livo

I think I recognise the spot in the second photograph. I lived there in the 70's. Nice fish by the way.

Big Reds on the coast are few and far between these days. One afternoon after work about 6 yrs ago (I think) I took a mate out to Terrigal Wide and we bagged out on plate size reds and 40 - 50 cm flatties BUT when we were cleaning at the ramp a larger boat came in from Texas with a 2 man bag limit of Reds above 2 kg and up to 5 kg. Amazing and I've only seen it that once. They were throwing good fish away because the bigger ones kept coming up. Fish were going mad that day and we ran out of bait in about 2 hours. To give you an idea of the time it was just before the size limit changed from 28cm to 30cm. I can't remember when that was but someone will. My mate was pissed at me because I had him throwing back legals and telling him to get used to it. The guys from the other boat said they were pulling them up as doubles on Paternoster rigs out of deep water. They were obviously prepared for it as they were cutting up cutlets with a hacksaw, which I can tell you is not part of my usual cleaning tool kit. About 5 years ago at Easter another of my fishing mates went out from Norah Head with his "very secretive buddy" and scored a full box of big Reds to 5 kg at Bird Island in 35 mteres of water. Just one day and they were there. I think it's mainly a matter of luck as we've been back to this spot for small reds and or nothing. People will say there are no more Snapper at Norah Head but the blokes who still catch them don't believe it. The above-mentioned "very secretive buddy" would put his boat straight on the trailer and drive away from the ramp without talking to anybody. Never cleaned fish at the table so no one would see what they had and my mate was under instruction to "Tell them nothing" while holding the boat, waiting for the trailer to come down the ramp. I cant make my mate fish with anything other than a running ball sinker down to the hook as that was how he was taught to catch reds and thats all he wants. Mind you he catches some. My old butcher, Grant and his mates used to hit Wooli with 4 boats for a two week Snapper session every year and maybe they still do. I haven't seen him for about 3 years since he moved shop but they sure did catch some. I've seen his photos. 70 odd fish in four or five fishing days per boat over a 2 week period. He also used to catch Reds at Norah Head and he told me that most fishos motored over the top of them to fish deep water for nothing. Our waters here are very different to places like Port Phillip Bay which is obviously a point on the migratory route of Reds. I'd love to go there as there is very little that comes close to the hit, run and shake of a good snapper. I've caught a couple of nice ones just south of Broughton Island in about 20 meters of water fishing with floaters in a heavy berley trail but as far as East Reef goes I've caught nothing bar 1 just legal fish in my last 4 stops. The Red has become a bit of a challenge and I dont think your ever going to outdo your southern friends.

Memories. My family used to regularly camp out in the miners huts outside Burraga which is not far from Oberon. We lived on underground chicken, humanely dispatched with 22 hollow points and beautiful river trout. My claim to fame was catching a nice Brown as long as my arm out of the Isabella River which ran past the huts. Mind you I was only 8 but my arm was 21.5 inches long. The fish was estimated at 4 lb. Beautiful country.

Where do those fish go when there is no water? Glad to see you released it. What a shame it would be to see this magnificent native freshwater species threatened to the point of extinction or even worse, gone forever, due to our insatiable need to pump every river dry to grow stuff in a desert.

Sorry about the messy post. Two weeks ago the photos just fell into place. Maybe it's the Woody's I will add here that almost all fish were caught on pilly cubes with a couple of reds and blertas falling to that red Ultrabait stuff that you mix up in the plastic bag. We ran out of pillies and we had 4 kg's with us to start. We usually take some other baits like Mackeral and Tuna fillets and some squid but today we didn't. In the shallow water I was chucking handfulls of chook pellets over the side every couple of minutes but the current was probably taking them away from the boat.

Yeah it ended up a good day with the last two hours producing a good box out of what was pretty ordinary. I'm not worried about the gear as I cast all my own lead and I've got a few years supply. Only cheap ebay hooks so no problems. The main problem is the amount of line you lose from the reels after a few rounds with them. While the FIL doesn't like them, my and tin lids eat Jackets and I was brought up eating them for Sunday breakfast. It's hard to stay interested in catching them for too long though once you've got 10 or so on ice.

