Keflapod

Mate I got heaps.....14 jetski fish, 3 cruisers, 2 kayaks and almost a swimmer (not a blue swimmer, a hairy swimmer) I could see a large predatory waterways fish chasing the jetski fish.... It was mayhem but I do understand that it was chiefly a beach area and it was their time to go crazy so I kept my expletives to myself. I'm not a grumpy old man just yet... No matter, I caught enough to keep the relos happy, but my 40cm whiting was too small - I knew I would have whiting envy but I HAD to have a shot at the title... Next year I'll have TWO whiting kings to compete against - both Travis AND Wyatt. I might have to unleash my secret weapon - my 5 year old daughter-come-deckhand-come-fisho - pink rod, reel and I might have to replace the mono with pink braid. Getting a pink sinker might be tough though but a pink hook - well I'll just lie to her and say red is a shade of pink...and hope she doesn't walk out on me based on that little deception. The boys will have some SERIOUS competition next year from her - because I certainly can't compete agianst them myself... Watch out boys, Trinity is coming........ Tony

Hey Funny, Nice to catch up with you, your missus and the kids. Wyatt's radio conversation with me was a crackup. I particularly loved his suggestion that I should enter my 40cm fish into the KID'S section of the comp ! I just told him that the kids section is the professional area and I'm not up to that standard yet.... Congrats on the prize - again - I'll win it someday - I just have to pass as an overgrown 10 year old.... Tony

Stoker red - no matter how bumpy it is ! The lumps are deformities caused by parasites that are eaten as part of the fish's diet. They deform the bone as it grows. Doctor Junian Pepperill spoke about it on one of ET's fishing shows... I would BBQ a fish of that size and keep it basted with oil, lemon juice and herbs.... Just make sure you don't overcook it else it will dry out, and being a large fish would be a bit dry to begin with.... Well done on that catch mate - and I do reckon that fish is over 7kg... Tony

Hey Basil, My wife only had an interest in fishing when I first met her. After she caught her first blackfish on her first trip on her first drift (while I was tutoring her - kinda like a guy tutors a woman at golf) - she decided that was enough fishing for her. That day NOBODY caught a blackfish so she quit while she was ahead and no amount of calling for a rematch would get her out. ...and BOY did she RUB IT IN ! That was 20 years ago.....still no rematch...no grudge match.... But in the meantime, I was glad to get her away from my old rockfishing buddies on that day - they all looked at her like she was a chocolate cake.... People still do - including me ! She doesn't let me join her Face Book forum (even though I want to) but she also doesn't have an interest in fishing forums anyway. She tolerates my fishing because she knows I need my fix and she wants her fresh fish as well....but my 5 YO daughter IS interested so she may have to become my decky some day. My daughter has my physique (short stocky muscular) so she will pull up the anchor and winch the boat onto the trailer....when I can't do it anymore.... But if my daughter catches a fish bigger than me and rubs it in like her mum did to me, then I'm gonna buy an anchor winch and a trailer winch and my daughter can buy her OWN BOAT ! That's as good as it gets Basil...

Hi Anastasia, So Basil is a DIFFERENT kind of groper ? I'm just trying to decide if he is not an Eastern blue groper, then is he is either a western blue groper or a giant queensland groper (actually called groupers). Of course I know what you mean..... Love the sense of humour in your response - very tongue-in-cheek... I wonder why it took Basil so long to update his motor and get you into fishing and onto this forum. Perhaps he was afraid of what your fishing results would do to his pride... This is only a taste of things to come.... Keep those reports coming... Tony

Well done one and all. That's a lot of squid - I'm very jealous again. Anastasia, welcome to the forum. If you think your other half can talk silly and tell the odd story, you should read the reports here. There is a goose on this site called Keflapod who waffles on about nothing at all - well OK that would be me ! Well done on all those PB's - and you will soon take away all those records Basil holds on this site and is so proud of. Now that you know how to get inked, just point the business end of the squid to the boys and watch them duck for cover ! Basil, Won't be long now - you will not have much time to fish. You will be busy netting her fish and ducking the flying squid ink... Good on you for getting the new engine and giving her the confidence to step on board. Chris, I believe you are allowed two gropers per person per day - so it seems you got your bag limit that day. Tony

