Central Coast Fisherman

G'day Raiders, I'm going fishing out of swansea in my 15ft fibreglass boat on sunday weather permitting. As i have not fished out of swansea for many years, can anyone let me know where i can catch livies this time of year? Are there still yakkas or slimies around the bommie of Blacksmiths? Cheers, Phil

G'day everyone, I recently bought two new boat rods. One is a 10kg and the other is a 15kg. I'm planning on using the 10kg rod for snapper and other reef fish and the 15kg rod for kings. My question is, what size braid should i be using for these rods? I was thinking either 20 or 30lb for the 10kg rod and 50lb for the 15kg rod. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Cheers, Phil

Thanks Tuffy. I have committed to buying it. Going out in Lake Macquarie tomorrow morning to give it a quick run before i hand over the cash. I'm pretty excited as this is my first boat. I spent 3 hours last night cleaning up my garage so i can fit the boat and my box trailer in

Thanks guys. He's going to take me out on Saturday morning for a run in the boat

As stated in another topic, i am looking at buying my mates 15ft Nautiglass 149 MKII. It has a 70HP Mercury on it. I had a look at it yesterday. Its an old boat (1980's) but looks like its in pretty good condition for its age. The motor started first time even though it hasn't been used in over a year and it seemed to pump water fine. The trailer is in great condition with no rust on it at all. The only thing that needs a bit of maintenance is some of the wiring. My mate said that he thinks some of the connections are correded and it should be a pretty quick fix. Apparently some times the nav lights, bildge pump and live bait tank dont work but if you move the connections to the switches a bit they work fine. The boat comes with a fish finder, live bait tank that is all set up with the pump, 4 life jackets, two fuel tanks, two anchors and a two way radio. He is currently going through a divorce so he wants to sell the boat quickly so he only wants $2500. He said he has owned the boat for 4 years and has never had a problem with it. He said the motor has always been reliable. I think its a pretty good buy, but what do other people think? Cheers, Phil

Funnily enough my "few months" plan has gone out the window. I was speaking to a mate today who is currently going through a divorce and wants to sell his boat pretty quickly. Its a 4.5m Nautiglass 149 MKII with a 70HP Mercury on it. He doesn't want very much for it so i went and had a look at it after work this afternoon. Surprisingly for its age its in pretty good condition. He hasn't used it for about a year and the motor started first time without any dramas and pumped water fine. So it looks like i'm going to buy this boat from him. I'm pretty keen as its seems like a pretty good first boat. He tows it with a 2.7litre 2wd hilux and he says he has no trouble towing it at all. So i figure my 2.5litre AWD forester should tow this boat just fine. Does anyone have any comments on this boat? Cheers, Phil

I am looking at getting my first boat in the next few months. I have a 2004 automatic Subaru forester that i will be using to tow the boat with. My family and I go to Narooma every Christmas so that would probably be the furthest i would have to tow a boat at this stage. Can anyone suggest what size boat i could tow with my forester? Or does anyone currently tow a boat with their forester? I have been having a bit of a look at V16R Haines Hunters but i'm not sure if my car would be able to tow, launch and retrieve a 16 foot fibreglass boat. Or should i be looking at a smaller aluminium boat? Does anyone have any feedback on this? Cheers, Phil

Thanks for the reply guys. I went and got some 10/0 big bait hooks from my local tackle store. I also found some 480lb game wire i bought a few years ago and never used so i'll use that. I also bought 5 big cans of cat food and make a berley mix of cat food, bread and water and have put it in the freezer so it can slowly defrost in the wash. Do you ever get gummy sharks around the central coast? I hear they are great to eat so i'd love to catch one. However a small bronze whaler should be great to eat too. When shark fishing, do you ever get jews as by-catch? i have heard people catching sharks as by-catch when jew fishing so does it work both ways, or does the steel wire put the jews off? At this stage its only me and my 8 year old son going tomorrow night. My dad cant go as hes away for work and my usual fishing mates all say its too cold... bloody girls. I guess if we get one on my son and i will just have to wing it to land it. Cheers, Phil

G'day Raiders, I went fishing last Saturday night on North Entrance beach. It was pretty quiet. I managed two good tailor and an extremely large salmon. When i got the salmon in i noticed it had a large gash around 7cm long by 3cm wide on one side of its body. It was obviously a fresh cut as it was bleeding. I'm assuming some sort of shark had bitten the salmon. Anyway, its got me thinking about perhaps trying to target some sharks from the beach, given theres not much else around during winter. I'm thinking about going back to north entrance beach again tomorrow night. Can anyone give me some advice on targeting sharks from the beach. Are there any beaches on the coast that produce more sharks than others? What sorts of sharks am i likely to encounter this time of year? I've got a reel spooled with 50lb braid, will this be up to the task of battling a shark? What size steel wire should i be using? What size hooks should i be using? Should i use berley? Thanks in advance for the help. Cheers, Phil

