Keflapod

I'm sure many of you can relate to the situation where you grow up fishing with siblings, but due to unforseen marriages, you somehow lose your ability to co-ordinate a fishing trips with siblings after marriage. Well so is my situation with my brother Pete. It seemed that whenever the weather was good and I was available, he was washing his hair. Whenever he was free, I was out handbag shopping - er- with the missus - a handbag for HER...... This went on for years until the planets aligned (Venus and Uranus I think) and we agreed on the Saturday. Below describes the sequence of thoughts and events as seen by by myself and by Peter. Some are funny, some hilarious and some, well, you be the judge... Peter..................... The alarm shook me out a deep slumber at 4am in the morning. My first thought was where was I flying to today! I haven't packed my bag or laptop yet. Then the blur started to disappear and the realisation crystallised that I had organised to go fishing today with my brother and take my 9 year old daughter with me. As I lay in bed all those memories came flooding back of early morning predawn starts to line up at the boats ramps from Bermagui to South West Rocks, breathing in the smells of rotting fish frames and 2 stroke oil fumes heading to the live bait grounds and then racing out miles to sea chasing the kingies and yellowfin. Gees we had come home with some fish in those days and I couldn't remember the last time I had my feet on a decent ground swell. Today’s pace was going to be much, much slower. My daughter was keen to try some serious fishing and I was a fool not to take her and let her experience fishing the bay with my brother who has time and time again tried to move heaven and earth to get me on his boat to fish. All was packed and the coffee brewing when I realised it was raining heavily and the southerly was blowing. Though I was keen to go now that I was awake, I received the call to say – “Far Kurnell, can you believe the weather - let's try later on in the day and hopefully the weather improves.” The look of disappointment on my daughters face was much worse at that moment then when she finally learnt the truth about Santa this year. I knew this was just my luck with the weather and started to regret not packing the ute and rifle and going bush for the weekend. Trying to go back to sleep was pointless now as I tossed and turned and numerous times I annoyed the good wife by opening the blinds and take a peep outside. Rain stopped. Good. Wind dying even better. Me.......................... The alarm clock radio clicked on like a 4:00am explosion. It's an old solid state thing that is still kicking on after 30 years. In a dreamlike state, I heard some words here and there... ...drive by shootings.... ...stabbings.... 13 year-old crashes car..... ...disasters ...parliament house.... ...scattered showers... I really do have to install an electric fence and bullet proof fascia to the house..... then a noise coming from outside focussed my mind... rain, wind and cold...... Well what did I expect on a day when I'm supposed to fish with my "long-lost" brother ? Crap of course. I switch on my i-phone to send Pete a message. The bright light on the phone nearly blindens me. So with one eye shut and one eye half-cocked (drunken slob style) I press the keys to send him a message. I re-read my message to ensure I typed it right. ""It's could wait and undies Call yak at 7". Obviously I WAS a drunken slob if I wrote that. One key pressed wrong and the phone thinks it can read your mind and uses different words instead. I retyped "It's cold, wet and windy, call you at 7"..... No sleep, then at 7:00 I called the man... Peter..................... Then the call came – “do you still want to go ?” Well is the Pope Catholic ? In no time at all we were at the boat ramp and my brother had the boat already launched and beached. After a quick hello and buckling up my daughter’s lifejacket we were underway and heading down the Georges River. Pushing the boundaries of managing expectations and throwing out the challenge I started to tell my daughter that we had missed the best 4 hours of fishing this morning but not to worry because if there were any fish to find and catch Uncle Tony could do it. Me.......................... They were keen to go as the rain stopped and wind slackened off enough. I had the boat on the sand in 20 minutes and they were there 5 minutes after that. Their car