BrassRoots

That's some nice work. Have you ever tried lures at Maroubra? It's around the corner from me but I dont have the patience for bait fishing on the beach. Keen to hear if you have had any luck.

Those Deeper sounders look pretty nifty for fresh. theyre castable etc. I havent used one but it's on my wishlist if I win lotto.

Other options? As far as I've been able to see, this is the ONLY real option for active fishing forum in Australia. I have seen the others and they are practically dead compared to fishraider. I'm glad it is going to stay open. I was actually considering getting hosting and restarting the forum but this is going to be a much cheaper option for me so I'm very glad. Here is a tip though: dont host photos! you could save a lot of money on web hosting if you dont host photos but get people to upload to imgur or something

I love shark too. Such a sweet tasty meat. Well done.

End of summer, so they should all be little babies getting big somewhere huh? Thought they bred and died off during summer.

This came up in my linked in feed. Could be worthwhile to try and get some money to create/improve fish habitats in botany bay. The bastard should definitely fork out something as I know for a fact that they still dump effluent water into the bay from the RO plant they have there. Anyone needing money for a project? http://www.orica.com/Locations/Asia-Pacific/Australia/Botany-Remediation-Projects/Community/community-investment?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=Community&utm_medium=Social Media&utm_content=201702 Botany grants#.WNNfgFWGOUl

Wow, sounds like an unforgettable day! Well done getting the rod back. I know how you feel about going for a swim. I've gone in for lures before.

Just watched the surf life saving chopper pull a man from the waters off Coogee 5 mins ago. Living in the eastern suburbs you get a feel for just how risky some people are with lots of ambulances turning up for washed up bodies, people falling off cliffs or getting in to trouble swimming in dangerous swell. Please, everyone have a chat with people you know about how its dangerous to swim in these conditions. Not everyone will get educated in the dangers of the ocean, especially if they grow up overseas.

Another good post with lots of info. Cheers. I've tried around Botany a bit but avoided the island as I wasn't sure what the good spot were. I've fished the mainland though, at the point just in from the island. It seems very popular but doubt it would be as productive. However, it is in the swell shadow of the island/bombora so feels much safer.

Just adding the vid for posterity as I know someone will be looking for info on Forster at some point.

Youre a legend mate! Thanks for that. Not sure how keen I am but its nice to tuck away in the back of the mind for those ultra flat days. I used to surf that northern rip all the time too in highschool. great place to go spotting for white pointers

Great post to get the mind working. Would love to see an instructional vid.

I wouldnt go over 3/0 size hook for 3-4" soft plastic. I have some 4" shads that I use a 3/0 worm hook with that fits perfectly. But when using 3" gulp shrimp sometimes a 1/0 can even seem too big. Are you land based or boat? That will have a big impact too cause on a boat you need weight to get it down but land based you want as little as possibl cause you are generally very shallow. For estuary dont go over 1/8 ounce. For beach and rock go heavier than 1/8 ounce.

Sounds good. Conscious experimentation is the best way to tune in to a spot.

A large heavy rod might struggle to cast plastics far enough to use on the beach. What's the cast weight rating of the rod? Think about how much a 1/4 - 1/2 ounce jig head and 6" plastic weighs and check that your rod can cast a low enough weight.

Not sure because I havent fished them but I've been eyeing off the Cooks river break walls and the creeks that run into the bay near the Botany Bay boat ramp (between the airport and the container port). Or there is always La Perouse for squidding and san souci for bream/flathead.

heres a good vid on jewies

I was up there a few weeks ago but maybe the same situation. Family holiday with limited fishing times. BAIT: Saw lots of people using bait along the water near wharf st but didn't see anyone catching anything. Most people were using squid. While down at Smiths lake I got a tip from a local that pippis are a gun bait on the flats down there, so might be worth a try in Forster too LURES: I caught flatties on the pearle powerbait jerkshad/drop shot things but I think they would take just about anything. Also caught flathead on 2inch zman grubz in bloodworm. Didn't try much else as I dont have much else. TIDE: Not too sure but it definitely rips at least 1.5hrs after ocean tides. SAND BAR: The one with the vegetation on it on the Forster side? You might be able to swim across holding your rod up above you if your game.

