SargeRX8

Can you eat those things? Ive caught a few of those rays and they were huge. I threw them all back as a past experience with anything similar tells me they are an absolute pain in the arse to peel and really not worth the effort after tasting it. People say they are best served in batter, deep fried, but in all honesty a dirty old sock will probably taste good when its deep fried. Its got the upper body of a string ray but a tail like a shark. Let us know how they go because if they're worth eating, I'd be willing to try catch one. Even so, that leather jacket is going to be delicious. My favorite of all fish to eat. Good stuff.

Wow when ever I've heard of emperors I wouldn't have thought anywhere like this. When I fished him out I had no idea what he was so just had a look at the fish scale thing and the closet was the red morwong. Learn something new. Cheers for the positive input. Much appreciated. Probably the worst thing about the plagues of undersized snapper is when you foul hook one in the arse or something and it pulls a lot harder haha.

Hey all, Here's my first, of hopefully more, reports! Went out a couple of weeks ago with a mate on a boat we hired out at middle harbour. Left nice and early, we checked the weather and it seemed like it was gonna be a good day. Hit the water at about 8am and only managed some yakka to throw out as live baits but had some squid with us from home. Being our first time out on the water we had no idea where to go so we looked for other boat fisho's and tried around where they were. After casting out numerous baits, trying for squid, flicking out plastics all around balmoral, the evidence was clear: no fish. Then the overcast came and out of no where a strong southerly started blowing in making it quite uncomfortable and almost ruining the trip. With no fish in the bag we headed off to get lunch. After some, really expensive food, we jumped back in the boat and decided to go further up into middle harbour stopping at any "fishable" looking location. After hours of moving around, the time hit 4pm and we hadn't landed a decent fish all day. The amount of under sized snapper in the MH is amazing. We decided to head back in and try one last fishy looking spot. We were out of bait so using our plastics at this time for more under sized snapper. Suddently, out of no where, my drag on my rod started rolling off and there was no need to set the hook... I was in and I was in good. We were fishing up close to a few pylons so the nerves were on, fishing only light line and leader, that I could get busted off if this fish takes me to the oyster encrusted pylons. After a couple of minutes I had full control of the situation and what looked to be a huge snapper in the water was actually a red morwong! My first ever, on a plastic and it was a big boy. Although the rest of the day was unproductive, we still had awesome fun on the water and this one fish lifted the feeling even higher. I can't wait to get my self a boat, the amount of awesomeness cannot be described just moving through those quiet bays of middle harbour and scouting out fishing locations. Took him home and measured him up and he came up at 40.5cm, gotta be a record breaker on a plastic, surely. I was cheering. No kings on the day but good things can happen if you lower your targets! Heres the pic of the fish and honestly he tasted pretty good with the olive oil, lemon and wrapped in the foil mmm. Cheers guys!

I think the system underneath has been ruined by the renovations to the jetty and net. All I've seen is people catching severely undersized bream and other junk.... and keeping them. Last time I went there was a guy with about 6 bream in his bucket which in total wouldn't even add up to the length of a legal sized bream. Seeing that puts me off.

I use a solid ring tied to my main line and the split rings on the lures connected to that. If I use soft plastics I put a split ring on the jig head and attach it to the solid ring. Does not hinder strikes, strong, quick and easy. I only use clips for squiding or the heavy duty ones when using bigger metal lures.

Cat food is my main burley additive. I mix it with bread crumbs. It's not the cat food which attracts the bigger fish, imo it's the action of the smaller bait fish creating havoc as they tear through the burley. Whenever I have seen a king surface like that, they never have any interest in anything you put out in front of them.

Try out the nanofil. Top stuff. I use the 12lb and 10lb and it's as fine as dental floss, knots are strong, massive casting distances compared to the braid I used to use. I've read about this stuff a lot and people don't seem to like it as they have problems with snaps from the hook and leader joins. Touch wood I've been two seasons so for without a knot fail being responsible for a fish loss. Then again, you've gotta be a fool to tie your main straight room a hook. I could not imagine casting fluro and if you happened to get a fold or crease anywhere it's there forever. Also if my leaders get any abrasion, no matter how small it is, I cut it out and start again. I find that flurocarbon has a high tendency to break very easily at any abrasion point in the line. Would be really crap if you got any abrasion somewhere say 10m in the spool...

Sounds like mad fun. I went out Monday of this week around middle harbour couldn't even attract a single yakka up. Would be tops to catch some slimies for bait. Also if you don't mind me asking, do you single hook the live baits behind the head? Do you drop them to the bottom or downrig and trawl.

Ive fished there once, threw back all the fish I caught(mainly bream). Never caught a king there but if I did and it was legal, I'd keep it. Good luck getting amongst the crowd there, you get some terribly ignorant, stubborn people and others who will keep every under sized fish they catch. I'll never fish there again thanks to the company that place attracts.

Fixed.

I'd be happy with that crab, tasty stuff! How do you catch slimy mackerel? Ive tried so many times off land from the Balmoral jetty and all I can get is yakka, if anything. They sound so common on this forum but Ive never caught a single one. I am only land based though.

Hey guys, This subforum fits my friend and I pretty perfectly. We fish almost 3 times a week and its always land based so we are pretty keen to get on the water if anyone has room for two keen, young, experienced fishing buddies. We've been fishing hard for the past few years and still have never been on the water. If anyone is going out today/tonight or tomorrow and has the room, we'd be keen as. Will definitely pitch in on fuel costs, we have all our gear to suit different waters and targets, we will bring our usual bag of munchies which compromises of snacks and softdrinks etc. Sunday and Monday are our only real days off work and if anyone has the spot or wants some company, we would be really appreciative. Please shoot me a PM or leave a post and I can drop you my mobile number. Were just at Parramatta area. Thanks all.

Report them. They're meant to keep x amount of metres from you and anyone else in the water. Its the same when fishing off wharves, assholes fishing off their boat see you fishing off the platform so they ride in close and laugh and taunt you. Had it happen to me many times at the wharves on parramatta river and had a few idiots end up with half my spool of braid around their propellers. That is how close they come. They've got 500m width of water and come within 10 metres of the wharf....

Ive only ever caught tailor and salmon at stanwell. Seen a few rays come out. If the hook was bent straight I'd say it was a big stingray. Ive caught a fair share of fish and the only time a hook has ever been straightened was by a ray. Also had a port jackson bite one shut! Size 5/0 gamakatsu hooks.