skidded to a halt and two figures raced down the ramp. It was them and they were keen. It was 9:30 in the morning and the pressure was on me to find the fish and keep everybody entertained. Upon arrival, I was disappointed that the water temp was still 20.5, but at least the weather was very nice - no rain and only 10 knots of wind. Still I had to don the zinc cream, but at least my stupidly white face entertained everybody every time they looked at me.. I asked Pete to put some cream in the areas I missed on my face and I reckon he drew eyebrows on me or something ! Or wrote something crude on my forehead..... Never trust them brothers..... Peter..................... Well Uncle Tony did not disappoint anyone that day. He managed to find the fish, hook them up and then gracefully pass the rod to my daughter to wind in some great bream and thumper whiting. In the one or two instances he was on the rod my daughter would net his fish for him. Time and time again my brother has done this to me. Same boat, same bait out of the same bucket, same spot, same rigs and he will still out fish me 10 to 1. It’s as if he casts his bait straight into the fish’s mouth. As frustrating as that has been in the past this time I didn't care in the slightest. The joy on a child’s face bringing in fish, netting them, counting them, bringing out the bait, asking some really good questions is priceless for a father that has enjoyed some great fishing in his own time. Me.......................... The fish were there - phew ! A rod goes off and my niece is there so fast I didn't see her move. "Can I get it now, can I can I are we there yet, are we there yet...." Crikey - I could have sworn I was watching Bindi Irwin in action. I gave her the rod and she held it like she owned it for years. She wound that handle with determination. The rod was a bit too heavy and cumbersome for her really but you could not take it off her else you would lose an arm. She looked like she was a mini Jimmy Hendrix, pointing the guitar to the sky and with a blissful look on her face, making it sing and wail.... But the only thing wailing was the drag as the fish spots the hull and dives for the cover in the weedbeds. You could hear a tiny high-pitched "oooh" each time the fish dove for freedom, but she gave it the 'Come here now" treatment. I'm sure the come-here treatment will be practice for her to use on her husband when she gets married ! Her daddy nets the fish with pinpoint accuracy (after the 8th attempt) and a nice bream hits the deck. Her curiosity insatiable as if she has never seen a decent bream (maybe she hasn't) and she wants to admire it's beauty. She handles the fish carefully, even though I was panicking that she would get stung and joy would turn to tears. After all, she has had lots of fishing experience but very little fish handling experience... Her daddy is a bit out-of-practice and his ability to put his kids onto fish is a bit rusty - well OK rusted, beyond recognition..... Peter..................... Though nowhere near as adrenalin packed as my memories of 140kg plus marlin smashing a skipping gar off the starboard rigger, jigging 22kg kingies with heads the size of dog kennels off the 12 mile reef, or having your arms ripped off from a 45kg yellowfin as you sink in the gaff, this trip will remain one of the fondest memories when the door to the world of fishing was opened for my 9 year old daughter. And didn’t she enjoy it – refusing to pack up and go home till ever single bit of bait was gone, even trying the old “can we cut up one of the fish for bait” trick even at the end of the day. Thank you Uncle Tony – for a great day Me.......................... I made sure I passed the rod to her for every fish we got, but after about 18 fish I decided I better get her daddy onto something. Ultimately he got the best bream of the day (approx 37cm) and a thumper whiting 42cm so he wasn't too unhappy... But the point was to get his girl hooked so SHE can drag him out of bed for a fish. And when her mummy says "No, honey - today we are washing our hair", then she can say "Wash your OWN hair mummy - daddy and I are going fishing with uncle Tony..." The total catch was 14 bream, 12 whiting. While the fish are still there, they were a bit spread out and had to be chased. It was nice to be out on the bay with SOMEONE, and that special someone being my brother and his little girl... I dare say it will happen again...soon... Tony Fishing The Bay.bmp

