tonez

Well done on the hook ups mate. good fun whey bite a fast moving metal lure. Ive had the same issue with pickers every time i went out this summer . Spend hours gathering squid in the morning only to feed those pesky little buggers. If you dont mind letting us know, what type / size of lures did you have most success with?

Looks like they are everywhere. Lost a heap of hear to them yesterday in the bay, mostly around the oil wharf and drums. Got to the point where we had to stop berleying.

I went there last week to flick a few plastics. Tried the beach area and the wharf new the boat ramp for a big fat donut. Some guys next to me on the wharf were fishing with prawns. They got nothing also. Strange cos that spot is usually ok for a couple of bream and the odd jew. I wonder if anyone has had any luck up the parra river lately?

+1 for Squidgy 80mm Bloodworm Wriggler got a few undersized ones last summer on those SPs near drummoyne boat ramp (sandy area to the right). Size 1 hook on a 5g jig head (Starlo & Bushy ones which have a really fine gauge hook). Good luck

Reports seem to suggest Roseville boat ramp and under Roseville bridge have been productive for some people. Balmoral would be my plan b for bream. Let me know how u go with the plastics. On that note I would be interested to know if anyone has had much success with soft plastics at night. If so, was there a bit of light around? Cheers

Wow mate. Well done. What a great catch. Congratulations.

Hi all The boat mechanic I used to use in Toongabbie seems to have closed down (or moved - no idea). So I am now after a boat mechanic to sevice my 2003 Yammaha 40 (oil injected). It sits on 4.83 Quintrex which I purchased (both boat and motor) arouund May last year. Here she is. It has never missed a beat but i was thinking of giving it some TLC (change lower end oil, change impeller and a general service and grease up) as i have owned it for over a year and havent done any servicing (although i havent really used it all that much, maybe 15 times all up) I am in Dundas (a few ks east of Parramattra). I know Huett Marine is a site sponsor and gives members lots of great advice on this forum. I would love to become a customer there but Cowan is just too far for me. Just wondering if anyone knows a good workshop or even a good honest mobile mechanic they can reccomend. If its a workshop i dont want it to be too far from Dundas. Feel free to PM me as im not sure if this breaches any site rules. Cheers Tony

If minimal boat driving time is your goal and u don't care how long it takes to drive there, then tunks park at cammeray would be the ramp your after when rose bay is closed. Personally I would use drummoyne or bay view park if driving from Liverpool as tunks park is about an extra 30 mins away in the car.

Wow. Very nice fish mate. Congrats.

Nice catch. Whose birthday was it?

Well done getting a day off midweek mate. Best time to go fishing I reckon. Personally I wouldn't take a rig like that anywhere too exposed. Flint and steel and most of the lower hawksbury can get choppy and with a bit of wind quite dangerous on a boat that size. Consider going to middle harbour. Launch at Tunks park and go as far out as balmoral. Or as far upriver as u like. Heaps of sand flats for drifting and heaps of structure for kings. The entrance is also suitable for a boat like that. Flick plastics for flatties or soak worms for whiting on the runout tide.

