Yeeros

Maybe your right, maybe now we can just stop them cause of the gear???? Mate as i said you could go through a case a day pondering what is, was and might be. I'm just p'ved that i couldn't go for a proper fish this weekend!!!

I agree you probably were fishing there before i could walk and many fish were and are still landed on less than tiagra and tld 50's. For my money i like my Tiagra and would never fish for a marlin with anything less. The fish that come round now compared to the 70's and 80's seem to be a lot bigger. Talking to some of the older and wiser guys on the rocks (than me) they always say that. Anyway this topic could be a catalyst for a case to dissapear in a few hours while theories are disclosed and stories re-lived.

Really Shimano is the way to go for big fish. All new reels function great out of the box but Shimano go great year after year and drenching after drenching. Swordfisherman your comment of 400m and its all over is in my opinion and those of the boys fishing for Marlin are totally not true. I have seen many Marlin get brought in after running a good 800m on Tiagras. If you use low stretch line like Platypus low stretch you can get about 700-800m on a TLD 50 or 1000m on a tiagra. And yes if you get a 150kg fish take the bait you might need every bit of it. But for Marlin there is no substitute, Tiagra 50W. Go do Jarvis Bay and look at what 90% of the guys run down there. Bluefin are a different kettle of fish. No game real wll do everything, just like no car will go anywhere. Just remember Shimano for a couple of years down the track It has never failed me, I've not hooked a marlin yet, always missed the damn run by a day! But i have hooked other fish and you apreciate a smooth drag when a fish is screaming!

and make sure to wear a full face safety sheild as molten lead splashing on your face would not be too good. I almost lost my face when i was 20 when me and a mate decided to make sinkers for the first time. He chucked some off cuts into the pot, as in threw them in and they splashed, mised my face by less than 10cm! A few strong words were exchanged but we got back into it and got the job done. Moral of the story is DON'T RUSH and STAY SAFE. Once you get into a rythm its pretty good fun Now i just do it all myself I do a batch once a year and i do ok. I have enough 3 and 4 ounce leads and size 6 ball isnkers to last me years. I did run our of 3 and 4 balls so next time i'm going to make literally hundreds of these so i don't run out.

I have no idea where the boat spots are but stay away from the tubes as its the last place in the bay that we can do LBG. If you see somebody hooked up get about 1km away in case its a big fish. I did hear that smack in the middle of the bay or on the southern side is good for reds. Just don't stray into a marine park or they will fine you.

When my mate lived in Bondi i fished the area a fair bit with some great success. the rocks hold some fish and squid but the beach holds a lot of good fish as well. We have pulled bream, tarwhine, snapper, flatties, whiting, salmon, tailor and big shovelnose from the surf, and in good numbers and sizes. One of my best sessions came from that beach and at this time of year as well! First to help we need more "technical information" What rod are you using - brand, length, line rating. What reel are you using, brand and model #. With this information I reckon we can get you into a fish or 5 within 2 weeks. you might need to go get some stuff but once you have it you'll be into a few.

Thanks boys Much apreciated, i gotta admit its a bit scary but i'm sure it'll be ok.

Hi Guys Just wondering what the best way to secure muddies is so that they don't crush my fingers, break my toe bones and cause me all sorts of trouble. I'm going to hit up a spot in about 2 weeks and am very confident that i'll get a few but have no idea how to handle them properly when they are alive and not tied up I'm better at handling them when they are being eaten I will look up how to tie em up and practise on a dead one but does anybody have any tips for me? Maybe a way that you have founf to be very effective? I want to secure them so i can keep them alive for a few days and then make the trip home with my expected feast for the family