That's an amazing sight. Watching seals in action like that. It would have been the perfect ending if a school of great whites then found the seals.... Not that I hate seals or anything. Not that I've lost a good red or kingie to them... Why couldn't they have attacked a school of leatherjackets ? ...or sweep ..or pike.... ...or seargant bakers ...or eachother.... ...or jetskiers... just kidding - it's nature in action. Nothing we can do about it. It's not like we can just board their ship at midnight and try to take it over.... We would surely be captured by their navy seals.... Tony

Hey Penguin, That's a whole lotta calamari rings ! Well done - I bet as soon as the kingies move in, you would be sick of eating squid. Even the biggest squid you get will have no histation in being impaled on a twin-hook rig and sent to the depths. Won't be long when you will be posing with some solid hoodies and complaining of the lack of squid...hehe... Well done and congrats on the birth of a little penguin (penguinette ?) ...and well done to your sons getting their flatties, whiting and jewie respectively. You're blessed with a fishing-loving family. Won't be long before your daughter has to choose between shopping and fishing as a hobby. If she decides to do both, take her to a tackle shop fast ! Cheers Tony

No need to tenderise ? Hmmmmm, I must have rubber teeth then.... I'm sure I have fond memories of sore jaws from chewing squid - perhaps I have overcooked. Oh well, I guess I'll catch one and try 2 minutes frying on HIGH. I'm not a fan of sashimi squid, or tuna or salmon or anything. I don't mind the taste of raw seafood but the threat of parasites (real or imagined) is enough for me to get the pan out every time.... So, out to the bay I'll go... Tony

Hey Trung, your wife 'orders' you to go get some squid ? So long as she keeps ordering you to go get somethig (anything) for seafood then everyone's happy. I have to order my wife to order me to go fishing...and even then I don't like to take orders.... The bay is certainly warming up and hopefully the bream and whiting will finish their spawning and resume their summer patterns. I can't complain though - the whiting have kept me in culinary bliss for months now, even though I gave them a big break over christmas and new year. I'm not big on squid because I just can't seem to tenderise them enough before eating them. What do you do to tenderise them ? Tony

General Zod, You must be a superman amongst us mere mortals. You are able to find all the problems you're ever gonna have with a rig and it's logistics in just ONE DAY. Very efficient debugging process. On the down side, it had to happen in front of your whole family so their confidence in you and your boating experience is probably not very high at the moment. A bit of a blow to the ego but the feelings of embarrassment are the best incentive to learn the lessons well. The value of the lessons will be realised from next week onwards ! All you have to do now is convince the family that the last trip was also a very special test run, designed to iron out all the bugs and it was extremely successful ! Thank them for their contribution - and thank your wife for her contribution to the cost of a new rod'n'reel, complete with safety lanyards to keep it in the rodholder.... Seriosly though, this experience opens our eyes to the fact that things can go wrong on the water and the consequences can be dire. It makes us more responsible and analytical towards what we are doing and to remain vigilant to everything that happens. We must look for problems before they arise, ask ourselves the hard 'what-if' questions and if we find we have no answers with dire consequences, we need to find an answer. What if a rope is tangled around the prop and the motor will only run in neutral ? Can we get to the prop in a chop / swell without falling overboard to free the rope ? This scenario happened to you but you were able to get to the rope safely..... This was a hard question for me to answer when I was designing a boat to build but I foresaw the problem.. The reverse angled transoms that look so good and are very popular today present a dilemma for this scenario. You just can't get close enough to the prop to free the rope, unless you stand in the motor well / pod and risk falling overboard, whereas in a traditional angled transom, you are 800mm closer and can reach. No points for guessing how I designed my transom. As an interesting excercise, go to the boatramp and watch people launching and retrieving. See what they do well and what they stuff up. See who goes into the water professionally and see who flounders. Identify the root cause of the issue and learn from their mistakes. Take some notes. You will learn quite a lot, especially those people who launch their boat, are ready to power off and the motor won't start. They just drifting away and have to ask someone to bring them back..... Never push the boat off the trailer without starting the motor first....especially in the winter. I can guarantee that you will also be thoroughly entertained as you watch the goof-balls tell eachother where the far-queue is .... But don't laugh too loudly, they might come after you with their knuckles dragging along the ground... Tony

Hey Formosan, I wonder if it was the same guy. He had a bright blue parachute - Aussie bloke - mid/late 30's, fair hair - maybe short beard/moustache - but unsure. Seemed like a nice bloke but he caught me at a time when it was rough and can't fold a parachute in the middle of the bay... The gun bit at the wharf is pillies but I have not tried pillies anywhere else in the bay. No secret really - many fishos at the wharf fish this way and score the trevors often. It's just that you get kingie trollers that don't give a rats nostril who troll right through your trail at 15m from your transom and put the fish down and out. They ruin your chances and they get nothing anyway...very ignorant. So did you get any bream in the 1.0m shallows there ? They are not around in numbers at the moment, in the areas I usually look for them. Still waiting for them to resume summer feeding and to finish their spawning run..... Tony

Hey Sickie, Nice flattie. Indeed it's wearing a nose-ring and probably has a tatoo on it's belly. Either that or it's one of those huge flattie keyrings - the type where you can't say "Honey I lost the car keys. Have you seen them?" You can't miss them....bcos the keyring is big and aromatic.... So what kind of lure was it ? How many thousand chucks before you got the magic bump? Anything interesting about the terrain you were in ? What did the family say when you turned up with a croc slung over your shoulder ? Was she happy to see you or did she complain that you messed up your shirt with fish slime ? Well done - bonne apetite. Tony

