LuckyFil

Good mixed bag and one of those whiting is a real cracker! Cheers Fil

Yeah I've got the 9' Penn Prevail and I love it - you can cast a 40-60gm lure all day with minimal effort, it casts a mile and when you hook a fish it's got plenty of grunt in the lower half - perfect with 8-10kg line for tailor, salmon and bonito and even small kings Fil

From reading many of your reports over the years I think that girl of yours could catch fish in a puddle😄. Cheers Fil

Great report and top pics - congratulations ! Fil

Congratulations Scratchie, that's a trophy fish in anyone's book. Interesting that the big fella (and all the others in the pic) doesn't have the big snapper bump on its head? Well done. Fil

Thanks for all that detail. Also interesting to hear you were able to launch off the beach at Minnie - well done doing it solo! Cheers

Great report and pics - like the one of your rig on the beach. Did you get the longtails on lures or livies? Cheers Fil

Congratulations to you, and the new Mum and Dad! And as usual a great catch of reddies... Cheers Fil

That's a nice EP at 42! Just shows you have to be flexible when the usual isn't working, try different lures, techniques etc and sometimes you are rewarded. Well done, and nice pics by the way. Not after your spot but what general part of the river were you - looks a bit like the river around Wisemans or Spencer? Cheers Fil

Lucky to get out before this cold snap. I notice you caught the flatties on half pilchard, have you had any success lately on plastics or just the bait? Cheers Fil

I came cross this newspaper cutting from the Manly Daily fishing reports when doing a big cleanup lately - how else do we occupy ourselves at the moment. It's ancient history - I think around 1985 and not a fish I caught, but I was the driver, gaff man and supporter over the four hour battle. It was Steve's first marlin and the only one he's kept - all his subsequent captures were tagged and released. I've never managed one. That year there were heaps of small blacks so we thought we'd have a try off the shelf east of Barrenjoey. The pic is pretty fuzzy - sorry about that, but at least my kids know I didn't make up the story! If it's too hard to read the detail it was a 140kg black marlin, which equates to 308 lb and caught on 30 lb line so I guess that meets the 'ten to one' goal.

Some nice fish and in quick succession - great pics too. I've found this time year consistently good for fatties both in Pittwater and Brisbane Waters. Not sure why, maybe they're feeding up before the winter slumber? Well done Fil

Ahh so that's what I've been doing wrong....

Holls I had exactly the same experience at Narrabeen Lake on the Northern Beaches of Sydney a week ago. Was fishing the same stretch of shoreline I usually do (sometimes get one or two flatties, but lately none) then last week my son and I caught seven in an hour on SPs. Kept two and released the rest. We were getting hits every few casts. I don't know why either but it was I nice change. Fil

Dead right it's all about the relative size of the gear compared to the sized of the fish. I love the way long toms will dance on their tail when hooked - very much like a marlin

Firstly, Scratchie this was a great idea giving us something read and think about other than the big C! Secondly thanks to all the other Fishraiders for their great stories and pics. I'm 63 and I've been fishing since I was four years old. My father and grandfather were very keen fishos. That partly came from the depression years when they were fishing to help put food on the table. Consequently they fished for eating fish mainly bream, snapper, flathead, tailor, whiting etc, which was my grounding in what to catch and how. All my fishing was in Pittwater and inshore reefs near there for many years and I caught some decent snapper and flatties in those days many flathead in the 7-8 lb range and one of 10lb - we didn't measure by length much then. Unfortunately not many pics then and none I can find at present. So when thinking about my best fish I tend to go for more recent catches. I've got into drummer fishing in recent years so my most memorable fish was caught at Seal Rocks a few years ago and I recall it nudged 60cm and was around 4.5kg. I was fishing off a high rock and had seen the drummer take my burley a few times before he finally took my bait. After a long fight I managed to wrestle him away from the barnacles and lift him onto a ledge about 2 meters below me. As soon as he landed on the rock the hook fell out! Luckily my quick thinking fishing buddy jumped down to the ledge and held onto him until I could get down. So it was a drama filled catch as well as being my best pig. I do annual trips to Weipa (apart from this year) and while we catch a shed load of different species, many bigger than this fish, but for for me my most memorable from up there was a 5kg back spot tusk fish. We were in shallow water maybe 6 meters deep but with coral heads all around us. As soon as you hook them tuskies go straight for cover which means under the nearest reef. So you have to lock the drag and pull like buggery or you lose them. It was a mammoth effort to get this one clear of the bottom . I was fishing 80lb leader which while badly shredded as the fish did his best to reef me held on long enough to get the fish into the net. So that tuskie would be the other fish I often think about. (Not sure if the pic of this fish has loaded, if not I'll add it separately)

