alluring

Cheers Luc, that's really helpful I'm not sure how long it'll be before I can check it out due to uni etc, but when I get a day down there I'll let you know!

Hey guys It's been at the back of my mind for a while to head out to Eucumbene or Jindabyne when the weather's a little warmer so I'm starting to put some infomation together. At the start of winter I tried jindy with no success. Just wondering where trout tend to hang out, and whether there are any tricks to catching them. When I tried Jindy I was spinning (landbased) - devils, small xraps in trout colours, blades, square cranks, little spoons, hell I even have a slug with bow colours, you name it. Didn't get a hit so wondering if I need to adjust my technique. I have a yak too - and a sounder on it. Was thinking of going for a slow troll around the edges of the lakes. Or drop a line down with that Gulp Powerbait stuff - I hear the wreaks havoc on them. Any tips? I've heard Jindy is better known for it's trophy fish, and the atlantic salmon/brooks that are stocked in it. But I heard people go to eucumbene if they just want to catch something And on a side note, of course I know if I go in I don't have long in an alpine environment etc, but I'm confident enough with my ability and safety. It never hurts to be too careful, but I'm keener to work out how to get some fish on the end of my line! Cheers :-)

Woaah looks like you've had a cracker few weeks.. I love reading reports like this, gets me super keen to get out again. Can't wait till summer comes and my classes are out of the way >

That's killer for a solo trip!! Quality fin too, fuuar they're good looking fish.

That's awesome, what a great shot.

Probably would have ended underneath the shelf or worse, as we both only had 30lb rods I had a 65lb reel on my setup though as my heavy rod is currently getting repaired.. But would have been great fun! Was the first time I've ever seen all three in one session, and even better considering most of my winter trips produced zero sightings of either. And got a few salmon down that way last week too so pretty happy either way cause looks like things will start to pick up again. And always happy to get away for a fish even if it's a quick morning run before class :-)

Haven't been away as much as I like lately, so I thought I'd contribute my first report. Late last night as I finished work I gave my mate a buzz and with about half hour's notice and prep we jumped in the car and headed down the coast towards Bawley Point/Kioloa. We got down there from Canberra around 2am, and got up again around 5.30 to head out onto the rocks for a dawn session. Cause we decided to head down last minute we had no bait or burley, so we'd planned on throwing out a few lures and see what we could produce. Conditions out there were great, hardly any swell, no wind and it was nice and warm for a change. At first it was a really quiet morning right up until 8.30, but around that time a group of maybe around ten 1m or so sized kings came out of nowhere and followed my mate's lure right up along the surface till he got it up. Got us both pretty excited, and I chucked a lure towards them before they disappeared but they showed no further interest within the next half hour a big school of salmon came through as well, but again the sort of just followed our lures and didn't even try to strike. It was pretty strange I thought cause usually when a school comes by they smash whatever you've got in the water.. So by now my mate and I were a little disappointed, it's always exciting seeing fish come up but we had less than half a hour before we had to head home for our afternoon classes at uni. When it came time to go we called a few more casts, and on the last cast five decent looking bonnies came up from the deep just look at our lures, and shot back down almost the second they were at the surface I'm pretty puzzled seeing them this far south though, as far as I knew bonito usually head up north towards sydney till around november when the waters warm up again?? Can somebody confirm? That fired us up again though, by then we were desperate to catch something and we stayed another half an hour before we finally called it quits. Got back super late for class but all in all it was well worth it, winters been pretty slow when we've been down this way, so needless to say we were pretty thrilled even just to see that some of the fish are around again. Even if we didn't even get a bite

Awesome report, and quality fish!! I've given the lakes a crack a few times land based spinning hardbodies but no luck for me! Once the weather warms up I'll be down there with my yak cheers for the read

my general mix is bread and tuna oil thrown in the blender with all my old bait.. so pillies, prawns or squid are usually in the mix in some amounts. Little bit of flour goes alright as well when you're trying to thicken it or get it to stick together to throw. Guess it's pretty generic, but that's my 'recipe', although I've never tried it out on the beaches. Sometimes when I'm lazy I buy premixed bags as well, they usually produce alright, especially when you mix in your own stuff. Saw some asian blokes the other morning throwing in scoops out of tins of catfood too, don't know how they went though cause I had to leave the coast to head back to uni haha, but they looked like they knew what they were doing. Could be worth experimenting with.

