Razzell

Nice! Time flies when you're on the yak. Glad you're enjoying it. There's a few of us on here who are quite active. Shout if you want partners!

Good on you Mhawat, was just poking fun - hope I didn't offend! Good catch

I recognise that spot. Here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cjwriter/6642732573

Hi Raiders, I'm a bit lazy with my reports - I tend not to write up unless I learn something new or discover something exciting. I suspect most are the same (except Yowie and Krispy who post religiously - thank you for the insight!), so I don't feel too guilty! Last minute trip up north with my lady this weekend just gone. We like to camp, and I bought her a kayak just before Christmas to, um, 'go paddling together'... We headed up toward the entrance, stayed right on the shores of tuggerah lake. Wasn't thinking much of the lake beforehand, and I feel I was right. Arrived Friday night, saw lots of small fish. In the morning at first light I headed off for a paddle and surface flick. Had a few attempts at grabs, but I wasn't confident and neither were the fish. Saw plenty of big eels with their backsides out of the water, which was nice. Headed to the channels where there were boats, but to be honest I didn't really like the system - it didn't fit with my preferred methods of fishing. I'm sure it could be good, but without knowing it and without the time to explore - wasn't for me. With that in mind, I was ready to hit the beach asap. I'd scoped the place out on google maps and even said to the lady 'it looks like Narrabeen on crack'. As soon as we arrived, that's basically exactly what it looked like. I'd shunned the bait shop advice in favour of the shore directly behind our campsite (so I could have a beer or 2 - 8!), and boy was that a good decision. Not just the beers, but the fishing, too! High tide was at last light and we were on the beach just after low. There were other fishos present in a very obvious close in gutter, but I spied another. The spot I hit, I figured, would mature around half tide... There were lots of little fish that could be seen in the surf windows, but I had them pegged for mullet (which later examination proved correct). I threw beach worms in close, and full pillies out long hoping for Sambo and tailor. Got whiting fairly quickly. They were reasonable fun on my mid weight rig. However, the surf dump was making fishing laborious, so I ditched that rod in favour of believing 'one well tended rod is better than two half-arsed'. I suspected there was bigger stuff hanging out the back, so I opted for the bigger outfit. I didn't get much for a while aside from a few knocks. About an hour, in fact. About 2 hours from high tide, I called my friend to organise something because I was getting a bit bored, and just as we started getting in to the conversation my rod went bananas. 'MATE I GOTTA GO SORRY 'l'lI CALL BACK' I screamed, as I launched the mobile at the missus who was calmly sunbathing. Much to her bemusement, I might add. I knew it was a sambo straight away, and I love these fish. They fight so well and they're so lovely to look at. I also knew it was a good one, because it was really gunning for me... Felt more like a king in open water. He stripped line, used the tides, and I carefully gained inches back. My girlfriend was genuinely fascinated - she'd never seen a tough fight, only finesse bream and flatties. I was using two circles and a smaller standard hook. I snell the standard and place through the bone of the tail, the mid circle is also snelled, and a 4 loop uni on the last, biggest circle. Don't like gang hooks, so this is my sambo/tailor rig. I was using 30 pound braid and 30 pound leader on a 4000 shimano baitrunner, so more than confident in all my kit. It was a really fun fight. One of the better ones I've had on the beach for a while Anyway, after about 10 minutes I had my prize. A 76cm Sambo. It was the fattest bugger I've ever seen. A new PB for me, and I was chuffed. After that, I reeled in a couple of tailor and a slightly smaller model of Sambo. All great fun, and the local dog walkers were loving the action. Did swing back in the late evening as the beach looked perfect for Jews, but the wind and swell picked up, plus I didn't have any good bait. Never mind, the stars were beautiful! Looked perfect for them though, and some of the dog walkers (who my girlfriend attacks - she loves dogs) told me they'd heard of big brutes being pulled out the last few weeks. So, if you're on the central coast right now, head to north entrance beach from mid - high tide. Good salmon about, and I bet if you fish mullet on the slack at night, you'll get a nice jewie. Cheers! Razz

Oh man... Those are the sessions that keep us coming back! Love it when you come across a school of pelagics going bananas! Glad you enjoyed and thanks for sharing.

Hi mate, Bream on lures are a favourite of mine so I'll chuck my two cents in, even if it's not very valuable! As Adsy91 said, some of these fish have seen a million lures before. Bream are slow growing, so the bigger ones have run the gauntlet many times. Firstly, I'd go with lighter gear. My bream outfit is a 1-3 kg rod, 6 pound braid and at most 6 pound leader. I will drop that down if it's particularly clear (water and weather). They can be very finicky. With bait, you can get away with fishing a bit heavier. With lures, not so much... I mostly fish SPs. My go to for bream is the crusteaz with as light a jig head as I can get away with. On structure and boat hulls, I twitch. On flats and edges, I do a very slow role, with 1 - 2 cranks of the handle. They love structure. On high tide I will fish bank structure, on low I will move to boat hulls etc. They can be a difficult fish to read and they do move about. So: fish light, fish early (they love first light), and try to figure out what you'd be doing if you were a bream! Keep at it - you're not doing anything massively wrong from the sounds of it. Just probably needs a bit of refinement

Good report - glad you had some fun! Look forward to seeing the video

Thanks for the tips, all. I've heard about the pros of chicken... Will give it a go!

