mulcahya

Where exactly is "the colours"?

What exactly is the poor mans down rigger technique?

Fished DY beach on Sunday for some small undersized whiting, and no meaningful bites on some live bait and pillchards. It's a baron wasteland ATM! ??

Do squid (or any fish for that matter) care if it's windy? I know my lines and the boat care, but the fish?

Mike the squid whisperer! Next thing you know you'll be tickling their underbelly. ??

Smallest long shank hooks I could find in the tackle box, like the ones I use for catching yakkas. Metal traces helped eliminate gear loss. Tied the main line straight onto the metal trace, all unweighted, to give better feel, and minimize gear loss. The trick we found was to keep the bait in sight, and when you see them start sucking on it, drag it away and you'll either be on or very shortly. Cast a little wide (but still in sight), with a slow retrieve, will keep tension on the line so you can feel them. If you do drop the bait out of sight, you will be baited without knowing it in no time, unless you jig the line up and down into and out of sight. On the up stroke pay attention for extra weight and strike if it's fishy feeling. Best of luck raiders. If we work together we can rid our waterways from this pest. ?? BTW: tasted great! Wife and kids loved them.

AFAIK, no legal size limit on leather jackets, but possibly a bag limit of 20. Probably because they are a plague!

Launched from Tunks Park this morning with a plan to get some squid and/or yakkas from the spit thru to balmoral and then scoot off some else and try for something big like a kingfish. After getting no squid and nothing but sweep, it was looking ominous for the day. Fortunately our luck changed a little and we got seven yakkas in 15 minutes after we upped the burley. And off we go..... ...but everywhere we went, nothing but stripped leather jacket, who were stealing not just our bait, but our entire running gear on multiple occasions. after loosing countless hooks, sinkers, and swivels, in all sizes, it was either go home or start targeting them. We chose the later because a) they don't taste too bad and we figured we should start a harbour LJ cleansing program, which would benefit all fishers, and not just us. one more LJ in our boat is one less gear thief in the water. All in all we bagged ten of them which we'll eat tonight, and which hopefully reduces the LJ population in Sydney by 0.000000001%. You all can thank me next time you're on the water. ?? Baffler

Rookie question: what's a key-ring king?

Ripper Jew mate. What gear and bait did you use, if you don't mind me asking.

I stayed on denarau last November for 10 days with the family and loved it. Took a 2 piece Berkeley dropshot to flick around the canals with some lures and SPs. Caught some fish here and there, with the highlights being a couple of decent sized trevallys off the beach using a small surface popper. Take some Shimano waxwings as they were also productive. I did a charter with a group advertised in the port. We left 45 mins too late in the morning, did not get a bite despite trolling for 2 hours around some atolls, and they wouldn't go out to the big blue for some decent fish! We did however catch a good feed of local coral species, like Fingermarks, which tasted fabulous when cooked up by the resturant chef in the hotel we stayed at. I tried as hard as I could to find a local that knew somebody who knew somebody with a boat, but didn't have much luck, and had to go down the touristy charter trap. There is a guy who departs from the sheraton who apparantly knows where the fish are, but I was concerned it was a little dodgy and it was VERY expensive, and he wouldn't budge. Not helping much I know, but just fore warning.

Truly bad luck, but at least you had the experience of monster on the line. I'm still waiting for that. Just wondering, other than not taking a knife to a gun fight, what would you do differently next time? Would it have been an option to completely back off the drag, flick the bail, and free spool for a bit to see if he slows down and comes back to shore, then start the process again?

Trung, I think you should give up your day job and become a lure fishing comedian. Hysterical post. The prawn is a ripper catch. Which reminds me. I once caught a prawn when it swam on the surface from about 5 meters away right up to the side of my boat. Bent down, scooped him up, put him straight on a hook, threw him out and caught a small snapper with him.

If you don't mind me asking......which FAD was that?

The jacket will definitely do that to ya. I doubt it would be crabs, as they would tend to get tangled. Nice haul though!

A golden day indeed. I was one of those boat at north head.......and caught nuttin'! No even a nibble. Well done you. BTW Where did you pick up the squid?

Very impressive Groper, basil, or whoever you are. I'm yet to bag a king but given that you've only been fishing for a couple of years, it's given me hope of getting there too. Keep up the great fishing and keep the reports coming. So to help a fellow raider out, what sort of gear were you using?

