dwan8337

Hi All, Been sitting inside the lecture theatre all day doing a count down as the conditions looked pretty good on Willyweather. Met up with the fishing crew for some good old bait gathering. Was NOT expecting this!! It freaking took at least 20-30m of line off me, and with my drag screaming i thought i had myself a retarded kingfish that took a well presented squid jig. Anyways got our usual bag limit. Happy days! Yamashita,Yozuri + Glowmax = Winning

Depending where you're going to launch from, if it's from swallow rock reserve, just around the corner at Gymea baths does it for me. Cheers David

There are lights only in the Parking. You'd have to bring your own head torch or just count on generous randoms. This spot gets pretty crowded from 5am on wards. As Clifton top dogs I recommend heading out early just to get the top right hand corner, the first 4 railings is where the fish are at. Although lately i've found how the sun casts shadows from the wharf onto the water makes bit more difference (They in the shadows more, more wary compared to in the sun). Now days, the Mosman Council locks up the gates at 8pm at night i think, and keeps it closed till about 4am. Sometimes 5:30 if you're lucky. Parking in the bays need to be paid for from 8am so keep an eye out on time. Or you could just park outside the gates and walk it (only a bit extra). I've never been Greenwich, as soon as I hear any spots linked with Jewie I steer clear right away just from the crowd factor. Cheers David

Open to discussion haha I reckon he thought it was a 2kg block of pillies.

Fishing off the wharf and dealing with all the things you've said is quite a challenge in it self About the same outfit....Yer we like to feel like we're sponsored and often that leads to bream tournaments with ourselves. You'd be suprised at the amount of rivalry when there aren't even stakes involved. Got to walk the walk eh? On the topic of giggling...walked into BCF the other day with my buddy. Asked the store guy to show me his favourite bream lures, and i'm just giggling in front of him because thinking of catching a bream on lure just makes you smile More posts coming up this weekend. Should be about the Hacking for now. We'll try and add videos next time as well. Cheers David

My bad! We use that term a lot between our selves. It's smoked from now on! We're keen as they get. When I first met him we fished 5 days straight. Passed out after that of course. The guy calls his facebook, fishbook. Every week we went from Mid December last year till Mid February has been "best day ever". We get smoked every session, Maybe we're not experienced enough to land them consistently but you face the dilemma of should i take my time and risk getting reefed 30m out...or skull it in and risk it diving under the ledge. Right on Legal, no problems, 1M+ we just get smoked for the hell of it. At one point we saw some guys hook up onto monster kings on live bonitos....cannot imagine the size of those. Obviously never even saw colour. Bloke had Saltiga 6500 and it took drag like a king would on my bream gear. All you saw was a balloon moving off. I see heaps of boats trolling pass there but not down rig. By the way I'm holding onto footage of a striped marlin hookup 50m off bluefish point. Its like 500 megs don't know what to do with it, want to show fellow raiders No worries mate now I understand what lectures are for!~ Cheers bud!

Hi guys, Still inside a lecture.. Anyways, this is just a general Bluefish report with no particular time frame, mainly because I forgot when. Usually the boys meet up at my place at 2:30am. Pick up Yakkas from the local wharf for about an hour or so. We usually head down the rocks with 30 livies which equates to 3 x 20L buckets full. Every time we seem to forget about the grueling trek down in literal darkness despite being pumped up about the trip the night before. Getting down from my POV is probably the best part of the trip just purely because if you don't work as a team, you're as good as screwed. You really appreciate the value of a committed fishing buddy (Probably just as hard to come by as an awesome wife ). Especially when you pass that bucket loaded with livies down to him and him to you, all the while balancing the gaff,rods,gear and bait. Once down you feel like your'e on top of the world until you walk around the corner and see 8 other guys already with their setup whipped out spinning into the darkness . (Photos are of the perfect day! not the day just described) One thing I noticed with Rock fishing, maybe everyone knows already!, is that when the crappy fish hang around (your sweep, rock cod etc) you know your day is going to be slow. Blowup pool is essential to live baiting of the rocks, mainly because it makes you feel like a pro! and if you feel like a pro, you fish like a pro Berley up, bring in the Yakkas, remembering actions brings in more action. Dump your livie out under a float whilst trying different rigging techniques, depending on how the Kingy's are taking them on the day. Then hold on for dear life Here are some photos of our Adventures maybe not from the same day I don't think. In one of the photos, Adrian was onto a 1m+ King, not a chance even on a Stella 8000 matched to a 15kg Live fibre. Coincidentally, after being butt-raped by the Sydney Hoodlum, we found a hole 5cm across under the right butt-cheek of Adrian HAHAHAHAHAH!!! The Action was thick and fast so Didn't really have time to take too many photos of the action.

