Ozzybass

The ferry wharf cabbage or the blackfish??

Ferry wharf cabbage

Who says I'm not "appreciative"? Not often I get to upgrade a PB. Its been almost 2yrs since my 43cm PB. Love it and I was glad you were there with me Matt.

Calling out to the blackfish brains trust again. Over the year I've seen numerous mentions of blackfishing at Dawn Fraser Baths area. Looks a nice spot. Do blackfishos fish off the pontoon jetty or off the sea wall close to the baths? Is it a high tide spot? Thanks!

Over the last month or so, due to the earlier news that FR was shutting down, I had not bothered to report on the numerous blackfish sessions I've had, from the rocks to west of the Bridge. I've had a couple of nice sessions too. However, on Sunday arvo I went for a quicky upriver. Macman had some bait and he was fishing a (for us) recent hotspot that we're trying to get wired. I wasn't sure if I could make it so I didn't respond. When I knew I could go, for the last 2hrs of daylight, I called him to confirm he was there. After half a dozen unanswered calls, I got there to find him fishing. I was relieved as I had no bait and if I had known he wasn't there, I would have headed to the rocks where I knew there was bait. That would've been in the opposite direction! Anyway, he was there, he had bait and already landed 3 fish. He said it was pretty slow though as he had been there for around 2hrs before I got there. I was quickly fishing and in the next 30-40mins I didn't have a single bite. In that time, Matt only landed a small flatty on cabbage! Unsatisfied, Matt moved about 50m away from our "usual" possie there. Before long he hooked up to a decent blacky and was calling for me to bring the net over. I almost made it before he busted off. It was fairly shallow, with a ledge and worse, treacherous oyster-encrusted rocks everywhere. We had fished that area before a few weeks ago and I busted off on a very nice fish at my feet when line touched such a rock. So we moved our stuff over and started to fish there more seriously. The bites came quickly, especially for Matt who was fishing 4lb leader. In the next hour or so, he landed another 5 with a couple more bustoffs and pulled the hook on another 1 or 2. I didn't get any bustoffs and landed 3 on 6lb FC leader - one around 40cm, one in the mid-30's and my last fish a whopper that I called for around 45 or 46cm and a new PB! We didn't have a measurer so I marked it on my rod to measure later. I was pretty sure it would have smashed my previous PB of 43cm. It was going to be a C&R day for us, but my 40 was deeply hooked and in bad shape so I kept that for the old timers next door. The other 2 were released in great shape. AllMatt's fish were released. Later that night. I was slightly disappointed to find that it wasn't quite 45 but calling it a 44 and still a new PB. It wasn't exactly an accurate measure, but still pretty happy. Interesting that Matt definitely got more bites than me and I could only put it down to the lighter leader.

Wow! That's a pretty big Macq. What did you catch it on?

Now its NOT closing?! O well good news.

I'm one of those "new posters", but as soon as I started posting, the site is closing down! Must be me!

Great capture!! Congrats.

I usually put in a slice or 2 of bread if I make a sand burley. You haven't complained before when we have fished together Matt!

I hope you get some, but maybe too much fresh around now??

Nice! Rocks or flat water?

I tried Sunline Fine Float (bright yellow colour) a few years back but abandoned it after a few goes as I found it didn't float very well. I haven't tried any floating mono since, but have been told the Dango Wax is good. A mate uses an orange Sunline floating line and he likes it. If floating lines are not available easily, I would try the ISO fishing websites. I use braid as my main line and braid floats pretty well plus I apply Mucilin to it which is available in most tackle stores that stock fly fishing gear.

Is this the black trevally referred to as weed stealers?

Thanks Ryder. 2 things you said that is interesting - black trevally. Dunno what they are, but interesting nonetheless. Bait was definitely being stripped or snipped. Moving. Macman doesn't persist if not biting too. I am either stubborn, lazy or just stupid! If there were no bites I would have moved or gone home, but the downs kept me interested.

Wow! Obviously I was in the wrong place.

There are species of freshwater mullet. They are smaller and more streamlined, more like sand mullet. You can catch them or trap them in the freshwater sections. Dunno if they'll breed or survive in a small farm dam. The other type of mullet (the big ones) you see in freshwater are "bully mullet" same as the ones that are in the sea and they need to migrate to breed I believe.