You're onto a good thing there mate. I did the same with my son when he was ~3. Now he's almost 8 and out fishes me almost every time. He loves it so much he would do it every weekend if the weather would allow it. Baffler

Which one did you end up getting Tim? I'm in almost exactly the same boat (minus the gift voucher) and I checked out the Diawa Saltist, Shimano Saragosa and Stradic FJ, and the Okuma Salina II and III (high gear ratio models) on the weekend. The Saltist looked the busines and the 4500 looked like it could hold a mile of line. The Saragosa, for some reason, I discounted quite quickly, maybe because it didn't look and feel as good as the others. The Stradic was very sweet, but you would have to go for the 8000 model as it's a small reel. And yes the 6000 and 8000 are the same, but the larger has more capacity. The Salina's looked like they were the best value for money as it was a good 35% cheaper for the II model (in runout), but the action was not as smooth as the Saltist and Stradic. If money was no problem, I would probably go the Saltist 4500 or possibly the Stradic 8000. But it's difficult to go past the value of the Salina. Let us know which one you chose and your impressions after a couple of uses. Ballfer.

That's not a fish......that's a donkey! I swear I saw a saddle there somewhere. Butch.....what did you catch it on?

Hi Raiders, Just copied my post in from another forum area to get more coverage...... I've been fishing regularly for a couple of years now after a layoff for too many years and am not having the sort of success I'd like. We sometimes catch the usual suspects (leather jackets, flatties, bream, whiting, salmon, taylor, gars, and millions of pinky snapper ) and have even gotten good at catching yakkas, and the odd slimey mackerel. Unfortunately I haven't managed to bag squid, JD's, kingies, adult snapper, tuna, or the elusive jewfish......all of which are on the bucket list big time! We have a reasonable set of gear and fish with a combination of bait, SP's and lures, depending on the situation. We generally keep what we catch, but stick to the legal sizes. I do however throw back large breaders. We fish weekends when the weather is cooperative. I fish out of a 5.5m Savage Surveyor (cuddy) and like to frequent Middle/Sydney Harbour, Pittwater/HBR, and will even make the trip to Botany Bay or the Hacking if need be. I live on the Northern Beaches so the first 2 options are the most practical. I rarely venture off-shore because I'm not keen on being in a washing machine (even though the boat is more than capable) but it's not worth the risk taking my son out there alone. He's a 7 y/o and a champion little fisher who loves catching anything, but I wouldn't want to have an issue out in the big blue alone with him. It would be great to meet some other dad's who would be willing and, more importantly, able to help improve our success rate by pulling in more of the usual suspects, and the bucket list items. It would also be good if they couldbring their kid out if they are equally passionate about fishing and can handle (read: behave) themselves on a boat, just like my son. Sharing costs and assisting with setup/tear down/cleaning would help reduce the load from me enormously and would be really appreciated. Send me a PM if you're boatless, a good fisher willing to impact knowledge, with child.....and keen to get out there and enjoy our great waterways and wildlife in Sydney.

Hi Raiders, I've been fishing regularly for a couple of years now after a layoff for too many years and am not having the sort of success I'd like. We sometimes catch the usual suspects (leather jackets, flatties, bream, whiting, salmon, taylor, gars, and millions of pinky snapper ) and have even gotten good at catching yakkas, and the odd slimey mackerel. Unfortunately I haven't managed to bag squid, JD's, kingies, adult snapper, tuna, or the elusive jewfish......all of which are on the bucket list big time! We have a reasonable set of gear and fish with a combination of bait, SP's and lures, depending on the situation. We generally keep what we catch, but stick to the legal sizes. I do however throw back large breaders. We fish weekends when the weather is cooperative. I fish out of a 5.5m Savage Surveyor (cuddy) and like to frequent Middle/Sydney Harbour, Pittwater/HBR, and will even make the trip to Botany Bay or the Hacking if need be. I live on the Northern Beaches so the first 2 options are the most practical. I rarely venture off-shore because I'm not keen on being in a washing machine (even though the boat is more than capable) but it's not worth the risk taking my son out there alone. He's a 7 y/o and a champion little fisher who loves catching anything, but I wouldn't want to have an issue out in the big blue alone with him. It would be great to meet some other dad's who would be willing and, more importantly, able to help improve our success rate by pulling in more of the usual suspects, and the bucket list items. It would also be good if they couldbring their kid out if they are equally passionate about fishing and can handle (read: behave) themselves on a boat, just like my son. Sharing costs and assisting with setup/tear down/cleaning would help reduce the load from me enormously and would be really appreciated. Send me a PM if you're boatless, a good fisher willing to impact knowledge, with child.....and keen to get out there and enjoy our great waterways and wildlife in Sydney.

Any day you get a fish into the boat is a good day. You've done better than that, so it's a great day!

Now that's funny. A genuine LOL moment. ?? BTW: Do the Dhype charters extend to Middle Harbour? Not having much luck up here with the squid, and hence much of the squid loving monsters.

That's Report of the Month right there. Even told us how you cooked it up.