jimbo61

Went out for a bit of a blackfish session this morning in Georges River. Had a batch of fresh weed and my sons blackfish outfit fishing the last of the outgoing tide. The sun had poked through the clouds and the water was flat and the colour of lead - it could not have been better. My first cast was perfect, landing right where i wanted it. The float settled down and literally a foot into the drift it bobbed. Another foot and down it went a little and then disappearing into he murky water. After a nice fight which the fish nearly won by running me close to some rocks It was landed going about 36cm. For the next 2 hours though every down ended up with the bait stripped or the bait coming back literally untouched. I tried everthing in my arsenal of blackfishing knowledge. Strike earlier, strike later, 5 second wait, 10 second wait, put less bait on, put more. I even started shaping the baits to "look" nice. Either the fish suddenly became very shy or thay are small which is a good sign for the river. As a test just before I left i put the rod down and just let the fish run with the bait. The float went down and then started to run sidways. It stayed under for at least 1 minute out of view before worried i may lose the float I lifted the rod. Nothing! Bait came back on the hook as I put it on. So with one fish in the keeper net I decided the this fish would be saved from the dinner plate and chucked it back in witht all my weed following it in.

Neighbor and I decided to have a last minute beach fishing session before summer runs out. So after a quick round of planning and getting permission from the missuses, we hit the road at 5.30 am this morning. Listening to the fishing reports on radio it sounded promising with good catches being reported. That got us keen to get into it however, the weather was a bit off with onshore winds and rain. Stopping at Macs bait we picked up a slab of pillies and decided to head to Wanda. We got their just after 6 and realised that we would not get a parking spot! Half of the bloody shire was already there. What the heck we thought and could not work out why all these cars were here in the rain. As we were getting into our wet weather gear and getting our rods ready for the hike what looked like a 150 people started to run past us with the boot camp trainer yelling to head for the dunes. Got to our gutter and we were the only fishos on the beach. Quickly setup our Alveys and 7144's and cast the first pillies into the soapy surf and nothing for a while. Then I got a small flattie that went back in. My neighbor got some bunches of weed and then I caught some weed too. It went quite so we had a coffee break. While we were enjoying our coffee another group of about 40 bootcampers invaded the beach and started their grunting routine nearby. These things don't normally annoy me and I am a sociable person but just sometimes you want to get away from it. We thought miserable, cloudy, windy, rain would be enough to ensure some solitude but no. Started fishing again and I then got onto some tailor. Caught 4 with smallest at 32cm. Neighbor then caught a seagull. I got another 2 tailor of around 40cm. Neighbor got seaweed and then drank coffee. I then had a break too. We then got back into it on run out. I got another 3 flatties all went back in. Neighbour got another seagull. At this point I just burst out laughing at the poor bloke. He had the last laugh though because he then brought in nice fat flattie of about 60cm. Went quiet then except for another flattie that again was too small so back in it went. I downsized to justa single gang with a small ball sinker right on the hook and cast a whole pillie in. Surface strike immediately and brought in a small salmon. We decided to fillet it and my neighbor sent out the first fillet. Bam he was on. Salmon that jumped three times before landing. Well sort of as the salmon broke off right at our feet and we proceeded to kick it up out of the surf. This went to around 60 cm and was fat. Caught one more tailor and then it went dead about midday. All in all a great day fishing

Its a bit late but I would go purist. 7144 mated with a 650C5. 15lb low stretch Maxima line. Nearly the perfect setup and it has let me chase big salmon and tailor, rays, bruiser bream, and buckets of whiting and dart. All handled perfectly. When I feel the need for some excitement I swap the reel to a 600A spooled with 12lb and palm it for the bigger fish. Agree with Harry above - watch the DVD it has excellent information on how to fish with an Alvey. Alveys are the best! Jimbo

Try 12 foot rod - 5 wrap - matched with Alvey 600A, 12 pound mono. Avoid braid like the plague, it just does not work and will give you grief. Cheers Jimbo

I have found over the years that night brings the trouble makers and the crazies out. Night fishing can be productive but is it worth the risk fishing alone? Fish with a mate/mates at night and at least you can have laugh if the fishing is slow.

Well, what can I say. Fishing on Fathers Day! Nearly paid very dearly for it from the missus but I took the risk. But firstly this whole thing started during a Saturday night out with friends getting a feed of Chinese. The boys were teasing each other of what we could each get away with before copping it with the rolling pin from our respective wives. I put up the challenge that I reckoned I could get away with fishing on Fathers Day so the bet was made and sealed over some beers. I set the alarm for 5am. Woke up. Gear was packed and in car from night before. Green weed was a week old in bottom of fridge so grabbed it and a cup of coffee and quietly left the house. Decided to try the rock groins along Lady Robinson Beach as I have had some luck there on other occasions and did not want crowds slowing my fishing at the more popular spots. Got there just on high tide so was set to fish outgoing tide. Adjusted depth and threw a beautiful first cast - text book perfect centre pin cast. Sure enough an immediate down but I was too eager and lifted rod much too early and missed it. Re baited and cast again to same spot and started the drift but nothing. Next 10 casts still nothing so changed to other side of groin. A down! This time I mentally counted it out and lifted rod to feel the weight. It went to the rocks but used the leverage of my rod to steer it away and into my landing net. A nice healthy fish of 32cm. In next hour only got two more downs but both equated to fish to 33cm and 35cm with the 33cm fish putting up a big fight with two runs which I had to let him have as I was fishing very light leader today (4lb fluorocarbon). I was happy with effort but also wary of time I packed up and quickly bleeding and cleaning the fish then headed home. Got there at 7am and sure enough the whole family was still sleeping. I filleted the fish and put them in the fridge. Cleaned up and started to make some pancakes and tea for my wife - just in case. And did I get into any trouble? After she had the pancakes and tea she casually turned to me and said - "Darling, I knew you went fishing". How I asked. "Well I woke up and came downstairs for some water. As I came back I noticed you had dropped some green weed near the front door" Cheers,

