Central Coast Fisherman

I tried Avoca yesterday afternoon. I didn’t get there till after 4pm. The swell was still rather large so I fished from a high ledge round near the island. First cast I got snagged and broke off. I then moved about 50m back towards the beach and must have been throwing over sand as I didn’t get snagged on the bottom again. I was using squid strips and salted bonito strips. I hooked up to what felt like a snapper but as the swell was pumping I couldn’t get down to the lower ledge to land it and I got caught on the reef below and broke off. I got bites most throws then just before dark I got a good bite then just dead weight. I managed to land the biggest red rock cod I’ve seen (38cm). So while I didn’t land a snapper I think I’ve found some good ground and I’m going to try again today. i believe red rock cod live in reasonably deep water so I assume where I was fishing was quite deep. Also for those of you who regularly catch snapper, do you often catch red rock cod as by catch? I’m wondering if by catching the red rock cod it’s confirmation I’m fishing in the right area? Cheers, Phil

Thanks for the responses so far. As I said I normally fish the rock ledges around Terrigal for pelagics but it seems too reefy/weedy to fish the bottom for snapper. I will give Avoca ago. Also I was thinking given the big seas we’ve just had the point at terrigal haven might be worth a try throwing out towards the surf club. Do you think it’s best to burley or just throw out a bait on a paternoster rig? Cheers, Phil

G’day everyone, I fish the rocks on the Central Coast (mainly around Terrigal) and now the pelagics are all but gone I am going to concentrate on fishing for snapper. I have a freezer full of squid and salted bonito fillets so I’ve got good bait, I just need some advice on how and where to catch them off the rocks. Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers, Phil

There are a few around at the moment. I got 5 in the same area this evening in the 30 mins before dark fishing in the rain and wind. They were all big. I parked near the skillion and a spearo had just got out of the water with a 27kg cobia. And last Tuesday I saw another spearo that had gotten a longtail which looked around 10kg. There are some good fish about at the moment!!

Great job. There have been a few caught down here on the central coast over the last week too. Can you let us know what pound line and leader you were using and what size and type of hook?

Was the longtail hooked on lure or live bait?

G'day everyone, I've been consistently catching kings and bonnies off the rocks since December last year spinning metal lures. Once hooked I have barely lost any kings or bonnies and I reckon my conversion rate of fish landed once hooked has been around 95%. However over the last few weeks the kings and bonnies have seemed to have thinned out and the tailor seem to be moving in. However I'm having difficulties in my conversion rate of tailor landed once hooked. I reckon at the moment my conversion rate is only around 50% at best with most fish jumping, shaking there heads and spitting the lure. Very frustrating to say the least. Yesterday evening I went for a quick spin for the last 30 minutes before dark and the tailor were on from my very first cast. I managed to hook 4 however only landed 2 and had plenty more hits that didn't hook up. I am using the exact same metal lures that I have been using the catch the kings and bonnies so I'm not sure whats going wrong. I use metals from 20g to 65g however the lure I seem to catch the most fish on are the 40g surecatch knights. These lures have fairly big treble hooks. I also tried a 50g metal lure from a different brand with smaller treble hooks but had the same issue. Am I doing something wrong? Can anyone give me any tips for increasing my hookup rate and landing conversion rate on tailor? Yesterday I lost the biggest tailor I have ever seen as it spat the lure as I was about to lift it out of the water. I thought I had hooked a king as it didn't jump and had some serious weight to it. I reckon it was around 60cm and was devastated when it spat the hook!! Cheers, Phil

Well done. Was this North Entrance or actually the entrance beach?

