GoingFishing

Great bag as always Yowie do u commonly find the blue spots inside the hacking or is this rare?

Nice catch Luke those are some perfect eating size reds with the wife satisfied should get u some brownie points for next time haha

Happy Easter Raiders Headed out solo today with the plan to catch some flatties as they have been hard to find of late. armed with salted bonito strips, a bag of prawns and some soft plastics i headed out past sydney heads just on first light, it was rather sloppy and whilst the live wind readings said 9knots i could almost swear it felt more like 15 anyway first stop was in 40m out from the lighthouse, nothing there, moved around and tried different depths, north then south still no flatties. By this time i was getting tired from the slop because me and the boat were getting thrown about so i decided to head for sheltered water infront of manly. Did a drift over queenscliff reef with unweighted baits for the snapper and a surprise samsonfish. Then got some deadweight which i initially called for a stingray but up came the biggest darn cuttlefish i have ever seen. Massive slimy bastard he was. Lifted him into the boat to remove the hook and take some fotos to share the story and sent him on his way but not before he inked all over my boat and it was f&@$kng EVERYWHERE. What a mess. the tasty flathead still eluded me. All my usual spots have been baron over the last few weeks so i spent a good 20 minutes studying the charts on my lowrance and found what looked like probable flatty territory only 1km away and in shallow water. The water was now far less sloppy than it was in the morning but still a good size swell pumping through so it would be comfortable. Headed over first bait down didnt even get to put the rod back in the holder flathead on. Woohooo over the next hour or so i cought a flathead a cast and kept 10 around the 40-45cm bracket for the table. Returned one big girl back to the drink around 60cm from what i hear thats about as big as the blue spots get unlike their dusky brothers. Also picked up two bonus flounders all in all a great day in the water. hope everyone else had some luck today

Hi mate are you fishing by boat and if so is your boat able to head outside for a quick journey to the northern beaches, if you do, i have some marks which should put in a decent chance with some good flounder grounds. Its deep water so 20m+ Sorry i dont have any reliable land based flounder marks

What i am most dissappointed in is the long time members who have rejected the solution to what was an insurmountable problem, are they saying theyd rather see FR close down? logic would dictate that if the swordies wanted to use fishraider as a cashcow, they could have done so many many years ago but NO, instead they financed, managed, administrated and operated this site FREE OF CHARGE for so many years with their own sweat and blood. This is the only real solution which im sure as painful as it was for the swordies was made so that ALL OF US can continue to benefit from this site. The costs associated with becoming a member would be so small when compared to how much we spend on lures, tackle, bait etc and you cant even put a price on the access to information and wealth of knowledge and people on this site. I dont want to make it personal but just cant fathom how anyone cant see this as a sound fair and reasonable solution. That being said, id bet you those complaining wouldnt get off the coach to do something free of charge or out of the goodness of their hearts for others. Hypocrisy runs wild in our world

What a great report, congratulations to the young one on his first fish. I still remember my first ever fish, a flathead at Bobbin Head so i can totally relate to the excitement at the time i screamed out to my dad " dad i caught a shark!"

That is absolutely fantastic news and of course i am more than willing to pay a membership fee why am i willing to pay a membership fee -because the tiny cost associated with membership provides me with access to a wealth of knowledge relating to tackle, boating, fishing and everything under the sun remotely related to our collective addiction. We post reports we share knowledge and moments If anyone who has been a member of this forum for even a short period of time cant see the "bang for your buck" bargain they are getting then that is unfortunate, and thats not even taking into consideration the lack of appreciation for swordies and mod teams hard work over the years FREE OF CHARGE.

I am absolutely gutted and i dont know what to say or do........ i will miss everyone dearly and thanks to everyone who i have learny SO MUCH from. a special thanks to stewy and donna and all the moderators for the fantastic work making this forum what it is today.

Hi mate i have an Etec and can tell u that is the speedo hose. I know this because my speedo stopped working last nov and i had to get it fixed very common problem with the e-tecs mine has since broken again so i use the fishfinder/nav for speed info

Haha can u recommend a local tackle store when i can buy some "luck" !! ? Great work btw

Mate thats an awesome feed u got there great work. Flatties will eat just about anything! I met an indigenous local at foster once who told me he wraps aluminium foil and a feather around a hook and would cast and retrieve in the surf and swore it worked like dynamite. how are the dart for eating, Any fish u could compare it to?

