huntman

There isn't any surf at wotamolla? so a beach setup might not be the best thing. I think your initial idea would be ok, or fishing off the rocks also good.

that photo looks like it should be on the cover of an old fishing book.

we have to find a cheaper way of getting squid jigs eh so expensive when you lose them. I was using 10lb line as well, so usually you can bend out the spikes, but not this time. No more fishing for me for a few months as I'm going away, but might try for some winter fish in july/august when I get back. I'll show andrew the jews you caught, he will be jealous, he is still waiting for his first legal one hehe

hey! andrew snr and I were squidding with you the other night in the hacking. Good to see you got onto a few jews. After you left that night I lost a jig as well

nah didn't get out as i was at uni. Got some kings the weekend before though with robbie which was fun.

nice stuff. looks like way more than 5cm diff. between the bream, they definately get a lot fatter and broader as they get longer.

tonk - is slang allowed?

I'll just add that whenever I fish there I lose a lot of tackle (part of the reason why I ended up giving it up as a spot) from the north side. I don't know what is on the bottom there, but it is a magnet for hooks and sinkers.

nice fish! do you eat them from the cooks? I always thought of it as a dirty river, but it seems a lot cleaner lately as I go past in the car.

hey guys I was downrigging next to you when you got the triple hookup! had to laugh at you handlining it in with the towel

it's like an imagination exercise duh

As of a couple of years ago you can no longer walk through to that spot, there are measures taken to block you off. We used to go for walks from gerringong to kiama and now you can't get through. I've fished werri beach and all I caught was salmon, but one of them was pretty big I guess. You might be able to drive past the spot and walk back to it? It's just that first paddock that is blocked off.

dude, I can't believe you just gave away spots 36 and 37! pretty soon they will be as crowded as spot X! Good info tho, it feels like there's always stuff you can learn about reading sounders.

congrats on a godo arvo sesh! how much after school work are you guys meant to do? And do you ever have to be at school during school holidays?

I would love to see a goanna eat a possum! circle of life man. That aside, sounds like a great holiday with some top fishing!

vince, same thing happened to us on robbies boat, the bomb caught and ripped the rigger off and ours was a scotty too, you just have to bring them up, that's two FRs who have learned the hard way now Now whereabouts is this fabled jewey hole hahaha

thanks, you pretty much answered all the questions I've had congrats again!

Very nice fish! Shame about the marlin Does longtail eat well? I've always heard people pooh pooh it for cooked food, but it is meant to be ok raw? I've tried looking on the net for an answer but no one is very specific, and I guess like everything it would be a matter of taste, but if anyone has an opinion to share I would be keen to hear it.

Well done! I was driving robbie's boat by the way, it was hard downrigging in that wind that came up.

well there were about 3-4 arches on the sounder when we checked it, but since there was only two of us we put one bait down at a time, with one driving. If we had our usual crew of three we may well have got a double! Of course we probably would have ended up stuffing it up though and losing both fish

you definately get kings around the nets sometimes.

haha robbie you're going to get an earful from toby when he hears you are letting out the cable tie secrets! Thanks all for the kind words. All week I planned to get out friday morning with andrew snr my father in law, but he pulled up sick at about 10pm and at such short notice I thought the trip would be canned as I was hesitant about going solo. After a few 4am texts HMAS robbieboat with first mate basil was chartered for the morning with an 11am curfew as the captain had other affairs to attend to. As usual we stocked up on some yakkas and went to go downrig. We rocked up at our first spot and I lowered the first rigger with the biggest yakka we had (still only like 6cm long) and told robbie to put the boat into gear. As I tightened the slack the line shot out and headed for the horizen. Being 6am I engaged in some "stating the obvious" and let robbie know I was on. I believe we must have dropped the bomb on the kingy's head and angered him enough so that the yakkas got smashed. After the line came up tight the king changed direction and headed straight down, I started to get a bit worried and thumbed the spool pretty hard to keep him off the floor, I managed to get him up a bit and just did the old pump and wind until I got a bit of colour. It was at this point that the king decided to make an account for himself and he charged back down ripping the drag off my tld pretty easily. I didn't feel like I was going to lose him, but he just went down deep and forced me to do more backbreaking pump and wind, and eventually just started doing big circles under the boat like a tuna. Rather ungentlemanly behaviour if you ask me, but then again, I guess fish aren't really men OR gentle. Eventually I got him beside the boat and I was cautiously optomistic that this was a PB for me, beating my previous best of 74cm. Robbie did an absolute gem of a job netting the fish, and dumped him at my feet. It took a half second to sink in, but we both knew once the fish was flapping around the back of the boat that this was a friggin huge kingy by our standards. After some whooping and hollaring we measured him and he came up 95cm so steve wins the guessing comp We were pretty thrilled and spent the next 20 mins taking photos before realising we should have probably dropped another bait down The rest of the day was pretty ordinary, with a few missed hookups and lost a rat due to not enough hands on deck to wind up lines and bombs in time. Robbie also missed his curfew of course, hence why there is no report. Which is a shame because he is much more entertaining and good at story telling than myself. Especially when I'm falling asleep at the keyboard pics to come when i am awake.

we always wash down our reels with fresh water. I hear warm soapy water works ok too, but we just use fresh water from the tap.

I too have been looking for info on catching a bass at audley. I have a non-raider friend who supposedly catches them there but I only see him once a year or so so if I can't work it out before the next time I see him I will let you know what he says

Firstly, the fee for using the park that you are so outraged about is $60 for two years, $40 a year, or $10 for a 48 hour pass. That's not really a big hit, and it allows the maintenance and upkeep of a very beautiful area. You would spend less than that in petrol for the day and you are helping contribute to the upkeep of the park and the great facilities there. I consider the fee a bargain compared to some of the other parks such as the snowy mountains park. Secondly, the commonwealth waters are a very small slice of the bay, and while it does seem a little over the top that you cannot have your fishing comp within them, most of the fishing done at JB is outside these waters anyway. I would advise you to enquire further about the nature of the ban on comps within commonwealth waters. There is a difference between fishing specifically for a competition, and entering a fish you caught that was quite big into a competition. From the sounds of the email it seems that the ban is only on the former. I think it is easy to get angry at national parks just because of the crap that has been pulled elsewhere, but I don't think it is very smart, because if fishermen get fired up just at the mention of certain key words like "national parks" "marine parks" etc. then it will be very difficult to get support from the general community when injustice really does occur (eg. batemens bay marine park). The reaction from the general community will be "yeah the fishermen are angry again ho hum". The only gripe I have with JB, the marine park, and the booderee national park, is that it is sometimes difficult to tell where the boundaries are because there are more zone types than a normal marine park. If I had a GPS I suppose that would be a non-issue. You guys are lucky to be able to fish such a beautiful, clean waterway regularly.