Jimbu

I was land-based, south side of the harbour between 5:30am and 8am. Salted Tailor strip from last weekend sat on the bottom and didn't get a touch. There were schools of trevs about though, some big ones. Landed a 32cm, 40cm and 48cm (PB for me) and got smoked under the wharf by two more big ~50cm ones. All fish landed on bread under a float.

I agree that just legal flatties are not as good as those 45-60cm. I find the flesh on the smaller ones is not as firm/flakey and just doesn't taste as good. I've also noticed that bream taste best <35cm. The larger ones tend to have a greater chance of having an unpleasant dirty/weedy taste to them. Flesh on the smaller ones tends to be sweeter and more moist.

Papafish, yes. There are lots of factors that influence whether the fish are there and/or feeding. Tides are probably the most important one. Also, it varies depending on species and fishing spot. But if you plan your fishing trips to maximise time close to the top or bottom of a tide, you're likely to catch more fish.

Nice work, mate! Low tide at Como was about 4pm yesterday, which coincides with your period of bites. Typically the most active feeding times are 1-2 hours either side of the top or bottom of a tide.

They also go well on the plate whole, fried with lots of garlic, olive oil, soy sauce and shallots. Make sure it has been bled quickly, put on ice, and the black lining has been scrubbed from the stomach with a bit of paper towel.

Nice work, man! Killing it! For handsfree deludes, I recommend an app called "Vapp". You can set a noise activated photo, so you can shout or whistle (above a predetermined level) and it will take a photo.

Nice work! Definitely go back. No brainer Haha

Yea tough times at the moment ... I fished the harbour ... Spent 1.5 hours trying a long section for squid for a donut. Then spent a few hours berleying hard with bread. Nothing for 2 hours, then some blackfish came to party. Landed 4 between 28-35cm.

Papafish - clear water does not guarantee the fish are contaminant free. For example, the floor of Sydney harbour and the parramatta river is full of dioxins and other nasties, and fisheries recommend that only fish east of the harbour bridge are safe to eat (in limited quantity!). Despite this, the harbour water clarity is excellent on many days; certainly much cleaner looking than the Georges river. That said, fisheries does not present such warnings for consuming fish from large sections of the Georges river.

Best way is with the heart still beating but I don't think I could manage that without causing the fish pain.. Grey nurse linked a good website - I spoke the fish through the brain with a knife and they die in a couple of seconds. Then simply cut from underneath the gills through to the top of the gills... You will slice through an artery. If you pull the head back sharply you'll snap the neck. By now, blood will be pouring out. Suspend the fish head down, in a bucket of water, or a rock pool, or bury it in sand this way, and gravity will do the rest of the job. I usually shake the fish around head down in some water and it does the trick.

Hi! I was fishing towards the wharf end. Bait was cheap woollies white bread.

Glad I'm not going crazy and am on to something decent! I purchased a new pack of 10 clear bubble floats on eBay which arrived in the mail today. They seem like a great design - tiny, a little bit egg shaped and the line runs through a tube that runs through the middle. The water is loaded up via the tube which is then Jammed in place to seal it inside. I've painted the tops red for visibility and I think these will provide minimal resistance due to their slim design and small form factor. Looking forward to using them!

Hi Guys, I've caught a variety of species (bream, mullet, blackfish, trevally, flathead) using bread bait suspended beneath a bubble float; and have managed good catches of blackfish recently using them. From my experience: Advantages - simple, can vary buoyancy and make them harder to detect, castable over long distance Disadvantages - somewhat fragile, sensitive to wind I haven't seen very much information out there in regards to using them in saltwater (most people talk about using them for trout). Does anyone have any comments or opinions on using these over other types of floats?

What a fish!

Nice catch! Yea there are some big ones about, hey! I also fished the harbour on Sunday morning and landed 4 up to 43cm and a trevally on bread.

