GoingFishing

Gday Raiders We currently fish with 130lb black magic trace on the troll for marlin. I have heard the lighter line will increase catch rate but i am thinking perhaps this is more relevant for live baiting. Whilst trolling is the marlin likely to see the trace, can i up line strength to say 200lb for trolling without impacting strike rate?

I tell ya the waters in and off Sydney are on fire at the moment ! some cracking warm water with lots of bait. Nice bag Yowie

Hi Mate - i use seabreeze. But i dont think any app is going to solve your mystery. Whether or not there will be calm water at a certain location is really dependant on what the swell and wind is doing on the day. Imagine fishing Putty beach on a day where there is a 3m swell is heading south - the water infront of Putty beach will be calm and standing there you could (incorrectly) question the accuracy of the forecast. The same beach in a swell heading north will probably experience the full freight of the 3m swell right as it is no longer protected. If you can spend your time getting your head wrapped around how conditions will affect a specific location then you will get a lot better fishing time.

You must live a sad miserable life having such little faith in people. Common sense can be taught. Stop being a dinosaur

Some cracking whiting there mate - especially that 44cm beasty

Dont compare those cheap american garbage groper to our majestic beautiful blue gropers 🤗

A rare beasty that big deserves to live. I wouldnt target them

I agree. Though there are lots of good spots east of the bridge accessible by land

Makes sense that you like to fish close to where you pump nippers. Sometimes to get good fish we have to do things that are very tiring and time consuming ! When i go live baiting i wake up 2 hours earlier, burley, catch yakkas and slimeys and then head out fishing. What im getting at is it seems you live close to Bundeena? Pump the yabbies and then head out for your trip somewhere else ! Or, pump them the night before and keep them alive with an air pump set up. Agree with Volitan - dont just cast anywhere on the beach randomly. Look for gutters and channels. Do some homework on how to read them. A pair of polarised sunnies will help too differentiating deeper water with shallower water. Try to get a high vantage point where you can look down on the beach before you walk down.

Oh and if your fishing for whiting.....red hook is a must, with some red plastic tube too.

Hi FishKent Welcome to fishraider. A very detailed post and your asking the right questions. For what it worth here is my feedback. 1. Its not clear in your post if your running your bean sinker directly to the hook. If you are, for estuary fishing i prefer a sinker to a swivel, followed by 1 metre of trace to the hook. This allows the bait to move freely with the water, sittint on the bottom and occasionally coming up into view. Fish like flathead sit on the sand looking up, so long as your bait is grounded (sinker directly to hook) your chances on flathead are compromised. 2. When casting for whiting i like to have a rod out with a bait. With another rod in my hand. The one i am holding i usually will cast out and then do a slow retrieve. Again this creates some action on the bait which and the sinker dragging on th sand creates some action/sand cloud givin the imitation of bait trying to hide. Have caught many whiting on the retrieve. 3. Seems as though you do most of your fishing in a small geographical area around Bundeena. Generally speaking this is not one of the best areas to fish as there is a sand bank some 80 to 100m out which creates unusual tidal movements in this area. Are you able to travel? Windang is not too far from you and there is good fishing to be had at the mouth where the river meets ocean. 4. Other good spots near you include the lilli pilli baths, the beach at boat harbour and the beach at Cronulla. 5. Fish can sometimes be inexplicably picky, try mixing up baits such as fresh prawns, worms etc

@kingie chaser Warning ! Trigger alert 🤣

https://7news.com.au/news/nsw/port-kembla-man-dead-another-critical-after-they-were-swept-off-the-rocks-c-2151631 Two dead. So sad

Cracking fish mate well done. Dollies are so much fun. Which FAD did you visit.

Nice write up Pickles - looks like you guys had a heap of fun.

Thanks Pickles - was a fun day out on the water ! PS - thats my old man!

Nice fish - they are so much fun to catch. One of my favourites.

Thats unreal !!! awesome stuff from Mercury seriously

Good on you team Scratchie - awesome stuff. Sounds like one of those days that you remember forever. Glad you made it back safely.

Great catch Zoran. Id leave that one whole and put it on the downrigger, trolled at perhaps 6-7 knots 🤣🤣

Explains how the boat sank in 90 seconds.....Scratchie under there with a scuba mask and 25mm drill bit 🤣

Mate always a top report.

Thanks Scratchie - just gotta keep persisting and the reward will come i hope ! PS Yes, gave my sister a nice big slab of mahi steak. She loved it. Thanks Z - he certainly was a worthy adversary. Lucky i got to fight him in lieu of the beakie this time because i tell you now in hindsight, theres a few things i learnt on the way that could have cost me the Marlin ! PS - have not seen Scratchies advice on how to deal with spearos ! Link me Thanks Yowie - i hope you manage to get your knee sorted and back on the water very soon Thanks Brendan ! cant complain a about a nice big dolly. Still an amazing fight and amazing figh. Cheers mate - warm water getting in very close now. especially down south Thanks Frank for the encouragement. They are a very frustrating yet rewarding species for sure. Lots of money to be spent on gear and fuel. Thanks Oscar, and goodluck. let us know how you go? Cheers KC - Absolutely, great eating too Thanks Rebel Thanks Gordo. Yes i agree lots of spearos that are quite friendly, my remarks werent intended to be broadly applied across all spearos, just that boat on the FAD that Sunday.