Well after 6 hours of Leather jackets and 5 different spots we eventually found some quality. The day started well with a keeper Snapper (32 cm) at Terrigal Wide on the first bait of the day and then the Jackets arrived. Current was pretty strong out of the south and we were losing gear. I'd say the snapper were there but we couldn't get the baits to the bottom before the jackets hit them. We kept six but my FIL hates them and it's his boat so up anchor and we move about 10 kms north to 54 meters in front of Toowoon Bay. Guess what? Jackets. Another 4 in the esky and FIL has had enough. In to The Entrance Gullys at 45 meters and the Reds are there in numbers and hungry but all between 20 and 28 cms. By this time the High Tide has passed and the Reds are going cold. The saver here was a rather large Flathead. Also a small Nannygai. There were stacks of Sargent Baker everywhere and I caught 3 big ones on my floater rig. Decided on another move to a spot in shallower water in front of Forresters Beach for nothing. We have a favourite spot out in front of Avoca so off we go. By this time the water is smooth. Anchor up at The A Frame and its all Snapper and Trevally plus a nice Blue Morwong. Days Tally is one ripper Flatty, 5 blertas, 10 Reds, 13 Leatheries and a Nannygai. The Leather Jackets are everywhere and we must have dropped about a dozen sinkers between 4 and 8 oz each plus a couple of dozen hooks.

My local fishmonger sold me a 15 kg box of snap frozen Human Consumption Grade Pillies for $75.00 after I told him how sick I was of buying blocks of WA pillies that turned to mush as they defrosted. They were brilliant and I need another box. I have also bought squid, garfish, bonito and yakkas fresh from the Newcastle Co-op at reasonable prices. Shop around and ask some questions. Sometimes bait sold as bait is dearer than fresh stuff you can buy for human food and the quality is questionable. Of course you need a freezer to keep it in

Oh no. That means I have to keep trying. Now you have a lot to answer for as well Mr. D. My boss wants to know why my productivity over the last few days has been down. I told him I've been trying to find the right spot to start, which makes all the difference to the end result.

OK, You've got a lot to answer for. My new PB

I don't think it was a Gummy Shark that did that. 400lb of fish dinner in a bite is a decent set of teeth.

A mate had a couple down as well but they were only light and are now gone. We did scout around a bit but couldn't find any others. I'd say early in the day would have to be the go.

Yeah, I understood that Big-B. I was just pointing out that the water is nowhere near 90 Fathoms deep at the FAD. It's 60 fathoms actually. What day was your mate out there? I was there from about 8.00am till about 9.30am on Sunday morning and only two small dollies caught by one of the 4 boats fishing there over that time. All 3 other boats arrived after us but we left first as well when the action was a bit lean.

The only thing I know of thats got better choppers than Jackets is big Green Toads. I've seen them chop long shank hooks in half. You bring your rig in with the shank of the hook still tied on. Don't put your finger anywhere near them if you get one to the boat. Teeth like a guillotine. These guys sometimes frequent the mouth of the Hawkesbury as I'm sure others can attest. I'm actually quite adept at catching Leatheries on a hand line, as my father trained me to do it as a kid, and I've since trained others in the art, but put the same rig on even the most sensitive of rods and your gear is gone 9 times out of ten.

Terrigal FAD is in 112 metres of water which is nowhere near 90 Fathoms (which is 165 metres) or was that the depth of the water where they lost the marlin? If that's the case they were a long way past Terrigal FAD. I've just checked my Garmin Bluechart Mapsource Charts and Terrigal FAD is only halfway to any water near 160 m or 90 Fathoms. You have to be about 45 Kms out to find that depth off Terrigal and the FAD is only 18 Kms from The Haven I suggest you guys get your sounder checked out. It's obviously seriously out of calibration.

There were dollies in the water at Terrigal FAD yesterday but not very hungry. They swam up to the boat and sniffed around unweighted pillies and little Bluebait but wouldn't eat them. They wouldn't touch a Chromed Raider either. One boat caught two while we were there and a few broke water around us but that was it. Water did not feel real warm.

Ahh, so you found my missing Leather jackets.

I used the same set of hooks all day and didn't lose any lead. Unlike 2 weeks ago when I lost enough to run a large charter for the day. Mind you my wife likes eating Jackets and so do I.

