the producer

.........used to be plenty of big YFT at 12 mile. Even the peak and long reef used to have em until mid 80's but sharp decline from then til the 90's

Not a Javalin....totally different fish. BUT..... I do know there have been many hybrid bream found on the south coast of NSW and even as far north as Sydney. There is evidence that black bream and Yellow Fin have cross bred and I do believe the 2 fish in the pic above show a greater difference than simply living in fresher or muddier water. Its quite true that fish often change their colour and general look ( sometimes significantly ) when they live upstream or in a different water condition than their normal coastal environment. This is especially true for fish that travel upstream and spend a good amount of time away from the ocean. EG. Barra, Bream, mullet, flathead, Jew and even Crabs. If your posting fish for ID check...... try and extend the dorsal fin and tail because the information to positively ID most fish is in the fin/spike/ray count. happy fishing Parkesy

Hi All I think the dark bird is a type of Skua or Petrol. The white one is probably a dark browed albatross. Also .... there is no such species as spiky flathead.... They are either baby blue spot sand flathead or tiger flathead. Both of which have a 33cm minimum legal length. The only commonly caught flathead with no minimum length is the Marbled flathead. Tight lines

Great work on the release. Thats a good size Dusky. There used to be plenty that size in the harbour 25/30 years ago. Thats when I got my PB of 108cm which i kept because i did not understand the importance of releasing these experienced breeders. To everyone who releases these big female fish you can be assured that you are helping to stop the massive decline of this species in our heavily populated areas. happy easter........

The feeling you will get from knowing that fish may go on to breed the fish your grandchildren catch is something that you will never forget....Great work.

Hi Guys Love it up there been on many trips.... Go out wider past the last shipping marker on a calm day and look for birds... there will be bluefin tuna ( long tails ) everywhere out there.....Metals will get them. Also have a go at the rail bridge I always get Queenies over 1 m long there. enjoy your trip Andrew

I agree with hotbite....it looks more like Wahoo to me. And quite safe to eat, I would even say delicious after catching many of them in the Maldives and on Lord Howe Island. Heard of a few boated of Sydney in the last few months too.

Hi Dan That is a Watsons leaping Bonito NOT mac tuna. Beautiful looking fish and actually great eating but they always look so good I release them. Enjoy the Bluefin they are great eating. Nice catch of the stones. Andrew

Hi All I have caught 2 Red Bigeye in Middle harbour over the last 20 years. And I have also caught 1 Maori Cod in Bantry Bay. Both in deeper areas on bait. So they are around but not common. Good to see they are still turning up. andrew

Hi Guys We will be out tomorrow too. Ch 21 TANGLER. Prob try browns and a bit north. Happy to share info on anything we find - its a big ocean.

The white fin extending from the tail is just part of this amazing fish. I have caught many at lord howe island a few at 12 mile and 1 at the peak. I think it is actually part of the sea horse family but you would have to do some online searching to confirm this and find out more.

Alostomus or flute fish. common catch on jigs in deeper water. some people also call them trumpet fish... but Alos means flute.....

Hi Guys I went to JB today. Almost 500km from northern beaches return trip .... headed S/E out to 151.24.....65kms out and not much happening. Apart from a naval exercise using live ammo.......... They dropped a rubber ducky over the side of the ship and sped over to tell us and a few other boats to get the hell out of here. So headed north 20km then back down closer in along the shelf. ...plenty of stripies out wide but nothing else and did not hear of anything. tight lines Andrew

Great work guys. I am heading down to JB on tues. Prob launch from Murrays beach and head SE. Any recommendations of where to try. ? Are they still getting them out from Ulladulla. ? Good luck and tight lines to all who have a go.

Thats what my sisters kids call Cuttlefish. And No its definitely a squid. Southern Calamari

Just had another closer look at the pic after reading the reply from R_Zee. And ................. I think it may just be a juvenile amberjack. But without a good picture clearly showing fins etc it is hard to tell. Either way they are a common sight around FADS and floating objects.

It is a Juvenile almaco jack. In the seriola family. They always turn up at the sydney fads in late summer through to autumn. I have caught them in different sizes and the real small ones are always stripy like that. I have also swum with them at the fads and they look a golden colour when small. If you have a snorkel and mask on board it always good to have a quick look around the fads...... Its amazing to watch dollies hit live baits too.

