Nook

That will be interesting in the Port I've hooked a couple of (small) bronzies in Gymea Bay in the last 12 months (and have seen a couple of dolphins). If they start getting bull sharks up there I'll have to rethink my approach to boarding my mates yacht moored out in the middle of one of the bays

Dan, A few years back a similar thing happened to me a couple of kms offshore down the coast. We got amongst some good sized silver trevally only to have them 'disappear' when a seal showed up and started throwing one around on top of the water. But a quick glance over the side of the boat revealed that the entire school of trevally was holding up right underneath us (presumably hoping the seal would be too scared to come and get them). They were close enough to touch and as thick as a bait ball. I grabbed our landing net and literally scooped a couple out of the water (then felt guilty and let them go!). So next time your fish get scared off by a seal have a peak over the side of the boat, you never know!

G'day Raiders. Been a keen fisherman all my life but to this point have relied mostly on 'disposable' / cheap rods and reels and the odd present thrown in here and there. As a result I've got NFI in terms of serious tackle/gear knowledge and would appreciate a bit of basic advice re an overhead reel I'm about to purchase. The reel is to go with an old rod I recently had fixed up with an eye to returning to its glory days (during which it nailed a couple of 5kg South Coast snapper - seems like a long time ago!) I'd be fishing somewhere around 6 - 8kg (presumably mono as I've got even less idea about gelspun etc than I do about reels). General use - a bit of bottom bashing, bit of trolling, possibly a bit of livebaiting for small kingies. I'm on a relatively tight budget of about $130 and I don't really know where to start. Any pearls of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

Where abouts were you fishing raf? There seems to be a lot of these leaping bonito (as well as the odd standard bonito and king) well up into Port Hacking at the moment - have seen quite a few fishing in Gymea Bay recently.

Good stuff Sponot! Great to hear that they are still out there! Now if only I could get my freaking sounder to work I wouldn't have to chase seagulls around all day to find 'em.

How annoying are the frigates sometimes? I got lucky yesterday with a tiny little (5-10g) metal lure but the number of times I've been standing at a jetty going through every lure in my tackle box to no avail is ridiculous. Plenty of whitebait in the Port at the moment so I think the little metal jobs are the best bet.

G'day guys, Got out for a few hours on Port Hacking this arvo looking for some more surface stuff and hoping to bump into the frigates for the first time this year. Sure enough after doing a bit of scouting around we found a big school of whitebait hemmed into a little bay at the entrance of north-west arm. First four casts produced four keeper tailor and the fifth a nice little frigate. Wasn't quite as thick and fast as that for the rest of the time but we ended up catching about 30 tailor and three frigates. Most of the tailor were only choppers in the 30-35cm range but still good fun spinning on light gear - it's a great way to fish. Kept the ones that were bleeding when they were boated and let the majority go to fight another day. Hopefully the frigates hang around, geez they're good fun.

Had another crack today in the same area tonight. Baitfish still there. One more keeper kingie and some rats, one more big salmon, and about fifteen bonito (fast becoming a bit of a pest which is usually a good sign that you are getting a bit spoiled). The fish were a bit finicky today, dropping the livies pretty fast instead of running with them but we got them in the end. Amazingly I still haven't seen anyone else having a go for these fish despite numerous boats anchored within earshot of screaming drags and catching nothing.

Hey guys, another update Went out again yesterday with a couple of mates and after no luck trolling decided to anchor and berley some baitfish up. We had a couple of hours of pretty crazy fishing - every live bait that touched the water was mauled within two minutes and we took turns fighting them in. Plenty of bonito and rat kings, as well as one king which just made it and some thumping salmon, the biggest of which was 66cm. Again, great fun with a couple of mates. I also hooked a decent size bronzie casting towards the shore with a live bait. He was probably in about 10 feet of water. Kept him on for about 5 mins but he was only playing around with me, would have been at least 4.5/5 feet long I reckon. I won't be swimming there again any time soon, especially with all these fish around. The fish were absolutely everywhere but wouldn't take anything apart from livies. Pillies, bait tank casualties and fresh lumps of bonito were rejected all day long.

No stripes like a slimey, just some faint spots..definately wasn't a slimey, caught a few monster slimies offshore and this guy was quite different. You can't really tell from the pic but he had a mouthfull of huge choppers and he was pretty slender. Agree on the smoked slimey. My mate cooked the spotty up last night it said it was brilliant. We had a few solid runs that ended in cut line so I wouldn't be surprised if there are more around, mixed in the with bonnies and the tailor.

Well he wasn't that big! This is him (or, a version of him):

Cheers mate Yeah I originally called it for a spotty, my mate looked it up later and said definately a schoolie so who knows. Just happy to get it on the boat! Forgot to mention in my first post - this is all well inside the Port, from Lilli Pilli baths back towards Yowie Bay.

Hey guys, been waiting to make my first post for a while but had very little to report until the last week or so. Plenty of fun to be had out on the Hacking at the moment. I've been out three or for times in the last week. Big schools of bait are holding off a few of the rocky points and there are some decent fish chasing them. Nailed a stack of bonito and tailor trolling slugs around, and a few 55-60cm kingies as well. Anchoring and berleying up the baitfish (not sure what they are - little mackeral of some description I think, not slimies though, big, loose scales) and sending a few livies out has also worked well. The aren't huge fish but it is good fun on light gear - and it'd be perfect for entertaining the kids. Strangest catch of the week was on Friday - a livie got nailed and a three or four minute fight produced what I think was a Queensland school mackeral, 51cm. Anyone ever caught these around here? I'll try to get a pic to confirm the ID. In any case the Port is certainly throwing up some strage fish with all the bait around. Anyway if you are down south and lucky enough to have access to a boat there is plenty of fun to be had at the moment, so get out there!