Keflapod

That's OK - I actually like a good debate. Fishing is a funny thing. It's called 'the inexact science'. There are some highly intelligent and experienced fishermen around. Take Dr David Green in QLD. He looks at things very scientifically, analytically, collects data, analyses it for trends and works out some amazing theories that work like clockwork for a year or two, then Boof! All out the window and can't crack the code for another year or two. Why ? Wasn't it suposed to be simple? What changed? It's hard to know without more fishing and note-taking. The bay is constantly changing it's underwater geography. Dredging all over the place changes the smell and feel of the water and I believe fish will also change their habits and maybe their movement paths. Not all fish do a lot of moving around, eg the fish in the shallows attain a copper-bronze colour because they end up residing there. Those fish that move a lot over the sand are found in the more current-affected water over the sand and move with the tide as they don't use a lot of energy to do so. The fish you were targetting were the movers-with-the-tide, and in that style of fishing you must wait until the school swims slowly by and hope you are in their path. The edges of the main weed beds that lead to clear sand are good starting points as the fish will move along these lines, but there are also many other channels in which they pass, channels that contain worm holes, cockle beds, prawns, etc - the fish know them and sometimes we know them too. Fishing may not be rocket science but it IS a science. If it WAS that easy, then every member will be posting catches like ours every week, wouldn't they? I think that your experience is enormous, and what you know to be common sense is actually knowledge built up over probably 20 years. Not many people have your 'level of common sense'. I have been fishing the bay regularly for about 7 years, (with only 4 rods) and I make a fishing report every time - it's interesting to read over them 2 or 3 years later... and I do see it scientifically because it is....and I hope fishing has some degree of challenge to it, else it will become a bit monotonous. So are we still on for a coffee at my place with the Groper one day ? I'll show you my boat if you show me yours..... Cheers guys. Tony

Guys, I'm totally shocked. I had no idea that the fisheries sticker we use to measure fish is inaccurate. How can it say that it's only a guide when it's primary function is to provide information to us to aid us in making a decision as to whether or not the catch is legal? We depend on the sticker. Failure to comply means we are financially punished. It can be argued that the sticker is not fit for purpose and a disclaimer like that - would it be legal ? At the end of the day, the onus will end up on us to ensure our catch is legal length. I'm going to mark mine with a permanent pen now. As for the catch shrinking in the ice slurry - I was aware of that and won't keep fish until they are at least 1cm over the limit. As for DPI officers, I have met some very nice, friendly ones, genuinely looking to educate and inform us fishers. I have also met some draconian ones (men and women) who treated me like I was stealing their fish and spoke to me in a very condescending tone. Each group of officers obviously see their role differently - some believe they REPRESENT the law, while others believe they ARE the law..... All we can do is find the holes in the system, fix them, abide by the rules and hope for the best. Jeez if you want to open a can of worms, ask them the definition of a pre-rigged rod. If you are fishing alone, with 4 rods in the water and a spare rod or two ready to go in case you get busted, then that is another discussion waiting to happen.....apparently you can't have pre-rigged rods...then ask them about prerigged lures, with or without the squidgie rubber tail....I'm gettign a headache now...PANADOL SOMEONE?

Cracking reddies Tobinator ! You've inspired me to have a go on my reddie marks - that's if I can regain my sealegs and keep them long enough to drift a few slabs back in the trail....

Hi Raiders, It's been a while since I fished a Sunday but I needed my weekend holiday on the bay so I decided to have a go. On the anchor at 5:30am and waiting for my first bite, and waiting and waiting..... Well things were so peaceful, I must have been resting in peace ! The place was DEAD ! What happened? The tide was falling, reached low and began rising - still DEAD. By about 8:00am, I had no fish (except two thumper bream that swam into kelp and busted me off), so I decided to go to another spot I haven't been to since last summer. Found a few bream there but I also found the dreaded brown algal weed. Looking at my records of last December, it was then that the weed infestation made the fishing so hard. But in December 2007, I have no record of it.... There wasn't a lot of it but just enough to cover the bait... I'm thinking what might have caused the bream to stop biting during the early hours. Was it the fact we just had a full moon a couple of days ago? Often I get mixed results just after a full moon. Was it the fact the water was warmer on the last of the runout than the run in tide (ie the ocean water is cooler and slowed the betabolism down?) or maybe the weed infestation is covering the bait so fast fish can't find it and won't take it if it has the weed on it bcos it's toxic to fish or something? - questions, questions - we'll never know the answers - not even the all-knowing internet or Wikipedia can tell us ! Anyway at 10:30 I decided I would better spend my time chasing the whiting that have been around. I went to the whiting grounds and was pleasantly surprised when the first rod buckled over to the first fish, a lovely 42cm fish. There was also a multitude of 26cm tarwhine. The tarwhine all went back, so did several 29cm snapper. If only they were just 1cm bigger ! The wind got up by about 11:30 or so which bothered me a bit, as it would make raising the anchor a difficult task in my 5.7m platey, on my own. I packed it up at 12:30 and left them biting, even though I still had some bait. Final tally was a meagre 4 bream but 11 nice whiting from 34cm to 42cm. Funny thing the Greek parents... My mum and dad came over unannounced on Sunday arvo, relieved me of the bream and half the whiting.... That's OK - I would have given them the fish anyway... Also, out of left field, I recently increased my PB on tarwhine - it's now up to 40cm. These things pull better than bream, with lots of short fast powerful runs, just like whiting, only more sustained... Cheers Keflapod

