whiskey299

Caught off Sydney around 50m of water. Wondering if anyone can ID what type of leather jacket this is?

Great write up! You've certainly learnt alot in such a short amount of time and have a great mentor @DerekD and @Wes. It's taken me years to achieve what you have completed in such a short amount of time. Well done!

I would go for the Torium as it has a pretty good retrieve per crank on the 16-30 models

Did you watch the FPV lithium review by Byron Tea Hill?

FPV have just released lithium batteries for the trolling motor. There is a great in depth review available on them and also a competition to win the package if you are lucky.

that's some serious distance you covered and well done on the jewie!

My fishing friend has had 2 claims knocked back by club marine and he swears to never use them again. This was his advice to me when looking into insurance. "For what it’s worth, I had two boats insured with Club Marine. My experience wasn’t positive in that I had two claims, one for each boat, that were both rejected on “technicalities”. I found they did everything to reject the claims and showed no leniency or good faith. I wouldn’t insure with them again. Obviously up to you but they’re very flashy and good at marketing but poor when it comes to paying out. I don’t think I’m alone in that thought process but again up to you." "Having worked for an insurer, they employ and reward people for ensuring their claim payouts are kept to a minimum. Not all are as aggressive though and most recognise that there needs to be some payout. As an example, in my claim number 2, they managed to take apart a pipe leading from an engine that had been regularly maintained and found the tiniest bit of corrosion that again could not be seen by the naked eye and claimed they wouldn’t pay out as there’s an exclusion for “rust and corrosion”. So despite having an annual detailed service program that specifically flushed out the engines with anti-corrosive additives they still managed to find a way to reject the claim - and it was for $28k. And to give balance, the first claim on the other boat was for $5k so it’s not a matter of $$$ - they just don’t payout. I would suggest whoever you insure with just make sure you read the exclusions very carefully and make sure you can mitigate each one before taking out a policy. As a tip, your home and contents insurer may cover your fishing equipment as a “special personal effect” and also cover those items while in use (similar to bike insurance) as long as you’re not a professional."

I eventually found it after a bit of searching. It’s called the Coral Crab

Caught in approx 5m of water in Sydney

You wouldn't happen to know someone called Richard C, who works for a big name Telco? Brad

Thanks! You can take as many photos as you want and have no one else to blame for taking a crappy shot but yourself!

To follow up on this really old thread. I did manage my first session out in open water last month. The weather is warming up and I hope everyone is staying safe and getting out there to wet a line. Here's a video I put together , which was cut short due to wind.

Not my kayak but look at my friend’s setup. Dual torqeedo ultralight 403AC electric motors. Yes that’s right not one, but two! They’re not cheap solutions if you’re thinking about it, but are very well built. He’s retired and doesn’t want to buy a boat and loves kayaking and is willing to spend the $$ to get the most out of life. Not everyone is lucky enough to have options like this, I’m still using the good old legs to pedal around and very jealous especially after a long day on the water.

Well done!

Saw all these crabs running around in low tide before sunrise. Any idea what they’re called? Do you think they would be good bait for bream or fish in general? I tried hard to not roll over them with my kayak wheels but I’m sure I heard a few crunches on my way out, apologies in advanced to all the crab huggers out there.

With work imposing forced leave, I took the opportunity to fish with the kayak gang during my holidays. I was supposed to meet the guys at the ramp by 6am but I had trouble sleeping the night before and woke up late 5:45am! With only 15mins to get ready I messaged the guys that I would be late and not to wait up for me. Made it to the ramp by 6:20 and they were still getting ready, phew. On the way to catch livies we sounded a school of bait in the middle of the channel, a quick drop and I hook just one sardine and the school quickly disappeared. The next few hours we spend ages trying to catch live bait with no luck. One of the guys decided he wanted a head start and went straight to the main channel to chase jewfish and snapper. It wasn't long before we got word he hooked up to a 40cm snapper and undersized jewie. We quickly headed over and started to drift our baits across the channel. I managed to hook a pan sized snapper 32cm on squid, but no luck on the jewfish. One of my mates manages to catch another 2 jewfish on strips of squid but they are undersized and released. We ran into a regular jewfish chaser who told us that kings were busting up further up channel, we thanked him and made our way quickly to the spot. I dropped my squid baits down and hooked a nice Maori Rockcod and many Bigeyes. I caught Bigeyes on squid, slowjig and sabiki, there was no way to avoid them. One of the guys caught a yakka on sabiki only to have a kingfish steal it from under him. About 30mins later he manages to convert a dead sardine into a 69cm kingfish. It took me about 30mins to finally catch some yakkas on sabiki. I send one back down while working the sabiki rod. A few minutes later the rod buckles over and the reel is screaming. Up comes a 67cm kingfish, a keeper which is dispatched, bled and iced. I send another live yakka down and within a minute the live bait rod buckles over and the reel is screaming again. This time a just legal kingfish 65cm, this one is released to grow bigger. I send another live yakka down and it doesn't take long for the rod to buckle over again, unfortunately no hook up. By this time the wind had really picked up and the kings soon disappeared so we moved spots to target jewfish again. Half a dozen drifts I land baby jewfish on squid which released. The kingfish was eaten as sashimi, the bigeye was filleted and eaten as battered fish. The maori rockcod was steamed and fantastic eating, it's such a rare catch for Sydney given how cold it is compared to Queensland. Another great session on the kayak