Hah! Anyone who has a blackfish as his avatar is a guru! I did try waiting for a long time before lifting. Maybe I could have waited longer... Some of the times I waited, the float just went back up again. Maybe they didn't like the weed. There are so many different types. I just like it when I just have to bend down and pick some cabbage where I'm fishing! But I am trying to learn more about flat water blackfishing.

Summer blackfishing is a new thing for me and I've just had 2 donut days in a row. The first is OK and can probably be explained, but today was annoying and I hope the awesome blackfishos on this forum can help. Sunday Parra River at one of the spots I reported on last week. I had cabin fever and left home around 4:30pm with some frozen string weed from many weeks ago. Water was fairly discoloured from all these weeks of rain and I used 6lb FC leader. A couple of small downs early on then nothing. The fish were either not there or they don't like frozen weed. Q's - anyone else had success in the last few days upriver? Is frozen weed useless? Today Went to one of my fave Botany Bay spots this arvo, arriving about an hour after high tide. I managed to find some weed there, but that spot has always fished better with cabbage. Usually not much cabbage there in winter, none there now. Water was surprisingly clear. I used 6lb FC leader like yesterday. I started at my fave possie there and had enough weed for bait and burley. Usual burley - sand, chopped up weed and bread. Nothing. Moved about 20m away and started again. I kept getting either quick, small downs that sprung up again or good downs that never went solid. I was plagued by these downs and NOT ONCE did I even felt a hookup, let alone dropped a fish. After nearly 2hr of this I went back to my original spot and had a couple fo downs like I described. Moved to a 3rd possie about 30m away and never got a bite. Went back to 2nd spot where the frustrating downs continued for a while until I gave up. 4hrs I spent for a donut. Q's - what do you think those downs were from? Very small blackfish? Tiny picker species? Very timid blackfish? I wanted to change to 4lb leader, but found I had left that at home. Doh! Help!

Actually, both our legal blackies were liberated. Mine was released before moving to 2nd spot and Doug's fish was also released before we went home. I wasn't sure if we'd get another to make it worthwhile and Doug's was the only one from our 2nd spot.

The plan today was for Doug and I to fish OMH. I figured with the wind & swell direction and the tide, it would be safe and OK there. I haven't been there for 2yrs and I was looking forward to it. Blackfishing & we both brought casting rods to sling a bit of metal in case of pelagics. I had to pick Doug up from Chatswood as his car was at the panel beater and it took nearly an hour to get to his place through hideous Sydney traffic. After another xx mins to get to North head and AFTER I shelled out $5 for parking we discovered the track down has been closed!! Nearly 2hrs from first leaving home and $5 down and not fishing. Plan B - we headed off to fish near Manly to a spot neither of us has fished before. Found a track down to the water and out of the wind. Looked pretty good but was there any bait? There was a guy down there that had live baited a very nice amberjack. Impressed! We found some cabbage and decided to give it a go. I had about 5 casts with a Slow Blatt jig which was the first time I had used it. No hits. After about 1.5/2hrs, I got 1 blackfish and a few downs between us. Plan C - moved to Fairlight facing into the teeth of the wind. Gave that a bit of a go for another 1.5/2hrs where Doug got a blacky + a small drummer. Very annoying day!

I tried to crop as much of the background as I could without cutting my head off. I guess I should've done that - not missing anything there! I figure if you knew exactly where that was, you know it anyway. Yes, forceps work great for gripping small hooks and trebles especially since they have the clamp function. I forgot to add that most of the fish, bar my 40 was caught on string weed.