Gday Raiders I hope all is well, i imagine many Raiders are glad that xmas shutdown and school holidays are over. Less crazy at the boat ramps though i must say if Foreshore Rd was any indication on the weekend, it doesnt seem to be that much better ! Due to a mixture of family commitments, bad timing of poor weather and work i have not managed a to go fishing since my last trip with @zmk1962 at Browns on the 10th Jan. Not being able to get out absolutely categorically sucked because by all accounts the Marlin fishing off the east coast the last month has been on FIRE. Every afternoon checking the dozen or so social media accounts to keep tabs on whats going on theres been plenty of fish caught. This weekend looked like it was going to be the same, wifes birthday on Saturday and she also had a bridal shower to attend on Sunday, but i could handle the thought of waiting another week to go out. Without sounding like a lunatic, it had consumed me. Thinking about Marlin 24/7, lack of concentration, getting reallly bitc%$y and short tempered around the house. I had to do something, so i organised (begged) my sister to baby sit the kids (all three of them) for the day, she would pick them up early morning and drop them off late afternoon. Thanks sis, bloody life saver. With my new found freedom, a plan was hatched with my mate Ralph to chase the elusive beakie. Then........late on Saturday arvo he had to pull the pin. F%#K. Now most of you will know i do 90% of my fishing with my dad, who loves fishing, but doesnt get too hot under the collar about endless hours of trolling for Marlin, so hes not a fan. Nonetheless he agreed to come along on the proviso we visit the FADs first. So that was the plan. Dropped the boat in at 530am, ramp was almost full. Heard a few blokes on the radio say it was full by 6am, but cant confirm this myself. I didnt bother with livies and we fanged it straight out the heads, the weather was perfect, a 1 or 1.3m swell but with 12 second separation we were just cutting over the top at 45km/hr. Arrive at the first FAD (8km), water greenish, circa 22 degrees. A few boats floating around throwing live baits, lures and pillies. We stayed 15 minutes and packed it up to head over to the Botany Wide FAD (18km or so). Great thinking by Fisheries this year, all FADs off Sydney are doubled up, with two FADS circa 200/300m apart. After doing a test drift (and bagging one legal dolly) i set myself up for another drift that would take me from one FAD to drift right past the other. Evidently the mahi were swimming back and forth because we caught fish at all intervals between the two FADs. Towards the end of our drift i noticed a boat drive over and park infront of me, like.....3m infront of me. So i politely asked whats the reason for this, he pointed towards a few spear fishos in the water. I explained that they're miles away from me and that they cant keep the FAD entirely for themselves. He sorta just shrugged his shoulders and ignored me. Now, had DPI only put out one FAD, it would have been verbal abuse time, but with another FAD 200m away and wanting to restart the drift anyway, i let him have his win and just motored away. No need to ruin my day. Shortly after about 4 boats visited that FAD and he cant fight off 4 boats so they packed up and effed off anyway.....suck it loserr !! All in all we had an absolute blast on the dollies ranging from legal to circa 80cm. Lost one that was easily over 1.2m when my rod buckled over, line screaming and i saw it jump once, jump again, third jump slack line. Didnt expect to fight 1.2m beasty on 30lb leader. Anyway, around 10am we packed it up and started trolling for Marlin. Now the plan was to troll from BB Wide FAD, to another private FAD about 13km north, then continue trolling to the bait station and then head back in. We had been trolling for about 40 minutes when i saw two birds ahead, just gliding and swooping, i thought.....could they be following something, or just searching. Not a minute later the JB Dingo in Blue & Pink got crashed. Line peeling off the Shimano TLD50 we cleared the deck and i strapped in to fight the fish. Now, this is the first time i fight a sizeable fish on an overhead reel where you need to "finger" the line to make sure its reeled in evenly. F&K me.....that is HARD YAKKA and my forearms and hands are still munted today. We established early on it was not a marlin as there was no acrobatics and the fish had a tendency to stubbornly float in the deep....but without the tell tale tail beats of a tuna i wasn't sure what i had. Finally got this fish boatside to see a nice sizable Mahi Mahi. Not the fish i was after, but not complaining ! Of course, there was madness at the end trying to find the gaff only to realise we left it at home *slaps forehead* but in the end i used my learned skills from my trip with @Scratchie , reach over, grab the fish, pull it overboard LOL ...... Fish measured 132cm, heres a nice snappy with my dad holding it as he is far more photogenic than i am Continued trolling for another 3 hrs and didnt find anything but dollies. Until next week, the chase for a beakie continues. Thanks for reading.

youll be surprised. they dont ring on private. it shows up as a NSW land based number (02). The nature of my work is such that i get alot of calls from NSW land lines, so i cant just ignore them