Hey CJ, The gun bait there is always pillies. The only difference I could see with our respective techniques is that he's using mono and I'm using braid (with a 2m leader of 8lb fluorocarbon). In your case, you need to either get a cutting board or pre-cut your bait at home. But just be aware that the fish are not always there, and that the current can change abruptly there often. Main reason for current anomalies is that the ships tied off to the wharf either run their propellers sometimes or the tug boats manoevering there can affect the current. It's weird - sometimes when the current is running towards the wharf, it suddenly starts running towards the hot water outlet. Tony

The day started well. Anchor in at 5:30, a good 10 minutes before my mate the trevally vacuum cleaner turned up. This guy is seriously good at laying a trail and getting his bag of trevally, a bunch of bream, bustoffs by kingies – you name it. If it comes into the trail he'll get it. He should know how – he's a school teacher. Probably a fish-school teacher - he's got insider information or something So I was there and into them before he anchored. Ha ha I thought . Today ima gonna get them into MY trail and he can sit back and watch ME catching them. I'll get him some popcorn and a pillow and he can watch me in action. Now we were only fishing one rod each as the fishing was fast'n'furious. He was catching them fast and I was missing them 'furious. Well I actually don't know what happened – I only lost a couple. After 30 minutes the fishing slowed and we compared notes. I had a nice bream and 6 good trevally. He had 6 bream and 10 trevally and been busted a couple of times on kingies. How was this possible ? School teachers never lie. I trust them unconditionally (right? We all do, right?) This man is the master and I'm but the grasshopper He kicked my butt again - with a steel capped boot So why did the fishing slow so early in the morning? Well another boat, Mr king kong kingie troller went right through our combined trails. No amount of HEYing or HARing would ward these MENSA students off. So I cast one rod over all their troll rods and as they nonchalantly trolled by. As I heaved back on my rod, all their troll lines would have come together in blissful harmony. But I did have to sacrifice a rig of mine to do it…. Ahhh, the things we do for hate. After that I tried some deeper water spots for not a living creature. While I was in exploration mode, the teacher stayed and went into overdrive and bumped the catch up to 17 trevally and 12 bream. Why oh why did I leave ! Surely he is still telling the truth? But I had to look around at other spots to satisfy the curiosity. I then visited my bream grounds at about 9:30 off quibray bay and the wind was starting to get fresh. I knew this would happen. So did the weather forecaster. We must both have had ESP or something. That must stand for Extra Stupid People because the number of boats that buzzed me at 10 metres was ridiculous. I must take down that "kick me" sign off the cabin someday. It was like Pitt St in there. I just couldn't wet a line for more than 15 minutes continuously without someone driving past me like they have lost control of their steering wheel due to the G-forces involved. No more fish came on board until 10:30 when the wind hit about 15 knots. Yee har, bring it on. The bay was beginning to empty and the fish were starting to bite. The tide rising is also something I favour so for the next 2 hours, 10 nice whiting and 6 more bream came over the side, but I felt like a pinball in a pinball machine as the wind went whistling at 20 knots and a half metre of angry chop tenderized be against the cabin wall. Every cast was a fish but every fish fight was a bruise on my body. It was hard to hold the rod with one had, turn the reel with the other hand, hold the net with the other hand and hold the cabin rail with the other hand. I should have ordered that prehensile tail from online shop when I had the chance. So the ribs and head had to take the impact. Enough is enough - time to join the ESP's at the boat ramp. Then, I had one kite boarder nearly join me in the boat. He was unable to bet back to the Kurnell boat ramp due to the NE wind direction. He asked me if I could give him a lift. I was a bit confused because I didn't know HOW this could be achieved without the whole boat being lifted up by the parachute. Where would I tie the rope ? While he was explaining what he needed to be done, a long gust of wind took him to Dolls point. He was still explaining what he needed as he took off like Mark Okalupo on a gnarly wave. He was out of sight in 30 seconds. But 5 minutes later he was back – still talking ! Perhaps he thought I was following him at 45 knots on a silent outboard ? Did he think I was driving the Red October? Then he seemed to have worked out how to tack at 45 degrees and went towards the boat ramp, but this time more like Mario Andretti as he appeared to have some control. I don't understand these fang dangled contraptions or the contraptioneers. Apparently he never made it to Kurnell but had landed on the beach between Towra and Quibray Bay and I guess he folded up the 'chute and got on someone's boat.All very interesting.. I wonder if he still thought the boat he got a ride from was me. I'm sure he got home OK. Next time the chute should be connected to a 'yak, not a surfboard. If things get rough, pull in the 'chute and 'yak it home - problem solved. And then I realized what a miracle today was. Not a single Sting ray ! That's a first for me. Then the customary 30 minute wait at the ramp and home'n'hosed. Back to work the next day - holidays over.. It was nice. Lots of stories to tell.and bore people do death. Now all I need is a photo from that LYING school teacher.. I bet he only caught 2 puffers.

