gregh1

Thanks Rick! I was land based and didn't get any takers but had a great day out with family and friends.

Hi Raiders, Does anyone know what the fishing is like in Tucabia in the Coldstream? Thanks

I lived in Toongabbie for 10 years. I left there 5 years ago and live on the central coast now. You wouldn't want to eat anything that came out of there. It used to be very polluted and I doubt it if you would catcth much at all. If you did catch anything it is likely to be a chemical nightmare. I would be interested to see what if any, your catch looks like.

I live on the central coast and have learnt to stay away on long weekends. I put my boat in on the Friday before and it wasn't too bad but come Saturday, Sunday and Monday it is a nightmare anywhere on you go on the coast. I went down to Ettalong for a bite to eat with my wife and counted at least 20 jet ski's in and around the 3 green makers heading out to Broken bay. The noise was like being at a race track. In amongst it all were quite a few boats as well. The shore was packed with fisho's. I am happy to wait until they all go home before I go out!

Hi Raiders, I went out in Broken Bay on Friday 2/10/15 and to my surprise I counted 6 commercial trawlers around Patonga, Flint and Steel and Juno Point. I am no expert on over fishing however, it seems extreme to have so many in such a small area. I came home empty handed after around 6 hours. My concern is that this area will eventually get fished out. Any feedback from other fishos is appreciated! I did however have some fun chasing large mullet that were busting up the surface. I managed to hook a number of these large fish with assorted metal lures but couldn't manage to get them into the boat before they busted off. Some of these mullet looked to be 5kg plus and they put up a hell of a fight. In hindsight I wonder if the trawlers were hoping on catching them also. Not that I noticed them anywhere near the bustups.

Hi Raiders, I have a good spot to catch live yakkas but have not been able to find a good spot for live squid. Any help would be appreciated! PM me if you know of a reliable location. Thanks in advance. Hobbsie

Nice to see a good sized catch in BW. Ladders usually has plenty of yakkas. Great catch boys!!!

Good looking lizards there! I went out for a few hours today with my better half. The water all around BW was full of this slimey algae. It was like moss. Disgusting stuff. We ended up with one female swimmer that went back in. Still, it was nice to be on the water. From memory I was catching plenty of fish last November and December and then it died down in late January.

Thanks for the reply mate! I thought as much but was hoping for an easy option. Looks like I may have to get it resprayed.

Hi raiders, My boat is starting to shed some of the clear coat. The color underneath is still fine. I am looking for advice from anyone on how to best address this. Should I peel it all off and apply a coat of clear again or do I need to do a whole new color respray. Any advice would be appreciated! Hobbsie

A few pics of our fishing an photo adventure on the Daintree!!!

Hi Raiders, I recently spent a week in tropical north queensland for 9 days and went barramundi fishing with a charter (PM me for the charter). We went out for 3 hours fishing and photo shoots. The wife loves photography and I love fishing so everyone is happy! I caught 3 archer fish (all around 25-30cm) - have a read up on these fish, they really are smart fish. I also caught 2 good sized tarpon that I left with Jason for bait for the freshwater prawn traps and eventually after having a few bust ups finally caught a barramundi around 40-45cm. I couldn't believe the fight it put up for a smallish fish. We were lucky enough to get a snap of a crocodile on the bank and many other wildlife including birds, lizards and snakes. Barra fishing is quite different from fishing for flathead or bream. Here is a link to a video. I will post a few photos soon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UvcQQJKr6c

I was surprised at the size of these whiting. Cooked up very nice. Very white flesh!

Hi Raiders, It's been about 5 weeks since I last fished and I finally got to go late this arvo with the lovely wife. I was pretty happy with myself as I decided to target whiting for a change and actually caught what I was targeting. I managed to get a few blood worms from Long Jetty and off we went about 5.00pm. The setup we had was very light with not much lead at all and I think no 4 long shanks (the red ones). As usual Chris got onto the first whiting after about 10 minutes drifting. I couldn't believe the size of it as I have only ever caught them at around 30cm or less and hers was 35cm. I did a second drift and picked up a personal best for me at 37cm. We hung around until about 8pm and ended up catching another 3 legal size and 3 undersize whiting as well. It was great to be back on the water again!! Cheers, Hobbsie

Nice catch of flatties there.I will have to give it a try at the entrance one day.

