like akff.net.

Hi all Just in regards to finin's comments, while I agree with finin in some respects, fishfinders aren't just for finding a location. I don't think there's anything wrong with embracing technology, just as one utilises the internet to discuss fishing rather than the old methods that fishermen used, like discussing the matter down the pub. Anyway, I got my fishfinder recently and to be honest, while it hasn't helped me catch much more fish yet, it has helped me to discovered a whole new world. For example I found a depression in the Bay that I never knew was there. I did fish the drop off around it and caught bonnies that are attracted to it. No body told me about that spot and I rarely see people fishing near it. Old information is invaluable, such as the info finin has about marks. But info one gets from fishfinders only adds to that. Once someones finds their own marks, with the use of a fishfinder or otherwise, they soon learn how to locate it without using the fishfinder. Fishfinders just help you to find new info.

I should also add that I've been out in my kayak around the Yarra Bay area lately and I haven't felt the best either. It gets a bit bouncy out there in a Southerly because you have the waves coming in from the sea in one direction and you have the rebound off the wall.

Well, look on the bright side, if you couldn't get a feed yourself, at least you gave the fish a feed.

Hi all I'm just after some advice on gaffs. I am thinking about building a long gaff, maybe 20-25 foot long (say 8m). I have a 16 foot rod made from rangoon cane, but it's just not long enough for the cliff fishing I want to do. Does anyone know where you can buy gass this long? Can anyone suggest a relatively cheap way to build one? I would like to build one from aluminium and hopefully be able to make it three or four pieces - like some of those handspears that screw together. Otherwise, how easy are cliff gaffs to use when fishing alone? I intend to fish for pelagics, especially kingfish. Cheers Glenn

It is with these sharks that I believe the shark shield would be very effective. Just smack the shark over the head with it. The shark shield doesn't even have to be switched on to be effective.

You should have asked them if they'd caught anything. (if they were honest they probably respond by saying they're trying right now...)

Nice King for your first and good for the plate. I caught one about the same size using 6lb on a small handline. That was fishing from a kayak though.

I've fished Browns many times in the past, but I haven't caught much from that spot. Once I dropped a hairtail there; I had it at the surface so could see that it was a hairtail. That was quite some years ago though. The lewd men are a concern, especially if you go off the track on the way down to the spot. You usually know by the signs if you have entered there territories; mounds of used condoms, plough marks in the soil, perhaps even distant groaning. Anyway, be aware of that area immediately behind Little Congi Beach - it's no b/shit that they do get up to stuff there and you wouldn't want your kids to be exposed to it. I think Browns rock itself is a disgusting place to fish because in summer it's hot and there's dirty sandy soil that ends up in your gear. It's really hot in the afternoons with the NE wind protecting it while you bake in the afternoon sun. In winter it's bloody miserable with exposure to southerly winds, rain, and the horrible dirt. I'll only fish it from a boat. If you head further around towards Henry head you get nice clean rocks to fish off and with a big cast out there are heaps of reddies, albeit most are undersized or just on legal size.

Hi all Fished Port hacking this evening in my kayak and managed my first every jew fish. Actually, I caught two, both were about an inch over legal size. I caught them on squid strips. Unfortunately, when I got back to the boat ramp a guy putting his boat in saw my fish and had a bit of a go at me for keeping them. He wasn't too bad about it (and actually offered to give me a hand with my kayak afterwards). But, he was right and I shouldn't have kept them, amongst other reasons, because apparently they aren't too good to eat at this size anyway. I think I was just so excited about catching jewies for the first time and also wanting to eat them for the first time that I forgot about them being soapies. I won't keep them at this size again. Anyway, now that they're dead, I might as well make the best use out of them. If anyone can please pm me with a recipe to cook them I'd be most grateful. I don't want to encourage others to eat them at this size, but then again I don't want to use these for bait or feed them to the dog either. Cheers Glenn

It was cute because it was like a miniature shark. Which is what it actually was of course. Tell you what, it would have suited a BIG saltwater aquarium. Image seeing that thing doing circles around your tank! On the other hand, maybe if I'd been a bit more of an entrepreneur you might have seen a small shark swimming about the lobster tank in China Town.

