wazatherfisherman

If you fish Akuna Bay you won't have a problem when the fog comes down because the marina is well lit. The best area is on the opposite side of the creek to the marina. If you go down to the end towards the sandflat stay more in the centre of the creek. Most use either an anchor each end or one on shore so you don't blow around. It pays to establish a small continuous burley trail to keep the Yellowtail around your boat and if the fish are around they'll find you. A light-stick on the wire trace about 30cm above the hooks often works really well. Good luck when you try, they are great fun to catch and excellent on the plate

All of them do at different times- any that have creeks, lagoons etc spilling out into the ocean are good places to start

Fish where the water come out of the lakes on the outgoing tide and let your bait flow out with the run. Live Mullet or Whiting (legal sized) if you want to avoid the stingrays

Hi Neil I came down with it on my birthday last November and although it only put me down for about a week, the dreadful taste etc lasted for ages. Hope you recover soon

If you were over any reef it could be a Port Jackson shark

1st one looks like South Whale second is definitely the ovens

Hi Neil I googled 'Fishing at Williamstown' and heaps of info came up

Welcome to the site- good intro and there's a gold mine of info here

The lights on the left hand side of the picture definitely look like the Ovens- too far out to be South Whale

You need another arm Dave! 3 fish at once is pretty good. Some good eating in that lot!

For many years there was a vacant block on Rayner Rd about 3 houses from the end and access was via that block then around the hill on a well used track, then down the rope. After the block was built on, they tell me that there was a dicey track along the edge just past the last house on that stretch (facing north) but I don't know what it's like (or still there!) The alternative access was a long walk around the lower section from the beach side. The Rayner Rd access was via the higher section, along the level above the lower way in. Although it's a famous location for LB Game, it doesn't fish too many fishers at a time and you need to gaff everything as there's nowhere to was fish up either. Yellowtail needed to be caught before light most of the time also, at the mouth of the gulph. You need your own rope about 15m long to hang onto to aid getting down. Stout Long Toms were often annoying when live-baiting there, but plenty of big fish have come from the location. Not that ideal a location for you- the lower spot before you go around the corner to the ovens (accessed from the beach and walk around) and known as South Whale, although low, is a great spinning spot, with other species available also. Just beware of the swell and take the usual safety gear. September-November there are also some really large Black Drummer along there and they get Snapper casting wide- a better spot for your spinning than the Ovens

Well done- great eating fish too

Yes but don't use braid for the sinker leader or hook leader. We used to use 18+half pound 'Tortue Supercontrol' mono for that style of fishing or 23+half pound if up higher. I personally only use braid for spinning and never rock work. You don't need that heavy a line, but if that's what you have by all means use it- wouldn't want to attempt breaking any snags with it though. If you enjoy this style of fishing, save up for another outfit and put mono on it- you don't need heavier line than about 25lb (11kg) for just about any rock fishing bar live-baiting for big stuff. My old line classes for the rocks were as follows- Bream and Luderick 3kg line on both sidecast and centrepin reels, Spinning lures 6,10 and 11.5kg (the latter only for Kingfish really) on all 3 types of reel (Spin, O/H and Alvey) Tailor/Salmon/Snapper 8 and 10kg, Drummer 6,10,15kg depending on area, Live baiting 10,15,18,25kg again area dependant. Cliff fishing 6kg for Bream, Luderick, 10-12kg for everything else- all mono, usually Tortue, Weiss(no longer available I think) or Schneider (it was cheaper but marginally thicker) all three brands were great for the rocks

My suggestion would be to make a few short sinker leaders at home with a couple of different size leads run between about 40cm of leader on the 2 swivels. Same idea for your hook leaders so you are ready and utilising the low light periods fishing rather than rigging. Although these type rigs don't lend themselves for fish running with the bait, if you can't get it out to where they are, you aren't in the game- just strike straight away, they usually swallow the bait pretty well straight away anyway

You should get far more distance with the longer rod- however, I'd try the 9'6" rod with 56gm lead and nice aerodynamic bait.

My suggestion would be to fish for them without lead or only the smallest sizes of ball sinker between a swivel and your hook/s during the low light periods especially into the dark. Be VERY careful when fishing the rocks at these times- many fishers use the 'distance' method that can be utilised from safer locations than the 'wash' style. Your rod would be capable of getting enough distance for the longer casting method if you use nice neat smaller baits and balance the casting weight of sinker/bait. Stay safe and remember that the peak times for these fish are AFTER times of big seas- not during.

What is your set up mate?

This is a pretty hard question to answer as all locations are different. Most 'distance casting' spots you try to land your bait/rig on sand patches close to reef/boulders. The gear required would be able to cast a good sized bait plus enough lead to reach and hold the distance to the sand. How far? Depends on both the location and the sea conditions at the time. We used to rig in the following manner: hooks on a 10kg leader of about 40-45cm, swivel, bead (to reduce 'impact' on knot and prevent it wedging on), ball or barrel sinker, swivel. The sinker runs between the 2 swivels which are 40-50cm apart. The higher swivel enables more distance cast-wise, as the sinker movement is obviously restricted and is also necessary when using the type of reels we used, which were sidecast reels (Alvey's) to negate line twist. The barrel sinker was used when there was a decent sea running, more to get distance than anchor the bait, as it barely anchors the bait when the sea is rough. Fishing at one of the well known Snapper spots in the Royal National Park, we simply use a large running ball sinker above the bead and swivel, which means dealing with line twist as well, however, fishing high (at this spot about 15-17 meters above the water) you aren't constantly casting, so it doesn't become too much of an issue for the first hour or so.

Most of the Snapper we used to get were on days directly after a big swell, using 0/1 ball on the hook left to slowly sink in the wash or alternatively cast further by using a sinker running between 2 swivels about 40-45cm apart. The big Snapper we used to get of a night, often after the Tailor had quietened down or while Tailor fishing using Gars and sometimes Pilly's. When chasing them from the rocks you get most fish before light. Striped Tuna and Bonito our preferred baits

We did 27yrs of 'annual Hairtail trips'- had a few years that we didn't get any over the 5 days, but like Frank says, they were great times if you love fishing

Hi Donna they have been around for quite some time- there were a few reports on here from memory, plus the usual social media reports. The last few years we have caught them from the shoreline at both Illawong Bay and Akuna Bay, the best month for shore fishing was February in both 2022 and 2023. I haven't been able to go yet this year, however, they have been catching them at Newcastle in better numbers the last couple of weeks. Maybe many fishers are keeping quiet this year? The majority of reports of captures have been from around Flint and Steel near the entrance

Do you mean catching Gars or using them? Just ask on the forum- they are around much of the year to catch, great for bait all year

Yes!

The spot in the movie is the 'island' I've been telling you about for ages!

Great fishing again Chris! Whatever you've targeted you always come up trumps