Ozzybass

Firstly to answer your Q - no, Avomine did not make me drowsy and I did not take one in the morning, just the one the night before. I first came across Avomine many yrs ago when my daughter was young and would get car sick a lot. We used to give her one tablet the night before and no carsickness and also did not seem to make her drowsy the next day. Having said all that, I need to say - (1) This was a long time ago. As I never go outside on a boat, I haven't needed to take it. (2) I also found that a few yrs ago (8 or 9yrs?) that I couldn't buy Avomine as I was told it was taken off the market. Then more recently (~2yrs ago) I found that they are available again. I bought a pack as I thought I was going outside in a boat which never happened, so I have not tried the new batch. I had never heard of it being available in different coloured packs years ago, so maybe they have changed the formula or strength in more recent years...?

Avomine! You take it the night before just before yo go to bed then they give you a good sleep and no sea sickness the next day.

Did you try chucking in some blackfish burley?

That's all I use for flatties there. I guess I'm only targeting flatties when I go there. Tip: most of my flatties come fishing from the groynes or in close proximity to them. Much easier to land them when you're on the sand though!

To answer your Q, yes you absolutely can fish shorebased casting lures at Brighton and in fact, anywhere along the western shoreline of Botany Bay from Cooks R to San Souci. BUT it might just be a little too early in the year yet even though there was a report here on Fishraider from ~2wks ago where they slayed the flatties. I flogged the water for 4hrs last Sunday for zero flathead. It wasn't at Brighton though.

Sure - PM me if you want. My blackfish efforts will taper off soon as its bass season! I still want to put in a few more blackfish sessions though.

Thanks Niall. Do you see any blackfishos going after them there? I have been blackfishing from the ferry wharf but not from the wall.

Are you seeing the blackfish? Around the ferry wharf or along the seawall at high tide?

Great work! We had a Bass Sydney working bee at Lane Cove NP then an arvo session on a mate's tinny. V quiet. I wished I was blackfishing!

Bass Sydney had our annual blackfish outing last Sunday. We have a planned club outing monthly and in the bass off season, we usually fish the saltwater. Our first club blackfish outing was 2years ago in Pittwater. Last year we had great success fishing the Parra R near Balmain. This year we fished a bit further upriver. Good turnout of around 10 people showed up, but this time the weather didn't play ball with a very stiff wind causing much difficulty. Only 3 fish were landed but they were all good fish, the smallest in the mid-30's and I landed one that was pushing 40cm. The haul (all released after this photo): Jeremy with his biggest ever blackfish with the macman in the left background: Another of our fish: Young & old enjoyed the day: It was a tough day with plenty of donuts, but good fun, camaraderie and a nice BBQ to end the day. I left at 2pm thinking I might try or at least have a look at another spot only a short distance away. Unfortunately, that ended in a very ugly situation that I will post separately... I haven't calmed down about it and it was a week ago.

Its all in the last line of that verse. You can't fillet even if the head & skeleton is still intact. I understand the rationale of such a rule, but its still silly unless there are fish cleaning facilities everywhere!

I haven't caught too many legal drummer! But probably a good idea to do so.

Wow!! Your girl sure can fish too.

This is true, but SWMBO prohibits fish cleaning at home. I'd rather risk the wrath of the fishing inspector!!

I've been unemployed for many months. Start new job next week! Good. No more midweek fishing & back to being a weekend warrior. Bad!

