wazatherfisherman

Over your fishing lifetime, how many times do think you've caught a 'familiar' fish? By that I mean one you're pretty sure you've actually caught on another occasion, maybe even earlier on the same trip? How can you tell? Did it have some sort of defining feature/s that made it an obvious re-capture, or was it exactly the same hole or spot that you caught it previously? In today's fishing world, with the tagging of so many species becoming more widespread, fish recaptures are becoming more common place. Game fish like Marlin, Tuna and sharks, being large fish, are common targets for tagging and both game and sports fishers often have the necessary tagging equipment at hand. With this growing trend of conservation in mind, tagging of smaller species like Kingfish, Mulloway, Snapper and even Flathead has also become more common. Tagged fish are an obvious way to let you know if you've encountered the fish before. Fish without the obvious fisheries tag poking out of them however, might need a different visual stimulus or some strange or unusual mark to lead you to think they are more than familiar to you. Take the case of "Bootle" a common Wirrah Cod that was repeatedly caught by many of us. Fishing in a particular corner of the rocks at Dover Heights, "Bootle"- as we came to called him- was caught and released heaps of times over a long period. How did we know it was the same fish? Easy in Bootle's case- he had a deformed tail and was missing most of his left pectoral fin, he was always caught fishing 'straight down' in the exact same corner of the rocks and was caught twice on at least two occasions during the same day. More than once the captor was going to kill Bootle, because Wirrah's- also known as Old Boots- are pretty much a pest species, with no apparent eating value to most fishers, but due to 'peer group pressure', Bootle got a reprieve and was released each time. Now although Bootle wasn't viewed as much of a catch, his own notoriety made him somewhat of a 'talk-worthy' fish to land. He was around a kilo in weight and although he only fought for about 20 seconds each time, his weight alone gave his captor 'hope' of something decent to take home, and Bootle became a 'celebrity' fish in his own right. Whenever someone was fishing in that corner (actually known as 'Yakka corner') undoubtedly, when things were slow, Bootle would turn up on someone's line. His celebrity status came about because most of the guys would ask whoever was fishing Yakka corner, had they 'seen' Bootle that day yet? Imagine a pest species being given that status! Large Blue Groper, being another species that seem to have a short 'home range' and have become more of a catch and release target- particularly over the last 10 or so years- unlike Bootle, couldn't be positively identified exactly, any that I've seen released from the same location, regardless of suspecting they were 're-caught' fish, due to not enough individually defining markings. When I was in my early teens and fishing all around Sydney Harbour, one of our favourite Leatherjacket spots was Elizabeth Bay, just below Kings Cross. Only really worth fishing there on the bigger high tides, as it's not that deep, or during a southerly, when it's pretty well protected from the wind. We either float-fished or sight-cast to the roving Jackets after slowly walking along the wall that hems the small bay. There used to be a lot of kelp there and while there was, there were plenty of good sized Leatheries feeding amongst it. One of our favourite Jacket hooks were the small silver 'Limerick' pattern, which were sold by K-Mart and they were quite strong for their size, but more importantly- really cheap, which was always a consideration when you're a kid. Also, they were 'medium-length' shanked, as short shank hooks are no good (the Leatheries can bite you off easily if they take the entire hook in) and they were really sharp straight out of the packet. One trip, after arriving at the bay, we quickly rigged up with just the hook and a decent sized split-shot for casting weight and started scouting along the wall for Jackets to sight-cast to. I was there with my mate Fraser L and we always had a friendly competition going- as kids do. Didn't take long to spot a couple of Jackets that we could cast our small bits of prawn bait to and we landed the first few we got baits in front of. Then a really big one came floating up from deep in the kelp, and both of us desperately tried to get the first bait in front of him as he moved slowly around in front of us. I got my bait in the prime spot as cruised past me and got excited as he swam straight towards the sinking prawn piece, but at the last second he changed direction and approached directly between myself and my bait, before taking it. I hooked him as he inhaled the prawn, but as he turned the line went across his mouth and he bit me off. He disappeared for a while, but was soon back in view, with the small silver hook easily visible on the outside