We're hanging up the old boots at Clifton! Maybe see you on the water. Give us a wave if you spot a yellow 4.5m Poly with two Asian blokes wearing the same outfit!

I passed out face first on the floor, He had his hands on my guinea pig the whole time he napped. Poor thing was too scared to move! You got any fishing plans this weekend? We're thinking about a lure only day hitting the Hacking maybe Sunday.

Hi fellow Fishraiders, Here i am posting fishing reports in the middle of university lecture My fishing partner and I have been hitting Clifton Gardens for the past few weeks getting there at around 3am. Note to self: No matter how early you go, there's always someone else earlier.. Anyways there's been a lot of action than usual at Clifton. There are some serious bite size Yakkas you can berley up from underneath the pylons. I'd say approximately 10cm! The Trevs show up at first light along with schools of good bream, and as the Sun rises your bonito schools mixed with Salmon and Frigates start busting up in and around the wharf. Too bad the blokes around us don't understand the concept of matching the hatch, and the boaties don't know how to follow a school instead of motoring up to it in excitement. I met a japanese bloke who livebaits with those bitesize yakkas and he seems to be getting his Kings late into the afternoon. You see them around in the morning, but not interested in anything other than my pilly fillet floated down in the berley trail on 4Lb leader. lost about 40-50m of good japanese braid The action usually dies down around 9am although the surface bust ups may last for another few hours or so. Catching the bonitos/frigates from the wharf would come down to pilly under a float because a micro bait sized soft plastic just won't make the distance in your cast. Oh, almost forgot the mention the Soapies that come around 50m off the head of the wharf. I believe there is a major drop off judging from the time my sinker takes to sink compared to distances slightly closer. Getting a cast in at the head of the wharf nearly meant life and death for a fisho when a fight nearly started over number of lines out. Amazing how people can just come greet you, smile, then squeeze in next to you. Freshly caught squid again comes out trumps. Fishing at Clifton can be pretty annoying just because there seems to be drop in manners when it comes to getting fishing spots. However, as Clifton top dogs we managed to pick up 10 bonitos, 5 trevally, lost count on the bream. This was all in the berley trail with ultra light leader. Here's the fruits of our labour and the aftermath from waking up at 2am...

Hey Raii, I think i met one of your female friends dad at the bathe one arvo! He says he his daughter knows you =p man that video was kingy madness middle of May too. Theres another spot further up nxt to lilli pilli holds some good numbers too. Dave

Hi Raii, My bad I meant Grays point is where we launched. A bit further up stream from Gymea. Just used to saying gymea because I've fished at the bathes so many times. You can launch your yak quite easily at swallow rock reserve (Grays point) without getting any scratches. Theres a nice little sandy beach next to the boat ramp. Its worth the effort paddling up to the Bathes. Just watch this video I don't think they guy who posted the clip wanted you to know where it was but its the bathes.

