toboggi

Hi all, Headed out to the rocks in botany bay with 2 mates. They were super keen and turned up at first light while I slept in and turned up about an hour later. Usual ledge was still to rough and fished more sheltered spots. Not much action other than plenty of undersized drummer. My mate landed some luderick. I fished a different ledge and managed to land by PB bream - just made 40cm. Very tough fight on light gear - thought it was a drummer. Other than that it was pretty quiet but happy with the bream and just to be out fishing Cheers, Toboggi

Hi all, Normally out on the rocks but due recent high swells headed slightly inland and was desperate for a fish as it had been awhile due to work. Burleyed up and managed a couple of bream for lunch and lost a couple of bigger ones to the reefs. Fished this spot for first time so didn't know what to expect but surprisingly also landed two undersized drummer. Was using bread bait sitting under a small float. Looked like a nice spot for squid which i will try in the future. Swells look to be dropping significantly next week. Cant wait to get out on the rocks again. Cheers, Toboggi

Awesome video!...kid seems to love every second of it.

Spot on! - they wait for you to clean the fish and eat the guts you throw out.

drummer is small size compared some of the monsters you have caught TC - but hopefully i get a big one soon. I have had drummer sashimi many times - might be what i am into but love the chewy texture of the flesh Was waiting for someone to spot the eyeball missing on the bream haha....my mate left it in a rock pool,,,the crows came down and picked its eyeball clean.....its pretty horrific - i have seen crows come and attack leatherjacket before as well and tear its guts out....funny thing is they never eat the flesh. lucky i kept my drummer in a much deeper rock pool and was kept alive (with eyeball intact) until home time

Thanks. My mate actually caught that using prawn. I used a float to catch my drummer as well. In december i was catcing lots of blackies - not sure why it was so quiet in this session. Saw your report harry. Nice photos - looks like a nice spot.

Hi all, Yesterday morning headed out with two mates fish at botany bay Tide wasn't in our favour but my mate only allowed out once a month to fish so decided to hit the rocks anyway. I was on the hunt for drummer/blackfish/bream armed with bread burley and bait. 15 minute walk to spot and not another angler in sight. Very little action early on and my mate landed a 38cm bream and then followed up with another one in the lows 30s around 8am. A massive shipping container went past and created waves much bigger than the natural ones which knocked all my burley into the water and wasnt too happy about that as i was looking to burley hard as the tide came back in. As the tide began to come back in i had only managed some rock cod and a rock cale. Decided to switch baits to cunji (as last resort) and after about 5 rock cods finally hooked onto my first legal drummer - not a monster but a nice 39cm fish, Without burley i was lucky but aim to hit the same spot again in the future with lots of burley. Heard a few 50cm plus ones have been caught in the last 12 months. No blackfish in sight. Otherwise quite happy with my first drummer - hope more to come - top sashimi fish. Cheers, Toboggi

Thanks for the info mate. Look forward to the photo...interestingly I have heard from other anglers use a paternoster style rig where instead of sinker they use a metal lure. The other line they stick on a squid skirt like yours. Will have to have a go at it. Thanks!

Hi aeb870 Can you provide more info on your rig? Was there no stopper and how long was your leader? Also how fast were you reeling in your lure? Heard about this method and wanted to give it a go Thanks

Seems like we had the same experience. At out maroubra today with my bro and 2 other mates...calm waters produced calamari but no kingies. Landed one decent sized trevally and burley brought in a tonne of yakkas but other than that pretty quiet.

Hi Krause Not sure how much advice i can provide but i can say for sure that drummer can be caught all year round. My bro has been out around a bit and been catching plenty of 40cm plus drummer all through summer. I actually mainly use a floating rig to target drummer but plenty of people catch drummer using the rig you described or using a tiny running sinker. As far as the experts tell me, drummer don't stray from the shore and is fairly sedentary fish. Heaps of information on site about drummer fishing. If swells are low and little windy try squidding on the weedy bottoms as a new thing to try, Cheers

Excellent catch!

500 plus is crazy but i wouldnt doubt for a second. 2 weeks ago i was getting hits every cast with not much berley off kurnell. All in the high 30s in size. I will look out for you when i am at kurnell. I am young asian bloke wearing red/black pfd and black cap with blue rod.... where abouts do you fish on kurnell? I only really fished the southern side near the desalination plant but very keen to give the east side a go. Only visited it by foot but never fished. Happy for you to PM me where you go and i might see you there but everyone is allowed to have their secret spots =) Cheers, Ken

Unfortunately im yet to land my first legal pig...my bro has gotten many 40cm+ ones ....i have been stuck with 10 undersized ones and just as many bustoffs although using 15lb leader. But in the meantime its been raining blackfish the last couple of trips so cant be too unhappy. We both use a floating rig at depths of 2 to 4m depending on location and berley hard....white bread and cabbage are the main sources of bait....using bread allows you to get by-catch like breams, trevally and blackfish. My bro uses white bread mostly while i like to stick with cabbage hence landing lots of blackfish....hopefully i get my legal pig soon

Hey mate, good catch. Mind if i ask what bait and type of rig you were using? Never caught a groper or attempted to yet but would be great to learn more about them. Cheers, Ken

We learnt the hard way. I told my mate after the session when there are king tides we shouldnt bother. Definitely wasn't as productive as other sessions and normally we spread across a few ledges but due to tides we were confined to 1 protected ledge. I know what you mean about crowds - good luck with your session tomorrow.

So true mate....rather fish and catch nothing then not fish at all.

Hi all, Had an early morning session with my bro and a mate of mine south of sydney off the rocks....was targeting drummer and blackfish...swells were low but due to big high tide made fishing tough. Was slow going but my bro landed a nice pig around 45cms and collectively we landed 5 blackfish between 35 to 40cms. All taken on cabbage. Wasn't the best session but still managed a decent bag, Unfortunately all our berley we prepared got soaked in water and became useless. Cheers, Ken

Great story peter. Hoping to take my gf fishing soon...hope she falls in love with fishing like your grand kids...makes a good excuse for me to head out fishing as well. Cheers, Ken

Some monster fish! Great report!

Thanks Blood knot - been lazy not posting and just reading but good to share Bretto, love the part where you get a double hook up and land two fish in one go with the net. Must have been a crazy session!

Thanks paikea. The fish were caught off kurnell rocks....been firing lately with good sized luderick. Week before mates caught 15 luderick as well. i never fished for luderick until last year and was always told they were a winter species but they were the only fish biting over the weekend other than swarms of sweep if you used any other bait besides cabbage.

Hi all Long time reader first time post. Three of us went for a fish off the rocks down south. Lots of luderick around. Bagged 7 pretty early on and lost half a dozen or so. All using cabbage. Sizes ranged from 35 to 40 cm or so. Not many other species were around. 1 or 2 bustoffs which may have been drummer. One of mates got a luderick on first real attempt at it. 8th fish in photo is a sweep. Cheers Toboggi