Breams and Gropers fishing for breams and whitings... Hey Jimmy, You promised your buddy 20 fish ? You must have been sweating when after 4 hours you had 1 ? I certainly would have been ! But you came good in the end - Bravo ! It was certainly tough - my trusted spot let me down and I had to go hunting based on historical data I had. Did you find that brown algal weed was getting on your line? How deep where you fishing? Who was wearing those pink thongs in the photo? (You don't have to answer that one). The whiting are really on at the moment, and during gentlemen's hours too. Did the NE wind kick you off the water early?

G'day Raiders, It's been a long time since I posted. So long that I must have forgotten how to post. When I finished the post, I promptly lost it ! Actually my mates tell me I lost it years ago, really, but that's another story. "What mates" you may ask..... Well I got up at 4:00am on Saturday morning and the wind was howling. Back to bed for another hour. Up at 5 again and still a little blowy, I checked the ever-faithful internet. It said 15knots with gusts to 19knots. Well after I had my weatherscraptoday tantrum I thought I would go fishing anyway, using the usual self-psychoanalytical trick, that goes like this..."well if the conditions are a bit windy, there'll be no idiots on my spot". Gets my enthusiasm going every time... I got to the boatramp at 7:00am - very late, only to find that the spot where I park my trailer had 3 cars where 5 cars usually fit. The rest of the ramp was almost empty. Well after tantrum number 2, I squeeeeezed my car/trailer between two of the cars there just to make myself feel better. Yes - I'm turning into a nutcase.....but solo fishing does that to you. I finally put the anchor down at the princely hour of 7:45am with no-one on the spot - thank you, no more tantrums....for now Well the fishing was slow and I was busy trying to work out if there's any truth in the theory that when the tide falls at night during the dark of the moon, that the fish gorge themselves on the running prawns and won't feed during the daylight hours. Then I noticed a group of cormorants come around my baits....Well tantrum number 3 ensued and I found myself perched on my bowsrit, wildly flapping my arms and yelling out the "Hoo HARS!" at the birds. Every boat that drove by at that time would have given me a VERY wide berth. They would not be able to see the cormorants but could clearly see the wacko standing on the bowsprit of his boat thinking he is a bird waiting to be fed ! Well it was a nice day actually and I finished up with 12 bream and a nice elbow slapper of 41cm. Pulled the pin at 1:00pm and went home to roost....er I mean clean the boat.... Obligatory pic

Hey FM, What exams did you just finish? Fish psychology? Or was it solo fishing 101 ? Helluva kingie for a one-man-band. Did you find yourself doing a 360 around yourself like the exorcist? I take my hat off to you. Tell you what, how about you give us a story-version of the events to give others on the site an insight as to how tricky it is to catch anything with a bit of fight on your own. I too fish alone and when I get a couple of nice trevs get on at once, there is more than a little tapdancing going on.... Congrats.....

Greetings o sire of mulloway, did you mean you went out at 4:00am Saturday morning? Wasn't there a hurricane blowing? I tried to go out then and ended up sleeping in an hour or so. Or did you mean 4:00am Sunday morning? The tide would have been falling and almost at the bottom. Did you see any prawns in the water at your spot? How deep is the water you fish in? Nice jewie - I rarely fish for them bcos I love my bream fishing so much....but every now and then I give them a go - just to say that I had a shot at it...

Yiasoo Jimmy, Long time no hear from you. That's a lovely bunch of coconuts - er... I mean whiting. I imagine the whiting would be around mainly before sunrise, would that be right? Where did you get bitten off by the pests? Did you burley to get other fish around and got the tailor instead? What bait did they take? They won't take the worms....