Don't worry about the traulers mate, they take a bit but there are a few slimies out there. Worry about the government allowing this to happen again! No wonder the 2009 LBG and from what i heard game fishing season was bad, with this happenning and 1700 marlin being taken in one day by a single longliner (by catch) I wonder how long it will be before we have no game fishing in NSW. Here's the report that i dug up, its from 2008 but holds relevence. "While you could hear the cheers echo out across our waterways in 2004 after the banning from Australian waters of the Veronica, a 106-metre super trawler with the ability to catch the equivalent of three jumbo jets of fish with every scoop of its nets, there’s been little condemnation – till now – of a super seiner from New Zealand fishing big time out of Eden on a farcical trial basis. The purse seiner Captain MJ Souza, a 68-metre vessel with huge fish-taking capacity, was operating on a three to five week trial basis starting in January and running till February 28. The ship is operating under a special licence granted by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) and, for legal reasons, the ship has been declared an Australian fishing vessel. Yet its history fishing in the Pacific is well known. In the last year, the purse seiner has fished in New Zealand waters and in the west and central Pacific, hammering each area for six months at a time. Here, the ship has an east and west skipjack tuna licence and a leased quota for commercial by-catch including yellowfin tuna and non-commercial by-catch such as slimy mackerel, that critical baitfish which forms the cornerstone of the marine food chain. But the really sad thing is that these fish are being caught for nothing more than fishfood for the Southern bluefin tuna farms in South Australia. In other words, the waters off NSW are being ravaged for the benefit of Croweaters (and the owners of the super seiner). And, ironically, these are the very tuna fished to the brink of collapse by past purse seiners. Won’t they ever learn? How serious is the fishing operation? Very. The Captain SJ Souza has a 1,000 tonne capacity and, according to one reliable source, caught 37 tonnes of fish in one recent night’s fishing. Whether slimies or skipjack, that’s an awful lot of bait to remove from the foodchain. Like a cannon ball blast through the mainsail. Captain MJ Souza employs specialist fish spotters, who fly in the ship’s own helicopter and a chartered light plane. The ship’s captain also engages ocean-current experts to tell him where to deploy the huge nets. But this isn’t the first time large-scale fishing has occurred off Eden. The port has a history of boom and bust ever since the Department of Primary Industries agreed in 1951 to invite the Senibua, an American vessel previously fishing in Fiji (more ravaged waters) to demonstrate how to pole fish. With a seaplane on deck, the ship could catch 40 tonnes of tuna in a day. Indeed, Eden’s once healthy professional fishing fleet has been reduced to dregs due to the collapse of its Southern bluefin tuna fishery. I quote from Down to the Sea, the true saga of an Australia fishing dynasty (the Warren family) by John Little, a must-have book in your armchair fishing library: “It was like the Battle of Britain up there [flying spotter planes in the late 1960s off Eden]. The planes used radios with scrambled frequencies to confuse their rivals. For the three to four months of the tuna season the boats on Eden wharf were six deep. “Perhaps the fish would have survived still if it wasn’t for the advent of an even more efficient means of slaughter. Purse seining … unlike pole boats, they don’t just take part of the school they take it all.” So here we are, back in Eden, looking as though history will repeat itself. I quote from a press release buried at the bottom of an AFMA newsletter from January 2008: “It is hoped that the trial will demonstrate the unique position Eden holds at the centre of the skipjack tuna fishery (east) and this will in turn encourage greater commercial activity in Eden.” The super seiner Captain MJ Souza is owned by Tally’s Group Limited, one of New Zealand’s biggest seafood producers, whose Port Nelson facility includes a 4,500 tonne coolstore, a 900,000 litre fuel bunker and 80 tonne ice holding. The company has spent four years negotiating to expand into foreign fisheries such as those in Australian waters. But why the ship is fishing on a trial basis is anyone’s guess. From all accounts there’s nothing hit and miss about it. Nor is there any doubt about anglers’ sentiments about operations that target baitfish – the key to our sport and game fisheries – on such a massive and murderous scale. "

cheers mate Just trying to track the bait

Does anybody know if there have been any slimey mackeral off the rocks in big numbers around Wollongong / Kiama in the last few days? If not has anybody got them off Sydney? Really after any reports of them in big numbers in close

Strips of chook fillet in 1m of water on high tide close to shore with no weight at all at night. Have your line loose, fish 3-4kg maximum. The bream will eat and swallow the bait and run off, just hang on as some of the bream you will hook will do your head in! We used to average a 1kg bream every 2 trips using this method. As for spots, well there are lots in the Harbour, Port hacking and Pittwater. Just find a place that looks like it holds bait but is very shallow and come back at night time on the high tide and give it a go.

Either there was not enough rope or some low life stole them. Not enough rope and either the float is underwater or it lifted the pot and it drifted witht he current. To prevent people from stealing them put them in areas not many poeple go and check on them every 30 mins or so.

