PaddyT

Apparently seals are good to eat-can we get a few Inuits to come to the harbour?

You can keep the seals-sails and little blacks are not afraid of shallow water so if there is something for them to eat not much is suprising-none the less its a cool video-but that net made me laugh my head off-maybe he was going to clock the fish on the head?

Yup-why i wont use Uber, uber eats , or any other such lazy mans tax (thats what they are)-they rip off the person doing the work-driver, takeaway etc and all the revenue is shifted to another countries books.

True to a point- the number of rescues made at beaches every year on patrolled beaches is staggering (over 10000 a year) -imagine what the drowning toll would be without lifeguards , the vast majority are Aussies. As ive said before i owned my own swim school for 15 years and am running a major aquatic facility in Brisbane at the moment -in general people think they can swim but their idea of swimming is a bit different to mine. The Swimming Australia guidelines clearly state that you should not pull your children out of lessons or swimming activities until they can swim 400 M without stopping using recognised strokes in calm water- its fair enough too-it translates well to being able to cope long enough with a high energy situation like the surf to get your self out of trouble . I reckon very few adults can swim 200M without running out of puff-also after way too many years of being at school carnivals -the general level of aquatic competence of kids is far below what it was when my kids were young. Qld is a bit better than NSW (most likely because the climate is a more suited to swimming) and this shows in National Age competition (2 out of 3 of my kids were NSW Champions and both of them won medals at National competition and one of them is having a crack at the Olympics in a comeback that i think he's left a bit late). I just think more and more people live in a state of altered reality-disconnected by screentime and dont really have an understanding of the consequences of their actions.

Henry-i kind of get where you are coming from but i think you are asking an App or computer program to replace something that can only be learned by experience and opening your eyes and ears-a bunch of pretty experienced fishos have given you the benefit of their observations of what happened. I understand that you are still rattled by what happened to you (I still get chills from a near miss i had a Whale Beach 35 years ago) but chalk it up to experience. You now know what to look for at that spot-wet rocks, high swell, no escape route-no app or online map can possibly replace your eyes on a spot-if some Govt body controlled rockfishing or made detailed status reports they would be open to all sorts of legal action if they got it wrong-their only possible course of action would be to shut fishing down just about everywhere-all the time- there are rockfishing advisory warnings on the BOM site and you need to heed them if you lack confidence in your own judgement. Contact Stan and have have a chat to him- he is passionate about safety and can probably help you become a safer rockfisherman-safety is up to the individual.

same rules apply as anywhere else, keep your ear to the gossip lines and soon as you hear of a bite starting take the day off work-dont wait because most of Sydney is a transient area for beakies and tends not to hold the fish for too long -most years anyway-but around Sydney ive caught beakies in as close as 2 ks off the heads, same off Long Reef and Dee Why, at the Peak which isnt far out either-if you listen to VHF21 enough off Sydney over summer you will hear this all the time "marked a stack of bait in close, but nothing seems to be happening out wide"-dont drive past the fish. We also do well in the 60-70 fathom area from the 12 Mile north, particularly on stripes, thats a bit wider (its whats known as the Bait Station) but on a good day head north early and catch the seabreeze home in the arvo. Not that familiar with the Gong-but further south Kiama has a good ground that runs from Mt Fuji down to The Banks-all fishable in a day trip.

Best chance is drive away from the rats-work an area thats got bait but none of the pesky little ones that summer always holds-or -do what i do and wait till March

Well done-tip with livies on circle hooks and bridle rigged-freespool with rachet on with a little bit of drop back-thats why outriggers are great, if you dont have outriggers holding the line is great-as soon as the fish hits the bait you can drop 6 feet of slack straight at them , pick the rod up and point it at the fish and just control the line with your thumb. Then slowly raise the rod tip up to 90 degrees, if the fishes weight is still there slowly start lowering the tip and pushing the drag lever up-works every time (well nearly anyway). If you miss the fish then drop the bait back at them or drop the bait from the other side into the fishes path and get the bite that way.

