Mousse

Yeah, pretty decent to eat. Filleted and lightly battered...tastes good. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II via Tapatalk mobile

Thanks everyone. Just used a simple size 0 sinker straight down to size 2 0 Harimitsu Cut Blade hook, and 25 pound Schnieder mono. No swivel. It was a very hard and heavy fight but only lasted a short time.

Every week I look forward to Tuesdays - it's the day I get to fish and with the bad weather looking like it had passed I was looking forward to it even more. On that note, I just want to say I really feel for the people who were effected by the storms in Kiami and Malabar. I've been to Kiama plenty of times and was really sad to see the destruction on the news. I hope everyone is ok. I live in Randwick which is 5 minutes from Malabar - and I drove through there yesterday and it looked pretty bad. Houses can be fixed, but I hope no one was really hurt. I got to Kurnell just before sunrise. It was still dark, and I had just stopped off by Macs bait bar in Blakehurst to buy a couple of hundred grams of prawns. The plan was to get on the rocks as early as I could as the tide was pretty big (1.9m) and the swell was reasonable, and I wanted to gathe some Cunje and maybe crabs for bait, and use the prawns as a back up. I threw out some bread and Tuna oil berly while I was gathering the Cunje, and upon seeing the swell raging a bit decided to forget about the crabs and just concentrate on wetting a line as soon as I could. After cutting it up and putting it all in my bait bucket, I was ready to fish! The sun had just come up, there wasn't a lot of wind and the swell and tide looked great. There was another fisho about 50m away and we had the place to ourselves it looked like. I didn't know him but he kept looking back and checking up each time a wave hit the rocks to see if I was ok - which was really good of him. I did the same too. He was squidding - and about half an hour into the session he yelled out to me and held up this monster squid! I gave him a big thumbs up. Anyway, back to my report. I baited up my hook with cunje, and dropped the line into the wash. Tap, tap, tap...then a big pull and gone! I think I struck too late. At least they were there! So I baited up again and dropped the line out - not knowing what I was just about to be in for... Tap, tap, tap....BAM! This time I struck harder and faster and I was on! I could feel some big head shakes and pulling runs from side to side - I knew it was going to be pretty big. He made a big run to some reef on the left and I managed to keep pumping the Alvey hard enough - and I was relieved to still feel him on there shaking and pulling. I had to contain my excitement and nerves and get this thing up. When it surfaced - I almost crapped my pants! It was huge! I didn't want to drop it now, and silly me didn't have a net so I waited for the next wave and washed him up onto the rocks. He was a monster! Ended up measuring 52.5cm and just under 3kg. By far and away, my personal best pig! My new fisho mate was quick to come and have a look - and I took a photo of him and his monster squid and he took a photo of me and my monster pig! I caught another one about 39cm which would have seemed pretty big - but next to the other guy it was dwarfed. The big pig barely fit in the esky! All in all - a great day!

Lucky you weren't fishing at bare island

Thanks mate...I think its way off any records. ..im sure any records would be way over 40cm for sure.... Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

I'm starting to wonder if a good deal of snags I'm getting could be bigger eels...

It did look very white in the video that jdanger posted. I've eaten eel (Unagi?) plenty of times at Japanese restaurants but I've no idea what type of eel that would be - fresh or salt water...

haha jdanger guess he got a better look at your squid than you did of him! Thanks for posting the Vid

I'm not sure if you can eat them jaysondanielgraham - and if I'm not 100% sure about a size limit or eating quality it goes back. When I get home I'll look it up online or check out this forum to find out more about what I've caught then I'll know more for next time. If it's something I haven't caught before, or it looks nice then after a quick photo or two I let them swim away.

From my experience bream pull harder. But I was a bit over-gunned to be fair - all the other bream I've caught before around that size have been on much lighter gear.

Hi Carl, That's exactly what I am targeting - Pigs and groper...hence the baits of Crab Cunje and Prawn. Yesterday I didn't have any luck with either of those and the Bream and Tarwhine were are by-catch. I used to use a similar setup to you - a 10 foot Catana and a 2500 Stradic. I found a couple of things - one is that I kept getting busted off by drummer any bigger than around 30cm, and the length of the rod restricted me from exploring some deeper ledges I'd had my eye on. I definitely found that I had more hits on the lighter gear - but even though I've not landed a truck full of fish yet with the Alvey (still only my third use) I have seen straight away that the fish I have landed are bigger than what I used to get. I had a lot of enjoyment with the Shimano - I just wanted to tackle some beefier fish.

Thanks Rob. It's definitely the biggest I've caught so I was pleased. Only 36cm but it was really wide and fat...

Hi eholdn, Its a 13ft 6” ROD6500 Alvey 2 peice, and a 650A5. Just new to Alveys mate, but it's already won me over.

Yeah I didn't want to get my fingers too close! But he was pretty tangled and would have died if I hadn't cut away the coils of mono. All good though - I kept my fingertips and he got to swim away! Good deal.

