Keflapod

Craig, you could catch fish in a bathtub. Amazing photos too of the dam. How's that shot of the uprooted trees still holding onto the dirt and river stones ? The force of the water pushing through must have been phenomenal. A nice brace of trout your son has got there. Forgive me if I got this wrong, but is that Wyatt ? Did I get the name right ? I think my short-term memory aint what it used to be, if I remember correctly.... What was your name again ? Catch up soon for the Pirtek challenge if you're gonna be in Botany bay... Tony

Hey Chris, Long time no see or speak. You must be very busy this summer with work as always. And I know only night sessions are possible. and short ones at that....but we gotta have our fishing fix don't we. I can always count on you foe a jewie -geeup. Whenever you get a slab of chrome-plated fish onto the deck, I feel like I want to get out there and give it a go... But invariably when I get out there, I have to hit the bream - I'm just a bream-tragic.... Well done on a real seafood basket. and we gotta catch up for a chat one of these days..... Tony

Hey Ginko, Mate what a story. It all happened for you - lunches, fish, mums and their fisho-daughters... I reckon that the lesson to be taken away is that if you wore bonito-coloured clothing and walked with a bonito in your hands, the daughter would stare at the fish, the mum would stare at you and they would BOTH walk into the recycle bin ! LOL....Give it a go next time.... Just kidding mate - great story, great catch and yes you will need to catch fish like this for a few weeks to cover the broken budget... I'm sure you'll be happy to do this again a few more times... Cheers. Tony

Hi Finallyonline, Can I ask who these 'flipside scholars' are, to which you refer in such colourful terms ?

Hi Phil, I don't think we need go as far as bringing issues to court, but seriously, a couple of examples here and there to illustrate the legislation's intention wouldn't go astray. As for getting all scholarly, we have to do the research and understand the rules because we are bound by them. We may have he best intentions and act in good faith and could still get stung.... Unfair really. But we don't live in a perfect world. We all do the best we can within the law and within our own moral standards, while still trying to have some fun...... It's a big balancing act... Tony

Hey Kooks and Bump73, I'm curious to see what the definition of "In possession" is. It isn't stated. What IS stated is the definition of: 1. Bag limit (Bag limit is the maximum number of fish per person in possession) 2. Daily bag limit (They limit the number of fish that an individual angler can catch and keep in a 24 hour period) 3. Possession limit (possession limit is the maximum number of fish that a person is allowed to have in their possession at any time.).... but also states in the same paragraph (For all saltwater species, the daily bag limit is the possession limit....). So is the possession limit the same as the bag limit (what you can catch and keep in 24 hours) or is it what you have in your possession at any time? If the former (a possession limit IS the same as the daily bag limit) and a daily bag limit is what you can catch in 24 hours, this means that the possession limit is what you can catch and possess in 24 hours. If the latter (a possession limit is what you have in your possession at any time), then it is different... But what does "possession" mean ? The rule is only clear if the term 'In possession" is defined by DPI. See what I mean ? Now we can speculate on its meaning and use our own logic to assign a definition to the term 'in possession", but it will only be accepted by DPI if it is defined by DPI. I understand the reasons for imposing a possession limit to stop people from stocking up their freezer with hundreds of fish. I'm dead set against hoarding huge numbers of fish. There is no need to stock up numbers like that unless there is some trickery going on. So, If someone caught 11 whiting on a Wednesday and went again on Sunday and caught 10 more and all went in the fridge (total 21), are they breaking the rules ? This is the debate... A few examples of what is legal and what is not would be good to see coming from DPI.... Perhaps I missed something critical in my research or understanding. For those of you more cognitively competent than I, please shed some light.... Tony

You say you were fishing the southern side of Towra, do you mean you were fishing somewhere amongst the large moored boats just upstream of Towra point? If so, I'm surprised the pillies and yakka fillets didn't get a touch. If not on the bream, the local rays will give you heaps.... It's the only spot I can think of to get you out of a norwester. Either way, I'm very surprised that the water was as clean as it was after that deluge. With this weeks dtronger tides, the water should be much cleaner this coming weekend. Last time I fished (the weekend before last) I only got 8 bream and a few trevs but the bream were all good fish between 32cm and 40cm. The gun bait was pilly because of the dirtiness of the water - only the pilly could be smelt above the other smells in the water that the fish would have to deal with.... Gotta get back out there...I missed one week in a row - going nuts... So how deep were you fishing ? Tony

