bean

Hodgey, can you scale salties or just gill and gut them? I find it is the worst part of cleaning a catch and id prefer to do it while I'm out rather than at home

Hi mate, I have fishing experience but not all that much boating experience. I posted a while back looking for someone to give me a hand learning. If you can help me out I'm willing to pay my way and help clean etc.

I'm not the right person to ask viyt beach fishing, however i'd think you could get a decent 10ft rod to suit your needs. I was talking about perhaps looking at something larger than a 2500 stradic.. Surely the stradics come in a larger size though

I've never used the rod, however I love the look and feel of the Stradic. That's a winner in my opinion. If you're going to fish from the beach, perhaps you should look at a bigger size though for better casting ability?

Lol exactly. If it was firing all the time every time it would be called catching, not fishing. Thanks for the input fellas

Nice effort. I've never had too much success using frozen squid and being landbased its hard to catch them fresh. I might have to give it another go. Were you on the woolies side of the bridge or the opposite side?

Just read your last thread about them breaking. That's devastating mate but I'm glad insurance came through for you. I've heard of so many insurance companies making it very difficult for contents/accidental damages claims, so hopefully yours wasn't too much of a headache.

Nice report, and congrats on the marlin! It was a great read too. cheers

I went for a flick at Narrabeen yesterday. I figured I would give it a shot as I've heard of some decent flatties coming out of the lake recently and without much success wading the lake last weekend I thought id give it another shot. I tried vibes, HBs, soft plastics and fresh prawns yet couldn't hook up with anything worthwhile. It was an uneventful night filled with mostly undersized bream and whiting. I had a couple of big takes, yet they spat the hook after a couple of strong runs. They felt like bream though and they weren't interested in my softies, vibes or ecos (there didn't seem to be a flatty anywhere near me either). I was wading the shore in front of the caravan park and one thing I noticed is how the floor of the lake has changed over just one week. A couple of the gutters I was fishing last week were gone and I struggled to get out as far as I did last time as there were a few big holes that weren't there before. I know sand bottoms change but I didn't think it would be such a significant change over 6 days. We fished from late arvo through to just after midnight and my girlfriend managed the only legal catch being a whopping 29cm bream It was somewhat disappointing but as the saying goes, a bad day fishing is better than a good day of work.

Nice results. By the way, Tapatalk is available on android too.

I'd be very happy with that. Nice fish!

Personally, when I fish bait - whether dead or live - I pin a prawn to a light jighead, cast, and twitch the prawn to make it look more lively as I would with a plastic. Might be a little too technical for your young bloke depending on his age/ability but should work for you. Maybe a peeled prawn or a bloodworm on a running sinker rig for him would suit best. He should still get onto some fish with that setup.

Again, freakn unbelievable! As above, I find it easier to fillet the fish once they've been chilled. I put my flatties in a saltwater ice slurry to put them to sleep and find they're a lot easier to fillet and skin afterwards. Good to see another girl who's not afraid to get dirty when it comes to cleaning your catch. Very impressive catch & thanks for the info regarding your rig

Awesome work. It would be a massive thrill to get onto a flatty that big. I look forward to seeing the pic. What size line were you using? Also, what size plastic and jighead if you don't mind?

Disappointing to see this happening. I've only been there once and ended up parked in by someone for over 4hrs. Cops were called as I couldn't get my car out but nothing could be done until the cars either side of me were moved. Seems its a very popular place to park and catch the ferry. There weren't many others there fishing when I went however there were a couple of shady characters hanging around. It really is a shame that a select few have ruined it for us all

There are a couple of posts on here about Carp already. If you use the search funtion it will show up with some releveant info. As I have said before, I've found live earthworms to be good bait. If you can get your hands on some of these you can just use a running sinker rig. Have you ever seen a pool cleaner work - just crawling along sucking up gunk from the floor? Carp are the same, so whilst i've caught carp on a floating rig using bread i've had much more success with my bait on the floor of the river/dam/lake. I've heard that corn is good, however I've only caught them on bread and worms. I've watched my cousin use the heads from some cooked prawns to catch quite a few and my Uncle claimed to see someone catch one using a cigarette butt at one stage. I've come to the conclusion that so long as it's smelly you should pick up carp on it. If you're not having any luck in Parramatta Lake, try anywhere along the Nepean River or any of the creeks that run into it. I've seen people fishing Toongabbie Creek, and as mad as it sounds they all claim it is full of carp.