G'day Basil, Mate what a catch. You and Chris make a good team.... You and Jimmy Bream sound like you're having a wrestling match. Very impressive - you even managed to get them into the esky. I bet if you landed one of the smokings, it would not have fitted in there. You must have orang-utan arms after a stretching like that. Kingie fillets on the barbie - marinated, smoky...I just had lunch and I'm hungry again... By the way, don't be surprised if the pro-boats get wind and start drop-lining the area. Wouldn't be the first time.... Tony

Hey Chris, Long time no speak. Well done on a great catch of fish. You certainly know your trolling grounds. The boys are growing up quickly. Must be all the fish they're getting from their daddy. Tony

Key Burny86, Well done on the placcies. Can I ask which side of thew bay were you on? Airport side or Kurnell side ? Also how many bream did you get ? One of these days I'll put my bait rods down and pick up a flickstick..... Tony

That is some farout flattie fishing behaviour. Imagine being stared down by a dusky! Perhaps Fishingphase looked like a giant whitebait in the water.... Not likely... That flattie had balls of steel I reckon. As for Yowie, mate perhaps we can keep a hooked flattie in the water and his mates will swarm around him like dollies... The mind boggles ! I once caught a flattie in mid water while fishing for slimies on the drums in the bay. That water is maybe 12m deep. I thought I was losing my mind but I knew I was wrong - I had lost it a lot earlier than that... Tony

I bet if it was hailing, you would have just worn a stack-hat. There's no holding you back mate. Imagine if you DID win that boat ? The fish would have jumped into the boat just so they can sink you ! You're just amazing and that fishery is chockers full of flatties. They may end up holding an Australian flattie fishing comp down there based on your results. Well done jayson daniel graham. The flatties you just slay-em ! Tony

Mate seeing kids involved in fishing and enjoying it is what gives us all that warm-n-fuzzy feeling inside. We are watching them enjoying their childhood and creating their lifelong memories. We also know that we are creating the fishos of the future. So when they are all grown up and they look at that photo and say "remember that trip we did and I won my first fishing trophy ?" We can look them through a teary eye and say in a shaky voice "Yes mate - I was there - you were just a little kid then"... We treasure those days... Tony

Hey Phatnat, I reckon the biggest oooh you would have got is when you released the fish..... and a few confused questioning looks as well.... Those italian tourists would be thinking: "Ah thos-a crazee Af-stralian feesher-men. They morto-stupido ! They-a letting the feesh go....If it wasa mee, I woulda be licking my fingers with a seafood and salmon marinara !"... Well done mate, you entertained the crowd with some amazing angling skills, then confused the hell out of them with the release.... Love your work... Tony

G'day Jeff, You fed the carp to your chickens ? Do they really eat fish ? Will the chicken eggs have a muddy taste ? Lol - just kidding - I didn't think chickens would eat fish. Would the carp work as crab bait as well ? There's enough to go around for the chooks as well as the crabs.... Tony

G'day Fish311, Nice kingy - especially for a first fish. And nice flatties too - don't worry about the size of the fish. The skill of the cook is what determines whether or not a legal fish is worth keeping for food. I have experimented with many types of fish deemed by others as inedible. Pike, sweep, seargeant baker, bonito, rock cale to name a few. The pike need to be cooked a little longer so the flesh firms up a bit and they taste very nice. Seargeant baker have two sets of lateral line bones so when they are cut out, the remainder make tasty fried fillets... Bonito need to be bled 'n' BBQ'd. Rock cale are the same as the blackfish except some individual fish have too much iodine.. The only fish I will always release are rubberlip morwong and sharks. I can't get rid of the iodine taste which I hate so much... So to release a fish because it tastes OK but not as good as something else doesn't make sense to me, but each to their own. Releasing any fish because of biological reasons makes more senseto me and that is at the discretion of the angler... Well done mate - bet you're hooked now.... Tony

Mate, My favourite words are "What if". I catch whiting quite regularly - personal best is 48cm but only on bait. Have caught heaps of 45's too... I'm gonna unearth some of my old tassie devils and give them a shot on my spots.... They have some weight so I can cast them. What if.....indeed...a plan is hatching Thanks Jewhunter13.... I'll let you know if they work in the bay... Tony

G'day Krispy, whoa what an effort yours was...don't tell me - you were on the oil wharf fishing the rising tide into the pylons ? Yes I agree the fish are coming into the bay at the moment abd they will distribute themselves throughout - except they probably won't go into the shallows until the salinity levels increase a bit there.... bummer about the smoking you got tho...Personally I hate it - like a slap in the face... Tony

G'day Chris, Youtube vide sounds great ! Excessive violence - hmmm - maybe I'll just have an excessive tantrum for the entertainment value - no one gets hurt, just a few ruffled feathers...or maybe I can film it and dub the voices with other silly comments or a Homer Simpson "D'oh" here and there...