Here goes my first blackfish report on Fishraider... I had 2 consecutive days blackfishing last week. Weather not so great, but mainly big swells meant that I was looking at flat water. Flat water blackfishing is still a bit of a mystery to me since I started doing it in the last 3yrs in an effort to expand my blackfish horizons and to get some spots closer to home. Day -1 I went to the eastern suburbs to get some bait for the next day. Where I would normally get a bunch of good ocean weed in a few minutes (in winter) there was not a skerrick! I went to the other side of the bay to the ocean pool where I found some nice cabbage growing on the side of the pool. I gathered enough for a good session and went looking for more. No cabbage, but I did find 2 other types of string weed - a fine, wiry type usually found on sandstone and a long, fine slimy weed growing down a Cliffside seep. 3 types of bait - I thought I can't miss. At the car, I met a blackfisho, obviously a local, and we had a short chat. I saw him go to the side of the pool and begin to fish in a smallish gutter/hole next to the pool where there was a fair bit of white water coming over the outer rocks. I decided to watch him for a few minutes. Bang! He was on after about 5mins. A mate of his turned up, netted his fish for him and ran off to get his gear. He returned about 3mins later and he was on first cast. Dang! I was only gathering bait and didn't bring any fishing gear! I filed that spot away and decided it would be a good high tide spot. Day 1 The next day, I drove back to the pool, but was a bit late. The tide was a fair way out and the gutter was quite shallow. Still, I landed a small drummer first cast, but that was it. I tried a couple more possies with deeper water in the area and even though it looked good, I didn't get another bite. Wasted a couple of hours doing that. Decided to head back west of the Bridge. Ended up fishing in the Drummoyne area for 2 nice blackies in the mid-30's. The water was slightly murky from the rains and I used 6lb leader. I filleted & skinned them and gave them to the old couple next door. A lot of driving for 2 fish. Day 2 My Bass Sydney club mate Doug joined me and we fished 2 spots west of the Bridge. Firstly, we fished next to a ferry wharf where I/we have not tried before. Doug landed a nice mid-30's a couple of minutes before I arrived on some weed from the Northern Beaches. He didn't have much though. I arrived and after rigging up, started burleying up. We had no sand, so I made small burley bombs of mushed up bread mixed with chopped cabbage & weed. Before long I hooked and landed a fat 40cm model on cabbage. We were both using 4lb leader. We stayed for about hour & half, missed a couple more half-hearted downs and decided to move a short distance away to where I fished the day before. We fished there for another 2hrs and while the action was not exactly "hot", we got another 3 fish. 3-2 to Doug, but I got the 2 biggest of the day. No fish was less than 34/35cm. Pretty happy with that. Doug didn't want any fish from west of the Bridge so I went to work and finished with 10 skinned fillets. I kept the 2 fillets from my biggy + 1 more fillet and gave the rest to the oldies next door. That's 9 fillets in 2 days so I think they had enough for 3 good feeds. As for eating fish west of the Bridge, I don't do it very often and I'm too old to care and the neighbours are definitely too old! My spouse won't eat blackfish. The oldies were happy as. This is me at first spot. My 40 is in my right hand. The day's combined haul - She did cook them up for my dinner though. Crumbed and fried, accompanied by potato scallops and minty coleslaw. Yum. Looking forward to the rest of the blackfish "season".

I've been lurking here for a few years even though I am active on other bass fishing or kayak fishing sites. I'm not JUST a bass fisho or yak fisho as I like all sorts of fishing from the aforementioned to flatty jigging on foot, spinning for bream, trevally, whiting & sambos, other native freshwater fish and BLACKFISHING. I've decided to say a proper "hello" as Fishraider is the only site I use that has regular posts from awesome luderick fishers. I used to only chase blackfish for 3 or 4 months and only in one spot over the winter months but in the last few years I have expanded my blackfishing horizons not only in the number of locations, but my blackfish "season" also keeps extending. I prefer ocean or semi-ocean rocks with cabbage for bait, but have since also been chasing them in the Harbour and west of the Bridge. I am far from being an expert but I really enjoy my blackfishing. Its "back-to-basics" fishing which can be frustrating at times (like all fishing) but is a welcome break from all the lurefishing that I normally do. Blackfishing would be the only time I would use bait except for the very occasional carp session. I like eating blackfish too. My club mate is the Macman who is well known to Fishraider and an expert blackfisho who, I am proud to add, I have helped in his development as a bass fisho. Matt and I don't get out blackfishing together often enough with so many competing fishy targets to chase! I enjoy and value the blackfishing posts from the regulars and I hope to contribute some posts on this subject in the near future especially as my focus at this time of year is already turning from bass to bream and blackfish. May your floats keep going down!

Its on twice a season Wellzy - 3rd weekend of October and February.