kiwicraig

I've been looking at this too and while I am still not decided I an happy to share my thinking and get other people's views. Specifically I have been comparing to the Garmin echoMAP CHIRP 75SV Combo. I am probably leaning towards the Garmin at this time. The only real drawback I can see with this unit is the lack of a touchscreen. On the plus side it is slightly cheaper than the HDS-7 gen 3. In addition to that the Garmin includes the down vu/side vu transfer in the box. With the Lowrence that requires an additional purchase of a couple of hundred dollars. In addition to that my current unit is a smaller, cheaper Garmin and I have been happy with that. Also in my research to date I have seen a few negative reviews but these have related to the non-CHIRP model with the very similar name and the biggest gripe with it had been that it is non-CHIRP ? In short for me if you can live without the touch screen and want side scan then the Garmin will be several hundred cheaper.

No idea on the Georges. Are you fishing from a boat or land based? Pillies can work well drifting for flatties. I look for packets of smallish pillows, then just cut then in half. I put a small bean sinker on the mainline, then a swivel then a floro leader down to an appropriately sizes hook. For the trail half pin it once near the cut and put a half hitch of leader around the trail to keep it straight. For the head half take the whole hook in one eye and out the other. Pin it through the shoulder so the eye of the hook lines up with the eye you bought the hook out. If you do it right the line coming tight will keep the hook straight and the point clear. Put this out behind a boat drifting over a sandy or muddy bottom bordered by weds beds.

would also add fresh (or live) is best and local is better still... Bait gathering us a skill worth working on if you can find the time. That said I regularly fish with store bought frozen baits simply because I am not going to have time to gather or catch it and fish.

LOL - I'm going to leave that one alone! But on your other question, like so many things it depends. What are you targeting? Where are you fishing? Generally speaking bigger basis catch bigger fish, but probably more important is presentation. I tend to start with bigger baits, match the hook size to the bait and make sure it looks as natural as possible. If I keep losing baits it could be a sign of small fish, so drop the hook size and bait size.

Wow, that is awesome insight. Might vary by location, but I have heard things like "don't use any burly in this spot or it will bring the leatherjackets in" and this observation would seem to bear that out. I.e. If a particular location is likely to hold LJs maybe try without burly first. If you have burlyed and you are catching lots of LJ maybe worth moving or stopping the burly and pull the baits for 10 mins...

Surprised that good old white bread has not had a mention. Either moulded onto the hook below a float or an unweighted give or crust floated down a soggy bread burly trail. Fresh is best.

Yep was a beer batter. I posted my recipe and method in the kitchen forum a while back. Always comes out light and crispy.

there weren't too many complaints from the kids tonight. ?

I do like to take the bones out. I've got a tip for getting the three that most people miss or ignore. I wrote it up in The Kitchen forum.

I know a few fishos who struggle with (or don't bother with) getting a boneless flathead fillet. When you take the fillet off a flathead it is really easy to run the tip of your knife down one side of the pin bones - down to but not through the skin - then the other. Once you have done this you grab the head-end pin bone and pull towards the tail and you can rip all the pin bones out in one quick movement. Brilliant. But there will be three rib bones in meat behind the belly cavity and these are the ones that many people find too hard. You certainly don't have to take them out, but I like to, and my wife likes it. However one tip I can offer is they are much easier to find and remove cleanly after the fillet has been in the fridge for a while. What I do is fillet, remove the pin bones and the skin, then cover the fillets with cling film and put them in the fridge. When I am ready to cook them that is when I go after the three ribs. If you removed the pin bones as I described above you will have a Y shaped fillet that has three sections. The tail is great for kids as it is guaranteed to be bone free. The shoulder should be as well unless you missed a pin bone (it happens). The belly is the the third section and it is the one with the bones still in it. On the belly you will be able to see one side has a lining for the gut cavity. Run your fingers over the OTHER side of the belly piece (I.e. the skin side) and you should be able to feel three bones. Because the flesh has firmed up a bit in the fridge they are much easier to find and remove after it has been chilled for a couple of hours. Use a finger to put a bit of lifting tension on one of the bones and run the tip of your knife down it. Repeat on the other side of the same bone, then just grip it with your fingers and gently pull it straight up. I should come out easily and with minimum flesh attached. Repeat with the remaining ribs. I find doing this I still miss the odd bone - but my wife tells me that I do better than the so called "boneless, skinless" fillets from the Sydney Fish Markets so I am happy enough with that.

