wazatherfisherman

Blackies love them, trouble is so does everything else! In Sydney, I reckon they'd probably be "safer" from other species if you put them under your float, same as shrimps. Most blokes have shaken their heads at me putting a shrimp on my hook instead of weed but I reckon that shrimps are the best bet after weed/cabbage. If you've been using Mona Vale pool weed and they aren't biting on that, they're a likely candidate on any of these other baits as that weed has always been revered by all the Luderick fishers I know- it has all the qualities you want and is usually the best weed in Sydney. Next time your out that way, spend 10 mins at Narrabeen and get some of those shrimps- the lake is usually teeming with them- and try them under your float, they take them aggressively and you can strike straight away. I still mainly fish with flatted snecks and they are an easy hook to use with shrimps

Hi Andrew they are ok for mullet if you're fishing in sandy type areas, yakkas are a different proposition though. As a kid fishing off Sydney wharves, I quickly discovered that coarse-ground mince(like hamburger mince) without much fat was the "supreme" yakka bait, followed by the dark or top half of the yakka's themselves, you just fillet the 1st one you get and use the flesh without skin(or you get too many choppers if they're around) If you used prawns,pillys or tuna you caught a lot more chopper tailor which were always a pest, often biting you off. To take a couple of prawns was always wise if you wanted to catch Mado's for Dory like the one that your "chicken" kept taking that day(interesting that it didn't go for the sweep also)-this of course doesn't really help with "long-life" emergency bait, but perhaps taking just a golfball sized blob of mince each time you go would be worthwhile as it can always be used for berley and is relatively inexpensive. Seagulls(and rats!) will also happily eat whatever mince is left. Another suggestion is to leave a really small airtight container in your bag with some plain white flour in it- a few drops of water would then give you dough which is good for yakkas, mullet(including bigger ones) and most baitfish bar Mados

Forgot to mention green nippers('pistol' prawns) shrimps and squirt worms- for those that don't know, squirties are smaller, thinner worms that are often found when pumping nippers and are usually 5-10 cm long, only 2-4 mm thick and have softer bodies than say a tube or bloodworm. They range in colour from light brown to red to green(green ones super soft) and you usually need to put a couple on much smaller gauge hooks to accommodate their thin body. From my experience all estuary fish love them including Luderick. As for green nippers, when I was out scrounging weed in the bays around Fivedock and Drummoyne I always managed to collect half a dozen to a dozen by turning rocks over in the mud along the shoreline- the nippers are sitting under the rocks that are in only a couple of mm's of water and reveal their presence by a movement in the muddy/cloudy water. They have a body composition like a prawn, with thin shell and similar colouration(lightish greeny-brown)but are more the shape of a freshwater yabby. These were highly prized as bait for Bream larger Whiting and also Luderick. A biggish one would be about 4 cm long, mostly they'd be in the 2-3 cm range As far as collecting them these days, you'd have to check local regulations re "defacing the foreshores" as a council ranger from Drummoyne council told me that it was no longer allowed. I've heard that in some locations they are pumped but have never got one myself when pumping nippers. Shrimps are also top bait when fishing places like Narrabeen lake, you simply substitute the shrimps for your usual weed bait, just put 2 on your hook on conventional float rig, however be prepared to catch plenty of other species as like squirties, most lake species will take them. I did really well with them at Narrabeen a couple of times while those using weed never got a down even though the Luderick were there in large numbers and bit freely on the shrimp. The shrimps are easily caught by pushing a prawn net through the weedy surrounds of coastal lakes and quickly moving your net out of the water as they are so small (1-2 cm) that they'll fall through the net- most are trapped with the weed you get in the net. My apologies Raiders for getting off track with this as Kracka's original query was re Luderick on weed at night, I just thought this extra information may be useful. Cheers Waza

