sam_chamoun93

G'day raiders, Just wanted to ask, what combinations of conditions makes for "safe" rockfishing? (Let me re phrase that to "less dangerous") Obviously every location is different, and there is a great sub forum showing a number of places on this site. However on the past few outings I have looked at the conditions, thought they would be ok, and arrived at my fishing spot to find it harrowingly dangerous. So to say the least, I always look to fish on a low tide with low swell, and preferably the wind blowing at my back when I cast out to sea. Now most fishing ledges in Sydney face East so an E or SE swell I tend to avoid. If any Eastern Suburbs raiders can help me to read tide/ swell/ wind/ moon phases and to understand them in relation to where i'm fishing i'd be enormously gracious. Pm's welcome The particular place I fish is Clovelly, but also tend to go a lot to Little Bay if that helps.

Ah thanks for clearing that up blackfish.

Are males and females different colours?

Thanks for clearing that up fellas.

Caught this fella while chasing sambos on a whole pilchard on gangs. What is he?

Loved when you guys all put the sunnies on. Like WE MEAN BUSINESS

NICE!!! I'm still chasing my first big salmon

Went off the bay mate, North side. Can only really do it at high tide.

Hahaha two birds with one stone mate I've heard Bare Island is a reliable spot. Probably just have to cast in the right areas. Near the bridge kelp beds perhaps. Now can someone confirm with me... High tide + low swell + night time or overcast conditions = Prime squidding conditions?

Headed down to Clovelly last night around 7pm, armed with some squid jigs I had bought that day. Cast a whole pillie out and let it soak on the 8" while we messed around with the jigs on a much smaller rod. A few minutes later we were getting definite pulls on the squid jig, took us a while to figure they weren't snags or dragging through the kelp beds, thank heavens the fella from the fish who store spent half an hour explaining how to actually fish for squid We started pulling up decent sized squid, but the first 2 we lost, partly due to lacking a landing net and party due to being scared out of our friggen pants We finally landed one and decided to pull in the pillie (eaten to parts by rubbish fish) and put the second jig on it (the small rod could hardly haul the squid without a net). Ended up with 2 in the bag 4 more lost/ released. If anyone knows the most efficient and pain free way to kill the squid, please share it or pm me. Felt very guilty letting him sit there, then even more guilty giving him the swift karate style chop in the head. Not to mention that it burst the ink sac. All in all, it was a bloody good night, headed home about 11pm, and got some nice lunch in the fridge marinating in Worcestershire and soy sauce, with some salt, pepper and lemon juice waiting for the barbeque. The funny thing is that I never would have bought the jigs, or ever learned about squidding if the shop didn't have a $20 eftpos minimum If anyone wants to share some landbased squidding spots, feel free to share or pm me. I'm always happy to meet up a fellow raider as well I'll upload photos when my internet stops being nasty to me.

I guess it's just the case of few bad apples. Buts it's good to see that there are still plenty of fishermen out there with the courtesy to respect and userstand fishing etiquette. As I said in one of my replies, there are some terribly nice fisher folk out there, who are more than willing to share spots, and even share some knowledge or decent conversation. THESE for me are the most enjoyable fishing sessions.

Fishingphase that's a mighty interesting way of looking at it. But it really does make some sense. Fair enough if there is limited space, but the whole reason why I was surprised is that they practically had so much more room to themselves and then they camp right up next to us. I think by our age as well, they thought we don't have a bloody clue what we were doing. Which mostly we don't But experience shouldn't dictate that..

If you're thinking Asian, you're wrong hahaha. Actually, the best talks i've had have been with Chinese fishermen. @ Mack Attack; I got the hell out of there before STRAYA MATE Too close to the water to risk any silly stuff like that. Also, the angel ring there was missing. Vandalism? Not sure if there is any place to report it.

So this afternoon I fished Little Bay with 2 friends, the area know as the gutter. We got there about 3pm with the intentions of having our lines in the water by quarter past. Blah blah blah....we didn't end up with lines in the water until 4. We were about 45 mins in, a couple of bites, when group of fellas with rods came down to our spot. There arsed around for a few minutes setting up rigs and looking for spots and I asked them how they were doing. Between their atrocious excuse for english and their native language mutterings to each other, I figured they had been lucky on the fish the previous week at the spot we were fishing. I wished them good luck, and cast back out into the wash. They moved about 5 metres away from us, and cast their own rigs in. What happened next, I could not believe. My friends stepped back from the ledge to gather our stuff because there were a few people there now, and cast by cast, the other fisherman encroached on where we were fishing. When I reeled in, I realised they were standing bloody shoulder to shoulder with me. Fair enough I thought. I have read a thread in here that states that experienced fishermen can fish shoulder to shoulder without tangling lines, I'm an awful fisherman, but I'm sure I'll manage this I thought. I re-baited and set up to cast. The fella to the right cast straight ahead, then to my amazement, the fella on my left cast to the right side too!!! WHAT THE FRIGGIN HELL. B**TARD!!!! It left me literally no room to cast at all. BULLS**T I thought. I picked up my gear and left before I threw a cunji at one of them. The worst thing is (any of you that fish the gutter will understand) that there are 2 goddamn sides to the place. And being dead low tide, the other side was practically dry. AND is actually better for fishing. My mates were hardly dressed for fishing out in the bay so they were more than glad to leave the fishing to these un-Raider like fellas, (For fear of being banned I won't comment on their nationality) but I think I need new friends who actually enjoy

This is THE single best bit of fishing information i've ever seen. Almost like a cheat sheet.

Thanks for the tips mate. I remember looking at it side on and thinking "what the hell do we do here?" Actually thanks to everyone for the quick responses and welcomes.

G'day fishraiders. I've been reading this forum for a while now, figured that with all the information it has given me, I may as well try and give a bit back. So here it goes at the first report for this young eastern suburbs fisherman Sorry for the lateness of this report (validating email issues), but back on the 31st of July, me and the boys planned a day trip up to Palm Beach on a Sunday to give it a go at fishing. They had been up there before and had some fond childhood experiences of the place. We didn't get out on the water until mid day because the local bistro didn't open until 11, which was more like 11.15 We hired out a boat (if indeed you could call it that) from the fellas at Barrenjoey boat hire who gave us a good deal with some bait. Rods and tackle ready, we headed out on our little pontoon. We headed out east from the Palm Beach peninsula (?) and sat just outside Coaster's Retreat. 2 undersized snapper later, we moved Northwards to Currawong Beach, seeking shelter from the winds just beside the headland. We burleyed a but more heavier this time, and made an improvised floating burley device with the angel ring and catch net . A couple more small snappers later and we were feeling a bit let down as we sat listening to the esky radio we had brought on board. We reeled up what we thought was another tossback, but found a big funny looking one sided fish on the end of the hook. A 35cm FLOUNDER, bloody awesome we thought. We changed our rigs to the one that had caught the fish (1m leader) but nothing for the rest of the afternoon. Light started to run out so we headed back and gutted/ filleted the fish on the boat. Unfortunately our young hands destroyed much of the fish in the process Whatever small fillets were left we cooked up on the bbq at the park. They tasted pretty ordinary but a good day out with 2 mates made it all worth it. Thanks fellas Sam