Thanks @flatheadluke I'll try that for sure. Tonight I've said I'll do fish and chips which is never too hard a sell, but is certainly more work than your recipe

Today it was the pillies that were working. I was using two rods, one with 6lb leader and one with 8lb. I chose a packet with small pillies and then cut them in half and fished either the head or the tail on a single hook below a small running bean sinker. I will quite often work soft plastics actively while I have a bait on the rod or rods in the holder. I did try that on a couple of drifts today whenever I drifted in range of the sandbank but didn't get a touch. I gave up on it because the bait was getting the bites and I missed a decent bite on a rod in the holder. Other times in the same place I have caught everything on plastics and the bait does not get touched. You just need to go with whatever is working on the day. I will say though that while a lot of people like the run out tide for flatties in that particular channel I favour the run in. Flatties will lie in wait for fish coming in from the ocean to feed at high tide. On the run out I have other drifts I would go to first.

Was working at home today so decided to get up before dawn and get out on the water for a fish before work. I launched at Blackwall about 5am and motored sedately out towards Ettalong Channel in the dark. On the way I passed a channel marker with the light out and made a mental note to get the number off the chart later and notify someone as if someone were to cut the corner and do a straight line between the two working markers either side they would disturb all the seagulls that were sitting on the top of the exposed sandbank between them... I got to Ettalong channel and it was still dark and there were not other boats about so I tried a big soft plastic in an 11m hole in the hopes that there might be a jew around. I drifted over it an managed a couple of casts but then a couple of other boats started to approach so I decided it was not the best place to be drifting in the dark so I motored further up the channel and put some baits out for flathead and started a drift back up. Just on first light I hooked into my first fish and pulled up a flathead. Thinking it was a bit small I casually lifted it in, not bothering with the net. Then I thought - you know I reckon he's legal... So I held him up to the lie detector and sure enough he was well legal at 39. On the next drift I picked up two more flatties in quick succession but both definitely undersized and they were flipped back into the water. I had caught all three fish in roughly the same part of the drift so I made my next one shorter and picked up another undersized fish. I had barely gotten the bait back in and I was into another one, and once landed this one proved to be about the same size as the first at 39. I decided to start working my way back to the Blackwall ramp with a few drifts along the way. The first was along the sandbank in front of Hardy's Bay. I picked up a pinkie that measured 28cm and went back and a grinner. I love those guys - they always look so happy being caught. He smiled at me and I couldn't help but smile back. My next drift was a bit further up towards Rip Bridge. Another little pinkie. I was running out of time so I pulled in the baits and headed back to the ramp. I don't know why, but in the channel leading back to the ramp I decided almost on a whim to kill the motor and drop for one more quick drift on the way in. I bait must have fairly landed on his head because all I felt was the slightest bite. I lifted the rod tip and felt a decent weight on there, but not a lot of fight. I thought maybe I had a small stingray for a sec. Then it woke up and realised it was hooked and started pulling a bit of line. A short fight later I brought up a slightly bigger flathead and for the first time all morning I opted for the net. Just as well. He thrashed hard when I netted him and the hook came flinging back over my shoulder and wrapped around the other rod. The last minute flattie came in at about 45cm - so no monsters but I've got lunch and dinner sorted so pretty good way to start the day.

Indeed - the feel really different when they pull because there is no tail beat or head shakes. It is just a straight line pull. On a 3-5kg spin rod with a 2500 reel the drag does go off. Great fun! Can't wait for winter so I can freeze my butt off for hours for a few minutes of excitement!

Another spot is the Spike Milligan bridge just up Brisbane Waters Dr from Woy Woy. You can fish under it and cast into the channel for Bream, trevs and other estuary species. There are streetlights on the bridge and you can get out of the rain if needed.

@mitchie18092 there is a link here to a video I used to learn the FG. Once you have it mastered you can do it in the dark or bobbing around in a boat no worries.

+1 on the FG. Strong as, easy to tie and just slides through the guides.