G'day again if you look on ebay you will see dynabait make other products such as squid, occi, prawns, small sprats that look like whitebait and several other 'interesting' things for saltwater and various things for freshwater.We used to mix a can of Sardines in brine with our Bream 'pudding' though I doubt if used alone would stand up to casting any distance

G'day again, the same old fisho(Wally) I referred to re Snapper on Luderick gut, caught Luderick on conventional tackle and cabbage while we were still throwing out Pilchards and Gars for Tailor, when it was too dark to see your float properly. He showed us how to put a "3 layer streamer" on (about a 5 inch bait with the hook 1 inch from the bottom) Fishing fixed float in a wash with a strong pull, you just hold your rod up and keep a relatively tight line as your centrepin releases line- the take is similar to a Bream and it became a technique that I later used with great success when bobby-corking Luderick in the Mattens "lake", albeit in daylight hours. The Luderick would go off green in this location every year for around 4 weeks from the end of September to mid to late October when they were in full roe and we used to get them then with cunje and sometimes bread in the daytime or cunje and yabbies/fresh peeled green prawns at night. As Oldfella says you just go down hook size to a size 2- they run with the cunje just the same as a Bream does. Allan Skelton the legendary float maker from Bronte gave me a float that was a "leftover" from an order he made for someone which had a tube to put a cyalume stick in it-it was made for Luderick The evidence for them feeding on green at night in the harbour comes from having local weed patches where we'd been getting our bait completely "disappear' between dusk when we'd left and dawn on re-arrival. The fish were there and we caught them fishing shallow(about 6 ft) just a few metres from where the weed had been growing. A whole patch about 4 x 6 metres of beautiful weed would be gone on the one large high tide during the night. Also caught them at Yamba on the middle wall night fishing for Bream with bloodworms and peeled prawns plenty of times

G'day Andrew have you tried the dehydrated worms? They are available in Bloodworm, Sandworm and Tubeworm and can be kept in your fishing bag for really long periods of time, when you want to use them just take some out and rehydrate in water for about 5-10 mins. I've always got a couple of packs in my bag and while no substitute for fresh bait, can either 'pad-out' whatever you do have or be used when fresh isn't available. I've caught Bream, Whiting and Flatties on them when the fresh stuff has run out- keeps you fishing! I reckon the "Sandworm" works best - they are marketed under the brand name "dynabait" and are available in stores in Sydney as well as ebay. The same company make other baits like prawns, squid etc but I haven't tried them, only the worms. I also salt(make sure you use cooking or butchers salt NOT iodized salt) Bonito and Frigate fillets when I get them and find if you keep lightly salting them as Ron said above and keep changing the newspaper they're on until no more fluid comes out and become leathery that they also last for ages out of the fridge and can simply be put back in- just make sure they are well sealed. Cheers Waza

I've still got a 6/1 "Major" that's going to my mates private 'fishing museum' at Murwillumbah(he's a collector and has quite a few 'Scapes' in Major, Minor and different spool colours) as it became outdated and for years parts were really hard to find. I've also got a Silaflex FT70 with the aluminium extension butt they came with. It's cut down at both ends and was made to match a 4/0 Senator for LBG. It's a real shame that blanks like them (and Sportex) are no longer made, they really handled the harsh treatment of getting down the cliffs. As a matter of interest, Two of the pioneers of jigging('vertical spinning' they originally called it) - Joe Ritchie and Ron Lance both used 6/1 Majors out at the Peak for years, catching so many kings that the club(AFA) had to re-vamp the club competition. I tried jigging there with my Scape but found I often had it drop back into free spool, so replaced it with a Daiwa Sealine

It's the intestinal tract you use, the more weed in it the better! Good for many varieties of fish. Don't know how well it goes after being frozen, but is excellent when used fresh

The Luderick, Reds or Kingy's?!!