I was reading the carp a little while ago and I heard a bunch of people thinking that once the big cod came back that they would keep the carp down by eating the young. You think that might be the case where you are?

What's the North Point like? Dangerous? Safe? I'd imagine it would produce good pelagics but haven't had a chance to check it out.

Nice catch.

Very cool. If any of you are reading this, post more and lurk less.

What a cracking day and a cracking fish. Tell Ivan that Dylan from AMC says gday.

It's hard to get good pics when you want to release cause I'm always really worried about how long they are out of the water. Wish it wasnt blurry. I still have the gopro footage to relive it though.

So I wanted to wait until I could edit a video together for this one but still waiting on the missus to make some space on her mac. Bugger it though. Here comes the report: I went up on a family trip and even though I had looked into a lot of different options at Forster time constraints and laziness directed me to fish the closest waters to where we were staying. I was also limited to fishing sunrise so had to work around the tides as necessary. The first session was at this spot: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/32°10'58.9"S+152°30'44.5"E/@-32.1837101,152.5104233,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d-32.183032!4d152.512359 I was testing out a new 2-4kg soft plastic set-up so was working with 100mm squidgy whip baits, 2inch zman grubs with 1/16 heads and 4inch powerbait jerkshads in pearl. No interest in the whip baits. Lots of interest in the zmans (bloodworm) but couldnt get anything to commit except a tiny little unknown thing. The spot was good as I was there on an incoming tide (probably about 1hr or so before high at forster beach) so all the bait fish were getting pushed into the area of slower water movement near the entrance of a mangrove drainage creek. The amount of life in the water and water clarity was staggering coming from Sydney. The water was absolutely alive. Tonnes of tiny bait fish, long snouted something or others, bream, luderick, grass whiting and more. I even saw a small group of frigate mackerel coming in to smash the small bait fish every now and then. After a few hours of struggling with the bream I switched to a belly weighted 3/0 worm hook and put on the powerbait. This brought in the main fish of the trip. A nice flathead of around 40cm, no measurements as I was C&R this whole trip. Second session was at some sand flats in Smiths Lake: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/32°23'23.3"S+152°30'03.2"E/@-32.389802,152.4995953,17.75z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d-32.389802!4d152.5009 Had a blast here trying our 1/40th jigs with bloodworm and amber zmans. Had a few takes on the bloodworm but no hook-ups. The highlight was seeing something very large about 60m away jumping. A LOT. Not sure what it looked like but it had a dark back and quite a forked narrow tail. Last session I walked from the first session spot up to just inside on the breakwall: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/32°10'31.3"S+152°30'30.7"E/@-32.175354,152.5076895,18.4z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d-32.175354!4d152.508519 This time I was fishing a run out tide about an 1hr before the low and the bait weren't holding in the same spot. So I went walking towards the mouth of the estuary expecting the fish food to be pushed towards the ocean. Along the way I did see a lot of bream etc stacked under pontoons or near piling at the bridge but they couldn't be tempted. The most action I saw was the the breakwall casting into eddies the were forming along the wall. Not only lots of pickers but a couple of really good takes and saw some nice big fish followers. This was with the powerbaits again. I ran out of time though and had to make my way back fishing as I went. On the way back I pulled out a tiny flathead at wharf st with the 2inch bloodworm zman grub. One thing I really wanted to try was beach fishing but while I was there the beaches were clogged with red weed so just avoided it altogether. Overall, I'll definitely be heading back the first chance I get. The system is just so clean and alive it really blew my mind. There are so many beautiful spots around there too. I would highly recommend the Wallis Lake sailing club picnic area. There are trees growing over the water that means you can swim in the shade of gum trees. Managed to take my little one out for her first swim too, which was really sweet.