Hi All, I am planning to do some weekend trips away in the coming months to target some pelagic fish off the rocks such as longtail tuna, Spanish mackerel, cobia, etc. I have no idea about where to try though. I am based on the Central Coast and am willing to travel up to around 6 hours north. I have heard of a few spots such as the Iluka breakwall, Hat Head and South West Rocks. Is anyone able to give me some locations that I could try, and some pointers on what months would be best to fish, tides, time of day, etc? Whilst I have been catching lots of rat kings and bonito off the rocks here on the Central Coast lately I think it's going to be a whole new ball game chasing these larger pelagic species. Cheers, Phil

Hi Everyone, I would like to start throwing poppers from the rocks for kingfish. I have an Okuma Salina 3 16000 high speed spooled with 300m of 65lb Daiwa j braid. However I don’t have a rod to match it with to throw poppers from the stones. I have been looking at the Daiwa saltist hyper 962 spin rod - line rated max PE6 and cast weight of 60 - 150g. The cheapest I can find this rod is around $300 online plus postage. I was wondering if anyone knows of a cheaper alternative to the above rod but has similar specs? I would ideally like to only spend around $150-$200. Or should I fork out the extra cash to get the Daiwa saltist? Cheers, Central Coast Fisherman

Hi all, I am planning on taking my family camping to Nymboida River next week. What can I expect to catch in this river and what techniques should I be using to target fish in this area. Also can you catch freshwater yabbies / crays in this river and if so how? Cheers, Central Coast Fisherman

Hi everyone, My wife and I are going to take our 3 kids camping next week but we don't know where to go. I am on the Central Coast and we want to go north and inland no further than around Coffs Harbour (we want to keep the drive to around 6ish hours). My fishing preferences for this camping trip is freshwater and somewhere I can use an opera house trap to catch freshwater yabbies/crays for a good feed. We don't have a 4wd so it needs to be easily accessible however I am happy to go on dirt roads. Does anyone have any suggestions? Cheers, Central Coast Fisherman

Hi Everyone, I am taking my wife and 3 young kids camping to Glenbawn Dam this long weekend. I have never been there before but I hear its one of the best freshwater fisheries in NSW. Is anyone able to provide any advice for fishing from the shore at Glenbawn? I will be taking my kids fishing most days but I also want to have a decent crack by myself a couple of times too. With the kids I was thinking of taking some worms from my worm farm at home and just throwing a bunch of them out and let the kids hold the rod. Will we catch anything on worms this time of year there or should we be trying a different bait? Also can anyone recommend any locations to try? With regard to lure fishing, what's the best bet? Plastics, hard bodies or spinner baits? I'm not to fussed on targeting a specific species, we will just be happy to catch a few fish. Also, are there yabbies at Glenbawn, and if so can you catch them for bait / eating? Are you allowed to use opera house traps there or do you just use a handline with a bit of bait and get them close to shore then net them? How do the yabbies go for bait? Do you fish them live or do you cut then in half? Any help will be greatly appreciated as I think the kids are expecting big things and to be honest I haven't done a great deal of freshwater fishing. Cheers, Phil

Hi central coast 795 The rod your missus caught didn't happen to be a pflueger Trion 1-3kg rod with the shimano Sedona on it did it? Cheers, Phil

Hi everyone, I've recently been concentrating my fishing efforts on fishing for silver trevally as they seem to be around in large numbers at the moment. My technique for trevally is pretty straight forward and seems to be effective. I burley with pilchard cubes and within 5 minutes I have a school of trevally feeding. I have then just been using un-weighted pilchard cubes and I get bites every cast. I have been getting some good trevally up to 48cm, however my problem is with my hook selection. I started off using a mustad 1/0 long baitholder hook (my favourite hook for bream, whiting, trevally, etc). With this hook I was getting an ok amount of hook ups, however I seemed to be pulling the hooks on a lot of fish due to their soft mouths. I spoke to my local fishing shop and they suggested trying a 1/0 circle hook as this would hook them in the corner of the mouth and would solve my problem of pulling hooks. I have now tried the circle hooks for the last few sessions and although the trevally I have caught have been hooked in the corner of the mouth, my hook up rate has dropped dramatically. I think the 1/0 circle hooks are too big for the small mouths of the trevally. So my question is, which hooks do people find most effective for the small soft mouths of trevally? I am starting to get very frustrated having a school of trevally feeding and not being able to catch many. Thanks for your help. Cheers, Phil

If you don't mind me asking, where at Ettalong do you pump the nippers? Cheers, Phil

I'm looking at getting a new large spinning reel and am interested in the following reels: Daiwa Saltist 6500 - 6.1:1 - 15kg drag Daiwa Exceler DA 6500 - 4.7:1 - 15kg drag Okuma Salina 3 16000H - 6.0:1 - 24kg drag All three reels are roughly the same price. I'm going to be using it for chasing big fish off the beach, rocks, spinning and the occasional boat fish. Can anyone advise which reel they would go for and why? Cheers, Phil