of his face. After we sighted him again, for the next hour or so, both Fraser and I focused solely on this fish, which still showed interest in the baits without actually taking one. To my horror, Fraser ended up getting him to take home and he was a beauty. So jealous! He still had my silver hook stuck in the skin next to his teeth. Funny that things like losing that big Jacket stay with you for life, as I've caught countless Jackets since then and plenty much larger also. Another couple of recaptured fish come to mind, the first one was on our first ever successful Hairtail trip. We were fishing from a hire boat at the mouth of Akuna Bay in freezing cold weather, with intermittent rain squalls. After catching nothing for several hours, we actually got pushed by the wind, right into the shore against a deep edge opposite where the new Akuna Bay Marina now sits. The anchors supplied in these hire boats were really basic, mostly either not having any chain or only a couple of feet if any at all. Within a couple of minutes of being pushed in close, all four of our rods bent over with Hairtail taking the four baits almost simultaneously and 3 fish were hooked and brought in. The fourth rod had the line "bitten off" and was quickly re-rigged and redeployed, resulting in Ross D getting one also, to join Fraser's, Doug's and mine in the boat. Ross claimed his first one had bitten him off, but in the next burst of fish a short time later, one of the captured Hairtail had Ross's green wire trace and 5/0 hook still in it's mouth and it was sticking out too far to have bitten him off. There was no line on the trace's swivel either, revealing that it was his crappy knot that lost the fish, not a 'bite-off' at all! The fact that the Hairtail took another bait while it still had a hook and wire trace hanging out of it's mouth is typical of the ferocity of these fish when hungry. The other fish caught under similar circumstances- being lost and then captured shortly after- was a Black Drummer (Rock Blackfish) that I caught on a handline, while purposely fishing for them at White Rock, along the eastern front of Bradleys Head. The spot has a series of water-filled crevices between it's large main 'platform' rocks, which hide a labyrinth of underwater caves and holes amongst these narrow channels, hiding quite a few different species, including Red Morwong, Black and Silver Drummer, Bream and Luderick, Crayfish and plenty of eels. Other oddities turn up at times, including Brown Groper, Black Cod (protected) and various coloured Wrasses, making having a quick fish down the crevices, often worthwhile. As this location fishes best for all species on the outgoing tide, usually the approach is to get there as close to high tide as possible. The main Luderick spot is a small "L" shaped crack and as it sits next to the lowest of the main front ledges, you need to stand in the water to fish it, which is too difficult until the water recedes to about 'mid-thigh' level, so having a handline fish down the deeper crevices is what you do until the water drops enough with the tide. While the water's up, there are fish moving around in these crevices, one in particular usually has a Drummer or two feeding in it's shadowy depths and these are the prime handline target. Handlines are used because these crevices are only about 45-50 cm's wide at the top, and you need to quickly pull the fish directly up from above, before they cut you off on the edges. The usual method of approach to "crack-fishing", is on arrival, go and drop a single handful of crushed, wet, white bread down, then come back a few minutes later and drop a nice fresh peeled green prawn down exactly where the bread went down. You need about 15lb mono, with a strong 1/0 suicide like a Mustad "Big Red" pattern and a small ball sinker sitting straight atop the hook. Importantly, when crack fishing- don't let your shadow fall over the crack you're fishing, as the fish get spooked easily. The Drummer in question, I hooked almost immediately my bait reached the bottom of the crevice, some 2 meters below, but as I hadn't dried my hands from using the bread, the slippery-ness of the line allowed the fish to get about a foot of line through my fingers, which was enough to allow it to cut me off down below. Bugger! A good fish wasted by slippery fingers. I hopped back across the couple of crevices towards my gear, re-rigged and washed all the bread "slippery" off my fingers before slipping the next bait down. Instantly, another fish and this time dragged straight up and onto the rocks- a nice Drummer about a kilo. When I reached down and held it on the ledge, it had about half a meter of line coming out of it's mouth- my line that had been broken only a few minutes earlier! It still had the hook, complete with prawn, sitting just inside it's mouth, yet greedily took another bait, so much for being a 'shy' feeder. These are just a few 'familiar fish' that come to mind, no doubt others have had similar experiences