I was pretty sure it was a moray as soon as I saw it. Not sure exactly which type of moray - there are hundreds of types I think....

Hi Guys and Gals, Went for a quick fish this morning off the rocks at Botany Bay National Park but I could only get there a couple of hours into the run out tide. The gates generally open sometime between 6am and 7am I think, and I was a bit slow waking up so I didn't arrive until just after 7am. It was raining on the drive in, but by the time I arrived the sun was out and it looked great. Grabbed the Alvey and backpack and walked across the rocks to my favorite spot. I knew it was a very low low-tide and not too much swell about so I decided to catch some crabs and try them out as well as prawns I'd picked up on the way in, and a bit of Cunje. I soaked some stale bread with some tuna oil and weed, and bits of crushed up crab legs for burly and threw some out while I was rigging the Alvey. First cast with prawn and I landed a nice bream, about 32cm. Lunch! Now to try and catch dinner! For the next half hour it was quiet - small nibbles but no real hits. I was alternating between crabs, cunje and prawn, and then I got a really big hit on a small crab. It was pulling very hard but didn't feel like a drummer - thought it could have been another bream but bigger. When I saw color I immediately thought bream - and it was huge! But when I got it up on the rocks it was actually a Tarwhine. The biggest Tarwhine I'd ever caught by far - I measured it at a touch under 36cm. He was really fat and wide too. I stayed for another hour - and in that time all I managed to bring up was an eel - which I thought was a snag at first until he decided to let go of his grip and I reeled it up. The poor guy was all tangled in the line and choking himself - It took me about five minutes to cut all the line away from him while I had him in a rock pool so I could let him go! Glad to say he swam away ok! Getting more and more used to the Alvey now - think the transition from little threadlines is almost done!

I'll let you know how it goes. I don't look at it as a cost for one trip, but as improvement and knowledge for every trip thereafter. Haven't heard a negative word about Al yet... Sent from my Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2

Good luck with the weather mate - looking forward to hear about your session. Thanks a lot for the info - it really does help and opens up a lot of options for me to try when I'm out next. Starting to explore some of the stones at Maroubra - close to home. Avoiding some of the trickier ones I've heard of in various posts across this site. Watched a spot last night after work which looked promising. A few ledges to cast from where you can stay safe and dry providing you have the right gear. I was there just after low tide and it was more than safe, but I want to go again during a high tide to watch a bit more before I fish it. Also really looking forward to a trip with Bellissimo I've booked for next month!

Thanks SMn. Always looking to try slightly different rigs. When you say weighted float - do you mean Swivel, Float, Sinker, Swivel, Leader, Hook? Do you run the Float and Sinker freely together between the two swivels?

True mate! I'm in the young(ish) bald rock fisho category at the moment! Definitely want to graduate to the old bald rock fisho group!

Thanks hawkesbass. I usually do go pretty small on the sinker, about an 0 or 00. I just started using an Alvey 650A5 and a lot heavier line and bigger sharper hooks - and I've been getting snagged a lot more than when I used to fish lighter line and smaller hooks on the Stradic (basically a bream set up). I just beefed things up in order to improve my catch. I don't really want to use a float - as almost everyone says small sinker and usually straight down to the hook for pigs and grouper. I guess it's just the sharper and better quality hooks that are snagging easier - and the hook up rate has dropped due to the heavier gear. But when I get it right the rewards will be there...

Thanks for the tips guys. SMn I've been using a ball sinker straight down to the hook but getting lots of snags. I'm going to try a paternoster rig next time, with a spoon sinker instead. I'll see if that works. I usually only use cunje and prawns, and just started to experiment with catching little crabs, and I'm not too sure how they'd go under a float if I'm targeting Pigs and Grouper. What do you usually target of the stones using a float? I know guys targeting Kings would use livies under a float - but my main aim at the moment is drummer and grouper. I'm keen to hear anyone's ideas regarding snags when fishing for these species. Appreciate any advice I can get.

That's awesome fishingphase. Did the kid catch anything lol..... When I hear stories about Kings, Sharks, Snapper...it's hard to stop myself wanting to go out and target them straight away! But I want to target Pigs and Grouper for a while until I'm happy I have the hang of it. One of the most important things I've learnt reading these forums is you learn the most about targeting one species (and welcoming by catch such as bream in my case) than trying to get whatever... Jewdreamer...3kg!!!! Sh%*t that's more than I caught in total during 2012 hahaha....

I love it. Feel like Im at the pub sharing war stories with old mates. Keep em coming! Love the tips and advice...invaluable. Thanks guys!

Cheers Johnk, I'm hearing all these amazing stories of seasoned fishos who've had their Alvey's for longer than I've been alive - it's amazing. I'm sure over the coming months I'll be able to share a much better report with something bigger and better than a half decent bream. Planning to leave the stradics at home for a while and give the new Alvey a good run - the reports from all you blokes are making me feel pretty optimistic!