Hey Littledude, You're pretty keen to get out there after such a wet week. Did you nearly run over any trees / logs/ debris while driving on the bay in the pre-dawn ? What was the water quality and temp like on the day ? How many bream did you get ? Any size ? Were you able to still fish the the NW wind on Towra ? Any pics of the fish ? I decided I wasn't going to go for a change. I could see myself running over all sorts of debris to get into the bay to catch a carp in the muddy water. Perhaps you can prove me wrong.... just so I can kick myself.... before anyone else does.... Well done on a surprisingly good catch..... And well done for breaking your radio silence on the site.... Tony

I bet the person who wrote "Once bitten twice shy" never really caught a jewie, eh ? I remember my first jewie. I think they invented the wheel that same year. It seems so long ago. I was so happy I yelled out loud - under the captain cooks bridge... I think it stopped the traffic above me..... Maybe even caused some structural cracking in the pylons..... They should change the toyota slogan for us fishos.... "Oh what a feeling...first jewie". Well done and go and get another one.... Welcome to the site. Tony

Seals eating the squid of your line ? Man...that would drive me crazy. I hate seals with a passion but where there are losts of fish schooled up, there will be a seal there at some point. If it didn't eat the squid, it would have eaten the kingie off your line when the fish is beaten and near the boat. Where are the sharks when you need them. Or perhaps polar bears or eskimos or something.... Perhaps you can feed the seal an exploding squid ? Yeah right - you see a seal, you leave - save yourself the aggravation... ..and the squid... Tony

Hey Chris, Long time no see. A pretty good effort for last weekend I reckon. Fishing was slow for me and I was curious to see what the rest of the civilized world was catching. It seems you put a much bigger bag of fish on the table than me. Plenty of yummy smoked trevally and tailor fillets there. I'm surprised you didn't get a nice flatty or kingie, or a decent jewie in the hacking at night. Still, can't keep a good fisho down. Tony

Hey Brian, That was an incerdible report. The detail, the imagery, the emotion and of course the results. To catch sucha wide variety of fish, including some big marlin is something that fishos would sacrifice a lot to experience. And to do all that amongst such good friends that work well as a tag team is something that is very rare. Congratulations on the marlin achievements and the excellent captures of quality table fish. Tony