Hi Yowie it's fun worming-frustrating but fun! Have always wondered if anyone has ever eaten them!

Hi Grandad glad you like the stories, I have plenty but am a lousy typist!

Hi Stu it's freaked Dave out ever since! His feet genuinely don't stink, but whatever it is they are attracted to, they really love him. Normally it's great to have animals like you, but maybe not beach worms!

Hi Rebel me too, up the coast it's no problem buying them, but they aren't available that often in Sydney shops, only occasionally at my local

Hi Neil in most areas- even 'good' worm spots, you just don't see the numbers of them like there are at that spot. I'm a hopeless wormer really, but had no trouble getting them there without much effort at all. When I was living up the north coast I found them really hard to catch, but the regular wormers got plenty

Hi Pete using the tape is a fantastic idea. Don't know why they aren't out of the sand chasing you and I re amounts of fish we ate as kids! Never seen worms anywhere like that area past Hammerhead, but the scientists knew!

Hi Noel catching bait is often just as much fun as catching fish! When I was up the north coast all the unused dead worms were given a 30 second metho dip before freezing and they came out really well as the metho evaporates

Many of us have had a go at catching beach worms at some point or other. They're one creature that really takes time to master gathering, the more you practice the better you get. Not me, after plenty of years, I'm still barely better than when I first tried! Although I can normally get enough for bait, it always takes me ages to get them. I love using them for bait, so I just have to allow a fair bit of time to get enough for what I hope to do. I've used my fingers, a couple of different types of purpose-made worm pliers and finally, long-nose pliers. The ideal method is to use your fingers, because you don't do much damage to your worm and you can keep it alive for extended periods. The purpose-made worm pliers with the spikes kill them pretty quickly and the graphite ones with the rounded nodules also do damage enough to give the worms more than a headache, however they do live a fair bit longer than the spike caught variety. After trying all the various methods, for me at least, long-nose pliers seem to work the best, I'm sure all the good wormers will read this and shake their heads, but as I said- for me, long-nose are the go. I like them because I've had the most success using them, theoretically the graphite versions are probably far better, and I know that I've never been able to get more than one or two with my fingers- no matter how hard I've tried, so long-nose it is. The worms usually die within about 24hrs when caught with any sort of pliers, so catching with your fingers is the way to go if you want to keep them 'un-preserved' for any amount of time. The first time I had a go at doing it, it was on Burning Palms Beach in the Royal National Park. We'd been camped there for a couple of days and the weather was lousy, with only short spaces between persistent rain, if it hadn't been a long weekend we probably would have tracked back to Otford and gone home, but long weekends weren't to be wasted when we were young, so we stayed. The usual rock fishing wasn't possible, due to the swell being too big to get near the water and we didn't have any bait to fish off the beach. Not being able to get near the rocks, the usual cunje and crab bait wasn't a possibility and the beach doesn't have many pipi's to 'shuffle' for, like most beaches there are a few, but not enough for five fishermen, so the talk turned to beach worms. On a previous trip, we watched one of the hut residents (there's a hut community there) worming and he caught a few nice ones pretty quickly, so we thought we'd give it a go. For a worm burley bag we used a keepnet with five T-bone steak bones, not ideal, but all we had, however finding a couple of pipi's to use as hand bait for the worms took ages. We finally found just 2 pippis and decided to take turns if we spotted any worms. One thing we'd learned from the hut wormer was that whichever way the wind was blowing from, you'd go to the opposite end of the beach, and as it was a big southerly, we went up the north end right in front of the closed Surf Club shed where we'd seen him get his worms. Although we raised quite a few worms initially, they never seemed to be 'up' long enough for anyone to get one. At this stage though, we didn't realise that the tide needs to be fairly low and the beach a lot flatter than this steep end we were trying- unless you're really good at it. The worms sense the incoming water and don't hang around for more than a few seconds if the water's up too far, but as the tide started to go out a bit further, we did get a few chances. Nobody managed to get one out in a couple of hours and the burley bag didn't seem to be attracting anything like it did when we started. There was a smelly dead bird on the beach a bit further down and we added that to the net after whacking it with a rock to release some juices, but before we got the net down to the water a worm revealed itself well away from the really wet sand and I had a go for him. I got him with only my fingers and pulled him out without breaking him. He was less than a foot long, but fairly thick and I later learned this was a 'stumpy' which are found further from the water's edge, but aren't usually very big. We then stopped trying down closer to the water and Doug M got a stumpy as well, but then the rain came back and as we were nearly ten minutes from the tent site, we all ran back to camp. The rain didn't stop again and we never got to use the two worms before we trudged back to Otford station the next day, but were pretty chuffed that we'd actually managed to catch a couple, regardless it took a few hours. Over the years, I've had a go for worms in plenty of different spots and caught a few at places like Zenith and Box beaches at Port Stephens, a couple off Wooyung and a couple more at Burning Palms (we took pliers and used Pilchards in a doubled stocking this time) but had never really found them easy to get until years after the first Burning Palms attempt. We had been staying at Currarong Caravan Park and fishing Beecroft Peninsula for 'big stuff' and the sea got up really big, wiping out any rock spots we could access. There were locations that would have been suitable, but the side of the headland they were on was closed to the public, due to it being a Naval Bombardment Range, so we only had the option of fishing the beach. The beach at Currarong has a reef offshore and it doesn't seem that susceptible to larger swell, which break well out from the shore, so we spent a couple of days beach fishing and of course worming. Plenty of worms on the beach there and I really enjoyed being able to catch a fair few without having to put in the usual long effort. Didn't have worm pliers, but had ordinary long-nose in the fishing bag and they worked really well. We turned