Keflapod

How did you get the butterfly to stay on the yakka underwater ? Lovely jewie mate - I haven't got one in a few months now. Did you have to scramble to get other rods out of the way before you could fight this fish? Always fun when you're out on your own...

G'day Funny, Just as well you used the 'heads - we go to Botany Bay, tails - we don't go to Sydney harbour' phrase on the flip of the coin, so you would end up in Botany bay. I reckon you have a special seventh sense whereby you can see through water or something. You always find the fish. What a big smile your son has after catching a thumper bream like that. He'll remember that when he takes you fishing when you're 80. Well done mate - we'll have to catch up one day.

Jeez DGF, What arun of bad luck. I bet your own personal barometric pressure must have been pretty high after all that ! Seriously - one of the biggest shortcomings of my analysis of fish data is that I don't gather barometer readings in my data. I also don't fully understand it - but I'm led to believe that a big movement of pressure, either upwards or downwards, will result in fish feeding. Once it gets very low as a storm hits, the fish stop feeding and maybe take cover. Similarly, when it gets too high, the fish get lazy and don't feed. How does that info compare with your understanding ? Tony

What a fabulous story, Byron and Mik. I just love seeing kids getting excited over fish the way I used to as a kid. Every fish was special, and of course HUGE ! I remember my kid fishing adventured better than my grown-up fishing adventures - I need a spreadsheet for that ! Byron, I sure hope your back eases up for you. Maybe a fold-out deck chair might take the burden off your back when you're in a boat. I have two of these (new) and I'll bring them along when we eventually get together - see if they are of any benefit.

Jimmy, you see what happens when he nicks your lucky pink thongs ? Get them back at all costs ! ...and basil owes you a snapper as payment for the use of the thongs... Basil, Awesome catch mate ! Awesome Friend you have in Dale. Wouldn't it be nice if we all had a mate like that, who can scare us with hairy bars, rocks and bombies, then inundate us with knowledge and with fish. I bet the filleting knife got a good workout... Tony

Yiasoo George, You know I had no idea that Watts reef produces jew. My wife told me last Friday that she's bored of eating bream and whiting. This made me realise that I had become so good at bream/whiting but that I had lost touch with other species. I tried for a jew at capt cooks bridge sunday moring from 4:30 to 7:00am - no luck, then I went for crabs - got 3 and didn't know what else to do except bream/whiting. I did that for a short while - got some fish and then copped the 20 knot SE at 9:15am which sent me home. I don't suppose we could get together with Byron in my boat and have a shot at this spot ? I've hassled Byron some months ago to go for a jew trip in the George's river but neither one of us followed through. Gotto catch some jew, even if they are soapies - gotto save my marriage If you want to have a look at my boat and meet up before you decide, then please PM me for details. I understand that Byron's back requires certain comforts to be present - this way you can check it out.. Tony

Hey Hawkesbury Marlin, You launched at 9:00am and caught a good feed of bream ? You did very well, and the young bloke looks mighty pleased with his effort too. Your wife lost a thumper at the boat ? That's happened to me once or twice in my days and jeez does that get me yelling and shaking my fists around for a few hours..... I'm a bad fish loser sometimes... It's a good feeling when you can get out there with the family during gentleman's hours and still get a feed and have a ball doing it - it's what we live for... Tony

My version of shallow water is 0.5m -> 1.0m What is shallow for you? Still, I prefer water from 3.5m and shallower.....

Hey Funny, You seem to have had enough time to do a few trips over christmas / new year. You're making up for the times you had to work while we were all out fishing! Good on you. Each of your trips has resulted in a good bag of fish. Nice to see a few legal reds here and there and those bream are a nice class of fish too. Did you tangle with any jewies in the harbour ?

Nice bag of fish Buster - you did well. What depth of water were you in? Did you get any brown weed on your line ? My mates are fishing shallower water and not getting the numbers or sizes that you got. Also, curiously - no whiting ?

