GoingFishing

Well done fellas great report. Did you find the water murky at all after this rain and do you think it moved the fish out of ur go to spots ?

An interesting topic....... Perhaps fisheries should be testing fish west if the bridge, east of the bridge and from the outside beaches such as manly and bondi. That way they can consider dioxin levels for all fish and make a fair comparison. Also for fish that move in and out, how long does it take for these chemicals to enter the fishes system and similarly, how long does It take to leave the fishes system ? For example a kingfish caught west of the bridge might take on these chemicals and they may dissipate within 1 month ? 2 months ? Problem is....... How does one know how long a fish has been in a specific location.... There are so many variables with so many end results

Great effort guys you worked hard as usual and produced great results. I'm glad to hear the weather held up for you guys, I got rained on today at 11am so me and dad went home with a small feed of flounder and one just legal snapper. Those squid are massive and I'm sure will make a great calamari dish, there's a YouTube video I saw on thehookandthecook on how to prepare a nice chilli basil calamari so if your into that type of food give it a go ! (And let me know if it tastes any good!) http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U2r3k4jfRSU

That's interesting I guess any fish that smells or has strong taste normally can be used as a good bait. Hoping to try Botany Bay tomorrow early before the rain moves in the afternoon Good luck , look forward to the reports

Bad luck on that beastie Jim, barracouta in the harbour is definitely new !! Your post raises an interesting issue for me I find braided lines absolutely chAotic when it comes to emergency situations or unexpected turns. Whilst I agree the strength and sensitivity are better in braid I much prefer the mono over the braid especially if I'm fishing more than one rod at a time. Better luck next time

I've read reports that a lot of the smaller kings have now become resident in the harbour until they get bigger and move out into deeper warmer water. There have even been a few reports in fishraider of kings hooked in the harbour , definitely sporadic and nothing huge. They definitely get thicker and bigger during summer.

Looks like a mixed bag of opinions, everyone's got different taste I guess so it sounds like the best thing I can do is cook him up and decide for myself !!! ( though Trout Stalker has set my hopes quite low to begin with haha ) If I don't like the taste then il be sure to let future Mowies back into the drink. Thanks fellas

Mate well done that was an awesome read. Nothing feels better than that suspense and worry of losing your fish on the rocks, only to then lift him up to safety. Ultimate relief and satisfaction. I maintain that rock fishing is one of the hardest types because there's so much that can wrong and so little you can do to react. Enjoy the feed Sam

Sounds like my taste buds aren't in for the treat I thought they were !! Thanks guys

Hi Guys The weather looked promising this morning with a little wind so i convinced dad to tag along for some fishing in the bay. We arrived at the gentlemans hour of 9am and armed with prawns,pillies and chicken we fished the western side of the oil rig. We managed a couple of near legal snapper, and maybe a zillion undersize pinkies and trevs which all went back to the drink. After about an hour i hooked up to what felt like a better fish, at first i thought i had a port jackson or a ray because it had some dead weight to it and not many headshakes. Im no expert at fish ID, can somebody help ID this fish ? It looks like an emperor of sorts ? and... are they any good eating? I have been struggling to find the flathead in the bay lately ( which is embarrassing because theyre normally an easier species to catch), i tried flicking plastics around towra,dolls point and kurnel beach today for zero. Can anyone give me some pointers please. cheers Sam

Hi Guys I thought I could offer up whatever little wisdom I've picked up this year.... I recently purchased my first ever boat in March this year it's a quintrex renegade 460. The salesman told me I could reach "the shelf" in an hour and with an 80 litre tank I could do some trolling. It was around that same time that I had just joined Fishraider and I can say without any doubt that some of the advice and knowledge shared on this site probably saved my life. As an absolute newb I spent countless hours reading chats and spongeing off others advice. Despite what the salesman has told me I haven't been further out than the FaDS and on all occasions I've organised a peer or mentor on a larger boat to go with me. Don't always take a salesmans advice as a guarantee. As some of the more experienced guys have said above fact is if you have to think hard about whether ur boat can handle it ur probably safer erring on the side of caution. The way I see it, these big game fish don't hang around all year so for guys like me with smaller boats, your better off spending some dollars and joining a trusty charter such as reef magic where the knowledge and safety come together . Also your probably going to spend the same amount of money by the time you buy the tackle, the kilos of pillies and fill up petrol. That's my 2c !

Sounds like you had an awesome day mate well done you worked hard to produce the results. When the big fish aren't around just being on the water is enough to give the heart n soul some good quality R&R. And yes I agree the Trevally are out in plague proportions and my god do they push hard for their relative size. Always good fun them trevs.

Well done mate I spent 4 hours flicking plastics at botany yesterday and didn't get a touch. Uve done better than me mate they are some solid lizards

Thanks fellas, I find fishing the harbour this time of year very unpredictable. Before buying the boat I spent countless hours fishing the harbour wharfs but never really mastered the weather and conditions so the jewwies for an unexpected catch for me this time of year. I don't know if if the fish move around looking for warm pockets of water ? Or maybe they look for cleaner water or simply move further up river ? I'm keen to see what everyone thinks