the worms into a couple of really nice mixed bags of fish and they turned an otherwise wiped out trip fish-wise into a good one. A couple of years later, we were staying with another mate- Ross S on the south side at Old Errowal Bay and after fishing some of the great rock spots like The Devils Elbow and Moe's Rock, decided to go and spend a night on the beach at Currarong, as the guys wanted to have a beach fish and a go at worming and we already knew there were plenty of worms there. The spot we picked for our camp for the night was adjacent the only decent looking fishing area we could see- a small hole between sandbanks, with a channel funnelling out seawards, so we decided to set up straight back from there. A quick spin for Tailor and Salmon didn't produce any fish for the five of us, so attention turned to the worms. For worm burley we took a couple of headless frames from Bonito that we'd caught at the Devils Elbow and after doing the 'pippi shuffle', didn't take that long to find a few pippis for hand bait. The tide was about halfway out and the waves small, as they always seemed to be whenever we'd been to this beach, so into the keepnet went the Bonnie frames and we started waving the net in the small outgoing run off from the waves. Worms appeared pretty well straight away, and as I was the 'expert' the guys watched while I had first go. Target spotted, pippi waved in the outgoing water and a worm popped up, wait till he bites on the pippi, pliers closed and got him! Success on the very first go, I have to admit I was pretty pleased with myself, considering most of my other worming missions had taken at least a few goes to get the first worm safely into the belt-carried bait bucket. Nods of approval from everyone and "show us again" the call. Without having to move more than a few feet, the next worm was spotted and I got him as well- never before had I caught 2 in 2 goes. As we only had 3 pairs of pliers, three wormed while one held the burley net and whoever didn't have the pliers tried by hand. We swapped around with the pliers and the burley and really started getting into some 'serious worming' and everyone caught a few. It was almost as much fun as fishing and we decided to catch enough to last the rest of the week, after all, worms catch Whiting and everybody likes eating them, they'd be next on the fishing holiday agenda. The session ended earlier than we liked, due to the Bonito frames being completely stripped of flesh by the sand and water, and we decided that although it was great for attracting worms. it wasn't ever going to last long- maybe leave the heads on the Bonnies next time? Shortly after we ran out of burley and were getting organised to have a fish with the worms, one of our other mates Dave D turned up with his family. They'd driven down from Sydney and we were all going to spend the night fishing on the beach, before heading back to Ross's cottage, back on the other side of Jervis Bay. When we told him that no fish had been caught, but we'd got a fair few worms, he was real keen to have a go at catching a worm as he'd never had a try. We did have some Pilchards and thought we could maybe use them for worm burley (we left the Bonito fillets salting back at Ross's) so we put a few in the keepnet and I took Dave down to have a go for a worm. Dave held the burley net and I pointed out the little "V" shapes that give away the position of each worm and within a couple of minutes pulled one out. The Pilchards were raising heaps more worms than the Bonito frames did, as all the way from where the incoming water reached and right back to the edge of the ocean there were dozens of worms raising! Dave was fascinated by the worms and after I caught one, he took the pliers to try his luck. It took him a few attempts, but he also broke his duck with a decent sized worm, before giving me the pliers back to get another one myself. We moved down a little closer to the ocean, as there were now worms everywhere below the burley bag and there were some big ones, it seemed the closer to the water you got, the bigger the worms are. Whoever was working the burley stood higher on the beach than the wormer and worked the bag, which was on a long bit of rope (we later learned that the shorter the rope the easier it is to use) and the two man approach worked well. As we didn't need to move much at all, with worms constantly sighted, attention was focused on the next worm target and we didn't realise that the few Pilchards that were in the net were gone. With no actual burley, what was attracting so many worms? After catching my next worm from the many that popped up, then taking the net and tossing it further up the beach, I noticed that below where Dave was crouching with the pippi hand bait, there were stacks of "V" shaped worm exposures. Only then did I work it out- the worms were being raised by none other than Dave's feet! I started laughing and waved over two of the guys who hadn't started fishing, and quickly explained what I thought was going on. Much laughter and we had to put the theory to the test. Meanwhile, Dave had caught another worm, oblivious to the fact there was no burley and was showing his wife Pauline and young daughter Laura how to get one. We could see as we approached, that there were stacks of worms still revealing, as each receding wave left and there was no other explanation, they genuinely were attracted to Dave's feet- the only part of him that was affixed to the sand! When we stopped laughing and I repeated what I'd just told the other two guys, Dave couldn't believe it, not at first anyway. So we had him change positions to the rest of us several times. Each time, wherever he moved to, up came the worms! I've got to tell you, at this point, it was one of the funniest moments of all time! Dave was horrified and freaked out, but great bloke that he is, laughed his head off, same as us. The prolonged laughter brought the other two- who'd started fishing about 50 yards away from where we now stood- back over to the group and the whole explanation was told once again. More laughter, heaps more! Dave graciously changed positions to show that it really was him that the worms were interested in . I need to add now, that Dave's feet don't smell- well not to us anyway, however the worms absolutely loved them. Still gives us a laugh nearly 30 years on and still freaks Dave out! A couple of years after this trip, the actual section of the beach- which is north of the rock platform called "Hammerhead" was included in the local area marine park habitat protection zone and collecting invertebrates of any type is no longer allowed. Our "secret" worm spot has apparently been well known to the authorities for some time and is now preserved, so no more worming there for anyone. If you're down that way and want to see one of the biggest worm colonies you'll ever see, it's only a short walk from the car, but be mindful that the area is patrolled by both fisheries and park rangers, so please don't attempt to take any worms.

