PaddyT

wasnt originally planning to be out this weekend but think Sunday might be a goer, at work this morning, have to fix a few things on the boat trailer this afternoon

marlin bite yesterday in 40-60fathom, no dollies

The stopping (temporary or otherwise)of the Sydney marine park is a good thing, but we need to remain vigilant. The situation in NSW is that it cost money to get a Freedom of Information (called a GIPA) and their are guys out there trying to get to the bottom of all of this. (and good on them), as I said before DONT think this is over, think very carefully about your vote in March and your way of life and your freedoms. Governments instincts these days (of all persuassions) are to create more laws (whether we need them or not), and they are lazy and unwilling to spend money on frontline services-so this pans out in Fisheries management as "oh this fishery has too much pressure, oh shall we get more inspectors into it to enforce the rules we already have?- Answer is no- lets just create a new rule and lock everyone or one sector -usually recs but the pros have been hammered too- out of that fishery- its lazy, incompetent management not a conspirecy (hopefully anyway) BUT the pollies need their backsides kicked very very hard over this.

More on this subject from Fishing World-http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/opinion-zero-transparency-zero-trust-in-ongoing-nsw-marine-park-debate?fbclid=IwAR29jDI4BOW07CkU452KAqvqkxO7pRAXgGnaktaBG2YMjIw2gt9tDBMpKtQ#hgZBHizL64GTFEPS.01 Essentially there are folk within fisheries who dont want rec fishos to have a say (in fact any say) in the way fisheries anre run and when and where lockouts will occur. They are hiding behind "data gathering" programs without revealing how or why this data is accumulated. these anti fishos have the ear of the minister and are mighty pissed off that they didnt get the Marine Park through and will continue to do anything they can to undermine our stake in all of this. The Lockout battle is NOT OVER- it has barely begun

Ahh no- i think if i added another boat to the driveway my wife would string me up!!! But yeah 6.6 M - your earlier post got me interested in seeing how long my boat actually is on the trailer, but my other point for the money you are talking about 4mm hull is what you should be getting, its a buyers market , look hard!

Weve had a massive stationary cold water upwelling parked off Sydney for about the last month, I saw some micro dollies in between the 9 and 12 mile when i last got out . The good news is the current seems to be picking up a bit so the upwelling will hopefully break up a bit- especially if we get a decent series of Southerly changes blowing, the good water is actually well to the south of us, there have been a few striped marlin off Sydney but in close in the slightly cooler water (@22C is what they prefer), dollies are non existant- BUT as usual that can change with a drop of a hat.Im off the water the next 2 weekends so will see what pops up after that. There is a tongue of strong current at 25C snaking its way just off the shelf so some bigger dollies will be in that.

Take your tape measure, I ran it over my boat yesterday and from tip of trailer to the back of the prop i got 6.6 m with the motor in its "preffered storage " position- tilted up a bit, hope that helps. As for the Clark-s 3mm bottom sheet - for 41K? nope, you want 4mm for those dollars

Should get something, i really only chased pelagics at that time in my life , so never really baitfished there.I do beleive that jewies can be caught off the rocks , Fairy pools was mentioned to me a few times, as I said the rocks are fairly safe to fish from but pretty steep and slippery, have good grippy rubber soles (i mainly used Teva type sandels). Good luck

Baz, true in the river, never took my castnet to the rocks but inside Fairy pools i sometimes caught gar- actually sometimes is an exageration- I saw them there a few times and caught a few once!!!As i said the rocks were hard work- long walk in , lots of nitwits in boats etc., sporadic fishing, i am sure someone has it wired but i never did.

Livies hard to come by, couple of times put out little queenies, platforms are granite, need rubber to grip them but both Fairy pools and Hells Gate are pretty Ok- but then again i have no insight into your experience and ability. I ended up mainly throwing metals and poppers.

Oh and 5M , ive been to the shelf in a 4.6- but bigger is better!

Well, simple really- I have no knowledge of what a stabicraft is like as a boat- best get info from those that do!

45K will get you a lot of boat- Ok - question yourself very deeply- 1. what are you going to be using it for- if its 90+% for fishing- especially lurecasting/sportsfishing then dont get a boat where half the space is taken up with cabins/seats and especially dont let better halves (who only will come out once per year) dictate the layout of the boat- if they are a regular fishing companion then its a different story. all that crap will just get in your way 2. 5m will limit you a bit, 45K will get you a second hand 6M boat in good nick fully kitted out if you look hard enough, of course you do need to take towing vehicle and storage into consideration, if the trailer is well set up you could easily run with a 5.5-6 m CC or tinnie. 3. I own a 5.4 M TABS CC- i only fish 3 up in it offshore, in the river 4 is OK , it goes to the shelf all the time but i am very good at reading the weather (funny how a 2 hour drive at 10 knots getting bashed all the way does that too you!!!). 4. Dont skimp on the electronics- a good guide is approx 10% of the value of the boat on sounders and gps- run two screens , not one- amazing how muck better it is to have GPS on one and sounder on the other.5. think about redundancy (for safety) 2 radios, 2 bilge pumps, just blew a radio the other day, I run 2. Have fun , lots to look at, TABS, Formosa 2nd hand Barcrushers, even the Quins and Stacers will be fine.