Hey Raiders As the subtitle suggests, Sunday morning was a cracker for my mate and I on Sydney Harbour. We headed out super early from Drummoyne boat ramp. It was still pitch black dark when we cruised away from the ramp and i found myself dodging half a dozen boats on the water with absolutely no lights whatsoeverer. Crikey, do they have a death wish or what. One guy even started shining a torch at me to let me know he was there. Anyway, the plan was drift the sandy areas around mosman and drift past the usual harbour markers in the hope of catching a king or 2. We were armed with fresh squid for the kingies and live nippers and prawns for the sand drifting. I also had my trusty soft plastics outfit which consists of a Shimano Starlo Stix rod, Stradic 2500 reel, 6 pound Finns braid, 12 pound flouro leader. I tried a few plastics while drifting but the one which fired on the day was a Squidgy wriggler in sparkle black and orange. No Kings at the markers unfortunately. Our squid baits kept getting demolished by juvenile snapper. So back to drifting the sandy flats around mosman. First drift, baits ouI'mand im flicking my plastic. The rod with the live nipper goes off. Line is peeling and we are thinking rat king. Eventually saw colour and i initially thought rat king when i saw it. Once it was in the net, we realised that this was no king, but the biggest fattest whiting we had ever seen. measured 45 cms and was fat. my mate claims a PB whiting. (sorry no pic of that one). I also picked up a couple of undersize snapper and flatties on the plastic. Drift no 2, same area, baits in and im flicking plastics. Not much biting on the baits except juvenile snapper. We were drifting into a shallow area and I called last cast before we would start the motor and take off. Flicked the wriggler, hit the bottom, turn the reel slowly, slight flick of the rod and 1 second later im on. Felt heavy, drag peeling slowly with the odd shake. When it saw the boat (and we saw it) zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz back to the bottom. I must have got it to the surface about 3 or 4 times and each time it zipped straight back down when the net came within a metre of it. We were seriously running out time before the boat was going to bottom out on the sand and rock. My mate nets eventually and i drop the rod, start the boat, pop it in reverse and just make it out of there before we hit. Real James Bond sort of timing and suspense and excitement all at once (you had to be there i guess). Here she is. My personal best Flathead at 61cm caught on a squidgy wriggler (no monster i know but i am fairly new to lure fishing). The wriggler which i caught it on is also in the picture. The can is for the COTM. My first attempt at that. Cheers and tight lines all. Tony

Thanks tommy.

Just got tapalk and testing how easy it is to post pictures. Here is one of my 4 y old hooked up to a snapper at balmain. Hope it works.

Why not try both. You will cover more of the water column. Let the floating yakka drift in the burley trail and the other just off the bottom. Not that I'm an expert. But most of my research suggests that you should cover as much of the water column as possible. I have soaked live yakkas with no hassles using a simple running sinker rig with about 1-2 m of leader from the swivel (sinker above the swivel of course). Drop it to the bottom and wind up a meter or so. But having said that, the rats always seem to prefer the fresh squid strip. Figure that? The strip must look like an easier feed. Good luck I hope u get them. I have yet to land a legal king.

Hi all I have a day off tomorrow dI'mIm Planning to hit the harbour for a bit of line soaking as haven'tnt fished for a while. Just wondering how the water quality is and if anything has been biting of late. I would like to chase the usual pelagics with trolled lures, metal slices and plastics. I will also try to catch a squid or a yakka if i can. any suggestions would be great. By the way, since its a weekday and my mates are all soft (or hard workers, whichever u prefer) I have room on my boat for an experienced fisho who would like to get out for the day. I will be launching from either ermington or Drummoyne and heading out to Shark Island, middle head, north harbour . Having your Own gear is preferred, as is some experience with fishing the harbour for kings and the like. I have a 4.8m Quintrex with a Lowrance mark 5X sounder. I know its short notice but if anyone is interested please let me know by this evening. PM me your no. Cheers

I was there last Saturday with my 4 year old son who loves a fish. Got there just before the peak of the high tide around 9 am Used peeled prawns on size 4 bait holder mustad hook, small running sinker to a swivel then 12 pound flouro leader. Cast it just a few meters out from the park on the left side of the ferry wharf. Had nibbles as soon as the bait hit bottom. caught heaps of small pinkies which entertained the little boy. One legal snapper was caught eventually which my little boy fought for a couple of minutes. All fish went back in. Watch out for snags. There is weed and rock. In hind sight, should have tried floating a bait as well for some tailor or even a Bonnie. All up it was good fun.

Hi all I'm heading down to Melbourne next weekend and looking to hopefully get out on port Philip bay for some of that huge snapper action I see on fishing shows. Would anyone know of any good fishos who would be willing to take out an interstate visitor (of course we would contribute to costs) or even guides/charters who could help us hook up. We won't have any gear with us so we will need that to be provided. Any opinions would be helpful. Cheers and tight lines.