G'day Jdanger, Thankyou for your kind words. My analytical skills are a side effect of my IT systems testing career choice. Though I often suffer from analysis paralysis... The rest of my abilities are more due obsessive compulsive dishorder (fishorder?) and I like to experiment with ideas - I love the words 'what-if'.... You think I belong in MENSA ? - Crikey I must a good actor ! Tony PS if you have some time to kill and enjoy my style of fishing reports, a few are still available on this site. Yes they are all lengthy but there is always a story to tell.

G'day Husk17, Welcome to the site - a nice place to learn lots from some decent people. We are a big community here and most people will give you enough info to hype you up for your next trip. Jimmy, Groper is a fish, not a bird Egg Soup, Love your name by the way because I DO put an egg in my fish soup - makes me hungry just thinking about it. I do speak French but I also find it hard to read the sounder so it's not speaking French - maybe Greek - no hang on, I speak Greek too... I only use it to read the depth and the water temp, so why did I put a 10 inch SIMRAD on my dash? I dunno - sounder envy I guess ! Now you guys are experienced rock fishos right? What is there lots of around rocks that hold the fish ? Structure and current - always there.... Now structure in the bay can mean a sand bar, weed beds, cockle beds, yabbie / worm holes, oyster leases, dropoff, holes, rockwalls with weed / cunje, wharves, moored boats, channel markers, drums - see what I mean? All of those exist in the bay so if you can find one that has some current (doesn't have to be raging), then you have a potential spot. I have a friend who fishes the end of the first runway and does well on bream, flatties, trevs, tailor and the occasional jew. He doesn't get whiting though. His structure (the runway) has always got current on it. I fish the south side of the bay. I never get jew, rarely get flatties (my techniques don't suit them), occasionally get trevs and tailor but the bream and whiting are a staple catch. Some spots I fish have no current so if I pull a few fish off these spots I have to move on because the fish won't move if current is not present. If I'm fishing current, then the fish will move past me, find my burley and hookup. There are a thousand little rules I use, the most important of which is to document your results into a spreadsheet for every trip. My info goes back 8 or 9 years and I use it for every trip to formulate my itinerary and strategy. Know which spot you will fish first, then second and if spot 2 no good, try spot 3, wait until tide change, go to spot 1 again. If no good try spot 4. Then require bait 1 on spot 2 with burley, bait 2 on spot 3, etc, etc. it can get quite involved and you will see why after you gather some fishing results. I strategise every 15 minutes, deciding whether I will stay another 15 minutes or move to the next spot....no time to sit down and relax.....too busy thinking and checking I find that using mullet strips over weed beds catches some monster bream but I don't target them because those fish are very old and probably full of toxins. They also lack taste and are a bit tough with rubber for skin. They are also the best breeders so I leave them alone. When fishing stormwater affected water, use pilchards, chicken, mullet fillet, tuna, etc, ie smelly baits. When the water is clean use worms, peeled prawns, ie non-smelly baits but you still can use smelly baits. GoneFishing, Indeed common sense is a contradiction in terms so whoever coined that phrase has some explaining to do... Bluefin74, MENSA is an organisation where people with exceptionally high IQ's gather. I was being sarcastic when I say that those boaties causing roadblocks were attending a MENSA convention....

Thanks for the nice comments all. It's nice to be appreciated and it feeds my ego (which I constantly claim that I don't have). Basil, I doubt Jim Bream wold come up empty - or if he did, he would never admit it... But there's no shame in donut-ing bcos fishing can be so unpredictable... Although I've never done it - or admitted to it anyway ! Tony

