Green Hornet

Looking for a playmate 😃

Nice salmon for your first fish, you’ve got to be happy with that. 100% correct that they’re great fun on light gear with their strong runs and jumps.

Nice going on fish number 10 Mike and possibly a PB is icing on the cake. Things might be different in Sydney, but down here I find berley can often be counterproductive, attracting small fish into the trail. After a while you get to know where the good fish like to hang out and drifting a bait past their noses is all that’s required.

Nice going and money well spent. Going by the cost of worms from the bait shop, it will pay for itself in no time. I can already smell those whiting fillets sizzling away in the fry pan.

Nice catch again Mike. The super sensitive floats are really good and what I mostly use these days, now I’m too lazy to make my own 😉. Good to support an Australian small business as well.

Thanks, I thought they might have been ruins of an old navigation beacon or something similar.

Really nice pics @Ryder. I haven’t been anywhere near Kurnell since the 1970’s, but still have fond memories of surfing the point in big NE swells. In that first pic, what are all those posts? I see a solar panel there but have no idea what the others are for.

Using a baitcaster is something I’ve considered but never got around to trying. I know of one person that uses one and says it works quite nicely. A rod built with spiral wrapped guides would be perfect for this situation.

I honestly think if you don’t want to use a centrepin, your next best option is a spin reel. Easily fished with the bail arm open and controlling line feed with a finger on the spool lip. Get a down, manually flip the bail and strike. When I fished the ocean rocks, a spin reel was my weapon of choice at one particular, very low ledge that often required long drifts. Main reason being, with a far quicker retrieve than a ‘pin, if a saw an above average wave coming, I could wind in quickly and get well away from any danger.

All my family fish, so smelling that way is a badge of honor 😉

Always, I use scent on all my lures except higher speed metals these days. Might not help, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. So why not?

Probably is my technique. Just I tend to hook a lot more fish with the fast hops. Only short lifts of about 30cm. As I said, this method seems to work best around inactive, schooling fish. It’s really the only time I’ll use blades, other than slow rolling ZX’s over the flats.

All good advice above. In terms of chasing bream, while it’s hard to beat a well presented soft plastic on active fish, I’ve found blades particularly effective on inactive, schooling fish in deeper water. I think blades tend to arouse a bream’s curiosity and they’ll hover closely over a blade resting on the bottom, then with a short sharp lift you’ll hook the fish. That’s just my opinion as I tend to jag a lot more fish around the head, rather than in the mouth. This is why razor sharp hooks are essential, particularly on blades and vibes. Flathead, more hooked in the mouth, but still plenty of fish are jagged.

The hunt for good weed spots never ends Mike, you can never have too many. Nice fish too. I thought golfers were the only ones that threw their sticks into the water.

I used to catch the odd fish like that as well. @wazatherfisherman put me onto gutting and gilling the fish, then leaving them in the fridge overnight before filleting and skinning the next day and I haven’t had a rubbery fish since. Funny thing is, I used to cook a lot of my blackfish whole and never had this problem.