Went for a quick fish last night and managed to get a big cuttlefish. I've never kept one before but I thought it was a good opportunity to have some fresh bait for the long weekend. I managed to skin the body however I couldn't seem to get the skin off the tentacles. Now I have never used it for bait before so can anyone give me some pointers on which parts of the cuttlefish are the best bits for bait. The candles seem extremely soft and tender so i think they may be used first then the body then I'll use the tentacles last. I'm planning on trying for a big winter Jew off the beach tonight if the weather isn't too bad. Does it matter if I use the tentacles without skinning them? Sorry for the long post, I'm just after some info on using cuttlefish as bait. Cheers, Phil

Thanks for all the info guys. I'm going to give it a go tomorrow afternoon. I'll take my 8 year old son with me to catch the crabs.. He loves catching them! I'll let you know how I go. Cheers, Phil

Thanks On Strike. I was going to try the ledge on the southern side of the skillion where i spin for bonito in summer. I have a 10 rap beach rod which i think should be up to the task. Another question, apart from sea urchins, what else can you use for burley? As the bag limit for urchins is only 10, i dont think that would be enough burley for a decent fishing session.

Thanks for the reply guys. Mr Squidy, the only reason i suggested the 1/0 is because they guy at my local fishing shop suggested it. The circle hooks are a good idea regarding less snags, however do you find the hook up rate decreases using circle hooks? Also, where do you find the red rock crabs? I've spent a little bit of time searching for them however all i seem to be able to find are the black crabs...

Hi Mike, I dive for crays in winter. Last winter i didn't start looking till 1st June and by then they were everywhere. I managed to get 18 crays in june and then due to uni and work I didn't get much more of a chance to look for them after June. I haven't been able to get out this season yet due to work and the big seas we've had of late. I'm hoping to get out and start looking for them once the swell dies down, however i wouldn't be surprised if they are here now. Ive never tried to trap for them, its much easier to get in the water for 10 mins and grab a couple for dinner. If i can give you any advice it would be think shallow. The place I dive for them is no more than 1.5m deep. I can only dive it on the top half of the tide otherwise its to shallow. Also from what i've discovered from experience is around the full moon its pretty hard to find them and when you do they have soft shells. My theory is that they must shed there shells around the full moon and as there new shell is very soft they go deep into cracks/caves to hide from predators. Thats not to say they dont still come out at night to feed which is when you'll get them in your traps. Habitat wise, they hang out in rocky areas that have a lot of kelp growing on the rocks. Where I get them there is a zone of cunji lined rocks and then the kelp covered rocks and then a zone of sea grass covered rocks before going onto sand. The only zone i've ever found them in is the kelp zone. If you want any more info just ask. Cheers, Phil

Hi Raiders, I have decided to try and start targeting groper of the rocks. I've done a fair bit of rock fishing over the years for bream, drummer, blackfish, trevally, tailer, bonito etc but have never tried for groper. I know there are quite a few of them around so I was wondering if anyone could give me any help on how to catch them. My thoughts were: Use 50lb main line with 100lb leader Very small running ball sinker straight to extra strong 1/0 hook Berley up with crushed up sea urchins Use cunji for bait Also does anyone know where to start fishing for groper around the rocks at terrigal?

A mate and I went fishing in his boat yesterday afternoon in Brisbane Water. We launched from Pretty Beach and fished till dark for flathead around half tide rocks. We got two small flathead which both went back, two good size tailor (bait for later) and a big octopus which went back in the drink. Once it was dark we went back to our original spot and anchored up. I filleted the two tailor from earlier and we put out our baits. I also put out a whole squid i had caught the week before. Within 2 mins of the bait being out i hooked up to a 47 cm tailor. This one went on ice for dinner. 5 mins later i hooked up to something bigger. My hopes were high but then it jumped... bloody salmon. It was around 75cm and went back to fight another day. Next cast another big salmon. Just as I released the second salmon something extremely large broke the surface about 5m away from the boat clearly chasing the tailor and salmon. By the time we scrambled to get the torch to see what it was it had gone leaving lots of white wash on the surface. Our thoughts were that it was a decent sized shark. After that the fish went right off, not a single bite in an hour and by this stage our kids were getting bored so we called it a night. Next time i'll put the tailor back out with a couple of 10/0's in him for live bait. Does anyone have any comments on whether our assumptions that it was a shark could have been right? Or could it have been something else? Oh and also i didn't get a chance to post about my first jew i caught on Easter Friday. Caught him around 7pm at North Entrance beach on a live yakka. It was 78cm long and by far the most rewarding fish i have caught after putting in many hours chasing this fish over the last three months. My dad and my 7 year old son were there to share the experience with me My son keeps telling me its his turn to catch a jew now!! Cheers, Phil

I usually fish North Entrance beach for jews however with this big swell around looks like the beach is a no go tonight. Does anyone have any suggestions on where i can fish shore based tonight to chase jews? Does anyone know any land based jew spots in Brisbane water? Or any beaches i could try that might be a bit more protected from the swell? Feel free to pm me if you dont want to publicly give away your spots. Cheers, Phil

Does anyone know any good land based spots in Brisbane Water to catch squid from? I have tried the wharf at Wagstaffe a few times but have only caught 1 squid there. Also can you catch them during the day or do you only really get them at night? Cheers, Phil