Really depends on how big the marlin are? A TLD 50 will handle a marlin up to about 100kg if you spool it with low diameter 24kg line and you will thank your stars you have 24kg when you hook a king. A tiagra is great and i own one, but they are very very heavy! At least 3 times as much as a TLD 50. However i have seen Marlin in the 120kg rang almost spool a Tiagra. And yes they are about 800-900 to get. Hoever a TLD you can get for about $550 new, or i just happen to have one in excellent condition (back-up reel) for $350. However i have realised that with Shimano you don;t really need a back-up reel. They don't break! Honestly unless your going to fish specifically for longtail, i would say get a TLD 50 with 24kg. Much better for kings and you can use it for Marlin and sharks as well. however if your going north predominantly chasing Tuna then get the 30 and load it with 600 of 15 or 1000 of 10. Personally i would go the TLD 50, load it with 24kg down south and 15kg up north.

Spinning reels are good for spinning but if you want to get into serious livebaiting you will need an overhead. 95% of the fish you hooh can be handled on a spinning rod. But if you want to do LBG and target that 5% of 30kg kings 100kg marlin and 40kg tuna, get an overhead! The spheros will get spooled on a half descent run. Now the next question is what are you going to target? Tuna, beakies, Kings? If its Tuna tld 30 or 50 with 15kg will be ok. If its kings or beakies then go a tld 50 or tiagra 50W with 24kg. I also hope you know what your getting yourself into, lots of hard yakka for not much reward, but you will have a great time doing it.

Me and him have some very heated discussions over live bait at times. However I ahve woirked out a few sweep or a baker keep him quite.

Thats a mado. They also like to give themselves piercings through their heads and eyes. Its like they line up hooks and headbutt them!

Higher rocks at avoca, not wet they are ok? Man you havn't fished Avoca very often if you think that. Wait till you see a change from S swell to NE swell and in 1hr the rocks go from dry to underwater. You have 10 crews gear floating out to sea, people soaking wet, grazed knees, grazed elboys, sore hamstrings from doing the splits on the slime. Avoca is not the safe ledge many inexperienced fisherman think it is, yes its easy to get to, but unfortunately it has a rep as safe when it really isn't any safer than other spots. In the right conditions in can be extremely dangerous.

If your fishing Avoca this weekend i advise you not to fish it. Seabreeze is saying 3m swell from SE and that is dangerous, it might come down but its rising hard so you might even go out there and think everything is ok then a good wave comes over and you lose all your gear or some skin. Seen it all happen there too many times, look at the plaques on the way in, Avoca isn't some picnic ledge it can hurt you! If you have experience you probably wouldn't be there this weekend, thats my advice.

Circles are good for bridling up i hear but i never use them. I like J hooks personally. 15kg is fine for tuna and cobia, but for kings it might be a bit light on for the bigger models. It can be done but good kings brick you much easier on 15kg. I fish a bit heaver than 1/3 drag on my tackle, about 10kg on 24 with sunset at about 14kg.

Have a look at what these guys are doing www.albaa.com.au. This weekend that just passed saw them cleaning up Jarvis Bay for clean up the world day. word has it they will get local media coverage as well.

Dude what set up are you using, where are you fishing and for what are you fishing for?

Sleepy cod breed in dams don't they? not sure how big the dam has to be to have a breeding population though?

Did one of those guys have a tiagra 50 and the other two guys have surf rods? If it was then it was me and my mates, we got 3 sambo's all up that went 3kg each and it was me that got done on a surf rod as well. I'll give you some good advice for Avoca, you NEED rock cleats, without them you WILL get hurt! Fish a float not a balloon there, keep an eye on your drift and have your wits about you. Learn to check not just the size of th swell but the direction as well. If it has east in it then be careful it can kill you as it'll come right over the ledge! Avoca can turn it on well but with lots of guys fishing it in summer it gets very hard to fish well. Live bait is good to have but you will need an aerator, i would also suggest to get a more expensive waterproof model with 2 d cell batteries not 1. Might cost a bit more but it won't die after 2 trips and will pump air into your bucket when a single will struggle. And yes you WILL need a long gaff, 2 peice 4m as a minimum and strong! I might see you up there later in the year, if you see a guy with a tiagra 50 on a red LBG rod or a tyrnos 30 on a live fibre lbg rod come say hi. I got other plans for the next month

I'll be there in 2 weeks, sent you a p.m for the reason that i'll be down their. Can't wait or those first currents to come back, been hitting the gym up hard!