There's a great doco called "Those Amazing Suckers" where an occi kept in a lab travels each night to a crab tank that it can't see (from where it's own tank is) and takes a crab back to it's own tank for a feed. It even replaces the crab tank lid! Amazing stuff

Hi Dave you're a braver man than I am! No way would I be game to feed one like that. Occi's and crabs love to eat each other with the victor being the larger from what I've seen

Hi Little Flatty I've never lost the image of the octopus with the knives it was genuinely funny (still is!) First time I tried eating one it tasted great but was impossible to chew until we discovered marinade. The ones you see with curled up legs in the fish shops have been 'tumbled' by machine to help with the tenderising process- no curled legs and they're too tough

Hi Stu I've seen them grab the knife off their assailant plenty of times now, but to see one using two knives made me think that their brain must be more complex, considering it was moving towards the water (which it couldn't see) wielding the knives and seemed totally aware of both what was around it and where to go. Smart critter!

Hi Blackfish as a kid I just couldn't imagine anyone eating one but love eating baby octopus these days

Hi Dave great description of them!

Hi Pete they give me the creeps as well and I hate it when they grab hold of you!

Hi Rey05 Thank you!

Hi jordy I wonder if the occi was thinking of making the bottle a home? They are very interesting creatures

Octopus are one of the ocean's creatures that many fishers either hate, or are just really wary of. I've always been in the 'wary of' group. My first experience with an octopus was nothing special, I spotted just a few inches of two legs coming out from under a rock to grab a prawn that someone had dropped in the shallows. The gap that the legs came through was only tiny, barely larger than the prawn and I wondered how big the octopus was and how it was under the rock, with no other holes or spots for it to get under visible, surely it couldn't possibly get through such a tiny hole or lift the rock? A man fishing close by came over to have a look and ended up lifting the rock and taking the octopus home- no way I was going to touch it when I was about 7 or 8 years old- too many cartoon images of angry ones grabbing things and clobbering their persecutors. I had no idea that anyone would eat such a thing at any rate. The man told me that the octopus must have got under the rock through the tiny hole- there was no other way to get underneath, but I couldn't believe that, the hole was only just big enough for the two legs I'd seen, let alone the whole beast. The next one I saw was at Pearl Beach a few years later, my older cousin David caught it from the rocks and it was a big one- with a head like a rock-melon. He managed to get it up onto the rocks, but once it touched the ground, there was no stopping it getting back into the water, they're just too strong once they get a grip on something solid. I was a bit disappointed that he ended up losing it, as I really wanted to check out the suckers on it's tentacles (when it was dead of course!), but try as we did, there was no stopping it getting back to the water. A few years later, while I was fishing for Slimy Mackerel on the wharf almost under the south side of the Harbour Bridge, an older man caught another big one and lifted it out, this time however, the octopus wasn't allowed to touch the wharf and was dropped straight in one of those 20 litre white buckets on top of their Slimy haul. They cut the line and dropped a towel over it in the bucket, before he and his two big sons rejoiced and went back to fishing. The wharf was really crowded that day because the Slimy's were there in droves and biting their heads off, and nobody noticed the octopus climbing back out of the bucket until it was back on the wharf. No problem, the two sons used their rod butts to block it's escape, while the guy who caught it grabbed a knife and tried to stab it. The octopus had other ideas though and within a minute had wrestled the knife from the guy and actually looked like it was threatening them with the knife. Another bloke then grabbed his knife and attempted to do the same thing for exactly the same result! The big occi now had TWO knives and in a scene straight out of a comedy sketch, waved one knife in the air while still holding the other knife. All four men were trying to stop it's progress and it almost made it to the wooden steps where it could have slipped through and fallen back in the water below. Finally, a fifth man came over with a bucket that had a lid and between the five of them, managed to get it into the bucket and they took it up onto the road and the fifth man cut it between it's eyes and it died. I still have the image of that octopus wielding the knife, it always makes me smile and it comes to mind whenever I think of them. Then there was the one we caught in a bottle in Taylor Bay, it was only small but filled up half the bottle and again, how it got into the bottle through the narrow neck defied logic, but I guess the octopus didn't think of anything but a protective home. I've since seen a few other octopus brought in while still inside containers, like bits of PVC pipe and cans, at least the rubbish people throw in the water is useful as homes sometimes. When we fished the base of the big cliffs at Dover Heights, during times of flat seas we often used crabs for bait and searched them out using a simple 'spear' which was just a piece of heavy gauge wire with one end bent around for a handle. We'd wade around in one of the many big pools and look in all the waterside crevices, then spear any red crabs we could see, red crabs are the top variety to use and they live both submerged and in 'wet' pools and crevices. The wire was used because it could be manipulated to whatever shape was necessary to get down the crevices- where the crabs hide during daylight hours. The method always got you a few crabs, but there were a few disadvantages to collecting them this way. Firstly, it was a slow process to get any amount of crabs as you had to muck around with shaping your spear, second, by spearing them 'head-on' and dragging them out