Thanks for all your feedback guys - lots of good info and insights. Given all that I suspect barometric pressure wasn't the issue but other factors such as bait sources like prawns (the dark of the moon as Green Hornet said) and I did notice plenty of swirls as we waded around - probably poddy mullet, which are both prime food for flatties. Whatever the reason it was nice to have a fun session for a change! Cheers Fil

Went for a fish with son Pat yesterday arvo ( more than 4 meters apart most of the time) at Narrabeen lagoon. It's probably our sixth session there over the last few months - we often go for a late flick there at sunset after he's finished work. It has been real quiet of late with only a few hits and mostly coming home with none. But yesterday was very different - we landed 7 flathead and had a few more hits in just 1 hour of fishing! All fish slammed the plastics like there was no tomorrow. Only two fish were keepers 1 about 48cm and the other around 45cm, all the rest were very small around 20 - 25 cm. But the puzzle was why they were suddenly on the bite after so many dud sessions of late? I noticed before we went out the barometric pressure was 1025 which is quite high. I know bass and jewies are supposed to be heavily affected by air pressure but hadn't heard of it affecting other species such as flathead. Any comments from fellow Fishraiders? Cheers Phil

I was due to fly out to Lord Howe last Saturday morning - been looking forward to it for months, had bags packed, fishing charters booked then phone call Friday night saying the island was going into lockdown so trip cancelled.... Ah well others have much bigger problems but we were pretty devastated. Hopefully get out there next year once this craziness has passed. Fil

Good report and pic of the fish and flotilla of other fishers behind you. Nice to hear a good news story with all this doom and gloom around us - god bless Fishraider!! Fil

Great report and lots of good info. Many yers ago I was fishing the Macleay river out the back of Kempsey at night. It was a new moon so completely dark. I had a lot of hits and a fair few hookups of good sized bass on a Heddon Crazy Crawler which I discovered glowed in the dark after being exposed to my fluro lantern. It was black on top and white/pale green underneath and it had a better success rate than similar surface lures that night. Don't know if they still make them but they were/are a good surface lure. You've got me inspired to have another crack at night time surface luring! Cheers Fil

Yeah I also found the smaller salmon were great to eat and as another Raider says really important to skin them. If you stay around Louth Bay which I think was between Port Lincoln and Cowell there is very good squid fishing off the wharf and from there to Cowell good fishing for what they call 'silver' whiting (or yellow finned whiting) I caught heaps of good sized ones using the tentacles off the squid in shallow water on the beaches when I was there a few years ago. Love the catch of blue swimmers by the way! Fil

Grahams was across the road from Bunnings until they closed maybe 10 or more years ago, but previous to that the shop was actually where Bunnings is now.

I’m definitely no expert in this case but I agree with other posts that the fish look like trout cod from the pics I’ve seen of them. Either way interesting captures and agree with Big Neil good to hear that there were few carp.

Headed down to the Northern Beaches rocks yesterday arvo as the swell had finally dropped enough for a fish. Tried last Tuesday but while the swell wasn't that high it still had a lot of power and was sweeping over the rock I like to fish off so I had to can it that day. There was still a bit of colour in the water but it was definitely clearing up. I started burleying with bread and prawn heads left over from Christmas (kept in the freezer since then). First cast I was onto a big bream of round 37cm. He took a bread bait. Then lots of nothing. A few kelpies and wirrah for an hour or so. When I wasn't concentrating enough I thought I'd got snagged but it turned into a 'moving rock' - a lot of weight and couple of tail beats and he'd wrapped me round a rock and as soon as I put pressure on the leader cut on a barnacle. Almost certainly a drummer. Bugger. As the tide started rising and it got a bit darker around 6:00pm the activity improved with some better bites. I tried a peeled prawn and bang was straight onto a good fish, he had a lot of weight and went straight for the underside of the rock ledge so I'm thinking a good drummer or maybe a groper. I lent heavily on the rod to get him out and up into the wash and up pops a big drummer. Mercifully a small wave provided enough wash for me to get him onto the rock beside me. The fish went 49cm and was very fat , I'd guess around 3kg. A short time later I tried a large bread bait as I'd run out of prawns . A gentle bite then weight had another good pig diving for cover. I didn't give him enough straight away and he had me under a rock and the line chaffed through. Bugger bugger. Anyway two nice fish to go home with after a long time since my last trip to the stones. Fil