Pittwater's the same at the moment. This time last year it was chaos. This year, it's tough finding the fish. They're there, but not in the same numbers and not showing the same behaviours. I'm blaming El Nino.

Hi all, So as the title implies, I'm very lazy and generally don't like to catch my own bait. I know I should and will if time permits, but generally... not so much. I know that the single limiting factor to the way I fish (when landbased) is poor bait. Servo pillies, squid, and prawns will only work if I plonk the stuff right on an already very hungry fish. So, does anyone have any info they'd like to offer as to where I can purchase relatively decent bait in the city/surrounding areas? Reasonably fresh squid, mullet etc. Even any fish counters people know of that carry relatively fresh things that can be used as bait would be good! Cheers, Razz

Woohoo! Good job bud!

Bummer. Sorry pal. Know how heartbreaking that is.

You could stick a bit of Plasticine on a jig head and a flattie will have a crack at it The two main things I have found with flatties is: Sometimes they like a slow roll, other times a jerk motion Bigger plastics doesn't necessarily mean bigger fish For the first point, I will use paddle tails or jerk shads. Paddle tails I typically use are the Zman minnows (Motor oil) or powerbait minnows (brown). Jerk shads, I like the gulp minnows in natural colours. For the second point, my biggest fish have all been on smaller lures, particularly the powerbait minnows. I also have more luck with the smaller gulps than the bigger ones. On flats, I also get a lot as by catch when using crusteaz for bream. VERY slow roll in short distances. They seem to like these too. I suspect it's the dual action of the 'claws'. The reason I don't use them more is because they can't cast far due to the small jigs required, and I typically like to cover a lot of ground quickly when targetting flathead. Good luck!

Scotland island Careel bay Stokes point Pretty much all the bays on the western side Good luck!

My worst nightmare!

Always keen to meet up if I can make it, so will keep an eye out. Just generally can't be bothered to organise anything! Also at the minute a friend of mine who recently has arrived from Canada has got a yak, so I've been showing him the ropes. Still, I'll follow this closely and show up if feasible.

They're an independent charitable organisation - they have no financial stake. If it was 'the association of commercial fishermen', then sure, I'd be gulping the salt.. But someone has to fund studies and Pew are interested in the general health of ecosystems to try and bring balance to the information that gets put in front of legislators.

Yeah I saw that the other day, too... Mental. 'The inexhaustible oceans' mindset might get a bit of a shock soon!

Hey guys, Last week a pretty comprehensive study was released which paints an ugly picture of global fish stocks. Key findings: Catch is under reported Declines in catch are greater than believed Reduction is due to over fishing, not reduced efforts For the optimists among you: Given the chance to recover, areas will be stronger than suspected Strong indication that recovery is very much possible (although unlikely because countries don't play ball) Read it yourself here: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160119/ncomms10244/pdf/ncomms10244.pdf Pretty interesting and a good study. Cheers, Razz

Amen to that. Those boys know what they're doing. Krispy is the Kingfish whisperer.

Nice whiting! Not sure if this is a good idea or not, but by my reckoning that bottom bream isn't quite legal... Its nose is sitting on 17cm, and the very tip of its tail is on 41cm. That makes it 24cm...

There's a ramp in burns bay reserve. I've heard you can launch on the north side of the bridge, to the west, but it's rocky. Afraid I don't know much about fishing the area, but there are some other good spots nearby you. Iron cove is a good spot for flatties and bream. You can park at rodd point for free. Fish the island, the jettys, and the bridge pylons for bream. Flathead are all over. I fish soft plastics - grubs or crusteaz are good for bream, jerk shads and blades for flathead. You can launch in to the main stretch from the end of Dick street. I've only fished there a couple of times, but I have it on good authority that area is good for the suspects you've listed. Don't eat anything from there. Filthy. Hence why the fishing is good.

The offshore guys on KFDU all use stealth. Go and have a look at what they've got to say - friendly bunch who are happy to help out.

Interesting - I've thought about this before, too. If surf poppers work on beach, why wouldn't an SP? I would imagine it being similar in deeper water... Do let us know how you get on!

Two birds as by catch in two days - love it! Enjoying the imagery of a pissed off pigeon! Glad you also got on to a few fish!