fragmeister

Poddy Mullet are a great flathead bait. Where have you been fishing with them and how have you rigged them? Cheers Jim

Its another great Luderick. While it must be disappointing if you lose your newly gained record, well done to you for breaking the record in the first place and showing such good sportsmanship in this post. Cheers Jim

Great catch fella. I can image how happy that PB would have made you. You're a quick learner... or was that just quality of the advice from the seasoned luderick fisherman? Either way well done to you and the rest of team "fish raider". Cheers Jim

Thanks buddy, Immerse yourself in the fishing or immerse yourself in the material loss.... no brainer really!

Lots of good advice here. NaClH2OK9 makes a good point with using braid. I think many of us have tended to use heavier braid when we shifted from mono just because of diameter advantage allowed the same spool capacity without a lot of thought as to whether the drag would handle it of whether any advantage was lost by adding a fine mono leader I also have a TLD25 and I am confident it can run at the maximum drag rating for extended periods.

Some people are very skilled.

Whats not to like! Fishraider defines what a forum community should be all about. Those who take the time to provide and contribute to a resource like this such as the site owners, sponsors, administrators moderators and members should be afforded the respect and consideration they deserve regardless of age, sex, ethnic background and fishing experience or fishing competency. This is where other forum sites frequently fall short and end up being a vehicle for a select few to bolster their own egos by ridiculing those less experienced, less successful, the wrong ethic group or the wrong sex. While I have not been on the receiving end of this I have certainly seen plenty of this on other forums and as the father of three girls and a teenage boy the Fishraider site is the only forum I have ever felt 100% comfortable letting them view. In my view this is not just a forum, it is a living example of how interaction and communication should be and a great example for my kids to watch in action. And, of course the fishing experience here is second to none. Thanks Fishraider

Well hows this for luck... tuns out it was a guy from down the road who was coming back from night shift. He waved apparently as I exited my driveway and as he did so he saw the bag fall off in the driveway. He gave me a yell but I didn't hear him and went on my merry way. So he picked the bag up and put in on the verandah in case I came back for it. I didn't see my wife until later yesterday evening when she finished work and I am always a little paranoid about waking her up when I go for an early fish as she is a lousy sleeper and works odd hours. "As a matter of fact DARLING" she said , slightly annoyed, "I slept fine until I heard someone yelling your name at the top of their voice at 3am..." "Oi Jim... JIM! ....JIMMY! JIMMMMMMMMMM!" she demonstrated. "Yeah" says the kids what was all that about... it woke us up too! Anyway, it all turned out ok as it usually does for me.

Yes, that was the one.

Hi Raiders, Headed out this morning into the harbour and went straight over to Camp Cove to look for a few squid for fresh kingie bait. This spot usually produces reasonably well but I struck out and gave up after an hour or so and went out to chase the salmon of north head. As usual there were massive boils of salmon but this time I had packed the fly rod and a selection of likely flies. I was ready except for one important factor, the reel, which is normally left attached to the rod and fits in the custom rod case was not there. It was in my bag along with my phone , gopro and my lunch. Hang on I thought, I know I put that bag on the back of the boat before I took the boat cover off early this morning. Hmm... I didn't put it in the boat after I took the cover off... I left it on the transom. Bugger... Its fallen off the back on the way to the ramp! Ouch! I'm up for a new phone , GoPro, fly reel and I am going to have to go hungry! So what else do you do in this situation but continue to fish. I threw all sorts of lures at the salmon and after about 20 lure changes and 20 gazillion casts I jagged on one a metal slug and had a bit fun for the next 10 minutes until in an desperate last bid aerial he threw the hooks. I took a run out to the artificial reef and was surprised to see a commercial fishing vessel netting right next to the reef. I couldn't remember the rules for how far away from commercial fishing vessels you were supposed to be when they had nets out so I just bottom bounced for a while. For some reason I thought this was a recreational fishing resource...not sure why I thought that. After a while I wend back into the harbour and checked out all the markers but none appeared to holding any kings so I stopped near Neilsen Park and drifted back towards Rose bay on the tide and picked up a flathead of about 60 cm and a few keeper Trevs( no pics sorry for reasons already explained). Water temp was 19.8 and there was not a lot of bait around. The tide was not ideal. Should be better next week. Went home early and just as I put the boat back in driveway I noticed bag was tucked away behind the lattice on the verandah... some honest and considerate person had found it and noticed the address on a tag I attached and the phone, Gopro, my fly reel and my lunch were all still there. I wish I knew who it was so I could thank them..... restores your faith in human nature it does. Thats it for this week. I'm off to eat that flathead in adamchef's special batter recipe, which incidentally is a cracker. Cheers Jim

...and so it was 30 odd years ago when I lived in that area and fished the baths regularly! In those days and probably today there was many a surprised fisherman when a yakka they were hauling in on a 6lb handline was engulfed by a kingy and more often than not it resulted in cut fingers and lost handlines.

All this talk of fully locked drag settings is getting me excited! Off for my Friday fish tomorrow!