Gday Raiders With the weather of late being pretty sloppy i had found myself at home for the most of June & early July weekends. As i work during the week i can only fish weekends and couldnt capitalise on any good weather that came about during the week as i had used up all my sick days during the April/May FAD bonanza !!! So with that in mind on Saturday 19th July i decided i couldnt wait any longer, i had to wet a line and i had to do it soon. After some careful cosideration the decision was made to ditch the boat and hit up one of my favourite ferry wharfs around Sydney Harbour as i thought it might be more time efficient and practical. I arrived around 1030pm with the hope that i could collect some livebait until the last ferry of the night did its final round, the yakkas were playing hard to get and i really hard to berly and work hard to get them eating. After 1 hour i only had 3 in the esky and one on the end of the livey setup. After about 30 minutes i noticed my line moving, but no sudden hits or runs. I bring in the line and the livey is gone? Mustnt have hooked him properly, out goes livey #2 and within 5 minutes, BANG, my rod buckles over and the line is peeling off at top speed. I was using relatively heavy gear with 30lb line so i wasnt too overly stressed out about losing the fish, after a couple of runs i felt the fish was tired so i started to dish out some hurt of my own. After a short 5 minute fight i had a good jew on the wharf. A quick measure at 70cm....just legal !!! Harder to come by since the legal size was changed last year. I was stoked !! Out goes another livey in the hope of another legal jewwie wishing they had decided to school up infront of the wharf, but all went quiet for the next hour or so. At about 2am i had decided i had enough and wanted to head home, bringing in the livey and i got hit about 15m from the wharf. It wasnt an overly powerful fish but it was certainly acrobatic, salmon in the dark i wondered? Id never cought a salmon at night. After about 10 mins i had the fish near the pylons and was crapping myself that it would bust me off or wrap the line and run for freedom, i got a glimpse of the fish for the first time, tailor, and an absolutely stonker at least by my standards. After a quick struggle handling the rod in one hand and the net in the other i had him on deck and he went 65cm. A new PB and i was stoked. Having been successful on that saturday i decided to go back the friday 25th July to the same spot with the same bait and landed an undersize jewwie which was 64cm. The only fish for the night and a rather lazy and slow sluggish fight, perhaps the cold weather ? Overall quite content with the catch and even happier about the new PB for tailor. cheers Sam

bad luck mate, catching hoodlums is tough to begin with let alone off the rocks. perhaps it might be worthwhile investing in a cliff gaff? not sure how effective they are as i hear they take a while to deploy, and you certainly cant do it solo

What an epic report mate ! So much passion, persistence and energy culminating in what surely must have been the most satisfying moment in your fishing history book. I actually felt like I was there with you, quite lucky I didn't fall off my chair while reading it as I was on the edge. Congratulations and well done.

Hi Guys With tomorrow offshore looking pretty sloppy, I want to spend a couple of hours tomorrow targeting flathead on SP which is relatively new to me. I was hoping I could receive the words of the wisdom of the fish raiders crew, I'm hoping to go to Botany Bay areas , probably the upper sections where it's not so choppy and windy Any advice regarding specific locations and jig types would be much appreciated ! Thanks

The elusive Mulloway it takes plenty of skill and patience to find them let alone hook up ! The reward is always worth the wait !! Great effort. Were you using soft plastics or baits ?

It's so painful when you do all the hard work yet others reap the rewards !!! You managed to hook a few so that must have been some satisfying consolation. Great report mate keep it up.

Looks like my photo didn't load from my phone! Il put the photo up when I get on a laptop. Sorry guys

Hi Raiders Went out for a fish today as the conditions were forecast to be pretty good. Launched the boat 530am and started squiding around rose bay wharf Unfortunately no squid around ( I think the more likely explanation is that I'm pretty bad at squiding!!! ) After failing on the squid I decided to try for some yakas, I pulled up at rose bay wharf and within half an hour the livey tank was full. The plan was to fish for kings at long reef and off quarantine point. The water was pretty smooth so it didn't take long to get there, tried live bait, squid strips ( I bought some last night knowing I would fail at rose bay!!) unfortunately no takers though I did see a couple of fellas bring in some rats. To cut a long story short I had a real fail day with nothing to take home after moving to five spots that normally produce On the way back to the boat ramp I threw out the Rapalas in the hope of hooking a salmon or tailor, after 5 minutes I got a hit !!!! Started bringing in the lure and I felt some tugs but nothing to put my hopes up for a sambo. It turned out to be a 25cm Trevally had a go at my Magnum 30 XRap ! It's almost two thirds his size !!! I took the picture below and then threw him back to fight another day. All in all was still a lot of fun on the water, plenty of whales and dolphins about.

All I can say is WOW I don't think anyone fishing under the spit bridge will break that record anytime this decade Congratulations and well done

Great report and update Pete, you got yourself a nice feed there. Good results considering the recent weather I hit the FAD on Monday , got there at 7am. Nothing on the bite, water temp 20.6 and realllyyyy sloppyy, made it near impossible to troll a surface popper, nothing on the deep divers or live baits either. I also went to Longy for some kings after, schools were everywhere but not on the chew. Ended up with two rats at 55 and 62cm both undersized. One on the livey and another on the XRap magnum15 No feed for the week but that's fishin I guess. Have you heard any reports if the tuna have showed up offshore ? Cheers Sam

Well done mate good results. Them Watsons Bonito are great eating if you bleed them straight away and put a deep cut through the end of the tail. I think the reason not many were out was the weather forecast was supposed to be pretty miserable. I have an open top boat so with forecast rain I decided to give it a miss but woke up to nice blue skies I was cursing the weatherman all morning. Promised to go shops with the wife so couldn't change plans !!! Hopefully if the weathers good il be on the water tomorrow