After mainly fishing for bream from the yak and other people's boats in the last month, the forecast for yesterday was absolutely perfect for my favourite semi-ocean rock spot. I haven't fished there so far this winter and only once this year in March. Midday high tide, 0.8/0.9m S/SE swell, gentle W winds. That means no wind problems, should be some good wash without it being dangerous. This time of year there should also be plenty of bait underfoot. Solo session as it turned out. I meant to be on the water by around 10am to fish the last 2hrs of the runup and then 2hrs of the runout. That didn't happen as I was vacillating between doing another yak bream session like I did on Tuesday. Finally decided conditions were too perfect to not go blackfishing and I eventually got my first bait in the water around 1130. Only half an hour until the top of the tide. Plenty of cabbage around, kicking burley in the water. Water was pretty clear but there was plenty of wash and it was very overcast. In fact, it rained through most of my session. Started with 10lb FC leader. Often drummer at this spot and 10lb leader gives me a chance of landing the odd legal drummer. Took a long while before I landed a fish. By 1.30pm I only had 2 fish in the bag and it was well into the runout. I decided to change to 6lb FC leader and first cast with it, I get a bite and land an undersized drummer in the high-20's. From then on, the bites came steadily and I started to land some fish. When I busted off at 3pm, I decided to call it quits as I had fish to clean and I said that I'd be home around 4pm. Left them biting!! Ended up with 6 keepers, nothing huge around the 30cm mark but they fight twice as hard as the much bigger upriver fish I had been catching of late. 2 throwbacks (the drummer & a borderline blacky), a few dropped fish and the one bustoff. Interesting and very enjoyable session. Normally I fish the 4 or 5hrs around the top of the tide, but on this day, they didn't start biting until1.5/2hrs into the runout. It was probably the leader change and that is what the Macman reckons. By the time I had filleted and skinned the fish and got home, it was after 5pm. I love blackfishing the rocks!

Thanks Wellzy. Yes - this is exactly what I'm trying to say. IF there are factors that make one weed fish better than another type or source of weed, then where or how does an artificial fly fit into the equation??

With the recent posts on blackfish on fly, I have been thinking... (always dangerous I know!) I don't doubt that they can be taken on fly and its not anything new. I first read about it years ago (>>10yrs ago) in an article written by Starlo. However, it made me think. If blackfish will bite on an artificial fly, what about all the other parts of blackfishing lore like having the right bait?? Ie. weed from X is better than weed from Y, string weed v wiry weed v cabbage, etc, etc?? Comments from the blackfishing brains trust? Thanks.

Fishing the channel?

Wow! Great work.

Woo hoo! Well done! The macman keeps nagging me to use a centrepin for blackfish, but I keep saying, "Nah!". I know its the preferred reel for blackfish purists, but I couldn't be bothered. Don't wanna start a war, but IMHO the only advantage it has is that there's no doubt that it is superior for line management. Everything else I find a spin reel to be better - especially ease of use and fast line pickup. I just open and shut the bail arm for trotting a drift. Each to their own.

Like I said in my post, I did not eat any of the catch on this day. I have eaten blackfish in many ways. If I keep any to eat, I normally fillet & skin my catch and my favourite way is to flour or crumb then fry. I've also had it steamed, baked or poached. I've even had it as raw fish. Occasionally I would gut & scale them and take them home whole and shallow fry. I haven't tried eating blackfish cabbage yet. I type this as I watch Master Chef where one ingredient is "sea lettuce" aka cabbage! I yelled out to my wife, "they're using bait!".

A fishing tackle store!

Certainly the species to target on a budget! Floats, hooks, other accessories are cheap. Rod can be cheap. Reel can be cheap. Bait is free! I say "can be" for rod & reel as, like anything, you can spend a LOT of $$ if you want to! The Jarvis Walker Aurora series "Ocean Blackfish" rod (12ft, 2pc) is dirt cheap at around $40. There used to be more rod options under the JW Aurora series, but they have discontinued a few models. I have a 9ft Aurora "Mooloolooba" rod which I use as my light/short blackfish rod but it is one of the discontinued ones. They also used to make the "Estuary Blackfish" model which I think was 10ft or 10.5ft. The trend nowadays is to use a specialist floating mono line which does cost a little more than standard mono. I just use braid as my mainline.

What I've found in my blackfish journey is that there are several types of weed and they all seem to work at one or another. From your pic, that's good weed man! I'm aware of the string weed for estuary & cabbage for rocks thing, but in my experience, cabbage works as well if not better than string weed upriver as well.