I haven 't posted in a long time but when I do, I like to stretch the report into a story and every trip has it's own little story, full of wonder - ie "I wonder why I even bother sometimes" kinda wonder. So if you have 5 spare minutes I hope you will be entertained and possibly even glean a fact or two from my account of events. I hadn’t wet a line in 6 weeks and my fridge was like old mother hubbard’s proverbial cupboard. I had even stooped as low as buying fish. Yes I hung my head in shame as I parted with cash for fish so I at least made sure the fish were of a species I couldn’t catch myself. Now I know some of you are thinking that I could have bought any fish in the shop because I can’t catch anything… Well at least some of you CAN think because some of the guys with whom I crossed swords over the weekend certainly couldn’t… I had to fish on idiot Sunday because I couldn’t get my sorry butt organised on Saturday. The 6 weeks of laying up due to unimportant famly events, ridiculous no-fishing-allowed holidays and frivolous parties for relatives had left me without any time to perform important fishing activities. During that 6 weeks, things got a bit rusty – literally. The brake pads on the starboard forward trailer wheel had rusted against the brake disc. Unbeknownst to me at 5:00am, I revved the car like a dragster but the trailer only moved 300mm forward, to the tune of a screeching trailer tyre. I thought I had left the trailer brake on but I never use such complicated contraptions so I was left scratching my head - then again, I can't say that the brain is firing on all 2 cylinders at 5:00am either, coz at that time I'm still dreaming of Jeannie. The trailer was being dragged unceremoniously forward, leaving the blackest skidmark on white concrete that I have seen since I was a pimply teenager in my first car. Back in those days, my mates and I would annoy each other by taking our respective car to each others driveway and try our hardest to blacken their driveway with burnout marks – a hard task when we had muscle cars holden camiras and datsun 120y’s......ah the good old days... Well back to fixing my seized trailer tyre, I had to squirt about a litre of CRC onto the disk pads and apply a little persuasion with a hammer and bolster - just the thing we like to do for our neighbours in the wee hours. So at 5:15 am I was ready to roll - well the trailer wheels were anyway.. Now if I could just remember how to reverse the boat - I checked that I was straight but couldn't see properly. The solar powered ramp lights rarely work so I had to get out of the car. As I did the car slowly rolled backwards into the water. First the trailer wouldn't move when I wanted it to, now it moves when I don't want it to! Ah yes - the car was still in reverse albeit with the park brake on - well sort of on...I Dive into the car and put it in park - just as well I was alone at the ramp else there would have been a chorus of laughter with me be taking centre stage. The river water temp was 25.5 degrees as I peered into the silhouetted water ahead of the boat, in case a floating tree, a small unlit tinny or other debris was in my path after the recent rains. Now the night before, I consulted my historical spreadsheets to tell me where I should fish today. They said to fish the deeper water after rain with smellier baits. For those of you that find it hard to extract important info from fishing reports, this is important (well from my experience anyways). Fresh water floats over saltwater because it is less dense. The shallow areas will have more fresh water than salt and I find the fish will move into deeper water to get cleaner salt water. I didn't say clean, but cleaner water. I stopped the boat in 4.0m of water and I didn't get the second rod out when the first went off. Over the next 90 minutes I kept 8 bream from 28cm to 35cm and released another dozen just legals but the moral of the story is that the fish were there. I was getting ready to move spots when one of the rods bent over slightly and line slowly trickled off the baitrunner. I gave it some line and struck. I felt good weight and a couple of headshakes. I thought it would be a big banjo or shovelnose as I have caught more than my fair share. It went for a bit of a run and as I pulled it in, it stayed deep. Definately a banjo so I gave it a bit of stick. In the discoloured water I couldn't see deeper than half a metre and the low light didn't help either. I also realised that the fish had wrapped up another rod and the braids were wrapped. I called out Stupid Banjo, just the way Homer Simpson would have. The fish came to the surface and I nearly fell over. It thrashed it's head side to side. With catlike reflexes I gave the big lizard some slack so her teeth don't cut the 6lb trace. Miraculously the fish was still attached. I fumbled for the toy net I use and tried to net her from the tail end. She just swims away and takes more line. Meanwhile I can hear another rod screaming behind me – sorry that one will have to wait. The lizard is slowly coaxed back to the net but the tangled other rod is preventing me from turning her head toward the net – crap –what to do – rod in one hand, net in another and I need another two hands to cut the braid on the other rod. I'm stuck between a rod and a hard fish. I then had to invent a new netting angle that involved some kind of over-the-top backhand reverse slanted approach angle with some topspin to try to net her from the head. After a few failed attempts, I replaced the topspin with a slicing action and she swam into the net. I quickly realised that a lot of her tail was out of the net but I gave the heave-ho and hauled her on board.... I gave myself a high five (not a pretty sight as I nearly went overboard) and put her on the brag mat. She went 75cm and a PB for me. Last legal flattie I caught was years ago as I don't target them but my 6 year old daughter has been pestering me for flathead. She ignores my bream and whiting, pushing them aside to see if I got any flatties. Well this time I'm gonna scare her with this croc ! I put her in the esky (the fish, not the daughter) with the bream as another boat drifted by. The other boat was a good 10m from me and promptly picked up two of my lines with their lines and outboard leg.... I attempted to tell them how intelligent they were but my expletives vocabulary had suddenly gone offline – I was too happy about my capture to say anything negative...It was a weird feeling....I moved onto the next spot with a smile and waved to the offending boat as if they just did me a favour - man I was losing it.... Moving further downcurrent, I moved about 500m and redeployed. The bream were here as well but these fish were a bit bigger and fewer throwbacks. I stayed there for a while but I was itching to know if there were in fact any fish in the shallows, so I moved into 1m of water. No sooner had I deployed the 3rd rod when yet another fruitcake drifted by me a good 8m away. He nearly picked up my anchor rope but did manage to snare two of my lines...After our lines were again detangled, I realised that I was still smiling from the flattie earlier on...I thought to myself, "This smiling will have to stop – people will thing I'm the Joker from Batman or something....actually more like fatman really..." but the point was, there were no bites in the shallows – the fish were in the deeper water...so back to the deeps I went. I noticed the wind shifted to the south and a change was expected. The VHF radio began to chatter about the expected southerly to be due at midday but I knew it was due before that in the bay. As the wind gathered strength, the fishing slowed down and the boats all made a bee-line to the ramps. I stayed until midday in the rough but the fish had shut down – unusual – they usually pick up. The tally was 17 bream, 3 whiting and that big flattie. I was sure it had Trung's name on it somewhere. It was a satisfying ride home as the bow threw spray over the windshield. I had finally caught a decent flattie for my daughter. Back at the ramp the usual MENSA convention was in full swing and I had to wait until each members deliberations had completed before I could retrieve my boat. No matter. If I have enough patience to wait for a stupid fish to bite, I can have enough patience for an even stupider boatie to finish using the boat ramp. When I finally got home and the daughter asked "Daddy did you get me a flat-head?". I replied with a certain tone of voice, kinda like Elvis says "a-ha baby – yeah". When she went over to the killbox, and she looked inside, she let out a little scream – half in terror, half in surprise, and half in excitement. Little kids always give you three halves don't they ? Well after 36 questions about the fish and how I caught it, I'm now convinced that she will be my decky in future, not my 11 year old son....Genetics is a funny thing... Tony PS - Some piccies of the action and the food aftermath... I would be the world's worst photographer but the point was I made a fish soup from the flathead frame (Greek style) and fried up the rest of the skinned, filleted and deboned fish that fed us all and had enough for mum and dad's lunch the next day...A decent flattie goes a long way... ..having trouble with uploading some piccies - might have to do the rest in the morning...