The reason Sargeant bakers have so many bones is because they have two sets of lateral line bones. They run parallel to eachother and are very long, thin and sharp. be careful when eating them. They make good fish stock for soup, or you can fillet them but when deboning, you have to cur two sets of lateral line bones out. Yes they also make good bottom bouncing baits...

Thanks for the info Tuffy - and yes, lets all join forces and try to catch that tailor with your lure in it.

Jeez Tuffy, I have a real beef with some yachties, dont even get me started. So you were NOT propelling your vessel via motor power as you stated you were trying to start your motor- is that correct? My understanding is that you are not obliged to move your vessel as you normally would if you were driving it under propulsion of motor. Therefore the yachtie did not have the right to tell you to move. Did I get this right ? I believe I did but if someone knows better please say so. Sure you would come out second best if struck so it pays to have your wits about you. I occasionally fish in the river at anchor and not in the middle of the channel - I get umpteen vessels from windsurfers to 2-man yachts using my anchored vessel as a buoy! They often fly by me so close they cut my lines and very nearly pick up my anchor rope! One day somebody might just do that but I hope not as they may end up getting hurt - but the gall of these people! We are all equally entitled to use the waterway. Perhaps it's time to take some registration numbers and make a report... Oh and that's a real shame on that chopper - sounds like you need some crew with you...They can catch the fish and you can watch out for mad yachties

CJ ! Well done on a nice catch of trevs. They are all a decent size as well. Were they lured or baited ? The water in the bay is 20 degrees ATM so it might be worth venturing into the 'summer' spots to see if the fish have started biting there...

Hey Dan, it's been a while since I dropped on the mountain. Nice to see some solid blue-eye grace your deck. I was listening to some charter guys chatting who were on the mountain and only one guy got one, so you guys brained them. So did you lose many rigs to the bottom? Electric reels or reef queens ? When are we coming around for the barbie ? Well done and bon apetite ! By the way, blue eye grow to about 40Kg but the biggest I ever saw was about 25kg. You wouldn't want to hook a bass groper - them things get to over 100kg !

Hi Manny, I have caught a fair few over 40cm. I have caught several 46cm fish but the thing I realised and learnt is that these big fish are very old. They don't taste anywhere near as good as the sub 40cm fish. Also, because of the fact they are so old, they would probably be loaded with toxins. On top of it all, these fish are the best breeders in the ecosystem and it would be a great loss to to target and take them. I know of a couple of spots where the vast majority of the fish are 40cm and over but I almost never fish there. I find it hard to release a bream because we are all fish eaters, so I don't tease myself by going to the big ones...

Good on you for going out to validate the poor forecast - it astounds me how often they get it wrong. We only get one day a week to allocate to fishing so when the forecast is bad and we do other things but the weather turns ona good day - then us fishos turn on the bad behaviour ! Well I do anyway. So do the seals nick jackets off the line as well? I panick when they're around bcos there have been cases where they try to jump onto boats and they will capsize the boat so I too would get the hell out of there if they turned up. Good effort on the flatties - a very nice plan B - especially if you can get amongst some nice 60cm+ fish. I take it that there were no reds around, right?

Hey Jimmy ! Long time no hear from you. It won't be long before you start showing us what a real catch looks like. Look forward to getting some reports from you soon. Tony

A 1.6kg tarwhine? That fish would have been 45cm ! That's a heck of a tarwhine. As for the spot, no - the fish are not in their summer pattern yet. The feedback I'm getting from many people is that the areas the bream frequent in the summer are not holding any fish (or the water temp is too low for them to feed). I have to do something a little different in these areas to get them to take a bait. By the way, congrats on Jack winning the funny home videos on TV last weekend. What will he do with the cash? I'm sure you can help him spend it ! Tony

Hey Mad mullet, Is that why you called yourself mad? Glad to see you made it back OK. It certainly looks scary, and you were probably thinking "..what next?....hail?...D'OH !" You could have filmed it and called it "Deadliest catch - the Thunder Downunder" Nice haul of Tailor - smoked a la PeterS style.... Well done

Hey Byron, I didn't base my strategy on an easterly change after a southerly, rather on coastal sea temp being high on a rising tide. Is your strategy based on the change of barometric pressure, ie I guess it would be rising quickly with the easterly change after it was low during the southerly? You know I have never really taken Barometric pressure into account - oh well, it's good to see that there is still stuff to learn - bcos if we knew it all, fishing would be predictable and boring. RayR, You know the bream will last barely a week - the relos are bream vacuum cleaners, then again, I have to confess I'm pretty close to being that as well. I really enjoy preparing and cooking them, doing the traditional Greek salad, crusty bread - I haven't tired of them yet... Hodgey, Oh well, I guess the people who have genuine Fishraider brag mats have got a priceless piece of history - "do I hear $50, going once, going twice...."

