PaddyT

hmm bombed or fall off the cliff-im not sure which id prefer-wasnt Eves where the parkies forced a guy off the rocks into a boat a few years back? on the grounds that he was a danger to himself-

Zoran-honestly no need for anyone to write anything about pelagic trolling-just go to Pakula's website and read and watch the Between the Lines stuff-its all been written before

i thought eves ravine was gone too-access closed

A few things to help with trolling spreads-if you cant turn sharply and i mean sharply you are going to miss opportunities-case in point last year out on the shelf i spotted a nice blue finning down current in front of the boat- spun 90 and got the lures in front of his face and got the bite- dropped him 30 seconds later but thats another issue- i would still maintain that without riggers you are better off with less lures in the water- as for getting more bits from micro dollies on the FAD -i would say thats neither here more there- a lot of the time a " dead" running skirt like a bullet or a PAkula Uzi run way out the back in clear water will get bites from smaller fish when other lures are ignored. I would still say that to miss less fish you will need someway of eliminating the dropback on your current set up- a tag line is my suggestion. Final comment-i do often run a minnow in the spread-usually a Halco laserpro and its always in the long corner position. its their when im in wahoo or mackeral country and seems to get the bites rather than them chewing my nice skirts-they will also catch tuna.

got ya on that one but as far as i can see Zoran is trying to run 5 lures with no outriggers which to me is pushing the proverbial uphill- anyway he needs a tag line return - that drop back is an issue

Dropback could be a problem on strike-why dont you just run the rod from the rocket launcher? 5 lures is over kill in general , by the time you position them correctly its rarely worth the trouble. Good rule of thumb in a small boat is crew +1- so 2 POB=3 lures etc. I do have outriggers on my boat but the best use for them is trolling skipbaits. Anyway to solve your return issues you need a tagline setup-this will also solve the dropback issue

yep agree with that-pulled some excellent trout in walking distance from the dam wall off the rocky points

Yep lots of water in those rivers, i have been up there hunting , just remember its still closed season

you forgot Lake Lyell (which also has bass and now redfin)-reminder that Thompsons Creek Dam is lure and fly only

BAck end of Feb through to Mid May -but yeah late March is usually good anywhere on the North coast

gaiters-you will be fine , there is heaps of water up in those rivers at the moment

Saw my first red belly of the season last week near Oberon- its wriggle stick time again!

I fish it all the time-for safety sake approach it from the east the first time you go there and use your eyes and chart to work out the danger zone (which obviously can vary with sea conditions)- it can be an excellent spot for kings

4 adults in a boat that small is not going to be a comfortable fishing experience

Good Story Waz , i knew a couple of the Central Coast comp fishos back in the day and their dedication was very similar to yours. Like GH i was more an ANSA fisho but dropped out of that when i got beaten at a comp with a kingie on 3kg line that took me 20 minutes to land -it was 2.8kg from memory by a guy who caught a stingray on 1kg by dropping a bait on its head on a sand flat and then waiting for it to settle back into the sand and basically freegaffing it-oh well.

not going to recommend any cattle boats KC- 120 PP charters you get what you pay for. I dont go on charters very often-ive actually only been on 7 in my entire life (im 52)- but heres the rub- when i decided i wanted to learn about marlin fishing i went on a very well known boat out of Port Stephens (three times) , I learnt more on the first trip than i could of in 20 of my own- and the trip actually helped me when i bought my next boat a couple of years later in terms of how to be gear and space efficient- i went out a couple more times with the same boat because a couple of mates wanted to go too and at the time i was boatless- all up spent about 1500 on those three charters but the learning experience was second to none. Now-while i was on those charters i stood up the entire time we were fishing with either the captain but mainly with the deckie- i helped rig baits, set drags, set teasers, clear gear and leadered a marlin for a mate so i could see what it was all about- some of the other guys just went to sleep in the cabin and waited for the strike-who got value-i did. Similar experience a couple of years ago-got an invite to go out with one of Sydneys best known kingfish charters through my local tackle store (which is sadly now closed)- i knew the captain pretty well through interactions in the tackle shop AND i thought i was pretty good at downrigging kings-lets just say this -one day on this charter improved my kingfish catching rates 3 fold-and all i did was observe, help and ask questions-the actual fishing was secondary (we did catch about 50 kings that day)-so there are charters and then there are charters. Every day on the water is a learning experience-if you are passive and just want to be dragged to a fish then you will not gain everything that is to gain by spending a bit of money and opening your ears and eyes.

