Jay88

Damn! Great haul on the prawns. I never tried prawning but looks tempting after that pic

Oh thats pretty good. I have had a discussion with mom...I think instead of buying a tinny, I should maybe wait a bit longer to save up for something that is more stable and if the need arises could take me out of the harbour. My test is today, and my Mick (fellow raider) said he would help me with the log book and practical experience if I get my license tonight haha I better pass!

Well done mate! I hear whiting give a decent fight on light gear

Sad. I usually don't go rock fishing. Prefer estuaries or being on a boat even. The ocean is furious at times.

Hi Mate, I fish more with soft plastics than bait usually, thanks to DerekD for showing me the ropes. I have also consistently caught more fish on plastics than bait. I usually use bait when I am going for jewfish at night (and this is where hell breaks lose, everyone wants a jewfish land based). I have my boat license test tomorrow and my mate Mick has been kind enough to take me out to complete my log book. I will need a few months just to clear the car off. I decided I might just get a decent boat instead of a small tinny to have options for off shore. So need to get my finances in order. Also, booked in some swimming lessons to bring me back to shape with swimming again lol

Great! Thank you all for the awesome feedback and encouragement. Just booked my boat licence course for this week. And, some swim school sessions (figured id also try and get this out of the way), I am fine with freestyling but not that confident with treating water as I have said. lets see how it goes

Hi All, Hope everyone had a great weekend. Unfortunately, my weekend was okay… only because my mate took me to the Hawkesbury (land based) and I could fish peacefully (even though nothing worthy of keeping) The Gladesville and Parra river are like 20 minutes from my house, but the land based spots get ripped apart by massive crowds (which is fine, I don’t own the water), but there is NO RESPECT for anyone. I always pick up my rubbish, I always try to not disturb other fishos. And these guys are screaming, cheering, casting over my line and everything :/ As I am from West Sydney, it’s very difficult for me to find a land based spot without drama. For e.g. I went to a land based spot in Mosman… I spend hours trying to get live bait and then go to a fishing spot… After only an hour, 7 guys rock up… within a few mins on a small ferry, each have like 2 rods, there was 8 rods out at a time :/ , could not even walk on the wharf. Then one genius decided to climb onto a roof and cast from there wtf man…this is why well behaved fishos get banned from fishing areas… Bait everywhere, no one bothered to pick up their mess (me and my friends picked their s**t after they left… I spend a lot of hours trying to improve my fishing and I am consistently now catching fish (mostly with soft plastics or slugs)… and I tend to get ZERO when so many people rock up and make a concert on the wharf… So I have come to the conclusion of maybe getting a small tinny… now the questions I have are below: I don’t tend to fish off shore (I have zero boating experience) I want to fish the Gladesville river, parra river and Hawkesbury, so to be secure in these areas would a tinny suffice? I don’t have my own house, so is it possible to secure boats on the footpath right outside my house? I see TONS of people in my area do it with very expensive boats and outboards. I plan to get a boating license as I don’t think 5hp outboard would be adequate I am not the BEST swimmer…like I can swim from point A to B, but not the best at walking water (lol), so YES life jackets is something I always have on, even if im rock fishing in clam waters. My budget is 3-4k (for now) please feel free to show me boats you think are okay to handle these river systems. Sorry to be a pain guys, but in my situation is this worth it? I love land based fishing, but when I have two great water systems close to my house (I usually release the fish I catch), and every wharf has 20 people on it… I can’t always drive 50 minutes to the Hawkesbury and walk 30 minutes through the bush to fish peacefully L Thank you.

Nicely done mate. On 3kg that would have felt like a whale taking off lol...very nice. Did you release or turned it into a good feed? haha good job!

oh man..nice flatty! They seem to really be on!

Woot! Go the lures! Even though I am a massive fan of SP's after catching more fish on them than bait

Well done mate! Good to see you taking out others! Nice snapper indeed. And interesting style for the prawn on the jighead. LOL I actually thought you meant a SP that looks like a prawn at first

Awesome! I caught a couple last week on eco gears. Great feeling when they hit it! Good job!

No respect. Even if a kid strolls past a thrown hook...results won't be good. If they don't care about the envionment, at least care about the humans they could harm.

Nice report mate. mhmm them food pics. Ha! That snapper must have been fun to catch on light gear

Do sakibi jigs require bait? The ones I have at home, unused have this "feather" look on the hooks? Cheers

When you keep a bit of slack near the reel, you set the hook when the line starts to tighten up. My hook up rates have increased by a lot rather than waiting for the fish to pull first. Most yellow tail, spit the hook when it feels resistance. It works for me Im pretty sure a few people here use that technique also . I dont mind the Sabiki rig. Unfortunately, don't have one with me right now. And with high winds, like we have been having here in Sydney, hard to keep line straight when going for bait fish

Hi All, Hope everyones having a good week. Weather is really bad in Sydney, but that won't stop me from going out. However, while baitfishing yesterday for yakka, they kept taking my bait as I could not hook up due to the 25km winds not allowing me to see the slack in my line straighten up. I was wondering if there was another method I could use to catch them? e.g. Octupus Circle hooks? Floaty won't be a good idea due to the high amount of wind? Cheers!