Careful with those big puffers Steve, they can bite hooks clean in half! We spotted one at Cremorne wharf on our recent fishraider trip with Big Neil

You don't need rock plates if you fish off the top ledge but if you are going down below or in the semi-circular bay you'll need them. When the seas are calm, if you're feeling energetic and want to see some huge kingfish, the "Gulf" at South Curracurrang is worth having a look at also. There are always bait fish present and usually squid and pike in the gulf, in turn attracting some un-landable sized kingfish(well over 30 kg)-you often see them cruising around, going right up in the gulf itself. I've caught heaps of kings off the rocks on live bait and a lot of smaller ones on lures and I got "destroyed" there heaps of times without ever landing a decent one at the gulf. It is a low swell spot only and the most kings there from late October. Also good spinning for Bonito and smaller pelagics. Rock plates needed and it's another 20 min walk around the rocks from reddie spot. It's easily visible on google maps just look for the big gutter going well into the cliff face

The National Park spot is fairly well known amongst rock fisho's but not often fished as it fishes best in bad weather. The best time(the only time we used to go there) is after a BIG southerly has blown for at least 2 days. The bigger the sea and swell the better- you just need the wind to ease off, or have it coming from the Southwest as then it's behind you. The spot is easily found- go through the Park and take the Wattamolla turn off, park in the top(most southerly) car park. There is a large fire-trail with a barricade to prevent vehicular access, follow it as it goes S/East. It becomes the walking trail to Curracurrang and is part of the coast walk that stretches from Otford/Bulgo to Bundeena. It's a really well defined track, which for the most-part is in sight of the ocean and leads to Curracurrang Bay. It will take you roughly 20-25 minutes walk. When you get to the Bay, the track goes down and crosses the creek, immediately across the creek a couple of smaller tracks branch to the left towards the sea. They are fairly well used as they lead to a few other fishing spots including "The Gulf"- a well known haunt of large Kingfish(bugger of a spot to land a big one from though). You basically take the one closest to the edge and follow it along the top, you will be up about 10-12 metres above where the creek empties into the bay. If you look on google maps at Curracurrang Gully south of Wattamolla you'll see where the creek becomes a distinct "V" shaped bay, as the bay widens, if you follow the southern side, it curves even further south forming a smaller semi-circular bay. Looking at the map, the spot you're after is the point of the V and the start of the semi circle. There is a nice safe high spot about 12 metres above the water, right at the mouth of the V. You can fish below here, but it's easier to fish off the top as you can easily cast to the visible sand patch- this is the spot to cast at. If you go there in daylight and have a look first you'll see the spot to aim at, however if you want to catch a red it is best fished after dark, as they seem to come into the bay in darkness and go off the bite when dawn breaks. The rig is basic- you need about 10-12 kg line and a decent rod capable of winching a decent sized fish up- we all use Alvey reels and 11 kg line. A 60-90 gm ball sinker above a swivel and about 40 cm of 9-10 kg leader down to a 5/0 suicide(Mustad "Big Red pattern are o.k)- bait is Bonito, Striped Tuna or Garfish. You cast out and sit down holding your rod- they absolutely "slam" the bait at this spot and are easily hooked. If you get a big one and have a cliff gaff they work well here, if not you can walk the fish either way and wash them up, but my advice is if they are under 3 kg to winch them up. Other fish caught off the top are large Bream, Tarwhine and occasional Tailor and Salmon. When the sea has been(or is) rough, heaps of cunje gets washed into the semi-circular bay and this attracts large numbers of Rock Blackfish,Silver Drummer and Luderick, which can be caught by using a booby cork and prawn, crab or cunje bait. The spot isn't wave-washed and is safe in big southerly seas. As I stated earlier, it's the place to go when the weather is really bad and there are usually reds there in foul weather. Most of the fish are in the 1 to 2.5 kg range, but I know of quite a few caught there much larger than that. Don't bother going there in calm conditions as the fish simply aren't there. Once you've been there in daylight to get a feel for the spot, we've found that getting there and starting fishing a couple of hours before light is the most productive, no matter what the tide. Good luck if you decide to give it a go, if you go and fish there a couple of times you'll break your reddie drought. Cheers Waza