Hi All The easy way to tell marble flathead apart from all others is look for a Fine white line along the edge on all fins. inc. Pectoral, dorsal, and caudal ( tail ). These are a beautiful looking species and also tasty with the whitest flesh of all the flathead commonly caught along the nsw coast. They are usually caught on deeper inshore reefs over mixed gravel and rock areas. Commonly between 35 and 50cm but I have caught 1 fish that was over 75cm. regards andrew

Left pic. Looks like a crested horn shark. Allot of people have been confusing these with port jacksons. The easy way to identify them is......... the port jackson has dark brown or black stripes that form a triangle over the top of the pectoral fin. The crested horn shark has slightly bigger horns on its head too. Hope this helps a few of you. regards andrew

Hi again I have read all your thoughts...... thanks guys. I should just mention that we were actually teaching people how to fish and as some of you mentioned the reels may have been accidently used as winches a little. Was still a great day but disappointing the reels could not have risen to the job and held together. Also as some of you mentioned technique is a key part of the problem and when teaching people you really have to coach them through the entire fight the first few times. The whiplash line loaded on the 4000 was in fact 65lb not 80 lb as I said originally............. I was not expecting to put novice fisherman on to 95cm kingfish on their first ever fishing trip...... but that can happen when you are targeting kings. Obviously I have dozens of very capable reels for handling these fish but I try and give people new to fishing a reel that is easy to use and suited to the type of fish we are targeting ( which in our minds was 65 - 80cm kings. ) This is how the reel damage occurs. When pressure is applied to turn the handle and the rotor does not spin because of pressure from a large fish the main gear is pulled away from the pinion gear. This is because the handle winds in to the main gear to tighten itself. Then gears become damaged and this leads to noise and intermittent jamming which then can lead to stripped gears or a snapped handle. The problem is with the way the gear sits in the body of the reel and may be different for the larger models. As some of you mentioned there are allot of great reels out there but having the right one in your hand when the right fish are there is the Key. Anyway.....tight lines

Hi All Wed. 21st March Great day on the harbour. Top weather, easy to find squid & kingfish getting a little easier to find. After hitting a few spots and getting a few undersized fish we decided to anchor and set some lines. Got into nice kings ...... had a big school of kings around the meter mark come past us and pick up every bait in the water. managed to get a couple on board all over 90cm But thanks to a design fault in the baitrunner "d " series by shimano we had 2 near new reels pack it in mid fight. (4000D) There is a problem with the way the handles pull the main gear away from the pinion gear. causing slipping, gear damage, locked gears and handles just snapping off. We lost 3 big fish due to reel failure but managed to hand line one up on 80lb whiplash. ( still have all 9 fingers too ). And lost a few more from inexperienced hands and sheer size of fish v's gear. Any way I will be taking these issues to shimano and will let everyone know the outcome. I think the original and " B " series baitrunners are still far better. happy fishin andrew / parkesy

If you were at south head on Friday morning between 6am and 7am you would have seen swell that was at least 5m. It was breaking out to depths of about 14m of water. And if you were not out friday morning check the swell observations. Swell over 5m was recorded on thursday evening and right through to fri morning. Today ( sat ) it had almost gone. Was prob. only around 2m Max. andrew

Thank you for your reply. I have examined both species and think you are on the right track. The position of the eyes and lack of visible pec fins leads me to believe it is a pearl fish. Nice work Barnzey. Even with 30 years of fishing every week I still get the odd unknown species. My sister is a marine biologist but does most of her work in freshwater so I need assistance with Id sometimes and you raiders are the first people to ask. And I do have the fish and would be happy to get it into the museum for identification. Who do I call ??? I Will try the museum in the morning and see where I end up. So lets start with Carapidae. Genus.....Echiodon ?????? or possibly Encheliophis ??? Anyone ????

Hi All Went out in the harbour yesterday for a few kings. They were hard to find but managed 2 nice ones in the 70's. No squid in the choc milkshake so just used yakkas. Saw some big swell hitting south head early on sunrise..... some were over 5m but after 8am it was getting smaller and was about 2 - 3m most of the day. I hit the water again today but decided to go out to 60m and get some fish for dinner. Ended up with 10 good flathead mostly sandies but 2 tigers and a few plate size snapper + couple LJ's A good size flathead coughed this up when it hit the deck. I am familiar with this species. They are called eelpouts. BUT I need the exact family and genus and name I think Family is Zoarcidae. Genus may be Lycodes ????? Photo not great but I have the fish and can refer to it for clues. If any one has info on this species or knows where on the web it can be found please let me know.

Yes this is quite normal. I have seen them around Northern beaches and in Sydney harbour regularly ever since I was a kid. ....And around Bundeena and over the seagrass beds in Port hacking. I have also seen them swimming on the surface 25 miles offshore. If you keep a good lookout ( as most good fishos do ) when out on the water you will see them quite often. Sometimes they move into an area and stay for months or even years. They are usually green turtles but I think there may be other species too. andrew