Richie - first, make sure you're using fresh sliced white bread. Some brands are better than others, but the cheap Coles/woollies work fine. I usually tear off a small piece of bread, a bit over twice the area of the hook, then start by squeezing it around the eye and shank of the hook. I find leaving it slightly fluffy around the hook point and that end helps it drift more naturally an also assists the hookup - if your hook is nice and sharp, a gentle lift generally sets the hook. I also squeeze it so it's thinner around the hook shank and squeeze the area behind the point to ensure a deeper hookup. Hope that makes sense.. With this method, it should stay on at least until you get some bites!

Cheers for the comments guys. Toboggi - I've used the wrong lingo! I meant big fat blackfish, not drummer. Oops Papafish - maybe on Sunday! ☺️ I can send you a pm if you wanna tag along. Can't guarantee fish tho haha Yowie - yeah the blackfish were aggressively smashing the bread on the surface when the sun ducked behind the clouds temporarily. I thought they were mullet and raised my bait depth to compensate.

Oops. Photo attached. Papafish: The beach, as in the beach behind the swimming nets? No, I was to the right of the jetty. Blackfish often take bread... I find bread to be a very versatile bait, particularly with a small hook and a berley trail - you can catch bream, mullet, trevally, blackfish, flathead, leatherjacket, yellowtail.

With a doctors appointment in the eastern suburbs yesterday afternoon, the temptation to dip a line afterwards was just too much. I arrived at Parsley Bay wharf around 3pm to find the wharf jam packed, so set up on my own along the rocks to the side. There is an underwater ledge here that drops off to deep water, so you have to be careful not to get snagged or taken deep by a fish and busted off on the ledge. Armed with some freshly sliced white bread, I set my little 1-3kg combo up with a running green bubble float and a size 8 hook initially set at 3m depth. I berleyed up with small crumbled handfuls of water soaked bread, and would continue to do so regularly for the entire session. It wasn't long before I was onto my first fish, and after a short tustle it was into the net. A nice blackfish around the 30cm mark. Shortly after, I landed another. The next hookup was no blackie... Running deep, with pulsing tail beats, I suspected trevally. I was conscious of the ledge it could snag me on and also of the small hook and soft mouth, so I worked it hard to get it up high when possible and also let it run. After a decent fight, 37cm trevally landed! I landed another blackfish before the bites slowed. However, I spotted surface action on my berley, and realised the fish had moved higher in the water column and raised my hook depth to compensate. Sure enough, the bites came back. All in all I landed 7 blackfish between 30-35cm, including two pigs which fought and fought and didn't want to be netted, returned 1, and dropped maybe 5 more. Super session for me! Also had a good chat to another fisherman who was throwing some lures around. Cerviched the trevally and fried one blackfish Chinese style with garlic and shallots. Delicious! Thanks for reading.

I fish there sometimes .. It's not a bad spot. You can only berley up on the outgoing tide (ingoing it all ends up in the swimming area). It's quite deep (10-15m) and you can catch most species there (ive seen people hook bream, blackfish, whiting, flathead, snapper, salmon, kingfish, trevally, a small jew, squid, octopus and mullet).

Cheers, man... Enjoyed the read ☺️

I'm jealous! Great work, Mate! I can only imagine the thrill

I feel your pain dude. I've lost two big flatties in the past 3 weeks also. The first was on soft plastics, and the second took bread 30cm under a float on a size 8 hook. Both went for long powerful runs then bit through 10 pound Flouro when I tried to put some pressure on. Gutting hey!

Looks like a female groper to me?

Those keeper nets seem a great idea, as they allow the fish to calm down after a fight which is supposed to improve the eating quality. I use a flat esky bag with a shoulder strap and throw in a few flat strips of ice packs. If I'm feeling really confident, I grab a bag of ice from the servo, throw some in a plastic bag to put in the esky bag, and leave the rest in a plastic container in my boot for the drive home. Whenever I do that, I don't catch any keepers haha Also may be worth throwing your fish in a ziplock bag with a bit of seawater as that helps transfer the coolness of the ice to the fish more efficiently. I also usually kill and bleed the fish that I catch straight away before putting them in the bag.