Looking at the weather pre(guess)diction on the 'net, I saw that both days were not so good. A bit of wind, a bit of rain, a bit of thunderous storms. So what will it be ? My missus just wanted to know which day I was gonna fish so we can do the other day as family / chore day. I love my missus - the expression she has heard was "Happy husband, happy life" - so what if it doesn't rhyme - who said everything has to rhyme to sound believeable ? So I chose Saturday to get away from the possible hordes of people that make my life a misery on the water. I got up at 4:00am - the anemometers said 14-17kn WSW. So I stayed on the net for an hour or so to see if the wind will abate. I could still go fishing as my boat is capable but I hate being out there battling pre-dawn conditions - the point is to enjoy it, not battle it. At 5:00am the wind dropped to 8kn so I made a move. Down at the boatramp at 5:10am (love the proximity) I realised that there was NO-ONE there. Part of me says "Woo-Hoo" no crowds to hassle me, but part of me said "You IDIOT, everyone KNOWS the weather's gonna be SHITE except you !" Damn those voices in my head ! Being the rebel I am, I pushed the boat off the trailer with rebellious vigour. I dragged the boat back onto the sandy beach next to the ramp, when I realised that some generous soul had thrown out a heap of large prawns onto the sand. I picked up a couple of handfulls in the darkness and put them in the boat in case they work. Well out to the first spot to burley up some bream in 5m of water in a spot that's in the middle of the bay. In previous weeks some mates got some fish there so I thought I'd give it a crack. After about 5 barely legal bream in an hour (all released) I decided the mother lode was not here. Off to the oil wharf to see if there are any fish there. The current was nicely pushing the burley to the wharf, but not a fishy soul stirred - not even a dog stirred. I was scatching my head a bit as by now I should have had a few decent fish - but my fish box was akin to old mother hubboard's cupboard. It was high time I deployed the crab trap apparatus - just like deadliest catch, only not so deadly - more like unlikeliest catch. Off to Towra and 5 big red floats graced the area, in 1.5m of water along the weed / sand edge. I had delusions of grandeur that I might actually catch one to eat with the missus....more on that later....and oh what a story - full of wonder, ie "I wonder why I bother" kind-of wonder... So off to the old trusty bream grounds to snare me some fish. After 8 stingrays in a row, I'm scratching my head again. I must have nits with all this head-scratching... Every spot I moved to was chockers full of rays. Time for a change of plan - time to whip out the secret weapon. It's so secret, not even I know about it.... If I did know it, I would have to kill MYSELF ! Well OK I do but I don't fish these areas much because the bream are big and I don't like taking the big fish because they are old tasteless fish, full of toxins and are the best breeders anyway. But I was desperate... Jeez I just called myself desperate. Usually it's my mates that call me that and not when we are out fishing.... The water is less than a metre deep and has patches of thick weed. I remembered that I had those peeled prawns so I whipped them out. Then I got a bit of a shock. No they weren't electric prawns, nor were they soft plastics in the shape of prawns - they were COOKED ! More head scratching....I think I was creating a bald spot from all this scratching..... Being the eternal optimist, I thought I would give them a go... I also had some pillies so I chucked them in. Not 5 minutes later, the baitrunner goes off..... The fish is peeling line as it raced through the weeds at right angles, line hissing as it cut through the water. The fish ran around the boat and cosntantly tried to bury itseld the undergrowth. As the line angled straight down, I could see the bronzed flanks of a big bream, still trying to bury itself in the weeds... With one foul swoop the fish was netted and laid flat on the deck. A typical fish from this area - at 42cm and a deep bronze colour it was magnificent to behold. The hook was way down and the fish would not survive release. Part of me was ecstatic but a part of me was sad. Too many voices in my head at that time..... So I said to the voices: "Oy !, next fish I'm gonna strike early and try to mouth-hook it. If it's big and can survive release, then it goes back...." All the voices agreed so the next 7 bites resulted in 2 more fish caught - 33cm and 35cm but I pulled the hooks on some horses... That's OK because the fish I DID get were within my size limit... The others would have been too big anyway... I ran out of prawns and pillies so I had to return to stingray city to redeploy the worms and nippers. At 11:00am I decided to go check the crab traps - I was sick of cutting off sting rays anyway. As I approached towra, I noticed a small tinny with 2 young blokes right on one of my traps. I asked the guys if they had tangled up the trap in their prop. I thought I heard one guy say yes and the other say no but they had the rope in their hands. They said they were just looking and that there was a heap of stingrays around it. They also said that it was in ankle deep water... Now they seemed like nice 'beginner' type fishos so while I was very annoyed at them pulling my trap, I felt like they were genuine so I didn't let fly with expletives. Then I noticed my bow was touching the sand so I had to reverse out of there quick smart. I didn't realise that so much water had fallen with still 2 hours left until low tide. I had to go back to the fishing and pull the traps later in the day. Well the fishing wasn't great in the meantime but I managed a few thumper whiting and another nice bream (see comparison photo) and at 3:00pm I went over to see what had happened to the crab traps. Some were upside down, one was virtually on the beach, one was in thick weed and another was 50m out of line with the others. No crabs. The traps have been soaking for 10 hours for nothing. I told my mate about what happened with the crabs and he told me a few things which opened my gullible eyes. It's obvious that things have been tampered with on a grand scale - well at least I got my traps back....but.... Next time, I'll be fishing with one eye on my rods and the other in my binoculars. So if I end up with eyes like Marty Feldman, you'll know why.... Tony

Hey Fishmaniac, I reckon your biggest achievement here is that you got your GIRLFRIEND on your boat to fish with you AND managed to get her to DRIVE THE BOAT off the fish successfully ! How the hell any man can achieve that is beyond me ! You must have the looks of Brad Pitt, the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the money of Alan Bond and the gab of Shane Warne (and maybe hung like a horse) to get a woman to do that. Well done on a successful tag team operation. By the way, nice marlin on kingy gear... Tony

Hey Funnierthaneverybody, You know Wyatt is a lucky kid to have a dad like you, who'll take him fishing and show him the spots and techiques. He is certainly learning quickly and growing into a fine young fisho. The only thing is he no longer trusts you with the net ! I reckon he'll make you buy a proper net before he lets you anywhere near his trophy flatties, bream, whiting, snapper, trevs, etc.... Good to see you back and posting what you would call an 'average' catch. Only you can call a catch like that average but well done. Some nice fish in there mate and I know that if we are gonna compete in the Pirtek challenge, if I'm gonna have any chance, I'll have to try to sabotage your bait or something ! Well, perhaps sabotage your bait and that of the guy called 'customcasting'. Wyatt is holding up a brace of nice fish he can barely lift. Tailor, flattie, whiting and bream. All top fish in anyones language. I too got out for a fish on the weekend - into Botany Bay. I could only squeeze in 20 fish (Bream and whiting) and the fishing was slow but hey I've missed 2 weeks in a row so it was nice in any case. Whilst I was washing my boat down - I got the downpour and let the rain rinse her off. Wacky weather this summer - La Nina is bearing her teeth alright.. ...with more to come... Tony