Henry-write to Stan Konstanaros from the RFA-look them up on FB-he is the one who does huge amounts of education , gets govt funding (he is responsible along with ANSA for the angel ring program)-he actually posted with Mark Bansiak from the Shooters Fishers Party today that they were at Hill 60 replacing rings that have been used in the last sad couple of days-dont dilute the efforts-contact Stan and give him a hand-people are aware -you havent discovered anything new but i have absolutely no doubt that your enthusiasm and help will be appreciated Many thanks to Mark Banasiak for dropping into Hill 60 at Port Kembla this morning to help me carry out a few replacement Angel Rings. I left Sydney at 4.30am to beat the heat and was responding to a call from Marine Rescue at Hill 60 that a few of the rings had gone missing over the ensuing few days of drama and tragedy at Hill 60. It did give Mark a chance to see the challenges we face with those who fish the rocks in NSW, especially places like Hill 60 that are close to … See More

Henry-experience and caution will make you safer than a lifejacket-change cleats for "correct footwear"-again-forget wind look at swell height and direction and tide -and finally when i started rockfishing the general rule when arriving at a new spot was 45 minutes of watching-in fact there are lots of ledges ive fished over the years that i simply walked into without a rod just to see how they worked and figure out how sea conditions would effect them-research will save your life. getting back to footwear-cleats are great around Sydney on the sandstone ledges-on granite like the Nth Coast they will kill you deader than dead-dont think they are the be all and end all of rockfishing footwear.

I guess all spots have quirks-thats why getting to know your ledge is damn important

A Gen 2 HDI is what i ran from 2012 until last year-its a very good unit-but i have a suggestion-use that as a GPS and keep your Hook as your sounder until you are ready to upgrade later-2 screens are better than one

Henry have a look at the geography of that spot-low ledge -with no way out when a swell lips over the top- you learn to read these things as you get experienced-swell looks calm until its over the platform, wind waves hold very little danger to the rockfisho-there are very few low ledges that are safe when the swell is over 1.5M average. What i saw was no rogue wave as Noel said-but all you lost was some gear-the guys from a week ago were not so lucky-learn to go home when you arrive and its too rough-fish another day, ive done that dozens of times.

I think thats happening -witness the efforts of the Stop the Lockout guys with the help of the Shooters Fishers and Farmers-they stopped the ridiculous Sydney marine park going ahead and are working behind the scenes to stop a whole bunch of other crappy things from happening-like the Botany Bay cruise terminal-there are actually less commercial fishing operators in NSW than ever and NSW has a very well regulated commercial fishery. Our main enemy these days are the greens and dive operators. Charter boat licenses are tightly held and i dont think any new releases have occured in at least 20 years. Also be aware of, and strongly advise any of your relatives/friends etc to put the Animal Justice Party stone cold last on any ballot. They are an extremely well funded lunatic group that have already grabbed seats in upper houses throughout the country. If you want real power for rec fishing be very careful with your vote, the only thing politicians really understand is the vote.

Good lesson learnt-platforms like that , Avoca etc can be deceptively dangerous when green water "lips" over, once its above knee high it has an incredible amount of energy. AND for the uninitiated it looks safer than a platform that has more regular white water running across-similar to why people want to swim the nice "calm" looking water of a rip at the beach instead of the area thats flagged off. The other issue with green water is that it doesnt disperse over the back of the platform , it comes in -and it goes out with a stack of force still left in it dragging gear, knocked down people etc. Swell kills rockfishos-wind kills boaties.

yep fair call Gordo- as i said i wasnt there- if some one starts a conversation by shouting you know they have a problem -not you!!

Full life vest, blow up PFD , belt mounted or any other way-you still dont get it-when drownings still occur (and they will-because the real reasons they occur, all listed above, ad infinitum and this is about the 20th time ive written on this, will continue to kill nitwits) the next step will become limiting access- lockouts by stealth -for safety reasons . I dont rockfish very often anymore -i dont like crowds and if ive got time to fish i take the boat- but i want everyone else who wants to rockfish to have FULL and FREE access- and this is something that cheeses me off when i see fishos telling other fishos what they can and cant do (when half of the tellers have got next to no idea of what they are talking about)-again-if someone wants to wear a jacket -fine-if they dont -fine, statistically it will NOT save lives-it might individually -Rockfishing is not in the top 10 drowning deaths and when the whole BS about it being dangerous is thrown around-it needs to be looked at in context-dangerous compared to what? swimming while p!@#$d ? scuba diving ? no one is having moral panic about those deaths like we do about what is a statistical anomaly - stop even saying LJ's are a good idea- will you say lockouts are too if they come next-just çause you dont rockfish?