Vacuum cleaners? Mate if you wanted to see vacuum in action, you should have seen how the old beach net haulers used to fish the silver beach area in Kurnell 15 years ago. The numbers of fish that people like myself and Jim bream catch are small and sustainable compared to the numbers they used to get, year after year after year. They would also kill large numbers of juvenile fish whereas us fishos don't. That is what I would call vacuuming. I wouldn't say we do that

Jimmy Breammy, Groper didn't pay attention ? That's it - he should get an F on his report card. Lovely bunch of coconuts Jimmy. Are those bream really black bream or bream that have been resident over the weed beds for a while? I can never tell. Do you think we had enough rain to flush the fish out of the river? In any case, there's a bit of fish there. Was there much brown weed on your lines? Did you wear your lucky pink thongs ?

Steve ! Long time no hear from you. I reckon you were out there catching them and kept quiet... Nice batch of fish, especially so if you were out there in the wind'n'rain, squinting through the drizzle, holding your hat down with one hand, bailing water with the other hand and rebaiting with another and holding the handrail with the other hand - er hang on, I think I mentioned too many hands... I think I've been watching too much of deadliest catch. Did you have another person on board ? Did you find the brown weed on your lines at Kurnell? I would have thought that's the first place you find it. So how many hours were you out there? What depth were you in? I have a feeling the fish are in deeper water at the moment. I was going to go out sunday but chickened out - the wind would have made it hard to stand in high heels and the rain would have made the mascara run.... Just joking.... ...I would never do that on a boat....

Hi Mrs Swordie, See my wife hooked and caught that first blackfish in under 5 minutes. The trip lasted 1 hour before she said that we had to get home so she can wash her hair (I think). That is now her standard so if I took her (plus my 8 year old boy who hates fishing and my 2 year old girl who seems will develop an interest in fishing), the trip will last one hour and we'll take home 4 fish. During that hour, I'm sure she will torment me about that fateful day... Actually, all jokes aside, I would love to have the family with me and they would enjoy it every now and then, but I would need a 30 footer with sleeping and dining facilities to cater to their needs. It would need to be moored as well and I don't have access to that sort of thing, but I will slowly introduce my little girl to fishing (she looks like Cindy Brady of the brady bunch) and I hope she eventually becomes my decky....until she eventually takes over and complains about that old fuddy-duddy daddy of hers....

Hey Funny, I know the pain our women can inflict upon our fishing egos. I took my wife (fioncee at the time) fishing for blackfish, and to meet my derelict rockhopping mates. Mistake number one right there.... They each wanted to SHOW her how to catch fish.... Well I had to beat them off with a stick, and while I showed her how to float a bait out with the wash, she promptly gets a down and hooks a fish, which she landed amongst much applause for her and much ridicule for me. So I thought I would do it as well to prove this was a reflection on MY fishing prowess, and low-and-behold, NO MORE BITES !!!! Well I never heard the end of it..... That's why I fish alone.....hehehe...it's not that bad but jeez that bit of humble pie was hard to swallow

Hey Buster542, Awesome catch. That's a lotta fish there. Can I ask what depth you were in? Was there any algal weed in any of the spots you fished? What time did you start catching the fish? You did very well for this time of year - numbers like that are very uncommon.

Hey DGF, Groper's right - if you can handle the lonliness of fishing alone (I have for many years now), then you can have the fish yourself, until you get sick of it and need their company again.... At night though, it gets a bit weird by yourself....your mind plays tricks on you, your rods begin to speak and the clouds start to look like animals.... OK - now I'm freaking myself out too.... But seriously - I would not recommend going alone at night - if something goes wrong, it's a different world out there when the lights go out... Just some advice - don't put out too many rods if on your own coz if a livie goes off in a big way, you have to pull in the other rods first before you can confidently fight the fish - then you might have to up-anchor as well and chase - meaning you need a mate. Also, we're only allowed 4 rods per person, courtesy of the fisheries laws. My suggestion is to take a mate but take turns on "who's on strike". Basically, your turn starts at the beginning of the trip and ends when you go home....sounds fair, eh? Tony

Basil, Jewgaffer is right - definately a shovel-nosed squid - or maybe it was weed standing still and it was your boat that was howling along with the wind. Actually, often, if you get the sun on a certain angle and it hits the fish through clean water, the hue reflected from the fish can often be green. Either that or it was spinach.....