Glad to see u got into a few thats a nice dolly i love the colors when they come up to the boat all litt up ! Baby compared to ur double bulls last week haha !

Its days like this that motivate you for wake ups at 5am ! Pan fried snapper today for lunch? Thanks Yowie a good result for me and the guys but a regular day for u im sure !!

Thanks mate For the snapper smallest sinker size u can find straight to the hook, strips of bonito flesh say 5cm long by 2cm wide drifted down the burley trail for flatties same size bait on a paternoster rig

Haha you do know the knowledge still has to be learnt right ? Great catch Royce

Gday Raiders great day out there today, conditions werent perfect but not uncomfortable either. water temp at north and south heads sitting around 22.6 which is cooler than it was last week (23.8) A moderate breeze in the early morning which died down nicey by 1030ish. Trolled some bibbed lures around the headlands for the bonito, kept them all for bait to be filletted and salted. Still plenty of bonito around the stones and if your targeting them make sure u have the xmas tree in your arsenal they are deadly. Drifted my usual spots on the northern beaches for flathead and only found two keepers, better than last weeks flatty donut but at least theyre making a show again, hopefully theyl be plentiful again soon. After giving up on the flathead we moved to another spot which looked good on the charts but by then the wind had almost died completely. With barely any drift we thought it might be a good idea to throw down the anchor and burley up and wow did it pay dividends. Snapper showed up for a play we kept 9 ranging from 33cm to 40cm with plenty of throwbacks. It was a bummer as one of boys had to be back home by 3 so we only got to spend an hour anchored up but still a good result none the less. All snapper were taken on salted bonito fillets. I hope everyone managed to get out and find a few today. Tight lines Sam

Thanks all for your comments we had the snapper oven baked yesterday with nuts chilli and herbs it was fantastic gordo i use thr trusty christmas tree and an Xrap in sardine

Has anyone tried them and do you have any feedback? Im considering a purchase but im not sure as theres limited reviews

Thanks mate, them bonnies are great fun when theyre around and the bigger ones give a great account for themselves! Cheers mate thanks Cheers mate, dont we wish this type of fishing lasted all year ! Thanks mate, where abouts do you drift for flathead is it along the northern beaches ? Thanks scratchie after that rain to be honest im just glad to get, any fish would just be a bonus.

Some fine eating fish there Yowie great work. It aint easy getting a mixed bag but u certainly do make it look easy. Id love to join you one day for a day in the hacking!

Great work mate those will make some fine gourmet dinners. Hopefully the warm water will hang around a little longer

Gday Raiders Well its been a tough month, lots of rain and wind has essentially wasted what I would consider the best month for fishing off sydney, but hey we cant control the weather. Checked the weather last night and was a little pessimistic, will we get rained on? Will the wind stay down? Having not been out for 6 weeks, the slightest chance of even a 2 hour fishing session was enough to motivate me to get out, and of course dad was happy to join. The plan was to fish the northern beaches for a feed of flathead, on the way we threw out two lures as we passed north head and no more than 30 seconds later double hookup on Bonito, did another pass, another double hook up and im confident that had we thrown out three lures we would have got triple hookups. This continued for about an hour with 15 or so fish returned to the water, kept one around 60cm to be filletted and salted for bait strips. Moved onto the flathead grounds and started in 25m, working our way out to 50m for not a touch ! Where are the flatties ?? After three hours and not a single flatty onboard i did some impromptu research on other grounds in the area, and found one close by which was noted as "flathead, snapper and mulloway). Dad said what the heck lets give it a try so off we went. A couple of drifts in the area with not much to show when dads rod buckled over and went for a good screaming run. A good fight ensued and shortly after dad boated his PB snapper of 68cm. The smile says it all ! Cought on a salted striped tuna fillet on a paternoster rig. On the way back trolled some more lures and enocuntered the plague of Bonito off Sydney Heads with another 10 or so returned to the water. All in all a great day out and the Bonito kept us entertained with a bend in our rods and the lone snapper as the icing on the cake. thanks for reading Sam

You can purchase jigs in different size and weights and colors. I suggest u purchase a range of sizes to use in the different conditions and depths ul be fishing as HU indicated, adding a weight will change the action and movement of the jig as it moves up the water column and compromise your catch rate

Mate that was very useful.thank you "rock fishing without a life jacket is like driving without a seatbelt"