I've got to agree with you there, without care it will rust. I think if you spend enough $$$ on quality gear you'll be forced to look after you gear. All the pliers I have don't have any rust and are doing ok, just a quick rinse and I only oil if it needs it. I currently use the Shimano pliers for offshore fishing and works well removing hooks, probably not great if its deep inside the mouth. While the thickness gauge is good, it still will twist occasionally when the hooks are difficulty to budge. But then its primary design is for split rings so I can't fault it. Other option is I sometimes try removing the hook going in via the gills, not great but I think its better for the fish to suffer a little than be stuck with a hook in its mouth. If I ever need a new pair or pliers I would consider purchasing the large pair made by Palms. These look thick and sturdy. Mind you these are all what I consider expensive JDM gear, so you will be forced to look after them. Having said all this I currently use a cheap aluminium pair right now on my yak. Why? Because I bought it ages ago and had it lying around and I figured I might loose them eventually, even though they are tethered. The samiki teflon pliers gauge looks thin and probably would twist easily if the hooks are difficult to remove. Happy plier hunting

Well done, we, well four of us on kayaks struggled to catch any on Thursday we tried for squid and yakkas, but it looks like you had all the luck!

What started out as a below average session turned out to be a great day on the yak. We were on the water by 6:30am, with a forecast of moderate winds and some rain. Luckily no rain, but it was windy every now and then which settled to a breeze by the arvo. We located the wreck but we all struggled to catch any live bait, all day! I suspect the rain we received yesterday chased all the bait away or maybe its just the full moon, who knows! Even with burley I couldn't catch any livies, but I did manage pinkies, leather jackets, bream and a legal trevally all on the sabiki rig with tiny bits of squid as bait. One of my friends managed to catch one yakka which eventually got converted into a rat. Towards the afternoon things were not looking any better so we relocated to a deeper spot. Whilst trying to catch squid I sounded some fish in the channel approx 27m deep. 1st drop resulted in a 67cm jewfish on a strip of squid. Not long after that another jewfish 60cm. Then my mate manages a 72cm jewfish on slowjig. Eager to catch a keeper,I kept a close eye on the sounder and I managed to locate the school again, quickly dropped my line and hooked up straight away. 3rd time lucky this one measured 71cm. Happy days, finally a keeper. Not long after that, another fishing buddy of mine hooks a 79cm jewie. We were back at the boat ramp by 4:30pm, it was a long day on the yak, but much needed exercise after spending the past 3 weeks working from home and snacking on everything in the cupboard.

I think you are on the money rick, splendid perch looks to be correct. Thanks!

Caught in approx 60-70m of water offshore off SYDNEY on slow jig. Approx size 30cm.

Yea we slow jig with small electric reels, if we're in the mood to be punished then we would use the small manual overhead reel (backup setup). But that rarely happens not unless we loose too much line on the electric. Cross fingers!

That full cab unpainted ally boat was very inconsiderate, it would buzz past us really close, creating an enormous wake. It did this not once but 3 times. We were in my friends back crusher, sorry I meant bar crusher. We like to slow jig rather than use baits and hence our setup is much lighter, PE2.5 mainline, 30-40lb leader, 30-40lb multistrand wire, 450-900g jig depending on the current. The lighter setup gives our rig a much better chance of having our lines vertically down when there is current.

We also fished Browns Mountain on Friday the 13th although we had a late start as one of the crew slept in so we didnt hit the grounds till about 9:30am. For us the bites were hot up until the top of the tide and then the fish disappeared by midday. We managed to get several gemfish and 4 massive mirror dorys, no blueyes but yes lots of snags. Conditions were excellent in the morning, no swell, no wind and little to no current. By the arvo the wind picked up as expected, we dropped into 12 mile and managed to get only one legal kingfish on slow jig.

Yes I have, my fish finder even has the new side scan feature which I turned in hope to see something obvious, but failed! If you have GPS co-ordinates that would be awesome! Anyone other useful co-ordinates will also be greatly appreciated. Happy for you to PM the details if you want them kept private. TIA