Really nice fish for your first trout, I'd be thrilled if my first one comes even close

Took a last minute sneaky half day trip down the coast this morning before uni, first time I've gotten away in a while. Landed a nice salmon on a white diving minnow lure just after dawn, and the bloke next to me pulled a couple up on some plastics too - although he was actually targeting snapper. In the past though white's although been my most productive lure colour, I think probably cause it stands out the best.

Those are some nice fish

Yeah Merimbula wharf is a cracker, I actually prefer it over tathra. The area you're talking about is that weedy/rocky outcrop on the left side hey? I'm usually only ever down that way in the summer when the family goes down and stays there - in the winter I stick further north cause it's a closer drive from home. Such a nice area of coastline though, it was down on that wharf I was first introduced to/began fishing for salmon Sorry gone a bit off topic..

Oh that's nuts, I've fished Tathra wharf plenty of times over the last few summers, and the wharf at the Merimbula aquarium too.. Never knew they got larger pelagics off there.. Only ever seen Salmon and Tailor and possibly Bonito too. But that's mad I'll definitely head down there sometime.

I'm going to jump in here - tuna off a wharf?? How do I get to this place? any more info about it would be sick :-)

I haven't caught any since June.. (Down the south coast) and while I've heard they're occasionally taken as far as I know we won't start seeing then again till November!

That's a seriously cool looking fish. If nobody else has caught one before you should submit it for a record and snag a badge

This is sounding so cool, I'm actually super keen to head down that way when the weather warms up. How high are the ledges there? I have a pretty long gaff, but it couldnt be more than maybe 1.5-2m.. Might need to invest in a rope gaff.. If anybody's heading down in the summer and wouldn't mind showing me and maybe my mate the ropes that would actually be incredible. Feel free to give me a buzz

Sounds great I've always vaguely heard people talk about Eden but never heard of that spot so that's great!! Thanks heaps I'll definitely be sussing it out When I get some time off

Just had a quick google, south of Eden is it? How does it fish? Wouldn't be as packed as jervis would it! I'd be super keen to check it out if there's any info I could grab off you

I think it's around 27-30kg drag from the reviews I've read. It's a Fin-Nor Offshore OFS9500, I'm not certain exactly how the specs work out but I know it's the best eggbeater they have in that range. Can take plenty of line and easily handles tunas at least I believe. Pretty solid stuff

Cheers Pat that's the sort of answer I'm kinda after! I'm definitely keen to give it a go but wasn't sure about the locations. Looks like a trip north is on the cards then. Although I'll still give jervis a go before then. I've tried for kingies this winter but it's been really slow and only seen them once.. So yeah been thinking of trying out some new stuff when the weather warms up!

Where abouts is that? I probably should have been a little more specific and said I'm keen for spots anywhere south of Sydney!!

That was the most amazing thing I've ever read, I can't even contemplate how much of an incredible experience that was. Thanks for making my day at work a little better :-)

This summer I'm interested in trying for some land based tuna. I believe this restricts me to maybe mack, stripies and maybe the odd longtail or yellowfin while in NSW correct? My heaviest setup currently is a 50lb stickbait rod with a 65lb eggbeater reel on it. Around 250m of 50lb braid and 60lb leader on it at the moment. No good for LBG like marlin, but more along the lines of kingies, midsize tunas, and maybe the odd shark. While I know of the Tubes and the rest of the fishable beecroft peninsula at Jervis bay, (I do plan to check it out) I'm fully aware of the crowds of serious anglers and probable hostile locals that would be around when the fishing picks up. I reckon I'd get in their way being relatively new to the sport, so I was wondering if there are any other patches of headland on the NSW coast that are worth trying for my target species. I've also heard Eden is good, has anybody got some pointers down that way? I'm Canberra based, and pretty familiar with most of the areas of headland between Jervis down to merimbula. So yeah basically after some lighter land based game locations or advice! Any places other than the tubes that are worth checking out? Or am I wasting my time? Fallen in love with spinning for tailer salmon and bonito off the rocks this last year and want to take my first step towards something bigger! Cheers