What I did learn from Wally was that those really big Reds come right into the edge of the rocks all the time and the way to fish for them is with large baits and no lead. He only used Blackfish gut or Garfish that he trolled for out of his canoe in Batemans Bay. He never used pilly's for them, saying they didn't hold up for long enough in the turbulent wash area and also attracted too many pickers. The 'corner' where he hand-lined them was a spot that 99% of people would have walked straight past, in fact we used to fish one spot only 15 metres north and another about the same to the south and in years fishing that close to "the" spot only caught about 8 or 9 big ones(that I can think of) between 7 of us. I got 1 on gut and 1 on a Garfish in "the" spot, but caught a heap of port jacksons and other vermin species while trying. We used to get a fair few smaller ones- 1 to 3 kg using fresh caught Bonito strips about 100 metres further along the platform, throwing wide with a sinker, but I never saw even 1 big one get caught from this less reefy location. I can give you a spot in the National Park where you'll have a good chance of a decent(1 kg +) one if you're interested.

Yes he's a legend, climbing 450 foot cliffs at his age was something most people can't even imagine. After having a hernia, his Dr insisted he only carry 7kg in his pack so he used to fillet and skin all his fish, when he got a big Snapper or had whole fish to weigh in comps, we'd carry them for him(he didn't like us doing it but agreed to follow his Dr's orders). The interesting thing re the gut as Snapper bait was that he only ever got really big fish- nothing under about 10lb on the old scale. The biggest one I saw him get weighed 8.5kg cleaned(in a club comp you had to gut and scale and leave head on), but he caught a few he said were bigger than that, making them well over 20lb on the old scale. He won one Syd Metro title with 3 caught from a ledge known as "Magpie" that was roughly 50-60 feet above the water, the 2 largest 5.5kg and 8.5kg(these were weighed with guts in) were caught on gut and the "small one"(his words not mine!) 4kg was caught on a garfish he caught himself at his Batemans Bay holiday house specially for Snapper bait. By-catch on Wal's Snapper line included Bream and Tarwhine well over 4lb and Tailor over that size (he considered the Tailor pests!) I used the gut successfully for huge Bream but it took me years to finally catch a Snapper on it(5.5kg)- There was something Wal never let on I reckon!

I used to go to Yamba every year for a couple of weeks fishing the legendary middle-wall for Blackies by day and Bream at night. This was before the days of bag limits and there were hundreds of Blackfish caught by fisho's staying in the caravan park(Blue Dolphin) every day, so many in fact, that the caravan park had a 'raft' next to the cleaning tables which you put all the frames, heads etc on and a couple of times a day a park worker would tow the raft out and push them off into the river. First day I was there I saw blokes going through the Blackfish frames on the raft scrounging any gut that was left. Went out the next day and caught a heap (like everybody there)and while carrying the keep-nets to the cleaning tables had blokes run towards me shouting "do you want the gut?- can I have it if you don't want it?" All the non-blackfishing fishermen would race to the cleaning tables every day as someone arrived with Blackfish, hoping to get the gut as it was so highly prized as Bream bait. The more weed in the gut the better. Back in Sydney, Wally McLuckie who fished the base of the Mattens cliffs in the eastern suburbs until well into his eighties, used to insist we all threw our Blackfish waste into the same corner every time we cleaned our fish, out of respect for Wally we all did. He would spend about half an hour at the end of each trip with his trusty 40lb handline and a single 6/0 suicide loaded up with Blackfish gut fishing in this particular corner. Lost count of the times he'd get a Snapper OVER 5kg on the gut and skillfully play it out until floating and then wash it up- (no mean feat with a handline either!) Wally won the Sydney Metro Rock Champion Titles(Veterans) many,many times with huge Snapper, about half of them caught on Blackfish gut

Thanks mate! Neil can put a photo of it hanging off a cod's jaw! Regards Waza

Hi Neil yes the Aeroplane was for you- you're the only cod fisherman I know so I thought it was appropriate you should have one, I've got another couple in the collection. Glad you enjoyed your time in Sydney and happy fishing

P.S I hope you guys catch some fish on my 'odd' shaped lures!