Interesting. I have to say that I use a lot of braid but I do prefer a mono line in some applications such as on the kids rods, fishing very light or in windy conditions and especially with flicking lures attached to a swivel as all these situations for me at least add up to more tangles. Some of the issues of course are reduced when you use a mono leader but I think that you have to pay much more attention when using braid. So in short, I would be keen to try this new alternative and it seems its a whole lot cheaper to produce so we should see an eventual reduction in price after they have fleeced us a little in the new product release hype! Thanks for posting this one.

Thanks Dave, Might head over that way with the kids on Saturday for a change from the harbour. Probably wont get much fishing in but its great to get out in that part of the world again. Cheers

Good read Yowie, I look forward to reading your reports as I used to live in the shire and fished almost exclusively in the area. I think many find it a little tough at times in that system with such clear water not providing a lot of cover for predators or prey. You have to know your locations and your times & tides. Deeban spit used to be a highly productive flathead spot for me when I was land based but it seems to have gone downhill over the lat 10 years. Whats your personal experience of the flathead scene that area? Cheers Jim

Like most of us I have been stabbed by the spines on a flattie and stood on my fair share of rays without any significant reaction. However, I know of a few people who have had a quite severe reaction to getting stabbed by a prawn. One in particular had eaten seafood without ill effect but stabbed themselves when peeling prawns and had a severe anaphylactic reaction... lips swelled up, couldn't breath and need hospitalisation. Obviously this is an extreme reaction but until you've been stung, bitten or stabbed by one of our piscatorial friends you really don't know how you may react. Another mate just needs an over the counter antihistamine when he gets stung.... I think he uses Phenergen ( not sure of the spelling) If you are bitten, stabbed or stung and the reaction is localised then its probably nothing to worry about but if you experience anything more general and in particular numbness on the lips and tongue then I would get medical attention quickly as a precaution. Cheers Jim

Not sure what area you come from but probably the best ramp to easily get to the Kingy spots in the harbour is the Rose Bay ramp. Its easier for me to come all the way down the river so I can't vouch for how busy the Rose Bay Ramp gets but there are a coupe of young fishos on this forum who use that ramp all the time so they will probably chip in and let you know when they see this post. Any significant marker or structure in Sydney Harbour or Middle Harbour can hold kings including channel markers, large wharfs, reefs, wrecks and headlands and boat moorings. On good days at the right time & tide pretty much anyone you roll up to will be holding kings. On not so good days you may have to go from one likely spot to another until you find them on the sounder. Watch the posts here and you will see when they start to come on in bigger numbers... that would be a good time to think about a trip to the harbour.

Yes, I agree completely. My testing is all about getting a feel for what 1 or 3 or 10kg of drag is so I can do a bit of guesstimating in the thick of fighting a fish. I have on occasions set the drag using scales just before setting a bait out for say a kingy or a jew but that all falls by the wayside after a while and sometimes you want actually to set a light drag and dial it up later. I have made the mistake of putting 10KG of drag on a live bait and not being able to get the rod out of the holder before the king had me wrapped around the pilons. The pure pressure of the fish and the leverage on the rod had it jammed in the rod holder. I got it out but it was all too late. All in all though I reckon I have lost more fish through not enough drag than too much drag.

I haven't actually compared but I would expect the breaking strain not to change.

Excellent video... loved the bit where you fell in! Thanks for posting.

By my calculation that fish has about a 3 to one mechanical advantage on you so at 15kg drag you are hanging on to two bags of cement with your arm outstretched! No wonder its a battle.

Good practical advice from Scratchie too. Sorry Jeff, you must have posted while I was typing so I missed that very sensible advice. Cheers

" I'll just catch us a feed" ... isn't it great when a plan comes off. Although I hate to be reminded that there is a recommended maximum "dosage" Not much gets me down but that sure does. Anyway, 30 seconds later I'm over that! Good job again and I'm looking forward to the next post. Cheers

Good advice from Rock Hopper & Jocler. Sounds like they have already convinced you but I'll back them up for good measure. Every so often when the newspapers see fit to report it we find that there are up to dozen or so fishermen who die off the rocks each year. Of the people who drowned , I believe that none could swim or were very poor swimmers, very few wore cleats, none wore life jackets and most were inexperienced rock fisherman. A number also died after jumping in to save friends who had been washed off the rocks. Having done exactly that when fishing off the rocks at the north end of Maroubra about 30 years ago so I know how difficult it is to keep someone afloat in the wash even if you are a strong swimmer. In those days we used to carry an un-inflated wine cask bladder in our pockets and inflate it if we ended up in the drink although I never did until this day. I blew it up and gave it to the guy who fell in to help him keep afloat while I half dragged him out to deeper and safer water, this was a task and a half. Someone raced around to the beach and the life savers came out and grabbed us. We were both very luck that day. In my view you even if you were fishing with an experience rock fisherman you should be a strong swimmer and wear a life jacket and a light weight climbing helmet. This may sound like a overkill but it covers the possible scenarios. You can rip an inflatable life jacket on the rocks if you are knocked off your feet and dragged off the rocks so if you are a strong swimmer you have a chance. A light climbing helmet will reduce the chance of getting knocked out which was the case in some of the deaths recorded. You sound a very sensible young man and you did the right thing by asking the question in the first place so I know you will take the advice onboard. Cheers Jim

Give it ago... I think you will be surprised.