Kings off the rocks can be really problematic-it completely depends on the terrain-the bigger kings ive landed off the stones and seen landed were all caught off ledges where you could get over the top of the fish and keep the line away from the rocks eg Avoca, Jervis BAy type ledges. The places where i constantly got smoked all had bits of shallow reef around and about. A classic is the Skillion at Terrigal-hooked a few crackers there over the years but all they had to do was swim to the south and the line would get cut on the underlying reef-sometimes they didnt even pull drag they just swum with the line angle-IMHO going soft on the rocks just means you donate more line to the reef. Some days you can get lucky but go hard-I did get a 6kg fish on 6kg mono a few years ago off the rocks at Noosa in Qld with no leader-but it was a dead calm day and i could get right over the top of the fish and keep the line out-most days he would of trashed me and ive landed quite a few in the 8-10kg range with heavier gear at places like Avoca and the Ovens-but again the shape of the ledge made all the difference.

Kingie Chaser and I exchanged a few posts on curing fish in ""The Kitchen"" a couple of months back-have a look there-I am guessing from my kingfish results last time that 48 hrs for aussie salmon is going to be too long-ive found that to be too long for atlantic salmon (which is really oily) , the aging process needs to vary a bit by species according to what ive read-

Luke, can i suggest this-organise a couple of charters with the guys that fish out of the Hawkesbury and the harbour- your dad will learn more in a trip with them that he will in years of fishing by himself- a lot of the more experienced guys here tend to fish on their own boats with a set group of mates - and the other advantage of a charter (well a good one anyway) is you tell them what you want to do-on someone elses boat you are restricted by their fishing habits-PM me if you want some suggestions

For smaller fish i use a cheap braddall that i got from bunnings it rusts but so what, for bigger fish i belt them with an axe handle,-i do use wire-some multistrand on small fish and am yet to come up with a safistactory solution for bigger fish. Wiring seems to work well.

Whilst on the surface increasing house prices seem good, and they are great for those who already own a house the skewing of the economy to a " rent seeking " one (which is what has happened in Australia has done two really bad things to the economy and these will come out to play soon 1. the assets (houses) are out of reach for the younger generation- i bought my first house in 1990 for $136K and was on a salary of $22 K as a trainee Industrial Chemist (i did have help from the bank of mum and dad) at an interest rate of 14% (i think it may actually have been higher) but the average Sydney salary in 1990 was $20K so the multiple i borrowed ($105K)was 5 times the average Sydney salary-that same house last year was worth about $800K (i sold it in 1998) and the average Syd wage is $51K so to purchase this house in 2020 requires a loan of about 14 X the average Sydney salary. 2. The second thing that is really scary for the Australian economy is this-because investors can make good and "thought free" returns on real estate they no longer put money into things that truly add value to our economy- so unlike the post war migrant boom people dont come here and set up factories or the like they just try to buy real estate-and all foreign investment does in the real estate market is put further upwards pressure on prices-again great if you are in, terrible if you are out. So what has happened is this-we are now an economy that doesnt make anything, we dont add value to our exports , we simply sell each other houses and take away coffee and hope that a few tourists visit and we have a huge accounting industry that spends vast amounts of time working out how business can pay less tax (so less infrastructure,police, ambo's , healthcare etc etc). Im the child of two immigrants and im married to one, immigrants themselves are not a problem, they are a massive benefit but simply pouring people in without REAL planning is a potential disaster. Witness the running down of vital industries thats occured over the last 20 years-fuel, basic chemicals, medical supplies, medicines, even the building materials needed for all the new houses. And finally food and water security- I watch development on the Hawkesbury flood plain with a sense of total disgust-the downstream effects on the river are yet to be seen but will come, there are vast estates being built in areas ive seen under meters of water and the SES doesnt think it can evacute the floodplain without massive loss of life-development in Sydney should NOT be happening here- it should be concentrated around the already existing transport nodes and on the high sandstone ridges of the North shore- and the Hawkesbury (which actually has some of the best black soil IN THE WORLD) should be purely agricultural but NIMBYism stops that-anyway i can go on and on-problems we wont solve here!

Dont worry about straigtening hooks , but 2/0 is way too small for a live yakka and the hole point of a circle is that it will "roll" into the corner of a fishes jaw-2 of them in a rig defeat the whole point of circles-personally off the shore a 7 or 8/0 livebait style hook through the shoulder of the yakka under a float is going to work fine-damned if i can rememeber how many kings i caught or hooked of the rocks doing that and i have no doubt it still works. Bridle rigs completely unnecessary when using non circle hooks. Kings tend to hook themselves on hitting the bait so dropping more than a meter of line too them on the strike just means they are a meter closer to wiping you out.

Record low for Katoomba-8.2 , Lithgow-9.3 , -16 aint happening.

-16 aint going to happen, been going in and out of there for close to 40 years-coldest ive seen is about -7 , and the temp records on the BOM site will back that up

I know Coffs pretty well- there is reef everywhere- stacks in the 20-30m range and inshore from that , then another band out at 50M. The reef runs from NAmbucca to Wooli to be honest it makes PS look like an overfished desert !!. Variety of species is excellent with pearlies, tuskies, kings , snaps, and all sorts of other stuff- a good place to start for bottom fish is the northern side of the island and the reefs of Sawtell in the other direction-good luck