Hey Chris, That's pure quality you got there mate. ...but it's the one that got away that draws you back for another go, isn't it ? Thaty's what we burn for when we get out there.....REVENGE !!! Gotta love it.... Tony

Hey Trung, If you go out there the following weekend, that dolly would have grown to about 20kg ! They grow super fast - maybe we should make steroids from them ! Well OK, not 20kg but it's a good sign for next year's run if there are that many small ones there. If you put a soft plastic and a squid-jig on a paternoster and drop it to the bottom, you would probabkly catch a squid and a flathead. You could catch them in a bath-tub, I bet... Tony

Stonker whiting Butch. Love them ghosts of the sandflats. Especially the explosive runs right next to the boat. You're a true gamefisherman. Pretty game to wear a pink t-shirt fishing ! Tony

Hi Cheeki, That big smile says it all. Not too many girls have the same enthusiasm for fishing as you do. They are too busy with other things in life to allow themselves to enjoy the outdoors with a fishing rod. You have discovered it, and while your friends laugh at you, you are actually laughng at them - they don't kow what they're missing. The good fishing you got is an excellent start to what can only be described as a way-of-life. If you start fishing early in the morning, you'll see the sun rise out of the ocean as you flick your lure over the seabed, waiting for something to grab it. Other days you'll see the sky turn dark and goosebumps form on the back of your neck as lightning flashes across the sky. ...but you'll still fish.... ...because fishing draws us in like a moth to the flame. If you ever get yourself on a boat, try burleying up some bread and cast a pilchard fillet into the burley. When the trevally turn up, convert to a soft plastic lure and THEN you'll hear some sqealing ! You AND the drag on the reel. And if the salmon and kingies turn up, I guarantee you'll be hooked for life. Looking forward to your next instalment. Tony

Dan, That fish looks unreal. I would be diving into that, head first. Thanks for taking the time to show us your culinary creation ! Tony

Hey Micl, Not a bad website eh ? There are some very experienced people on this site who can give you some excellent feedback from many angles. The learning curve is virtually flattened out for you overnight in many areas... But there is always something new to learn... Something that keeps us experimenting. These things are called 'experience' - and only you can teach yourself that.. That's what makes it so satisfying - knowing you worked it out yourself. The next thumper whiting will melt in your mouth, not on the seabed. Tony

Hey Danlarter, Next time you fish, you may need to wear a cloak of invisibility! So your dad (who is obviously part seal) won't nick your fish. Well done on a nice catch of fishcakes. I take my hat off to people who find ways and means to eat fish that most others turn their noses up at. Bonne apetite mate. Tony

I'm sure someone would tell you they taste shocking. But cleaning them would be an issue wouldn't it ? I'm sure their 'batteries' would still have some kick... I ate some small stingrays many years ago - very nice and sweet - but bluddy hard to clean. I then took a chunk of ray from a mate who got a 15kg model. Way too fatty and not nice at all. The numb ray looks REALLY fatty so I reckon it would not taste any good either. If you really want to eat some sort of ray - try shovelnose. Still a bit hard to clean but worth the effort.... Unless you can catch 15 bream and 10 whiting - then the rays go back.... Tony

Absolutely right Johnno, The only suggestion I could add here is there could be a possibility of replacing the pedestal seats for a long esky. It would need to be wide enough for two people to sit on (if mounted port to starboard) and must be properly mounted to the floor so it doesn't move. Also, need to take into account the extra weight it would put on the bow - you don't want that if punching into a headsea. You would be wearing waves over the windscreen. An esky is the best idea, but you need to think long and hard about where to mount it, how it will be used, filled, emptied, impact on your boating and fishing logistics, etc. It's not an easy modification to make. Shame about the lost fish - there were some quality fish in there... Tony

Hey Jayoox, I think I too would climb up on the gunwales if an eel hit the deck. I had a freaky experience some years ago when fishing the Georges river at night. My mate was catching small eels and was keeping them for a friend. He put them in a bucket and closed the lid. About 10 eels later, they stopped biting and we all forgot about them. I got tired and sat on the bucket lid. The wake of a passing boat upset our tinny and I fell off the bucket and it tipped as well, popping the lid off. Those small eels, mostly alive then slithered all round my thigh area trying to get back into the water....... Icky ? I agree with your daughter !