G'day rockfisherman, That fish sounds like it might have been a nice bream - they often do that when deep hooked, but if you got your hook back (fish was lightly hooked) then the fish would have fought harder... maybe it was a flathead to 50cm that just ran out of area in which to swim.... Only way to find out is to go fishing again....and again....and again....did I mention to go fishing again?

Wow - you've given me an idea ! That has always been a favourite bait amongst bream fishos. I have not used it in years so time to give it a go. That's a top catch of fish - must have been a real blast on the flick stick - it always happens with the camera doesn't it? Don't bring it and the fish will plague - bring it along and you catch plastic bags.... Well done...

Jeez Funny, I reckon your mate would have thought it was a REAL hoot to constantly watch your rods bowing while his had stagefright. You certainly have a lot of experience fishing after dark in the wind, especially in MY spots ! Good on you - a top haul, especially in really trying conditions, and I know that you, in the spirit of good matemanship, would have shared the fish 50 - 50. Also, your mate would have picked up a few pointers from the master himself. That was a top elbow slapper there - will go down a treat. By the way, when you say the 8M whittley was there without a trailer, do you mean it was stolen as there was no chain, or it came off the car somehow? That would be a $12K trailer for sure.... Have a good christmas mate and we'll catch up when you have time - ie between customer visits ! Tony

I gave up fishing from land many years ago as it resulted in me getting depressed - to the point I wanted to give it up. My dad bought us a 12-foot tinny so my brother, my dad and myself could fish in, albeit quite squashed. We just drove a few hundred metres from the ramp in the georges river to the captain cook bridge and it was a breath of fresh air ! Even if we didn't catch much, we fished unhindered and it made all the difference. We DID however catch quite a few fish and my obsession grew steadily from there. Mate, is there any way you can store a 4.5m tinny with a 25hp outboard on a trailer, at the front of your house? If you're confident on fishing it by yourself, you will open up another universe of opportunities for yourself. If trailering won't work (no spare car), then maybe you can strike a deal with someone at the marina whereby you can tie your boat off to theirs or share their mooring for a small fixed fee? Where there's a will, there's a way... Tony

Hey Roscoe, Just some suggestions for you to get started. You know there is a launching ramp at Kurnell. I think it is in a good state of repair but I haven't been there in many years. It's very close to a large expanse of good water to fish in over summer. If the wind comes up, it's only a 500m drive to the ramp, but nothing stops you venturing out 2 or 3km on a good day. The only headache I can think of is the drive by road along Capt Cook drive, but the advantage is the proximity to the grounds. The mouth of Quibray bay is nearby and fishing anywhere where there is a weed/sand mix on the seabed will have fish on it. You can even fish on the clean sand, so long as weed beds aren't too far away else you will need to have some previous knowledge to fish these marks. Fish no heavier trace than 3kg and as long a length as you can handle. Early morning does have some catfish but there are always bream, whiting, flathead, trevs and the occasional visitors of kingies, salmon and tailor. Occies and crabs are here and there as well. Nippers and worms are par for the course. Don't let tide, wind direction, or moon phase stop you from fishing - go anyway and make a note of the conditions and your catch each time. You will begin to form theories on what works and what doesn't. This is how I started 7 years ago and am doing pretty OK these days.... Good luck

Guys, I'm sure not all disclaimers are legal. Anyone can make a disclaimer but there are laws on what can and can't be disclaimed. Still, I wouldn't want to have to spend money to go to court and defend myself just because I THINK I'm right. What a debacle! My sticker is actually spot on. I ensured that I stretched it as far as it would go when applying it, to ensure it didn't bunch up. If it did bunch up a bit, then it would show 60cm at 59cm...maybe this is where we are going wrong ? Ensure it's fully stretched during application......

I love it when people post photos of the cooked fish. It looks absolutely 5-star, that dish... Well done - one of the tastiest fish around....