Hey Trung, I'm sure you know more than one way to cook salmon so the fish would not have gone to waste. Still I'm surprised that you didn't flick for a flattie - especially when the chips are down. I think that you're chasing the glamour species to try and restore your throne as the king of kings. I'm sure you'll get one sooner or later cos you're always in there trying, with or without Mr Swordie..... Actually maybe you should take MRS Swordie next time. She would surely be better behaved than Stewie and likely upstage the both of you with her captures... She did that last time when she fished with her hubby....remember that post ? Where oh where for art thou post ? Anyways, not to worry - squid are on tap for you and the kingies are just around the corner (or in formosan's boat!). Tony

I would have kept the fish and let the shoe go... Just kidding - I would have probably caught the shoe... Mate that is a cracker of a flathead for 5 casts. If you had flicked again AFTER training, you would have probably hooked another one. That's the time to buy a lottery ticket... Well done.. Tony

This is what happens when you get two like-minded people together and force them into an enclosed environment. The only weapons allowed are fishing tackle and a sharp wit. There are no rules except "no hitting below the gymbal"... They will hurl crap at eachother and enjoy every minute of it - and then they can't wait for the next round when they will get sweet revenge.... Afterwards, the combatants, er, I mean the fishing 'friends' can have access to a keyboard, a website and a virtual audience. The fishing fireworks created online provides the entertainment for us onlookers. Jeez - you guys just love to hate eachother and we love it ! Next time, you guys will surely need a referee ! Might have to turn it into a online competition of "who's gonna catch the most / biggest"....or otherwise win via unscrupulous methods.... Very entertaining read Trung and Stewie - love your 'work'.... Tony