Hi all I had a bit of an “eventful” day on the Bay. First, I caught half a dozen nice yakkas – about 10cm long – i.e. not too big. I can only keep half a dozen in my bucket. Also had a go for squid amongst the yakka boil but none around. I then paddled my kayak over to Mol. Point and tried for a kingy. When I thought I actually had a large kingy, I let my anchor rope off thinking the float would keep it up and so I could collect the anchor after fighting the fish. Unfortunately, the current pulled the float down and I was unable to relocate my anchor.. So, what was on the end of the line? Well, after a semi-decent fight (on 35lb line) I saw white in the water. I thought, could this be something exotic like a cobia? Well, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I pulled up a 1 metre hammerhead shark! And, it was actually hooked in the tail!! So, seeing that it was hooked on the tail, rather than pulling it in the boat, I towed it around for a while as I searched for my anchor rope, to no avail. I then looked at the beast and appreciated how cute it was. I started to “feel” for it and so once I’d determined it was fit for release, I released it and it swam away. I had considered eating it, but the way it looked at me with one eye, and then the other, how could you eat such a cutie? Anyway, I then drifted about the wall and caught a barely legal red that I took home and ate for lunch. I returned to Mol. Point at low tide and fortunately I found my anchor rope and anchor. I then caught a few squid and headed for Watts Reef. I don’t think I actually found the reef, as the water was atleast 7 metres deep, but the anchor held and so I stayed. I burleyed up and fished with nippers and also live squid (hoping a jew would join me in my kayak as the sun went down – how romantic!). Anyway, the nipper on 4lb Schneider HANDLINE goes off! Palm burn on high rpm 5 inch handline! About 10 minutes into a very long fight with very long runs (I always like to have at least 250m on my handlines), the live squid on the 15lb handline goes off! As the 4lb handline had been fighting for a while, I let it do its own thing (and it spun wildly) while I tried the 15lb handline, but whatever was on that went to the bottom and busted me off. So, back to the 4lb handline and for probably another 15 minutes I fought it. Obviously by now I knew it must be a pelagic because of the way it went near the surface and because of the long runs. In close I saw colour and it was a lovely kingy. The nasty turd tried, of couse, to wrats around the anchor rope a few times, but it was pretty tired by now and I was able to unwind the handline around the rope. I gently brought it in close and gaffed it near the tail. I brought it in the kayak, thinking it had to be legal size, but found it was only 60cm. Also, there was a deep cut behind the big spike in the dorsal fish. It was a fresh wound and so I’d say something had a go at it during the fight – it may have been that hammer head I’d caught earlier in the day? Out for revenge? Anyway, aside from the small gaff wound I had inflicted and the dorsal wound, the fish was still full of energy and when I released it, it swam off pretty well. I fished for about an hour into the night, but caught nothing else on either live squid or nippers.

Try around the mouth of the bay - the waters pretty clean after the high tide.

Yes, it was good for 4lb (but it's 4lb snyder mono and so would likely be stronger - maybe up to 6lb?), especially given that I gaffed it and managed not to lose it while trying to gaff it. Actually, it took quite a while to bring it in as it was doing massive circles around my kayak and a couple of times I thought I was going to lose it as it headed near the channel markers. It's frozen now, but I'm looking forward to baking it. If you don't mind me asking (pm if you like), I'm trying to find spots in Port Hacking to catch legal size whiting. I only seem to catch the 20cm sized ones. Also, I've read about a spot called the Ballast Heap. Is it still there? All I see is sand flats where it is supposed to be...

I fished Mainbar Thursday of last week. I fished the evening after pumping nippers. All I managed to catch was a large trevally (39cm at the fork and 45cm at the end of the tail) while fishing the water over the sand flats. I caught the trevally on a 4lb handline, which took ages and was lots of fun. But, no decent bream or whiting; just those eager little toadies as you describe. Nothing worse than wasting good nippers on toadies!

Great catch! Yeah, kayaks have their advantage! I fish Botany Bay and Port Hacking from my kayak. Can't count the number of times I have had a school of surface fish active around my kayak only to have a motored boat come to close and scare them all away. Also, the flathead you can come across in the shallows! But, kayaks are vulnerable and I'd rather be in a tinnie when fishing Botany Bay in the evenings. Obviously, kayaks are awesome around Port Hacking in the shallows. I was in Port Hacking last Thursday and enjoy it so much because it is so quiet and pretty compared to Botany Bay. Yet, there's still the odd deckhead [interesting new word] who has to burn about in the boat with three quarters of the boat out of the water and this can be in the 4 knot zone! Anyway, great catch and good to see the interest in kayaking your creating. I got into it as a cheap and easily accessible way into fishing the Bays, but also because of the fitness factor (which should not be ignored in our society). Cheers Glenn

He could be talking about the Trap (or Greenie), which is far more dangerous than Julianne in my opinion. Then again, he could be talking about anywhere in Little Bay... More details needed. I've fished Julianne for many years and have found it to be relatively safe, as long as you abide by the normal rock fishing rules. Also, noting some of the crowd I've seen their in the past, it couldn't be the worst spot with respect to safety since I don't hear of people going in off there. Was fishing the gutter one day when a group of idiots came along with their esky full of beer. They fished the gutter on a the dangerous side and without wearing cleats. Obviously it was a flat day, yet one still managed to slip and fall in. Couldn't help but crack up once they'd pulled him out. It was hilarious.

Just to add on to the turtle siting, about three weeks ago I watched a seal swim around Bear Island. Around the same time I also saw a penguin in the bay. Not so surprising, when I was down at the slipway at North Malabar I saw a grey nurse shark of about 5-6 foot cruise past, about two metres from shore and in very shallow water. This was just after sunset, but it was still light and there were lots of people fishing nearby for squid. About 10 minutes prior I had myself been fishing for squid in thigh deep water in the path of the shark. I know they're not suppose to be dangerous, but are they really? I was happy to see it as it's the first real shark shaped shark I've seen in the water, i.e. not a Port Jackson etc. Finally, at Yarra Bay beach the other night I saw a fishermen pull in this big ugly catfish. It looked like a eel-tailed catfish, but with a more human-like head. Reminded me of Rex Hunt. I've never seen one of those things caught in the Bay before.