Both, which is why I was asking those dudes who caught the big land-based kingfish how they managed to cast a 1.5 kg squid out as bait from the rocks bearing in mind that it is like trying to throw three stubbies. The method I would use would have the squid chopped and cooked before it hit the water and I think the Army would want to know where there Bazooka went. Seriously though, look for the common denominator and cancel out before you do the maths. Quite simple really. Did you know you can estimate fairly accurately the weight of a Marlin by measuring the circumference of it's "ankle". ie the bit right in front of the tail. Apparently 20 inches equals 1000 lb. Mind you I cant verify this as I've never been able to catch one. There are many different and quite accurate ways to measure the weight of fish without scales. Do a google and you'll see what I mean.

Stumpy, I think the FAD you couldn't find was the Broken Bay FAD or Sydney North as it's called on the DPI Fisheries site. We were at The Terrigal FAD today which is a little bit further north but it is hard to see that when your out that wide. We were out if the FIL's boat today and I didn't take my GPS. His coordinates for the Terrigal FAD were a couple of years back and we had to make a couple of Phone calls to get the right ones. Once we had them we found that we were 3.56 km to the north and you can only see the bouy when you are within 1 km on a calm day (as was today). But with the right coordinates we found it and again we would have run over it. Interestingly though the other boats out there today were not launched at Terrigal but came up from the south so my guess is either Broken Bay, Pittwater or perhaps even the Harbour. Either way they must have passed the BB FAD to get to Terrigal FAD.

Started early and eventually found the FAD. (Old Coords in the GPS so a phone call or two later) Dollies were there but not hungry. We could see them spying our baits and a couple jumped around us but none for the ice. One boat got two while we were there but we decided a bottom bash would be better. Hit 70 meters at Terrigal Wide and started a burley mix happening. First fish was a reasonable Mowie followed by another and another. Then a 33cm red and a nice surprise for the skipper with a 40 cm Pearl Perch. 3 more mowies with the largest about 50 cm. A nannygai and another little red (legal). All fish were caught in the hour either side of Full tide and then there was none. Tried 50 meters at Terrigal East on the way in for baby Red feeding time so in to the ramp at 2.30. pm. The big surprise of the day was no leatherjackets. Doesn't my son photograph well????

Simple calculation will tell you that this fish is around 70 lb. Length in inches squared, multiplied by the girth and then divided by 1200 will give approximate weight in lbs. ie 50 *50 * 36 / 1200 = approx 75 lb. (dimensions estimated from the human) I know of many large jew caught an F&S and rule of thumb for biggies is 10 - 12 lb / foot, but this fish is very fat and is easily the full 68 lb. What a beauty. You've gotta love whole mullet for bait at this time of year.

Thanks. I was wondering how you get your baits away from the rocks. A 1.5 kg squid is big bait. That's like trying to throw 3 stubbies.

Probably the most important thing to remember with the Alvey sidecast is to get the line onto the reel properly in the first place. There are several different and somewhat conflicting theories about how to do this. I'd be interested to know if any of you have any info. Some say to put your new line spool on a spindle thus allowing it to spin as the line comes off as you would do for an eggbeater ( ie no twist). Others say to pull the line off the side of the spool in the reverse direction to the reel which puts an inbuilt twist into the line which then counteracts the twist produced by the reel. Care also needs to be taken in applying tension to the line as you spool up due to the actual amount of line held on them. Too much tension and the top layers will cause deformative pressure on the inside line and possibly cause embedding where the line actually clamps onto itself. Too little tension and the line will birdsnest off the side of the reel when casting and create a terrible mess. These problems will obviously affect casting distance. I used to work with a guy who competed in long distance casting competitions with Alveys and those guys took it very seriously (followed by ) Hurling snapper leads around on football fields to see who could go the furthest in different weight classes. He told me that he would immerse his new line in a tub of hot water (not too hot of course) for a couple of hours before spooling up to improve the way it sat on the reel. I have to admit that in the past I have had some trouble with getting the line on the Alvey reel properly.

Well done guys. Woohoo. They are two very nice fish. What great fun from the rocks. Can I ask if you put your baits out unweighted or under a float or balloon? You mention the cloud cover allowing the fish to come to the surface so I assume your using floats of some kind. How do you cast 1.5kg of squid? That's a job on it's own. Green with envy. I'd have loved to be there just to watch.