I would love to hear the argument between a boatie and the Maritime guy when that 8 knot current is going thru a 4 knot zone Boatie: "mate, i was in neutral being pushed by the bloody current, whataya want me to do...?" Maritime guy: "Its a 4 knot zone sir. You're the skipper, not the current. You could have had it in reverse to counter the speed of the current. Here is your fine". I would hate to think it is anything but actual ground speed.

Thanks guys Maybe they have recently migrated into the harbour. I have also been bottom bashing in the harbour for a few years and never seen one.

Hi all I caught this weird looking thing while bottom bashing near Sow & Pigs. Got it on a cut pilchard. took a couple of pics and sent it back. No idea what it is. What do you think it is? are these common in the harbour?

Congrats mate. It sure is an experience to be remembered.

Thanks guys. Definitely an experience not to be forgotten. I hope you all get a few this season. Tight lines.

Gday Raiders I rarely post reports as i rarely have worth reporting and dont get out fishing nearly as much as i love to. But i am lucky enough to work with Pete, owner of "Akuma", a 30 ft Rampage game fishing boat. Akuma usually lives at Nelson Bay marina but this year Pete brought her down to sydney for the winter. Here is a pic of akuma So on Saturday Pete calls me saying that he is taking Akuma back to Nelson Bay for the marlin season and would i like to come along on the trip? We would head straight out to the bait station, throw some lures out and troll north until we head back into Port Stephens. Sure I said. Now i had been on Akuma a few times and each time landed huge fish such as Dolphin fish and Wahoo both over 1.2m, and had raised but never landed a marlin. So i guess you can say Pete knows how to find fish. So off we went, straight to the bait station, spread 4 skirts out, auto pilot on and we settle in for the long journey ahead. Seas around sydney were about 1m and were expected to rise to 2m further north. Wind was light, about 10 knots. After a couple of hours we had seen no bait, no birds, and certainly no fish. Then on the radio to another boat, we hear that they had tagged 3 marlin further north at this place called the car park. "get those lures in and lets go" said Pete. So we did. And he gunned it North for an hour straight, along the shelf. Then engines wound down to trolling speed and Pete said we were now about 7 miles south of the car park so spread the lures. So we did. As soon as the lures were in i decided to make a sandwich as i was feeling peckish in the long journey. I was still cutting the tomato and the lures had been in the water for less than 10 minutes when I hear Pete shout "Marlin" and at the same time, the starboard outrigger detaches the line and we hear a loud zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz as line comes off the Tiagra and then nothin. its gone we thought then we both see a dorsal fin rise up on the same lure, then a splash then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz the Tiagra 80W is screaming off strike drag and the T curve is bent pointing in the direction of the fish. We scramble to get the other lines in and Pete orders me to grab the rod. So I did. I picked up the 24 kg outfit out of the holder while it was still screaming and held it while it continued to scream. When it slowed down, i looked at the Tiagra and more than half of the line had been taken. So the long fight began, with several jumps and several runs and me saying to Pete some time in between "you didnt tell me this was such hard work". My arms were beginning to hurt but it was me or the fish. About 35 minutes into it, and after some precision boat manovering by Pete, i can see the wind on leader and a huge shape in the water. Now it was only 2 of us in the boat so Pete grabs the leader, i put the rod down in a holder and grab the tag pole and after a couple of air swings i managed to tag it. Then i grabbed the camera and took this lovely pick. Pete called it for 80kg stripie. It was hooked in the lower jaw perfectly, although one of the 2 hooks on the rig was broken. Pete pulled the hook out and grabbed it by the bill. We swam the fish to get it goin again and off it went. I was huffed and puffed, big smile on my face, Pete handed me a beer and it went down like silk. Not long after, we pulled up gear and powered into Port Stephens to beat the oncoming storm. Flags were raised on the way in. Thanks Pete for an awsome trip.

Cheers Mack. Will definitely give grotto a go.