Dredog

Try brining the fish first, which means laying it in a saline solution for a hour before cooking . I'm hooked , pardon the pun

I was using a squidgy halo gold , size 3 . I've found they are lethal on flathead too. With a 1/4 jig head

Went out Tuesday . Seebreeze indicated very little wind and that combined with a day off, I knew I should go. I never like fishing so close to a new moon, but went anyway. Armed with a few poddy mullet, which weren't easy to catch at all. Too many bloody toadfish in the trap. Departed little Manly boat ramp just after 6.30 am, one trailer park left, seems a few raiders have the same idea. Sped out to the heads and discovered a massive school of Sambos but they were very timid, indeed. Not one hook up. Headed back into North Harbour and dropped my livies down and flicked a plastic too, the tide was heading low, very quickly and the water quality was sensational, infact too good. You could see everything on the bottom and they could me too. I could see my live bait twitching and then he got very nervous and I was on. Pulled in a nice 40cm tailor who devoured the poddy. Usually I would throw these guys back , but I recently received a smoker as a fathers day present , so he was going straight to the smoker. It all went a bit quiet then around the low tide . I persisted with flicking a plastic around the moorings And then had a hit, thought it was weed but pulled up a numb ray, damn, cast back out and could have sworn I jagged the same numb ray again but instead pulled in a beautifull John Dory . Woo hoo. He grunted as he sat in my live well. Then it all went quiet, dead as a door nail. Arrived home , made a brine solution for the tailor and trailed my smoker . The flavor of the tailor was beautiful , next time I'm going to try Aust. Salmon . Andre

Thank you Groper

Looks like Sambos are the go, I've started keeping them now. When you know how to cook them, they are pretty good eating . Thanks Ethan , I really appreciate the local knowledge, if you're ever heading up here , hope I can return the favour Andre

Cheers buddy You're a champ

thanks buddy , nearly didn't pack the nipper pump

Thank god it's stopped raining ! I'm heading down to Jervis bay for the school holidays with the kids , boat in tow . Have any members fished this area before? Any tips for locations would be greatly appreciated . Thanks Andre

Thanks Tom Youve got me fired up. Cheers mate

Thanks Taskata Middle pilon sounds the go and should be sheltered from the westerly

Thought I might go for a flick also armed with some live poddy mullet . Have any members fished there lately.

Monday morning and my son was feeling a bit sick. Now worries mate. Stay home. what do you want to do today? " go fishing dad ! " I thought you were meant to be sick ! Oh well . grabbed an array of lures and some cabbage too. kids love watching a float and headed to Forty baskets near Balgowlah. Beautiful spot, nice little swimming bath with lots of protection from the wind. Now I knew the water was going to be dirty, but what the hell. its better to fish than let him watch television all day. I have recently got into blade lures big time lately. Brady and I got stuck into the fishing , I had three lines out as usual trying too hard. One rod with the float and cabbage, one handline for livies and I was flicking a blade. second cast the Instict blade got hammered. Definitley a big bream. he was taking line off my penn reel quicker than I could adjust the drag. I was trying to get my apparently sick son to pull my fabril retractable net out,but he struggled. this bream was fighting and unfortunately managed to get around the oysters of the net and 5 minutes later . My new blade was gone and so was the bream. But what surpised me was , despite the water being that dirty, the area still produced. What do other members think about fishing in the harbour after a big downfall. Because in the past it has put me off fishing after a deluge. But maybe i should rethink. Andre ( dre dog )

Man, great report. I suddenly want to buy a bigger boat.

Yes Kel that was me. I think. I was surprisized. I thought there would be more surface activity, being no wind, but no such luck. Those frigates were feeding on tiny little baitfish, fly might be the answer.we need those Fishraider stickers !