Trung When having your lunch with your extinguished guests, the seating arrangement of the guests is important. You had better not seat Mr Platycephalus near Mr Cephalopod else there will be an inky brawl going on at the table. Not a good look at a xmas lunch and the ink ejected will stain the walls and couch. ..unless you intent to eat your guests, with some fava beans... Nice entree and main course. I don't know what you can do about desert though. Whitebait chocolate ? Tony

Hey Basil, you finally got out and wet a line. Or should I say, your son wet it for you. I think the 'grass-hopper' has snatched the pebble from the master's hand.... Very nice bag of mixed seafood. And great to see the boat's up-and-running again. I look forward to seeing more of your reports of you netting you son's fish. I'm sure you were taught everything he knows... Catch up soon. Tony

Hey CJ, Nice to see you got your mojo back ! There is no stopping you now eh ? Isn't it amazing how your outlook on life changes when a bit of enthusiasm and adrenalin cut in to your fishing ? You stay out in freezing rain and you paddle 10km from your launch point against the wind and tide to get to the spot. Then the tide and wind change and you battle the same all over again to get back with a bunch of fish - buggered, wet, frozen, half dead BUT IT WAS WORTH IT !!!! Because you now have that adrenalin... See you out there.... Tony PS I'm sure you can fit in a rocket launcher and 4 more rod holders there somewhere.....

Hey chewie, The whiting are spawning at the moment and there are a lot of big mature fish around. I've caught my fair share and now I'm staying away from my whiting grounds for a few weeks to give them a chance - but the bream are open season ! Tony

Hey Alasdair, That's an elbow slapper ! The big whiting love their nippers, that's for sure. I just love their power and speed when they get close to being landed. If you don't give them some line in the dying stages of the fight they can snap the 6lb trace. And on the table, are one of the tastiest fish you can get. When I used to pump nippers years ago, the whiting would come around and sift through the expelled pump sand looking for morsels. The expelled sand would bring them around, but it's hard to pump bait and fish at the same time.... Just a bit of advice. I now PAY someone to cut my lawn every fortnight - leaves me free to fish the day. That's the prevailing common sense I use. Well done mate. Tony

Hey Musty, LOVE the passion in your 'suggestion' as to what should be done with squid. EATEN of course. Too good to waste on bait eh ? I'm a bit of an each way bet - some stays for the table while some goes to bait (as strips). I can't bear to use a big whole squid for bait... Maybe I'll only ever catch smaller jew but that's OK - if I want to try for a big one, a larger live tailor can thake the place of the squid... Tony

Hey Leonardgid, You know I have to admit I think they taste the same. But it just might be my pallet is not as discerning as some. It was just the other day my 4 year old daughter was asking me why I like avocados, because they're yuck! I told her we all have different taste buds so what is yummy to someone is yucky to others. She just asks "Why?" to every answer I give her.... Hmmmmm....how to better explain it to her.... So I told her we all have different noses and eyes and ears and everything....and tastebuds..... She smiled and nodded her understanding. I was so relieved.... and then she said ..."and different boobies daddy"..... Kids say the darndest things.... Moral of the story? We both have different taste buds so what may appear the same to me is different for you. Tony

Very interesting Jimmy, I see why fish would like to go to deeper water when the air pressure is very high or very low. Water is far more dense than air. Fish may use the water above them as a shield against extreme air pressures - high or low. The air pressure extremes could be felt more by fish when they are closer to the surface (the water shield is thinner) so they move deeper / shallower according to the barometer. I guess they go to the right depth that properly equalizes or negates the pressure exerted upon their swim bladders by the air pressure. This would make them feel more comfortable and more likely to feed. There are other complications though. If the fish need to go deeper but the current is going against them, would they swim against the current to do it? Perhaps they will just endure the pressure until the tide changes and then go to deeper in the same direction as the current. What if the deeper water has some undesirable characteristic when they get there ? It's too cold, too silty or it's a full moon and they can be seen at night ? Maybe they will then go back to the shallows - but wait, the tide is now against them ! Life is tough for a fish, eh Jimmy ? But it's this kind of thing that keeps me interested - learning and pondering the thought processes and decisions of fish. Why ? So we can head them off at the pass ! Tony