Ive fished up there a fair bit and lived not far away for a few years and being a LBG fanatic at the time spent a lot of time on the rocks (when coming from the NSW mid north coast scene Noosa seemed the logical place to go looking for pelagics off the rocks)- now im not saying that pelagics dont occur their but its a tough scene to get wired. I reckon i spent over 30 days out at Hells Gate and the Fairy pools over about 4 years- I caught spotty macks, mack tuna and a lot of trevally of various kinds- including some rare ones like a bluefin trevally. I saw ONE pod of longtails in that time and never caught a spannie off those rocks. I also caught a few small kings and one amberjack off the rocks. The place seemed to have life if there was current belting along the rocks but none if it was still. the other issue that i constantly faced was after 6am everymorning - out came the sea kayakers, jet skiers and boats (if the bar was safe to cross) and up there they had no regrad for someone trying to get a livie out under a balloon or spin- they drove right past me- constantly. Having said all that- its a nice place- long walk out though. The estuary is a good option for light tackle stuff- but be prepared to be out before first light for the small pelagices (mini GT's, queenies, tailor etc)- small stickbaits are good for that- try the Sound, Munna Point Bridge, the breakwall- all will have fish from first light till sunup.

save them for something else, rat kings will, eat anything, on Saturday went out from Broken Bay with a tank full of squid, wanted to troll up a couple of bonito on lures, caught a crap load of rats- the squid stayed in the tank and came home for dinner (ie my dinner)- no way would i put in the effort for squid or nippers and sacrifice them to the rats!

Go and have a look at the link i posted on the politics forum, there are a bunch more GIPA requests going in soon that will reveal the entire green mess that is NSW DPI, Neil is right politicians only care about getting reelected- not the long term.

Hi guys, we all need to be aware of this one , some guys in the Stop the Lockout group have spent there own coin getting Freedom of Information and meetings arranged with the DPI to find out this stuff.The green element of DPI are verging on conspiratorial behaviour to get their own agenda forced into legislation-have a look at this link-https://www.beagleweekly.com.au/single-post/2019/01/13/Do-we-have-a-NSW-DPI-Green-Goblin?fbclid=IwAR0_KvlOAyX3z1N7rmZGHSPSVTUvpbVl4sE2uZTaVDRiK4IlzNiLyzH3owY

number one cause is not winding the line on with enough tension in the first place, when spooling a reel with braid at 30 lb you should be winding on with about 5-6 lbs tension- no joke- this will hurt your wrist and take time, this stops line digging into the layer beneath and reduces wind knots to zero, i havent had one in years on any of my reels since i started spooling under a lot of tension.

better than lures

Ive trolled them offshore , they are pretty easy to rig to run at speed but hookup rate is very poor. If the kings are around you are better off spinning for them, as long as they are dead straight they will handle speed, the slapsticks also tend to disintigrate after a fish or two, my boat has looked like a plastic charnel house after a big session on the kings, dead stickbaits everywhere! If youve got a downrigger why arent you using livies?

I said that i fought it! na, it ate the slimies on my bait jig at the Coffs wide bait ground, when i saw it jump I thought ah well this will last 30 seconds, when I got to the 20 minute mark i had the gloves on and really wanted the bugger but the bait jig wore through with it jumping past the boat about 15 minutes after that- good fun but not counted as a catch!

Dont go to a gun fight armed only with a knife. Your second outfit will handle most kings, at this time of the year it can be hard getting past the rats but when you do--------! Having said that go ahead- you have my permission to buy more gear(you can never have too many rods 'n'reels) but your idea of getting a lighter outfit is a good one- i catch my bait with a Stradic 3000 on an old Pfleugar Trion 2-4 kg stick with 6lb braid, last March fought a 30kg black marlin with it for over 30 minutes-it also gets used a general purpose light outfit (its always in the boat)

Coral crabs- never eaten one, how do they tatste?

Well put it this way im going to Coffs between March 16-21- Full moon is 21st, you have an advantage of living at PS just follow the charter boats!

southerly change should fix the water , plus once we swing into a waxing moon i reckon their will be a bite