I also had a great time meeting everyone and look forward to seeing you all again. Pity we couldn't find a John Dory just to show everyone, but that's fishing sometimes. Hope you get a nice big cod on the aeroplane spinner Neil, your knowledge of the big green fish is impressive and Frank I really enjoyed reminiscing about kings, tuna, hairies etc, you also have much knowledge to share and I look forward to another fish with you also. Derek, Michael and Andrew we will have to also catch up for a fish as you guys are top blokes as well, and have developed great harbour skills. It was also nice to meet Jim, Ojay and Nat at Franks and thanks also to Frank and his lovely wife Val for inviting us all to their place for the bbq. It's great fun being a Raider.

You must have just missed us, hopefully there may be another trip shortly, was nice to meet all those who came along and there were plenty of laughs even though fishing was very quiet. Big Neil caught the only fish- (leatherjacket) Derek got a cuttlefish and promptly had it out under a balloon, I only caught a few baitfish that we put down for John Dory and Andrew had the same pesky cormorant take our precious live mado 3 times before he got the better of it. It was a fun morning with great company

Hi Mick I still use wooden Alvey's that are in 'collectable condition' and when transporting them (and other reels) I use the neoprene reel bags just for scratch protection. At least 2 companies sell purpose-made reel cases that hold about half a dozen reels in the "egg-shell" type foam that are probably more suited for your purpose. Site sponsor Dinga sells both the neoprene style and the hard-case types, they are both found in 'tackle storage' section. Cheers Waza

I've got Blackfish gear for Neil also- rod reel floats etc. See you at chin wag. Waza

Hi Derek at this point I'm thinking about Cremorne Wharf as there are normally Blackfish on the western side this time of year, it is comfortable and if we 'secure' that side will be out of commuters/ferries way and I take a milk crate to sit on(at the moment I need to as am recovering from serious leg and lung injuries) I don't know if JDory will have 'penetrated' that far up yet as it simply hasn't been cold and the 'trigger' to migrate them into the harbour (I believe) is usually a reasonably strong south to north flowing offshore current combined with predominantly SW-Westerly Winds and cooler water temperature. Having said this, as we all know, it is both the right time of season and a good location if they are around. There are often a few squid(although I haven't found it a reliable squid spot for numbers) and Kingfish often 'patrol' the location. Last time I fished there a large kingfish ruined my Blackfish session. A more reliable Dory spot is Balmoral but the tides that week are low in the morning, which doesn't really enthuse and that's why I'm leaning towards Cremorne. As the 'general air flow' has now swung towards westerlies I guess we'll just have to monitor the forecast as to wind strength. My 'basic' plan is to go somewhere in that area and hope JD's are around by then(if not already). Other options are Musgrave St, Kuraba and for weekdays(far too crowded on weekends) Balmoral or Clifton Gardens. I'd like your thoughts as the area is your usual haunt. John Dory were the original primary target and lowering some Dory lines down while Blackfishing and tossing a squid jig out seemed the favoured idea

Hi Derek look forward to meeting you also. My motto is "you can never have too much fishing gear" and I have an 'obscene' amount, mostly in storage at Kennards but will go and retrieve whatever is necessary beforehand- will be in touch re trip/s within the next week. So far, as far as I know, FrankS, Ryder, Big Neil, Yourself and I are the 'posse' with JDory, Squid, Luderick and now possibly kingies on the fishing menu over the course of the time Neil is here but am open to any suggestion/s as I was just trying to accommodate his fishing wish list, due to him living in the country(MIA I believe) Regards Waza

Wonder what the ANSA rating is for a gannet on 6kg? Well done on the release, my mate got one on a popper and it went nuts in the boat