Yeah I usually fish those snaggy areas for jew fish as I dont have a boat, and can't really change locations over the snag...can I still use a EZY jig (clip sinker) ? or the normal sinker to swivel and lead to hook still?

Good Morning Raiders! Hope everyone had a great start to the week! As I am a land based fisho, I tend to use heavy sinkers e.g. 115 grams to get a good cast out. Recently, I have been getting snagged up a bit as even though I reel fast, that sinker takes ages to skim to the top to avoid the snags. What I am thinking was to put on a floatie to prevent that from happening. So, for e.g. If I am fishing 15 meters of water... I really can't have a 13meter leader with a floatie to ensure it gets near the bottom but doesn't snag? I am trying to go for jewies so not sure if they would come up to the top a bit to hit a bait with a floatie half way down the water column? Would really appreciate it if somene could tell me how to setup the floatie for e.g. a 15m drop off. Thank you.

Don't talk to me. Fish whispering is cheating. ha! Well done bud, proud of you bro! Im more happy its "that" spot that worked out haha...was only a matter of time! We need to catch up soon dude! I miss getting stuck on rocks when the high tide comes in!

Well done on the SP mate. And great flathead! I have always wanted to try middle harbour! Good work!

Interesting topic... I have a 12ft rod... 6-8kg, with 20lb braid on a 8000 shimano reel, using 40lb fluro leader... i wonder if that would be enough for a king (landbased) xD

Good Morning Raiders! So! Had a big weekend. Spend probably 18 hours fishing But was worth it because of the learning!! Even though nothing decent caught by me. SATURDAY (my first boat trip, All lures): A fellow member here was kind enough to take this rookie out for his first boat trip. Chasing jews early morning and flatheads/bream later into the morning on soft plastics. Came home after work around 8pm on Friday, had a couple hours sleep, up at 2.30 am, 40minute drive to the dock, and off we went into the night out on the Georges. Honestly, this dude puts in the hours man. When he said 4.30am we need to be on the water, I was like “for what? Bikini contest?” but the way he finds structure, if I was land based, I would have never even casted into those areas so close to shore and all. This was probably my 4th time out with soft plastics (still learning), sometime after the sunrise, I was onto a barely legal flathead (pictures below). Mick was wanting to teach me how to hold them by the bottom part of their mouth, unfortunately I did not support its body with my other hand, and yes, it head shook hard and ripped a nice hole in my thumb (damn it, the lip holder was like right there! Haha) After that, the morning went a bit quiet, I did hook up a couple more times but couldn’t set the hook. We went around to some other parts of the river and landed a few small flatties. We called it a day at around 11am ish. Fish were not as active as we expected. First time out on a boat, was such a great learning experience, and Mick was awesome enough to teach me how to find structure while on a boat and learned a bit of sounder reading. Mick mate, I am very grateful for the opportunity you have made for me to chase that jew dude. Very grateful SUNDAY (land based, All lures) Woke up at 6am, was unplanned on if we were targeting anything. But Derek being aware of his “surroundings” (a good lesson ), showed me some bust ups around the harbour. And off went the slugs, unfortunately the tailor and salmon were hitting anything!! Besides the bait fish! They were like right NEAR MY FOOT! Anyway, I never caught a salmon or a decent tailor so was had high expectations. Few hours into the session, Derek’s rod shakes up, fresh squid, smashed by a well over legal tailor (released). But I promised myself I won’t use bait most of the times as I want to get better with lures. Now, Derek was using heavy pound gear (hoping for a BIG king), so that tailor probably didn’t even take drag off lol… I on the other hand, had a 2-3 kg outfit. I hooked up a little snapper on my first time using my own Eco Gear and we moved onto another location. Another little snapper on soft plastics. Honestly, don’t care if I caught anything big or not, Im learning lures, and I am getting more confident on my technique as I am getting fish to hit it. Moving into the arfternoon, we flicked some plastics at a shallow area near the harbour, and Derek hooks up! 52 CM Flathead! Damn those head shakes! Never tried flathead, so Derek asked if I wanted to keep it! Ha! Next minute, I saw a bit of swirl in the water near the boats! And with the knowledge im gaining, I saw my soft plastic bitting in half. I chucked on my Halco slug, and casted into the swarm of whatever it was, and I landed my first small tailor! Was geed as I learning how to read the water and mix up lures! Overall, didn’t land anything FANTASTIC, but had a great time out on the boat and at the harbour. Derek taught me everything I know about soft plastics, so it felt good landing things on them. I met a raider at Mosman, Ollie was kind enough to show me different jigging techniques and tighten up the braid on my reel Good meeting you dude! PS. If someone could be kind enough to private message me (if they feel more comfortable) to tell me a location for yellow tail around gladesville, meadowbank or Sydney Harbour, I would really appreciate it. I would leave work early whenever I need live bait...so would mean a lot! Cheers! Im willing to sacrafice wages for this lol (im sure most here have haha) Jay

Well done bud. Nothing unexpected from you. Let me know when we can have a session!

Good job. I fish little manly a lot... I have caught over 5 port jacksons in one night. Once you catch one, usually more as their breeding season is coming to an end and they would breed in schools. Never less, good catch mate!