Silver Biddy

Gordo-i didnt witness what happened but in general there is a "code" for FADS and the like when boat traffic is around- and its head up current and drift past-that way everyone gets an equal chance-not judging you or anything but most charter operators are there to make a living -its just our recreation-i know a few of the guys and they are all good blokes and will work with anyone if you have a simple conversation, most charter operators wont target undersize kings anyway .

Fab-i dont disagree with what you are saying about dopes in general-but they have always existed-it just seems society today wants them protected from their own stupidity-witness pedestrian lights in the ground for people who cant take their eyes off a screen walking around, or the Xmas pack i got from my work- it contained some "fragrant candles"-the marketing and HR depts seem to be a pack of SJW green types at this new company i work for-but i digress-The candle-And this is no BS-has a 10 line sticker on top of it explaining candle safety-FFS. Anyway back to my point-and its this-I dont need protecting when i rockfish-end of story. And i dont want this to end up where i reckon it will, which is a whole lot of lockouts on dubious "safety" issues when stats and reality tell me there are a whole lot of far more dangerous aquatic environments that we should be careful about. There used to be a mantra in government that "you cant legislate for stupidity" , unfortunately these days governments are trying to do just that. Finally -and its evident in a couple of posts here-we need to stop making blanket statements like "rockfishing is the most dangerous sport in Australia"-it simply isnt and "lifejackets will save lives on the rocks"-maybe-if you are a dolt in the first place. Fishos are actually the worst offenders in making these statements-the first one because some want to give their activity some kind of macho edge and the second because they want to inflict their reality on others-IMHO-if you want to wear a jacket go right ahead-having it enforced-no bl@##$y way.

At Nth narra pool ankle deep water is fine-if you happened to get knocked over you would get pushed further up the rocks-its not a dangerous spot even in pretty big seas in the corner.

Myths , myths and more myths. Whilst i cannot emphasise any more that this is a tragedy for those involved and their families, and i keep harping on and on about this. Rock fishing is essentially a safe activity - year in year out about 10-11 people die rockfishing in the entire country -last year most of those were in NSW , another couple in WA and Vic. Just as many die diving, about 5 times as many die in rivers and creeks, a lot more are p!@@#d or stoned. The other factor is that most drownings ARE locals-not tourists. Again-if you cant read the weather, dont wear appropriate footwear, are too uncoordinateed to not trip over your own feet then dont rockfish. I still predict that when rockfishing deaths dont go down in numbers in areas that have made lifejackets compulsory -BANS will follow-this is the endgame of seaside councils (who think that their precious suburbs are not for the great unwashed) and Surf Lifesaving who really dont like fisho's at all, not to mention green leaning politicians who just want everyone locked up and out of nature. These guys from the sounds of the swell size essentially committed suicide-not nice but the truth.If you need to wear a jacket while rockfishing then you shouldnt be rockfishing IMHO-it means you are one or all of the following; A poor swimmer, a foolhardy twit who wants to fish no matter the sea conditions, someone who doesnt understand the sea, someone who doesnt understand weather or how it effects your spot, someone who doesnt understand footwear, or just plain uncoordinated. Again-its sad that this happened but the day before that someone was killed at Coffs going for a walk -if i HAVE (note that said this not Choose) to wear a jacket rockfishing then so should all beach goers, creek users and rockwall walkers-cause they get killed too-in a lot of cases in far bigger numbers.

Warrenty?

thats very true Bob-as a teenager my fishing horizons were limited by where my parents were willing to take me (which was usually Balmoral Beach)-i caught thousands of tailor there in the 80's(in the summer time from the island ) and later when i got wheels i would catch them all the time at Avoca,Winnie curse them when they chewed up all my live slimies at Tomaree, had 200 fish sessions on various central coast beaches, later again when i had a small tinnie we would see massive boiling schools in the harbour and the front of Broken Bay, caught some monsters in the early 2000's in Cowan Creek and these days i rarely see a good one- there are still some decent choppers in Cowan (we got a few a couple of years back while houseboating) - and the numbers are certainly not there. I like tailor , especially when they get up round the 2kg + mark, then they become a "real" fish. I know JonD still pulls some crackers on the south coast and admittedly i dont target them but when i drive down the harbour i used to see them all the time.

I can remember reading articles in "Fishing and Outdoors"by Bernie Clarke about catching them in Botany Bay and Clifton Gardens in summer time-ive caught them in March at Box Head many years ago, then there have been some strange migrations to places like the Noosa River and Townsville in the last few years. The only constant location for them remains Cowan Creek but the run varies from year to year-they are a weird critter!!