sideways, you often ripped out much of the fish-attracting meat and thirdly and just as important from an ecological perspective- any speared crabs would die, which of course meant an unused crab was wasted, and unable to be released. Some time later, we learned of different methods of catching red crabs, but initially it was the spear method- which is now outlawed. What's all this got to do with octopus? Well, one day we were catching crabs with the spears, and our cliff climbing mentor Wally spotted a small occi in the pool we were wading in and quickly speared it with his wire. (It's no longer allowed to take octopus on rock platforms in NSW by the way, but this was near 40 years ago) He slid it up to the handle end of the wire and bashed it senseless on the rocks. He then turned the hood inside out and said that's how you kill an octopus, before continuing on with crab catching. Next crevice we came to, as Wally plunged his spear down the crack in order to get a crab, the dead octopus on the handle end also dangled over the next crack below. What happened next changed our crab gathering forever. With the spear well down the crevice and the dead octopus on the handle end, the dead one's legs flowed over a small crevice, hidden from sight and covered by cabbage weed, due to it being minimally lower in height and full of water, there were plenty of crabs that were also hidden from sight. All of a sudden crabs were running out of this other crevice and just standing on the rocks above the waterline. I managed to simply grab about half a dozen, as did Wally and my mate Fraser. It seemed the mere presence of the octopus in the crevice really freaked the crabs out and they ran from the water to get away from the occi. In no time, we had plenty of crabs for our fishing session, as each time the occi was deployed, crabs ran out everywhere. What a great way to catch crabs for bait! Only problem was, it wasn't easy to find an octopus and you'd spend pretty much just about the same time gathering your occi then crabs as we were with the spear. Wonder if an ordinary plastic octopus skirt would work? Over the next few months we tried several different colours of 9 and 12 inch skirts- the same ones used on trolling lures. You just cut the very tip of the skirt off and attach it to the same thick, bendy wire and presto- the crab frightener was part of the regular kit. The best colours were bright red and pink, especially if you got bright striped ones. Crab gathering was now easy, thanks to the octopus. Most fishers that have fished Clifton Gardens deep hole or the famous Sow and Pigs Reef in Sydney Harbour would also have at some point, encountered octopus. There are stacks of them on the sides of Clifton hole and there's plenty on the southern side of the 'Pigs' close to the hard reef. Any fish bait like a Pilchard or Yellowtail that stays on the bottom is fair game for the occi's and when the tide's stopped running at the Pigs you are likely to get one. One trip to the Pigs for a club comp, the usual masses of Tailor failed to turn up and we only got a few on the dusk bite. I was fishing with Kenny Griffiths in his boat "Mud Crab" and we switched to fishing for Trevally instead of Tailor, but the Trev's were barely size (there was no legal size but our club had a 12 inch minimum size for any species) and the other species encountered around the reef weren't biting, so we tried a lot of different ideas before deciding to concentrate on getting a heap of big Yellowtail, which literally swarm the reef of a night time. Catching the Yellowtail is really easy, they're attracted to your burley bucket and then they just sit in the natural eddy formed by the back of the boat. You basically just pole them in and these are the larger "night-time" variety, good size for live baiting big stuff and great for fillet baits and cube burley. Ever hopeful that the Tailor might still turn up, we left a Pilchard bait out each, with the rods left in the boat's rod holders and got stuck into the Yakka's. As the tide was nearing low, the flow of he water slows right down and of course the forgotten Tailor baits reach he bottom, resulting in an octopus each. As neither of us wanted one, when Kenny got his to the boat he just bounced the rod for a while and the occi let go. I made the mistake of letting mine get right next to the boat and of course it latched onto the side of the hull- no chance of pulling it off the fibreglass hull with 15 lb line. That trip was the first time we were both using the Mustad 34007 stainless hooks to make our flights of gangs and they were an expensive hook and my occi was only hooked in it's leg with one of the 3 hooks, so Kenny suggested that I cut my line and tie it to the rod holder. When we'd done this a couple of times previously, after leaving it for a while, the octopus had unhooked itself and was gone, so I cut the line and tied it off, hoping the octopus would free itself and leave me my hooks. We fished on for another hour or so, before deciding we had enough Yakka's and the last of our club's boats decided to call it a night. We soon had the boat on the plane en-route back to Rose Bay ramp. It's a few k's back to the ramp, but we flew in over the oily-smooth water in quick time and soon had the trailer backed down and the boat positioned to winch on. The boat was nearly half way on and as we checked to make sure everything was lined up roller-wise, then it appeared. It was the octopus that I'd tied to the rod holder. We'd forgotten about it and the poor thing was now stuck between the heavy fibreglass boat and roller, the leg with the hooks still dangling out the side. Kenny stopped winching and we slackened the cable and pushed the boat back enough for the occi to be clear of the roller and it fell onto the ramp, still on the hook. We got a pair of pliers and got the hooks out of it and it just crawled back to the water and was off! Considering that we'd just driven a few km's with it between boat and water and then crushed it between boat and roller it was amazing, it seemed quite OK- well it looked OK to us and it moved freely- they really are a tough creature! Just for the record, I still don't like picking up a live one, I know how strong they are!

