SgtBundy

My regular lunch walks go through walsh bay. Those damn bream are huge and just there to tease

Awesome story - can feel the ups and downs on the session in that.

Looks a fair measure to me - seems more scientific than my record was I know when I got a similar size one last year it was pretty much the same fight, I thought I was dragging in a large lump of weed until it took off from the shallows. Pop a post in the record section and see what the mods make of it.

Thanks guys - I will figure it out one day

Yeah - I figured I was out, I had bait and gear, and I maybe had a chance with the low tide near dawn so might as well push through. Also returning home at 3am and waking up the wife usually is not a good move Might have been better over at Walsh bay or somewhere with more structure for kings or something but I know how ridiculous that place is on a weekend and from blues point it looked pretty occupied. My other thought was taking a nanna nap and using the remaining livies at another beach.

With the kids in bed I was given leave to head out last night. I had no fresh bait and I wanted to collect some lives anyway before hitting the beach for another crack at jewies. Hit balmoral around 9:40 with some squid jigs and some old pilchards for yakkas. The squid eluded me but the yakkas were almost suicidal and in an hour I had a dozen good small models ready to go. I packed them in the car and went to Colloroy beach around 11. In retrospect I should have trusted my observation and went elsewhere. There was no real structure and it seemed a shallow slope so I really couldnt cast into any sort of good water. I also thought using livies would mean scavengers like rays and carpet sharks would not be a problem. First two lives fell to small carpet sharks, a third lost its head to something and after the tide turned it went quiet. Around 1:30 I decided to pack up but with another half dozen lives I thought it a shame to waste them seeing as I usually dont get time to collect them. I opted to go to blues point and thought I would try putting some near that big holr and see if I could raise anything. The first few didnt last long so I kept them for bait. The next few got bitten by squids without any hookup. Eventually they were all gone so I put some out butterflied unweighted. The only customer for that was a large octopus which at first I thought was a kelp snag, but it came free and was brought up. Pretty strong bugger and was cool to see it change colour to match the gravel I had him on. He was cut free and the thrown back. There was plenty of surface activity but putting some yakka bits under a light float got nothing all night. Stayed through the early morning showers but no changes through dawn or the bottom of the low tide. Packed up at 7am. Other than the fishing I got to see shooting stars over the harbour bridge, watch two cruise ships manouvere out of circular quay at 5am, and watched a pretty nice sunrise So next time some more thought about my location and not settling for my first destination. Also need do more squidding practice.

I got fed up with pickers when bait fishing for smaller species so I prefer plastics now when I want to chase bream or flathead, they work and I have got a number on them - still yet to crack anything solid though but I think that is more to do with location and access. Off the beach nearly exclusively bait - but I have got a combo with the intent of soaking a bait for jewies with one rod while I use the other to throw metals or hardbodies to keep myself occupied. Leaning more towards lures where I can because the stink of mullet getting into everything is getting annoying.

Done

The run from the swivel to the sinker on the rig was 84cm so I would call it a fair 1m

Off hand it was about 3ft but looking at the photo I might get an estimate off my paternoster rig length that is lying along side him

Damn. I didnt measure it - can I submit a record on a guess Dad suggested I should have taken home some flake.

Arranged my work day so I could have s crack for jewies this evening and hit Newport around 8pm. As I got the gear out of the car I realised I had left the rod holders at home so it was going to be a single rod session. No matter - setup with some fresh mullet on the edge of a hole mid beach. Not long in and my line took off - big run, lot of power and what seemed like head shakes. Fought for about 20 seconds before it dropped - leader broken not far off the hooks. I took (hoped really) the action to be that I might actually be on to a jewie so I rerigged as quick as my knot skills would let me wanting to get back if they hung around. About 10 minutes later bang again - line runs off and I am hanging on but I was able to set the hook and then amp up the drag. It took multiple runs and some convincing to bring in, each time as it beached it would take off again. Got it out after using a few waves and my excitement faded... a little whaler shark. After a bit of back and forth trying to release it I finally managed to pick it up and send it back. After that it went quiet. Nothing through the turn of the tide or up until 11 when I called it a night. Some other guys on the south end beach seemed to have some activity and at one point I think a shark as well, but nothing that looked of note. Happy to have a good scrap with the shark but still chasing that ghost.