Spit bridge is supposed to be a good spot to try. It is always busy when I've gone there so I haven't fished it yet. I always travel a bit further north towards Manly and have somewhat regular success. If your willing to put in a few more kms try the lake at Narrabeen. Should be a good spot for the young bloke as there are plenty of smaller specimens to keep him occupied while you should be able to tackle some flatties and find some bigger fish to keep yourself busy

Perhaps try yarramundi. The water may not be running as fast there. If not, adapt your methods and try with a lure or something. A moving bait generally will get more fish in any waterway.

Before Christmas when we had a lot of rain and the river was up I found fishing to be quite good. I presumed the rising water level meant new snags for the fish to explore and hence they were more active. I even went out a lot during some showers and found a hot surface bite on most outings. I was using lures mainly but managed some small bass, decent mullet and a big carp on bread under a float on occasions. Food for thought...

Thanks Reggae. I'm not sure we should mention company names on this forum but could you pm me the charter you'd most recommend seeing as you've been on a few? Ill definitely take both opinions into consideration. I did hear catching squid in the early morning was easier so perhaps ill look at the morning trip. Thanks again guys

Sorry mate I feel a bit stupid not following what you mean here so could you clarify please?

As far as I'm aware the sessions are 6hrs or so. Sunrise til 1pm or 1.30pm til sunset. The tours aren't too expensive, but paying for two people for two sessions is far more than I've budgeted for. Not only that but my father has a bad knee and shoulder to contend with so I think 6+hrs is sufficient for now. Which of the two would be your pick should you have to pick between them?

I promised my old man I'd shout him a session on a fishing charter of his choice for Christmas and we are only getting around to organising it now. He has been raving on about going with a well known Sydney company for years after hearing that one of the guides is someone he used to listen to on the radio or something along those lines. He has always wanted to catch a kingy so I told him I'll organise it for him over the next few weeks. Have any of you ladies and gents done any charters on the Harbour? What is the best time of year to book if we are chasing kings? I'd expect catching fresh squid would be a part of the charter so given that, would a morning-midday or midday-evening session be best to book? I know I can ask the company this but I'd like to hear some opinions from fellow raiders first. Cheers

I believe the metal has oxidised. Aluminium oxidises very quick when exposed to air/water and the white chalk powder is the result of the chemical reaction. If you were to polish the hull it will remove the white spots but there's hardly any point as it will return. I don't think you have too much too worry about.

Hi Raiders, I did think about posting this in the desperate and boatless section, however I thought it just as fitting posted in this section. I'm sure if I'm wrong a mod will move it. I would like to learn the correct way to operate a boat and I'm hoping someone would be willing to show me the ropes. I have access to my dads boat but the condition is that I have to get my license first. Unfortunately, he refuses to take the boat out on a weekend or late afternoon due to boat traffic and unfortunately due to work commitments I'm unable to chuck a few sickies just so we can go out early morning midweek. However, I do want to learn correctly. I know its easy to fudge the logbooks and after a few trips out with the old man its evident that a lot of people have done just that. I don't appreciate the lack of courtesy a lot of boaters show others - whether intentional or not - and I don't want to be like that. I'd like to be familiar with proper boat etiquette as well as current rules and regs and as such I'm putting myself up for adoption. I dont have the means to pay an RTO hundreds of dollars for a sub-par boat licensing coarse. That being said I can pay shared costs for any trips (within reason). I joined this site to meet other friendly anglers, so hopefully it doesn't have to be too full on and we can have a casual fish and enjoy ourselves. I usually fish for bream and flathead in the salt and bass in the fresh, however I'm keen to do any fishing you might like to do to make the most of our time whilst out on the water. If you'd like to fish something that I don't have the gear for I'm happy to sit back and chat/watch you work. I really just want it to be a massive learning experience. I live local to the Parramatta area and work in Penrith. So any place within about 30mins of either locations should be fine. I'm a big guy, so small tinnies are probably not best suited to me. The boat I will using is just over 5m so anything around that size and up is what I'm hoping to get some experience on. I don't care if the boat is old or new, although I would prefer it to be reliable as I don't fancy getting stuck out on the water. I welcome any friendly replies and appreciate any help anyone can give. Please contact me via pm if you are interested. Cheers, B.