Hi Trung, I was wide off quibray bay when the big cat pulled up - not off towra - but yes around lunchtime. The guy was also working alone and we had a good chat. I wouldn't quite call myself the bream master. I know some guys that know the bay better at night than I know it in the day. They fish 2 guys and both get close to bag limits. There are more fish at night as they tend to congregate more then - probably to avoid predation. Find the schools, burley them up and you get more fish. But fishing alone at night is very risky. You may get sleepy and disoriented and make the wrong moves. Also, I have 2 young kids so leaving the wife home alone at night is a marriage breaker. So I honed my skills for gentlemen's hours and I catch more fish after sunrise than before sunrise. ..but I am improving my pre-dawn results slowly. You have to do a lot of thinking and experimentation. Eg if the tide is high early morning, go into the shallows first, unless you've had lots of rain whereby you would stay in the deep. Each set of rules has plenty of exceptions and dependancies.....so keep trying different things until you find them. Sometiomes the barometer will be very low (like last weekend) and the fishing will be poor all-round, shallow, deep, river, bay, even ocean to moderate depths.... Jeez why does this fishing thing have to be so complicated ! Tony

Trung, Do you expect me to believe that you went home ? You always have plan B and C, extra gear, bait, etc. You always go home with a feed. I reckon you spun up a few flatties, squid, kings, tailor, trevally and a jew or two. Unless you were on a mate's boat to get out to the peak and he wasn't as well organised as you... This would be the first time in a very long time you went home with a doughnut. They are the two possibilities when fishing the peak or the 12 mile. Kingies or jackets. Bring gear for both. I can give you some ideas if you like...... PM me. Tony

Great minds think alike. I have gone to a bit of trouble over the years to develop techniques and tackle specifically for them. I too would be cheering and getting my bag. Unfortunately I haven't been to sea for a while. I have no sealegs - maybe one day I'll get them back..... Tony

Ah Mr Chen, Nice to see you're still around. I haven't seen you post a catch for a while. I'm sure you're getting your fair share of fish though... I think there was a multitide of reasons, for example: 1. Water still a bit stormwater affected 2. Barometer was low. The theory is that this causes the fish's swim bladders to expand and push against their stomach making them lethargic. 3. Spawning activity for some fish causes them to stop biting 4. Spawning activity for some fish causes them to congregate in areas we don't know about - ie they are not in our spots in the first place. We will never really know, but it's the uncertainty that gets me back every time - as well as the need to enjoy the aqautherapy we call fishing.