Thanks for the comments guys - it certainly makes my head feel bigger than it already is! The fish were all caught on worms, both tube worms and bloodworms - some days one performs better than the other. The fish were more active on the rising tide but they were still biting on the falling tide. When the bite slows down, it gives the rays and sharks a chance to find the bait and the aggravation starts. Lets hope the warm water stays around but I expect it will come and go until around Mid december when it shouls hang around until May next next year. Oh and another observation - 4 of the bream were in spawning condition - and from my observations, at least a few of the fish from each catch are in spawning condition, regardless of the time of year. It's pretty strange...like they feel the need to constantly spawn... So can someone please tell me the link to the brag mat purchase page?

It's been such a long time since I'd wet a line, To fish in Bot'ny Bay, The sun didn't shine and it threat'nd to rine, but I went fish'n any way... It's the most poetic I've been in a while. I could write the whole report like that but but the brain is quickly going offline after such an early start... In fact most days when the brain boots up, it does so errors.... I rang my mates to see if they were going out and they said they couldn't be bothered. As Montgomery Burns keeps saying..."Excellent" I would fish all their spots, catch all their fish and brag to them about it ! Actually I went to my own spot full of anticipation. There was 18 degrees of water temp, the tide was rising and there was no-one else there. Woo hoo. By the time I cast the third line in and the first rod goes off.... "That's the way uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh." Well after 17 bream, 2 whiting and 1 trevally, I decided I had enough. Well not really, I ran out of bait! Oh, and the 3 mega port jacksons, 2 sting rays and 1 banjo shark kept it interesting. Interesting enough for me to swear loud and proud about the heritage of their species. Then I regain my composure, tie on another hook and doe it all again.. OK so why was I so excited about the scenario? A rising tide in the morning where the ocean temp on the coast is 19 deg means that the same nice water will come into the bay on the high tide. It will speed up the metabolism of the fish triggering them to feed. If the ocean water was 16deg and cold, a rising tide would bring bad water into the bay and the fish would clamp their mouths shut, like a kid does when you try to feed them brussell sprouts ! I also lost 3 nice bream to the bottom. Sometimes the line gets caught around a rock as the tide sweeps the sinker along. You get a nice bite, the fish shakes its head, runs a bit then Ping! Oh well, I can't complain. I finally have some fish in the fridge. One of the fish was actually a 37cm tarwhine - pictured next to a 37cm bream. I don't think I have ever caught one bigger than 20cm before so this was a real surprise. Sorry about the poor photos - I can never take proper photos with fish in one hand and camera in the other. I must get myself a brag mat. Can someone show this dunce where the link on the site is to get one?

Crikey, Byron, you have me scratching my head. First, it took me a few minutes to work out that carli sparrow is in fact your way of saying "kalispera", ie greek "good evening". Mystery 1 solved! Once I think of the river further upstream than como bridge, then my knowledge of the river system exists only in my SIMRAD GPS. I would run aground for sure in the shallows. As for where the ferry is or used to be is further into the unknown realm of upstream George's river. And when you say "if you don't like what you see", does that mean if you think my boat isn't comfortable, you will send me on my way? I'm having a good chuckle writing this, and I understand that your back aint what it used to be, so I guess I can live with being turned back - perhaps I can send you some photos and you can save me the indignity of being turned back while the sun is setting? Hopefully this will solve mystery2. Let me just digest the map you drew, that's mystery3. By the way, thank you very much for going to the trouble of drawing and scanning and uploading and explaining the diagram - a bit of work went into that, and it is testimony to your good character and the kind of people that the FR website has attracted as members since first coming online.

So, I drew in a contour based on your description. I drew it over a grid. Is this anything like you pictured it to be? If so, can you point out the cells that best represent the areas you recommend for jew and flatties? I think that the depth of the valley is around 6m. I will put in some effort if the info comes from someone like yourself Byron - I value and respect the teachings from elders. After all, that's how I became a top blackfish fisherman - alas I have not stood on the stones for many years. I have swapped it for 4mm checkerplate. Also, I extend an invitation to you to fish the river if you ever feel the need.

Hey CJ, Were you fishing SP's in your burley trail or were you using bait? I hope that bit of info I passed on to you in late July helped you out. Anyway, good to see you amongst some fish. I'm jealous too as I haven't been out in 10 or 11 weeks due to overseas commitments. I'm due to dust off my reels (bulldust that is...) and give my spots a try this weekend. Did you see the water temp out there ? What was the tide you were fishing ?