Sounds like an awesome way to spend a weekday morning

Mandating lifejackets etc is all good but some people simply just don't think it can happen to them. I mean I watched someone come off a kayak in flat calm in Gunnamatta bay no more than 10m from a sandbank they could stand on. They could not swim to keep their head above water, so why were they on a kayak with no lifejacket if they can't even swim a 10m dog paddle let alone what would have happened if they fell in further out where no-one could have heard them to come to their rescue. Same applies to rock fishing - some people are either oblivious to the risks or just consider themselves immune to it. The signs are a good idea - multilingual, clearly diagrammed showing required equipment, conditions to avoid, and as SaltWaterDog suggests listings of people killed at the spot, and possibly the numbers of people who were rescued. It might make some people take a second thought about what they are doing, but then again probably not.

What is funny is that this thread is now the first result.

Bad luck with the catfish spike - i suppose my trip wasnt that bad after all

Trevally fish might be dart?

I probably would have tried closer to the headland on the pittwater side if I didnt go back early - had plenty of bait left and wanted to try some alternative lures and SPs too.

Was getting withdrawl symtpoms and cranky about not having a proper session in the last few weeks. Decided Sunday morning was going to be the most workable family wise and setout to go at 4:30 and try Palm beach so I had the option to try the pittwater side as well. Could not get to sleep and so missed the alarm and was up at 5:40 meaning when I got to the beach near 7 I had missed the top of the tide. Surf was up but not terrible and I found what seemed a hole with a gutter running up to barrenjoey head. Put out some mullet and pilchards for only some nibbles so at 9 switched to pittwater. Set out the same baits while flicking SPs. I thought from google earth it was weed beds there but found it to be kelp so the SPs just did weeding duty. The mullet I had out was getting attacked by tiddlers but nothing big enough to take thr hooks. About 10 I got a call from the wife (she was allready annoyed about not getting back to sleep from when I left) and my daughter was crook so it was back home for me. Getting a bit annoyed with this dry streak of late - just cant seem to find them no matter what or where I try.

Yeah, its a good fish and on lure too. I think I would be livid, but mind you the closest I have got so far is a headshake and a thrown hook

Via facebook, from my school mates mum's friend's son. Fishing off rocks at shelly beach at Ballina, where that recent fatal attack occured. It seems the noahs are still about as of last night Head weighed in at 5.6kg so it would have been a solid fish.To add my dads comment - thats what you call skull dragging a fish.

After a 90 minute drive in crap traffic I got to gunnamatta bay with my daughter. She was just going for a swim while I flicked SPs but I made the mistake of warning her about little stingrays. She freaked out and would not swim unless holding my leg. After an hour of her sooking on the sand I gave in and took her home, fairly filthy that the session was cut short. No worries - sunday was going to be on kayaks with my Dad. Except we couldnt get up there until 2pm and he and my sister had already been out and said there was nothing... so we just sat around the house instead. Not a happy camper as a crap week at work made me really want to go out for a decent session

Nice work - awesome fish

Might see if I can get to my Dads spare hobie before my sister does so we can have a kayak session on sunday.

There looked like there was some deep water in front of me and I thought it looked like a gutter with the waves out back, but it was running hard to the north it was hard to tell what was going on, especially to the south because it was just all foam. I was using a 3 or 4 oz star sinker and it was holding mostly, but it did run off a few times but I was using some chunky mullet fillets. Tide was certainly the highest I have seen it at Narrabeen, but the days high water line on the sand from the morning tide was even further up.