I used to live next to you in Old Toongabbie and I can tell you life is so much better up here mate!!! There is no comparision!! Also, when it is 44 degrees in Winston Hills it is usually 10 or more degrees lower up hear due to the sea breeze!!! Come on up, drive around and you will fall in love with the place!!!

I use pellets in a burley bucket off the boat and a sibiki setup with very small pieces of pillie. If the yakkas are on I can get plenty of them and usually end up leaving when I have at least 8. But sometimes they just don't bite. One thing with the sibiki setup is that you usually only get 1 yakka hooked or if you are lucky maybe 2 but quite often I end up with a mess of a line and spend time sorting it out. I am going to change to a single hook, very small, maybe size 10 or 12. Good luck mate!!!!

Where are you currently living in Sydney if you don't mind me asking? I grew up in the Eastern suburbs and loved it as a kid . However Bondi is certainly not the same now. I ended up settling down and buying a house out Parramatta way and seemed destined to live and work there. I missed the coastal life and didn't think I would ever get back. Just over 2 years ago I was lucky enough to win a position at Gosford. I bought a house here that would have cost at least $200k more in Sydney. I am about 5 minutes to the beach and local boat ramp. Although I don't always use the local one. I am surrounded by greenery/mountains. Really, there is no comparison. After a few weeks of moving here I realised I was living in a predominately Australian community. It was like stepping back in time to the 70s. On the downside like others have mentioned there are some dodgy areas, high unemployment and the infastructure needs improving. Driving to Sydney is not ideal and the train is not much better but it's no worse than Sydney traffick. I have friends who spend an hour getting to work and are living in Sydney. To me it's a no brainer, do your homework before you buy a house. Come up and check out the different areas cause some spots are absolutely beautiful and others are like mount druitt by the sea.

It's nice to hear someone is still pulling in some decent fish Meg!! I might give it a go again in broken bay. I was even thinking of going over to Juno Point. I have been up to Lake Mac a few times and on one ocassion came home with a good sized flatty of close to 60cm and the other time nothing. Last time I was on Lake Mac there must have been 50 boats around the swansea channel. I think it might be worth getting some yakkas at ladders and drifting in the bay for Kingies. What do you use for a Kingie setup?

Cheers Ed!! I well and truly have the fishing bug. I have received some great advice from fellow raiders and continue to learn each time I venture out on the water. Good to see you are doing well on your new boat mate!!

Hi Raiders, I have been having a slow run lately with fishing. Not through lack of trying though!! For the past 3-4 weeks there have been a lot of small stuff around, pinkies, small flatties and bream. Me and a mate headed out to the bomby off maitland bay early Saturday morning. It was rough going just getting there and once we were there we realised it was way to rough to fish. There were 1-2 mtr waves breaking over it so we headed back and did a drift in between barenjoey lighthouse and lyon island and picked up a legal snapper and nice fat bream. Both were caught on mullet. My mate caught a good sized yakka so we sent him out live unweighted. Unfortunatly he didn't have any leader on his line. Something took the yakka and ran but as soon as he took the drag off it busted off. Not sure what it was but it could have been a good sized fish as the yakka was at 22cm. We caught heaps of pinkies around the 15-20cm mark and eventually gave up and moved back into BW. It was pretty much the same inside with plenty of pinkies, a nice size female blue swimmer realeased of course and a few small sized bream. I am not sure how it has been for others of late up my way but it has been a struggle to just come home with a feed. Regardless, there is nothing better than being on the water in good company and I will be out there again come next weekend. Oh, does anyone know if you can use crab nets around lyon Island and Barenjoey? Cheers,

I will let you know how it goes! I am going to have a go at crabbing once I get a new crab net. Lake Mac is an awesome spot and well worth a try mate. I have been up there a few times now and haven't been disappointed.

Thanks Shaun! I might give it a go anyway! I think the holiday period is over. Correct me if I am wrong! I did my license test in there and it seems to be quite shallow. How deep did you find it there? At most I thought it was only 10 feet!!!

Just wondering if there is still red week in the lakes system!!!