"Once upon a time they lived happily ever after". Well that's the shortest story I know, but I'm not known for my short stories. This story isn't short but unlike the fairy tale above, it's true, informative and Dare I say it, entertaining. Friday last week (December 9th) had me dreaming of fine fishing over the weekend. The currents would be brisk (due to approach of full moon) and the tide was rising. Also the storm water would have had time to clear up so I was bracing myself for a good catch. Saturday morning saw me racing down the river, looking for floating debris and getting ready to turn my steering wheel hard port as the 2m tinnies with no lights on board (except for the cyalume sticks on their rod tips) flash a half-dead-battery torch at me to warn me of their presence. How many times do I have to do the last-second-veer-away ? Too many times. I don't fancy myself making the evening news. I got to my spot and I plonked the pick on the elephant's trunk. This isn't my quirky name for a secret spot – it's an area at Carter's Island on the south bank of the entrance to the Georges river. A friend of mine two weeks earlier caught some nice bream there…Me being the eternal spot-pincher, went there before him but neither he nor the fish ended up showing up there. In goes the lines and out comes 7 shovel nose rays ! I was getting a bit tired of this, but every time one came up, I was convinced THIS one was a monster lizard. Finally I hooked a fish. I got a thumper of a trevally that spat the hook at the net. I only needed 5 more seconds dammit. Then one rod takes off at the speed of sound. I fair dinkum heard a sonic boom as he hit overdrive. But my years of experience told me I was "dooooooiiiing the eaaaaaagle rock". Eagle rays are fun for 2 minutes but after 5 minutes I got stuck into it and redlined the 4kg catana graphite stick and got him in – eyeballed him and bust him off. So much action for NOTHING in the esky. But I was still pumped for action…. Off into the bay I go, into the shallows of quibray bay, 0.5m to be exact. Only a few undersized whiting went back in. I thought I needed a distraction until the tide changed so I tried burleying the oil wharf for trevally. After 47 tiny reddies and the approach of the ports authority boat, I left there as well. Still nothing in the esky. I was getting desperate and fishless! I tried a spot in 6m west of the drums where I have caught bream in seasons past - no dice. Only a couple of bite-offs from Tailor - that's it. So I went into Quibray bay again into another spot. By this time the skies were getting a bit dark and most folk fled for the safety of the boat ramp. But not stupid me - I wanted fish. Rain, shine or shine (I won't fish in hail, would you?). This is, however, the best time to fish because the noise levels drop off and the fish start to play. And play they did. First spot, after 5 minutes, the baitrunner screams. Lovely….I was getting tired of listening to Marcel Marceau's greatest hits and I jumped on that rod. Half way into the fight, the next rod goes off and the pitch of the scream of that other reel was higher.I was busy, that rod had to wait. The first fish was a nice bream of mid 30's. The account had been opened. I landed the fish and dropped everything (except my pants) to get to the other rod. The second fish fought much harder, with headshakes all the way in. It tried to bury me in the ribbon weed all the way in, but his days were numbered. The second fish went late 30's and I was stoked. Finally I had something to prove to the missus that I went fishing and not visited the secret pub. The storm clouds were closing in. I could see heavy rain over Kogarah and looking closely, I saw what appeared to be the makings of a tornado. I have seen waterspouts before and this one looked very real but it was too far away to tell. Anyone see anything? The big waterways cat boat came over for a visit and to give me some pamphlets. Very nice chap – nice boat too. We had a chat and he told me he knew of one boat that fished all night and got 20 fish off brighton. Another friend told me people were spinning up bonito off brighton beach…I don't know how accurate all this is….. The fishing was slow for me but enough fish hit the deck to make it worthwhile. One boat came past mine and drove so close, he drove over all 4 of my baits. The bay was COMPLETELY EMPTY. I think his head was the same…. One of my baits had a fish sitting on it. The other guys boat spooked it (as expected) and my reel screamed. I pulled that fish from under his boat as he watched me. He then took off in the opposite direction… It was getting late so I started to pack up. I pulled in a silver biddy (rare catch) and released that, but the next thing that happened was a bit weird. As I pulled in a line, I noticed there was some kicking on the line but there was some splashes as well. As it got closer, I realized that there was a wing flapping. What was this? It seems that a cormorant (shag) had grabbed my fish and was wrestling me for it. It got to within 10m of the boat before it let go but it wouldn't leave. The bird must have been starving. I measured the fish at 24cm so I had to release it but the bird had fatally injured it. So I thought I had better do the right thing and release the fish to the bird. As soon as that fish hit the water, the shag pounced on it. You could see the thin neck of the bird expand to 4 times it's diameter to get the fish down. But I still hate shags. I only hope that I created some good karma. Overall, 10 bream, 4 whiting and I kept 2 shovelnose for flake. Some technical notes. All mature fish I caught were in spawning condition, even the shovelnose sharks. Wind prediction was NE but it blew S / SE all day. Water temp was 20.5 degrees. Water clarity was reasonable after heavy rains due to stronger currents moving more water to sea for salinity restoration. Barometer would have been falling to LOW all day. Most fish caught were resident in the weeds due to the bronzier colouration of their bodies.

Hey Wacko, That's insane fishing mate. You know I did a stint on a pro boat droplining for kingies years ago. The traces they used were 200lb jinkai and we caught a fair few 10kg fish with only a few up to 12kg in those few months I was out there. I'm sure if you upgraded to 200lb leaders, they would still cut the line on the reef if they get there. They MAY even shy away from an extra heavy leader in the first place. All you can do is tighten that drag with a monkey wrench, bolt your feet to the floor and hang on. ...or you could just use a lead-core line like the pros used and tie it off to the boat. When a big hit comes, just drive EAST ! Not very sporting but you will get your fish. Mate that 22 kegger on a popper in rough country is some kind of milestone. They should have a guiness book of world fishing records... Tony

Cracking fish there Fishon. Your son looks like he's struggling with that beast. I have to say it but his fish looks bigger than yours. Are you sure you weighed his fish correctly or are you worried he's gonna top his old man at such a young age? In any case, well done with a pair of unreal fish.... Tony