With all this beautiful weather lately, I knew I had to get out there and with very little swell it gave me the opportunity to get out the heads. I purchased a downrigger last year and have yet to use it. So I was keen to see, how one guy in a tinnie with a downrigger and live bait was going to work. Went to my usual bait spot and as usual they were there in large numbers. two minutes in a very large bream grabbed the hook intended for the yakka and nearly took my finger off. Bent the hook right back. I knew it was going to be a good day. Armed with about 15 yakkas, I headed off around Rose Bay to check if the downrigger was all working and how I would go - single handedly. I usually have the luxury of being in my mate Chewys boat and many hands make light work. Out the heads and turned left.First yakka got hit 10 minutes in , but no hookup. Considered swapping my circle hooks but persevered. Saw lots of activity on my ray marine sounder, big fish. But no luck. Started kicking myself for not targetting squid but just kept skirting along the cliffs in about 30 ft of water. Once again saw 4 large shapes at about 20ft in the water column and as I looked at the rod. I saw the line clip out of the downrigger and the reel began to scream. Moment of panic.... Do I pull the downrigger up?, no Drive out a bit , get his head up. Motored out about 50 meters, pulled up the downrigger and then played the fish. Hadnt considered how I was going to net him, whilst trying to stop my tiller steeer going around in circles. Grabbed my Frabill net which for some reason wouldn't pop out. needed two hands! Had to step on the rod, quickly flip the hiber net out and land this king. I could feel he was a keeper. I saw colour and eventually he came aboard flapping around. He measured in at 67cm. Not the bigggest but he was a keeper. The boat was strewn with crap everywhere to which the King made things worse. Tried for another hour with no luck, but as I came back in the heads I saw some surface action. I flicked a small minnow and bang I was on. A little frigate makeral who gladly fell off by the side of the boat. Saw some fairy penguins out there too. very close to boat, 1o metres away in broad daylight. With a few yakkas left I decided to try my luck for some flatties. With all this warm weather I assumed they would be lazing around in the shallows. Dropped my live bait over the side and the whole boat was surrounded by yakkas and small garfish. Within 2 minutes I saw my rod bending and at first I thought it was the live bait trying to join his mates, but Oh no grabbed the rod and felt quite a bit of resistance but not a massive fight on 6lb line, but was pleasantly surprized to pull in this John Dory. Two minutes later with another yakka on, my small Penn reel screamed as line got taken at a great rate of knots. I was sure it was a dencent flattie as he headed straight towards the anchor line to which i had to pass the whole rod around twice to untangle him. I could feel head shakes but this was no Flattie it was a Salmon. Didnt do the usual jumps but fought like crazy. The salmon were terrorizing the bait fish who were using my boat as cover. Could have scoop netted them......If that was legal ! Returned home to a great feed of kingfish and John Dory. One thing I have noticed and it seems to work for me is,fish on a rising tide when your atleast a couple of days away from a full moon. Never had much luck on a full moon and when the top of the tide is about 11.30 am. I have all ways consistently caught fish. keen to hear from other guys in regards to this. Anyway if you get the chance, get out while the beautiful weather is till around. Andre ( dredog)

Its a bit far, but the ocean pool at South Curl curl is fantastic for cabbage, on low tide of course!

Fantastic " Luderick " nothing black about them . Did they put up a similar fight . Looking up that place right now Andre

I carpe ted my tinnie and bought a liquid adhesive from whitworths, it was pretty cheap and went along way Andre

Nice John Dory Chewie and i went out on monday, went all the way to long reef for zip, then the wind picked up and we headed back to the harbour , hooked onto a large tailor on very light gear who spat my halco gold back into chewies lap and that was it Nothing, very unpleasant in that norhterly. You should get that disc by today. Enjoy Andre ( dredog)

As they say mate big baits , catch big fish. I've included a photo of a king we caught on a slimy , You can see how large the slimy was, but it didn't stop the Kingy from having a go. Big squid will get hammered by big kings and more than likely the rats wont touch it. Kings love squid, cuttlefish and pike. they are master predators and will hit a well presented live bait. Bigger the better I say. Andre

Hi mate Fiji customs are so laid back it's ridiculous. They seriously won't worry about your soft plastics . In terms of poppers and lures its pretty well the same as here. Red and white seems to work well. You'd be amazed at what the locals throw at the fish and produce. We had a local who had a bicycle tyre tied between his main line on his handline for a bit of give and his lure was so rusty it was wasn't silver anymore. But we must have pulled in 10 tuna that day. Depending on where your going but the island locals know exactly when and where to fish. Somedays they would say , nah not worth going out today , but I think that was an excuse to drink kava and when they said it was hot, they were spot on. Good luck , I got my PB Mahi mahi there , 102cmGood luck Andre

Yeh its a great spot Martin. I think you'll find they were pike. They generally come on strong around there. try one for a live bait. My mate chewy and I have caught some great kings on live pike. Just try and keep the scales on them when you catch them as they die a lot quicker if they lose a lot of scales. Just one hook through the tail area. Andre

Hi guys The blackfish sure are firing at the moment. Must be fattening up to spawn. Went off Manly Wharf the other day with some fine weed, we retrieved from the pool at Curly. Was educating the kids on the art of blackfish fishing and telling them to keep an eye on their float, when Riley asked, where his was. And low and behold this monster came up from the depths. He was full as a boot with cabbage. Funny thing was though, when we were filleting the fish, I noticed a weird little growth under its skin, sort of like a growth. Has any one else seen this in blackfish before, Ive caught heaps of them and this is the first time I,ve ever noticed. Its was like a little round growth with a tail attached to it. Andre

NICE 1 Chewie good to see you bagged yourself a sensational red.