Hi everyone, I'm going camping up at Point Plomer next week. Does anyone have any reports on how the fishings been up that way lately? Also, are there any suitable locations around the headland to do any LBG fishing? Can you catch live bait easily off the rocks? I know Hat Head just to the north is renowned for its LBG so I dont see why the same species wouldn't venture a bit further south to Plomer? If anyone has any jew spots they'd like to share please let me know. Is the fishing off the beach at night very productive? Or is it too shallow? Sorry for all the questions. I've been there quite a few times when I was a kid and used to sit on the rocks watching my dad and grandfather fishing for tailer, bream, blackfish and the occasional jew so I know the place fairly well. This is the first time i've been back in 10 years so i'm itching to get up there for 4 full on days of fishing!! Cheers, Phil

I was fishing off the rocks in the haven. The tide was pretty high so I could only fish about half way out to the point. I was just throwing out between the point and the furthest boat. I went for a quick spin for frigates yesterday arvo but no luck. There was atleast 25 people spinning for them and I only saw 2 caught so it was a pretty slow afternoon. Luckily ive still got a few fillets in the freezer for bait. Cheers Phil

Last night my wife and I managed to some how get the kids to bed early. The wife decided she was going to do Uni work for a few hours so I thought "stuff it i'm going fishing". I got down to Terrigal around 9. When I got there an old bloke was just leaving. He had only caught one Tailor so I wasn't too confident. I was targeting bream using strips of Frigate mackeral I had caught a few weeks ago. In an hour of fishing this is how it went: First cast: I cast out and within a few minutes I feel bump bump and then bang i'm onto a good fish. I was using 10lb braid with 20lb leader just incase there were tailor around. After a short battle/scull drag I pulled in a 38cm bream which was very fat. I was pretty excited as I haven't caught a bream that big for a while. While carrying the bream back to my gear he kicked and his gills cut my thumb right down to the bone. Ouch that hurt. After applying pressure for 5 mins there was no sign of the bleeding stopping so I quickly went back to the car to get my first aid kit and sorted myself out. 20 mins after catching the bream I was ready for cast number two. Second cast: I cast out and again after only a few minutes I feel bump bump and then bang i'm on again. After another short fight I pulled in a 29cm bream. Third cast: Same thing only this time I pull in a 34cm bream. Fourth cast: Again after only a few minutes im onto another good fish. This time it was a 35cm bream. This bream had the hook very securely in the corner of his mouth. As I got it out I bent the hook slightly but thought it was still ok to use. Fifth cast: Cast out, after a few minutes got some big bumps but didn't manage to hook the fish. Upon inspection of the hook I realised I hadn't hooked the fish due to it being bent. So a quick change of hook and I was ready again. Sixth cast: It took a little longer to get a bite this time but when I did I hooked the fish and it took off on a big long run. I thought I may have hooked something really good. After a 10 minute fight I finally got a look at it.. a big sting ray. Bumper!! After that the tide had come up to far to keep fishing so I decided to call it a night. It was one of the most exciting fishing sessions I've had for a while. I caught 4 good bream in only 6 casts and in one hour!! If only all fishing sessions were that good! Needless to say I went home with a big smile on my face. Sorry no pics. Cheers, Phil

Does anyone know where to catch squid landbased at narooma? Cheers, Phil

Hi everyone, I'm going on my annual family trip to Narooma over New Years and will be doing lots of fishing. Has anyone fished Narooma lately and has any reports of what has been caught? I will be mostly fishing Wagonga Inlet but will probably go on a charter outside too. Cheers, Phil

Are there any yakkas around Swansea bridge? And which side of the bridge is best to fish from land based?

Hi All, Just wondering if you can catch bass at Somersby Falls? Or can you catch them anywhere near Somersby Falls? Cheers, Phil

Thanks FFJ. As I've only fished for trout once, can you tell me what are the ideal weather conditions for TCD? I'll just keep an eye on the weather over the next month until the right conditions.