They have been available for a couple of months already. The bait shops have to fulfil a bio-security protocol before they can stock them. At least two Sydney bait shops I know of were selling them again before lockdown began. Not sure on what the bio-security protocol involves, but one of the stores close to me told us that he would be selling them again as soon as he'd done the paperwork.

Hi Bessell1955 they might look friendly but you wouldn't trust a wild one!

Hi Grandad the one at Balmoral was as close as I ever want to get to one- they have some big teeth! The one at the Peak with the Kingie took the body off a genuinely big fish really quickly!

Hi Little Fisho I used to fish Clifton Gardens a fair bit when I was young and we used to get some really good Bream and Luderick inside the pool, would've been cool seeing a seal in there! Wonder how it gets in/out? They maintain that net pretty well. Simon Townsend's Wonder World crew came down and did a show on sea-horses one day, they told us the horses are living along the netting along with heaps of Fortescues

Seals and Sea Lions aren't something you see that often, but over the years we've run into them a few times and a few come to mind that provided really memorable experiences. The first time I ever saw one -outside of a captive one in Taronga Zoo- it just 'bobbed up', close in to the front ledge at the Mattens below Dover Heights. It was a seal and it hung around for a few minutes and put the Luderick we'd been catching, completely off the bite, before disappearing again. Eventually the fish came back on the bite and we caught a few without seeing the seal again. Next seals I saw were down at Montague Island, mostly sitting on the rocks on the N/E side and although that was as close to them as we got, plenty of other fishers at the Narooma Sports Fishing Convention we were fishing, had tales of seals stealing both their live baits and hooked fish. One of our club's boats had problems with them and even when they'd move a hundred or so meters away, the seals would just watch and then swim over to the new position, again searching out the Yellowtail the guys were using for live bait. Eventually the seals won out and the guys had to leave the prime spot to them. Over the three days of the convention, there were plenty more tales of seals becoming a nuisance, but as the island has a fairly large seal colony, that's really only to be expected. Back in Sydney, on a trip to jig for Kingfish at the famous "Peak" out off Maroubra, we arrived to find a couple of boats fighting fish as we approached and we saw the guys in a boat close to us frantically waving everyone out of the way. A guy on board had hooked a King and just as he was getting the upper hand, all of a sudden the rod really doubled over and line was pouring off his reel. "A Marlin, A Marlin, get out of the way!!" they were screaming, but it was winter and the water was too cold- maybe a big Yellowfin? We watched for a couple of minutes as the line came towards the surface, but the culprit revealed itself- a really big Sea Lion. Plenty of cursing and swearing from the guys on board and laughter all round from other boats close by. The lion had grabbed a really nice Kingie- in the 15-20kg range- that the guy had been fighting for a while and refused to let it go. After about five minutes of to-and-fro the lion won out and the guy got the head of the fish, adorned with bright orange jig, back to the boat and the lion got the body of the big fish. He then proceeded to throw the headless body high into the air, before repeatedly chasing it down and catching it, only to do it again and again. This went on for as long as we watched, until a boat close by hooked up and we moved out of their way and started jigging ourselves. The big lion hung around with it's Kingfish for quite a while and was still playing with it's prize when we drifted near it again, about half an hour later. Then there was the big lion we saw up REALLY close at Balmoral. The week earlier, my mate Ross D had been fishing with bait at Dobroyd Bombie and they got a good Mulloway about 17kg, so he was keen to have another go for them, this time with live bait. We decided to put the boat in at Little Manly instead of Rose Bay, but unknown to us, the ramp was locked in the early morning and we just had to wait until the ranger turned up to unlock the gate around 6.45am. This put us behind schedule for what we'd planned and as we wanted small Yellowtail, the best spot to get them quickly is Balmoral, either off the island or my favourite spot for real small ones- Balmoral Baths. At this stage, we hadn't discovered that there are ample small Yakka's close in to the heritage cottages of Fisherman's Bay- only a couple of hundred meters from where we intended to fish. Knowing we were likely going to Balmoral to get live bait, I put a John Dory handline in my bag because Balmoral Baths and close-in moorings have always been one of the Harbour's prime Dory spots. Ross wasn't really interested in fishing for them though- they didn't fight and he'd rather catch 'big stuff', so I put the ready rigged Dory line in secretly the night before. Dory rig for Balmoral Baths is a small egg-sized running bobby cork, weighted down with about a 14gm ball sinker that sits on top of a swivel, then about 60cm of 3-4kg leader and a 2/0 suicide hook. The depth of the cork varies, depending on the depth of the Yellowtail schools- the general rule is if you can see the bait schools easily, then you set your cork about 3 meters deep and if you can't see them about 4-5 meters deep. John Dory are never far from these bait schools and the marine growth growing on the bars/netting of the saltwater baths provides perfect ambush cover for the Dory to prepare it's sneak attack. The old public wharf at Balmoral adjacent the baths was being rebuilt, but there were a couple of people fishing off the back of the actual baths (which wasn't allowed) and we anchored on the N/E corner fairly close in to the baths fence. First small handful of squished bread burley brought the usual masses of Yellowtail up close to the boat and the 4lb 'Yakka lines' readied with a size 14 longshank and small piece of split-shot about a foot up from it and baited with mince-standard Yakka rig for the Harbour. As soon as I caught the first Yakka I reached for my Dory line- much to Ross's objection! I remember him saying I was wasting a good Yakka, but it turned into a Dory, then another and another. In fact I got 4 Dory on the first Yakka. This might sound a bit far fetched, but for regular Dory fishers, it's a common occurrence to catch several fish on the one live bait when they're around. The suicide hook goes in through the Yakka's mouth and the point comes out through the front of the eye socket. As Dory always swallow their prey head first, once a bait has been taken, the Yakka on the hook slides up the line and remains alive, enabling you to simply slide it back down immediately to try for another one. Being in a "distressed state" (to say the least after