Well done boys. Great looking fish.Making me jealous though. Leave some for the rest of us

WOW!

First of all read the pinned article on best ever tips on blackfishing. It is a bit of a read but contains great knowledge. Good fresh weed is a must and try and get it from near the area you're intending to fish. At the moment - for me at least - they are firing everywhere. They seem to be moving in schools off the coast and I have caught them at Kurnell near Yenna. In the bays and estuaries they are more consistent. My mate and I have had success in Botany Bay and Georges River at:- Captain Cook Bridge nth rock wall, Tom Uglys northern side, the motor boat club in kogarah bay, cars park, kangaroo point, oatley point, como and como bridge, and cattle duffers. Hope this helps. Jimbo

Yeah sorry about the sunset photo. For the life of me I could not get it to rotate 180 degrees. And I am from an IT background!! In the end I just wanted to post the report so left it.

Being of a certain age I also know some of the folklore of rock fishing in sydney in the 60's and 70's. My uncles and their friends would frequent these mystical spots only known to those in the know or who have been initiated. Or like myself you were a young bloke being taken along for an adventure. There was a spot in Little Bay called "the doctors" where i was taken to one cold winters morning. From memory this place had the legend of an old local doctor I think using human entrails to fish with hence the name. It sent shivers down my spine that morning and i was shivering from fear not cold. I kept looking for an old doctor with a scalpel in one hand and a rod in the other sneaking up behind my back. Does any one know where exactly this is? I vaguely remember it was a few outcrops south of little beach. I caught plenty of tailor that morning spinning with the old classic wonder wobbler metal but everyone else was into the blackfish and they were getting very good hauls indeed. Jimbo

My first fishing report and hopefully 1st of many. Today decided to take a sickie in the great aussie tradition. Well it was actually an RDO that was owed to me but I always get called during these so bit the bullet and called it a sickie and turned my phone off. As it happened the best laid plans are nearly always ruined by events outside your control. In my case it was the missus having a real RDO. So got to spend most of the day with her trying to decide which sofa to buy By the time I got back it was late in the day so quickly grabed my gear and went down to the rocks at Captain Cook. My gear of choice these days is a Snyder Glas mag bream matched with an alvey blackfish reel. I normally fish very light with 8lb mainline and 6lb fluoro leader. Anyway today it got really dark quite quckly and i nearly tossed the whole session in. But I stayed and after working out my depth baited up with some green weed (it was actually still black from all the mud and other debri as I had literally no time to wash it) and cast. Ten minutes in nothing but the float was not behaving right so I adjusted the stopper and cast again. Drift was quite slow as it was right on the ebb and sun was gone a while now. It was getting hard to see the float as I retrived and cast again further out then brought it in close to start the drift. Bang down it went. Nothing timid just a solid down. It dived for the weed bed but I slowly coaxed it out and landed a nice blackfish of around 32cm. And then my next three casts were the same with a down and fish each time and the evening progressively becoming night. The lights of the bridge were on and I could not even see my float in the water. I cast it anyway and watched my line instead (like you do when fishing soft plastics). Sure enough I noticed the line lose its slack and so lifted my rod to set the hook and incredibly had another fish on. This one felt bigger as it was fighting alot more aggressively than the others and you could actually feel the beats of its powerfull tail thumping the water. After around 2 minutes of fighting it, alas, I lost this one in the weed beds along with my rig and float. Decided to pack it in after an amazing session and brought a good feed of fish home to the family. I appologise in advance for the photo as it was so dark I just bled them the quickest way and took them home for this photo. And the sunset was pretty special too. I actually started fishing when the sunset photo was taken. Jimbo

Great fishing guys and excellent generosity. Good to see old values still alive. My old neighbour used to take me to the La Perouse platform and I remember sharing a large catch with someone who was less lucky on the day. I remember one local old timer from Botany giving me a blackfish saying "take this home to your mum sunny jim" Just wondering what size hooks you were using as you mentioned many fish being gut hooked! Cheers Jimbo

Excellent to see the young ones getting into fishing - keep em at it. Although mine are a little older and not as keen as when they were younger (the internet, huge loads of homework, etc) when they do come for a fish I am proudest dad out there. BTW beaut part of the world up there. We used to holiday around Nelson Bay, Tea Gardens, Hawks Nest. You are very lucky. Jimbo.