Gmorning fellow raiders, Went down to the hacking with two of my fishing buddies 06/05/2011. According to the Almanac charts that day was a hot fishing day (You know what, it was pretty damn well accurate). Launching our boat from Gymea, the cruise to the nipper grounds saw what I presumed to be pillies being hammered by a school of bonnies. Our skipper quickly killed the engine quite far off as we slowly drifted towards the spot where the bust-up occured. To our dismay, the bonitos have gone deep (Guess we didn't kill the engine far enough). Continuing onto the sand flats near bundeena, my two buddies proceeded with their nippers pumping whilst i cheekily stayed inside the boat pre-rigging, and hoping to get the first cast out when we reached our destination. Putting the finishes touches to my double uni, hell broke lose right behind the tinny on the sand flats. No idea what it was busting up within 40cm of water, I quickly tied on an excessively big popper onto a 6"6 bream rod spooled with 8lb braid + 6lb leader (The only popper that I had & knowing perfectly well if it got smashed i'd lose the lure). Pop..Pop..pop...wam!! thought i was on for a second but somehow the fish somehow missed the trebles. The blood was pumping by this stage... The school of fish only had moved slightly further away so Again..pop..pop..pop...only this time i ripped the popper back as fast as i could. Within seconds I was on!! ZZzzzZZZzzzZZZZzZZZzz.....In all honesty, this was the best fight I've seen a salmon give. In total, I counted 6 spectacular leaps, completely clearing its body from the water. After every leap it would go off again and i'd hold on for dear life. 10minutes later...I wish i brought the camera along, a 67cm sambo onto the sand! I never knew salmon would hunt so shallow towards a sandbank. It was definitely an eye opener . Oh yes, popper still in tact You'd think this was the end of it?? We cruised back to the mouth of Gymea Bathes, anchored and started the berley trail going. It was meant to be a day of bread & butter fishing because my mates thinks I haven't done enough of it. They told me live nippers were gun bait on trevally, bream and whatever can get their mouths around them. What they didn't tell me was how to hold one.... but hey thats what mates are for eh?? On my first drop a legal Trevally.. Second drop a legal Trevally... Third drop a legal bream... You get my drift...this quite didn't stop until about 9:30am. I lost count on the fish we landed but We only kept two of each species. Sensing the bite was turning off, I suggested to the skipper we try our favourite spot further downstream as we managed to berley up some sizable Trevally on our previous outings. Like the usual we anchored up and started the berley trail again. Only this time I was adding Pilchard fillets into the drift and floated mine down along with it a little while later...tap tap...zZzzZzzZZzzz...i quickly pick up the rod, thumb the spool and set the hook. By this time my mates were calling Kingy, I couldn't tell what it was. It was doing head shakes, tuna circles, and slugging it out deep. It didn't feel like a huge fish but it was fighting like one, taking considerable line off my little Stella 4000S. Was a while before I could turn the fish's head toward me and started gaining some line back. My mate was first to see colour (well..stripes). It was a Bonito alright! measuring 55cm and foul hooked on top of its head! that explained why it had so much power Sorry guys I'm getting really hungry writing this so I'll end it quickly. All in all, it was a hell of a day on the Hacking. Someone once told me that the Hacking is Sydney's best kept secret. I'm with him on that. In total we landed another 6 Bonitos, 2 Rat Kingfish, and countless bustoffs! All before Noon. Tight Lines

I heard they were fishing in 4M swells?....

At clifton you have to berley hard. Everytime I go with mates we seem to be only ones berleying & catching trevs, bonnies, rat kings. There are some thumper trevs there especially in the winter. Not much of a crowd in winter. In summer everyone queue up for the bonito/salmon that churn up around the wharf within casting distance. Never left the spot with nothing decent if you fish it right.

thats just wrong...nothing wrong with more people fishing at one ledge. In my experience...more bait in the water keeps the pelagics around for a wee bit longer.

Those bonnies are mad fun on ultra-light gear eh? from here it looks like a wobbegong.

You can also try spinning with a fly rig up a white bait look-a-like fly 1m behind a float and pump it back like your metal luring. I saw a guy land 8 bonitos within half an hour.

Yer I agree..was down there yesterday arvo at the bonito corner. The place was filth. The people that go there leave their rubbish just there..its just embarrassing watching 20 guys bagging bonnie limits. Doesn't even look like they enjoy the catch. apparently they take shifts bagging out limit then go off to sell it. I'm suprised hill 60 hasn't been fished out yet.