being swallowed!) the returned Yakka is really attractive to the Dory and is often preyed upon immediately. Another fact when looking for Dory is they always seem to be in even numbers. How does this work and how do you make a statement like this? Observation of Dory either sitting or 'cruising' the edges of structure, nearly always shows them together in pairs or groups of pairs- I don't know the 'scientific' explanation, but this is what I've observed multiple times over many years of fishing for them. It might be for mating purposes or similar, I don't know, but I do know that if you are quick to re-deploy another bait to where you've just caught one, chances are you'll get another really quickly and catches of Dory are usually in even numbers. Just my observations, no concrete evidence! Once you've caught 3 or 4 Dory, the Yakka is pretty much finished, as it needs to show some signs of life to get the Dory interested. As long as it has signs of life it's fair game to the slow swimming Dory. Mado's seem to last a bit better and I rate them the best Dory bait of all, but we were supposed to just be getting live bait to take back to Dobroyd and Yellowtail were what we wanted. After getting Dory number 4, suddenly, the cloud of Yellowtail that was close to the boat disappeared completely, not unusual when predators are around, but I think the Yellowtail are well versed with living close to the Dory, as indicated by them only moving a few meters away from either a cruising or hooked fish and they are soon back, feeding in the burley. This time though, it was something really big that came fairly close to the boat- and a massive Sea Lion came into view. It came really close and right on the surface and I got my first up-close view of one. Pretty impressive! It then dived out of sight and was gone, but we marvelled at seeing it in the Harbour. A few minutes later and the Yakka's were back again and Dory line baited (much to Ross's objecting- still!) and thrown back close to the bath's fence. Then we started hearing an odd noise that sounded like someone hammering. It was the Lion banging it's back against the side of a moored yacht some 30 meters away. We wondered what is was doing as it continued at it for a few minutes, only to disappear again. Over the course of the next hour , I caught 7 more Dory- the most I ever caught and Ross decided he wanted to get a couple and finally threw a live bait over under a cork. He quickly caught 3 Dory before the Lion was back, this time coming as close as you'd ever want one to come near you- only a few feet away. It freaked me out a bit, because it was so massive, but it took off again scaring away the fish for the second time. Balmoral always has early morning swimmers, often swimming along parallel to the beach and this particular morning there were a couple of older chaps complete with bathing caps, swimming along, not too far from us. As the lion disappeared in their general direction and it was such a massive creature, we started yelling out to these two old fellows in order to warn them of possible? danger. One of them heard us calling out and yelled out to us, but with the cap on, he didn't hear us properly, so he started swimming towards us while his mate waited. When he came close enough, instead of heeding our warning he called us idiots for interrupting his swim! He said "it's been here for weeks" before muttering something else and swimming off. You just can't please people sometimes. A couple of minutes later and the hammering noise of the lion started up again on the same part of the nearby yacht as earlier, this time continuing for about 3-4 minutes, again we had no idea of what it was doing, but we'd caught heaps of bait and a great feed of Dory (my favourite fish to eat by far!) so we up anchored -much to my objecting- I wanted to stay and catch more Dory- that was a once in a lifetime opportunity! We then went and tried for Mulloway over near the bombie at Dobroyd, but only got a few Tailor before we went home. Should have stayed with the Dory. Less than two weeks later there was a news story about the Sea Lion, the broadcast said that it had been living on a pontoon in Mosman Bay and Taronga Zoo's staff had been trying to catch it as it had a bullet wound in it's back. Every time the staff approached, it simply slipped off the pontoon and they couldn't tranquilise it in the water or it would drown. A clever plan to use several divers pulling a large piece of net under the wharf finally snared it and they used a winch to lift it before tranquilising it for transportation to the zoo, where it was operated on to remove the bullet. The lion recovered from surgery and was released at sea some time later. My final lion experience was at the famous "Tubes" land based game spot at the mouth of Jervis Bay. There were five of us staying at our mate Ross's at Old Errowal Bay on the south side of the bay and we did the drive to fish the tubes (north side) on a cool winter's day, hoping there wouldn't be anyone there on a weekday in winter- it's often packed both on weekends and particularly during summer can be just too crowded to fish happily and without drama. On arrival at the car park above the location, there were no cars and on arriving there, not one fisherman either. The first ten minutes I was there, I walked around picking up heaps of tackle that had just been left on the ledge. Lures, game hooks, Sampo swivels (they're $5 each!) knives and an aerator were just lying all over the place, there were heaps of discarded Sabiki bait jigs and various lengths of line. In short, it was a real mess and stank of both urine and rotting bait. No wonder fishers get a bad name, and it's a world renown location. Anyway, just one handful of burley had carpets of Slimy's, Yakka's and Garfish all swimming around and simple to catch. Our live bait babies pool was filled in a couple of minutes and I chose a Slimy to send out under a balloon. As the Slimy decided to head right out away from the ledge I let it go and it was still swimming strongly when I stopped it. Nobody else had got a bait out yet and Dave D spotted a massive lion to the west of the ledge, on it's way out of the bay and heading towards us, real close in to the shore. No time to get my Slimy back in and although it was out a fair way, I told Dave the lion would be straight on the Slimy and no doubt get it. Sure enough, when it was nearly in front of us, it did a 90 degree turn and swam the 60 or 70 meters out to grab the Slimy, regardless it couldn't see it, it knew it was out there. On reaching the Slimy, the lion grabbed it and kept on it's way out of the bay as my reel started emptying. I tried to stop the reel, but the lion was massive and it just kept going, panic stations set in as I was going to get spooled and couldn't do much about it. Finally, with there only being the last row of coils left on the reel, the spool stopped turning and I wound everything back in bar the Slimy, and that was the last lion I've seen.

I've eaten both types but wouldn't bother these days