More searching tonight and it is definitely in the hands of the council. It's going to be pretty confusing then. If you are boating on the Hawkesbury and fancy some lunch you could go to Patonga (Gosford Council), Pittwater (Northern Beaches Council), Brooklyn or Dangar Island (both Hornsby Council). They could all be minutes away but each with their own rules. I'm not sure how you as a boater are supposed to know what rules apply where if they are not always clearly marked. I suppose I'll just bank on there being no enforcement and if I am ever accused of breaking the rules I'll be able to plead ignorance very convincingly.

actually I once caught a blackfish on a squid tentacle of the beach when targeting bream. I was fairly surprised but I guess they are like my mate, not always vegetarian ?

I'm interested in this approach too, for a different reason. I want to put in an inspection put so I can put a bilge pump in on a similar hull. Any points to consider on where or how to cut the hoke for the hatch? I can make an educated guess where one stringer will be so I was going to drill a hole and use an inspection camera to check for others. I also thought a stud finder may help locate the edge of it but have not tried it yet.

Hi Raiders, Can anyone shed some light on what the rules are around short term or temporarily tying up to public jetties? I'm talking about the bigger ones that have tie up points on them, not little ones or boat ramps? The topic came up the other day when I was chatting with a mate and neither of us knew how long you could tie up, whether you could leave the boat unattended etc. I've done some looking around but not found anything definitive - except for something on the North Sydney Council website that told me I could not tie up at the Pittwater jetties unless I had a permit and to get one I would need to prove I live off shore and go on a waiting list. This seemed to suggest that jetties come under the purview of councils so I went to look at Gosford Council site (which would cover my home waters) and they have a list of public jetties but that is about it. This leads me to believe that I would be OK tying up at Hardy's Bay or Saratoga and popping off for some lunch (which I have done before) but wondering if anyone here had any further insight. Craig

Oh yeah - there are plenty of big ones in there as well. I've pulled some respectable fish out of there and on a couple of occasions I have hooked into and quickly been outclassed by big fish on light gear. Just long enough to go "Wow, that has some weight to it..." *ping* To a degree it is part and parcel with checking out new areas as well. You have to try things to learn things.

That's gold!

Bit of a delayed post. I went out very early on Saturday morning because that was the only time I could manage it - the rest of the weekend was jam packed with family and friends. It was a day of exploration and discovery. I wanted to go and sound out a new area in Brisbane Waters that I had read about here on FR but had not fished before. I was up at 4 and launched just after 4:30am from Woy Woy. I motored up through Paddy's Channel and headed over the sand bank very, very slowly. It was about an hour after high tide I didn't want to risk running it too shallow in the dark. I found the edge of the bank and anchored just off it in deeper water. Given that it was still full dark I didn't want to be drifting. I put out a bait behind the boat and then started working a fairly hefty plastic along the edge of the bank in the hopes that there might be a big flattie or even a Jew hanging along the edge. The plastic didn't get any interest, but just as the sky was lightening the bait rod went off and I pulled in a nice table size flathead that went 55cm. I dispatched that into the ice slurry and went in search of another to round out the family dinner. As soon as it was light enough I started drifting over the same area and I got a few hits but not many, and did not get a hookup. Since I was in exploration mode I decided to scout around the area a bit more. First I set up a drift that took me hard along the deep side of the sand bank drop off. I was expecting that to be a good drift but all I picked up was a small snapper ~ 24 cms. That was the start of a run of undersized fish. It did not seem to matter what I did - I just could not find the big ones again. I tried working the top of the sand bank, the entrance to Paddy's Channel and drifting out with the tide through Paddy's. I caught lots of fish, but couldn't get a second keeper for dinner. I landed 3 whiting, 6 snapper, a bream (possibly a Tarwhine - hard to tell sometimes) and a second flattie. One of the whiting, a snapper and the second flattie were all just short of legal. If the bream was in fact a tarwhine than it would have been legal, but I don't tend to keep just legal bream anyway, I like them a little bigger get a decent fillet off. I don't care - I was still having a ball and catching is always better than not catching! Eventually I ran out of time and had to head back in to get back to real life. That night I did the flathead on the BBQ. Just tossed the fillets in a little flour, salt and white pepper and the cooked it on the hotplate. My wife and I enjoyed that. The kids had sausages. Everyone was happy!

Ha ha - yeah I always used to give Trevs to the dogs after trying to cook it like that. Then someone tipped me off that they make great sashimi provided they have been bled on capture and put in an ice slurry.. Couldn't be easier - no cooking skills required. Fillet it, then skin and bone the fillet, then cut thin slices off with a sharp knife and serve with a little soy sauce and wasabi. Magic.