PaddyT

Went for a five minute troll on Chrissie Eve and got 3 which was enough for sashimi and frames for crab bait (staying on a house boat) just off Broken BAy- so yes they are here

Def a Moses Perch-pulled this out of the Hawkesbury on Boxing Day (released of course)

plenty of longtails about to roll down the coast- go north- Brett- drive south PM me if you want a bit of info

Nothing wrong with Coffs- no bar , islands, heaps of options for spannies-Port Stephens wouldnt really be a go to if you have your heart on Spannies- go north

Havent been to many yellowfin caught off the rocks Sydney south in the last 20 years, reckon that little fruit tree is long dead. I havent fished LBG for about 8 years now but the little snippets I do hear tell me this- still good runs of Longtails Port Stephens - north, occasionally as far south as Sydney later in the season (March/April), you still hear of the odd one caught at places like Avoca but the pillie tossers getting busted up is a good indication they are around. J Bay is the home of the summer marlin run these days, the occasional rat yellowfin does get picked up on the north coast as well. I used to spin most of my longtails on the north coast with 25lb nylon on an overhead on a 9ft rod- a couple of my fav spots had limited backswing space so i had a cut down FSU 4120 for ever and a day and then a custom made Calstar which hardly got used before I packed in the landbased stuff. Otherwise as Rick said a 10 ft stick is a good option- 50 lb braid is not needed on your average longtail- the first run is a doozy usually and then they will arc back and forth along the rocks in close. Freespool to get them to change direction if they look like cutting you off- I preferred nylon- trying to stop their first run would be a great way to pull hooks or bust off anyway.

love spinnerbaits- can chuck them deep into snags and slowly retrieve them out, surface lures for dusk fishing

Guessing thats minimum power for that Hull- go as close to max as you can

Got out yesterday for the first time in 4 months, hit Longie, the 12 and a spot south of the harbour before I found the kings. Longie was quiet when I was there but a mate said it fired up later in the morning, the 12 had a couple of fish early according to a bloke thier but I did 3 drifts for zilch and then went back inshore and lost count of the rats- couldnt pull a fish bigger than 60- even on big livies- bit of fun though. at the 12 the temp was about 21.3 max , current was about 1 knot from the North - so its coming -there is a warm patch north around Port Stephens- I heard of one striped marlin caught while I was out and later in the day a really good Blue was caught by one of the Botany Bay boats- looking good .

yep, there, Barranjoey all good squid spots

Swell direction might affect some inshore spots putting wash into some areas which fish like to feed in but otherwise not something I really worry about except if heading wide and I might be concerned about swell vs current for safety reasons, wind is more a factor of safety. Generally the East Aust current is starting to fire up at this time of the year bring warm water and the associated species down with it, generally it needs a couple of days of strong southerlys to push the main stream in close to the coast (I know that sounds counter intuitive but its true)- days and days of North Easters cause cold upwellings to form in close but these are the source of nutrients which kick the food chain off. Ok when looking at spots you will generally find most predatory fish will be at the upcurrent end of structure , when current hits structure it causes eddies and upwellings to occur and the predators find it easier to feed in these places. As for your sounder get the best you can afford and learn to drive it in manual- what are you running?

Go and talk to Aaron at WB&T or Josh- they fish south and easetrn and whole bunch of other creeks all the time

periods of low light are best-dawn /dusk, just use berley- soak some breadcrumbs in a mix of water and tuna oil and use small hooks , most wharves around Sydney have them

Gees a few questions but all good 'uns- Ok water colour- its important but not everything. Its prettty obvious when you are in the different coloured water but whats probably more important is to look for "edges" where one body of water hits another, this can be tide lines, current lines, temperature "breaks", often fish will be on one side and no the other. For chasing inshore fish like snapper, jew etc they often like feeding in so called "dirty water " as they are not strict sight feeders unlike pelagics- tuna, marlin etc. as for planning your trips using some of the internet info providers like Ripcharts or the like will give you an indication of currents/water temps etc BUT things can change pretty quickly. Kings/bonnies can be a bit shut down in dirty water but dont generally need high temps and so called purple water to feed, we catch plenty year round in water temps as low as 18C. The bigger factor is bait- find it on your sounder, with your eyes, look for structure, look for birds etc, if there is bait sooner or later something will turn up to eat it. If im off Sydney chasing kings which i normally do downrigging with live bait I will keep changing spots until i find a school of biting fish, I will often mark kings on the sounder which wont bite but if its close to a tide change I might sit on a school thats not biting and wait for the tide change- it often triggers a bite, as for looking for "better water" id rather have structure and bait than purple and no bait. Hope that helps will think of some more stuff in the next day or so

Ha- dont mind a bit of quick taxidermy myself!

Chop the wire, once its kinked like that it corrodes very easily and breaks anyway. Once youve cleared that up throw the wire in the bin and put 200lb braid on it

big bait, big fish.

Sweep are a very secret weapon for jew off the rocks and beach, Nth Narrabeen special. There is no "perfect " livebait, some days fish want slime, some days yakka's, some days you cant get livies. Just stick a hook through it and go for it. Killed a striped marlin a couple of years back that we caught on a lure and it was chockers with leatherjackets- fish eat fish

Yep it works well, I actually freeze salt water- just pour some salt into the bottles and freeze them up. I reckon a few of those and them 1 bag of servo ice made into a slurry with seawater . The temp i get is so cold I can barely keep my hand in for a few seconds

The Tiagra 50WLRS is better suited to 37kg due to its fast drag curve, swap it for a 50w or a 30W LRSA for 24kg- you can use backing if you wish -dacron or with the change in gamefishing rules braid. Using a topshot systenm is a good one using splices to dacron - then you can just change the top 250 m every season or after a a few fish. If using braid as a backing I think the more serious gamefishos are using loop to loop conection- but I dont use braid backing so im not sure

yum

Also if you have a look down the back of my boat I have a PVC pipe mounted as a tool/knife holder, I also have another at the front on the right hand side of the photo, they are both capped and have holes drilled in the cap to let water out. All my pliers , etc are easily reached on both sides of the boat.

If you have a look here i have the traditional plastic pipes for storage at the front of my console but also mounted some horizontal holders above either side pocket , one side is used for gaff/tagpole and the other i keep a couple of light rods in. What you cant see on the sides is-Left side has two split pvc pipes to hold the rod tips and the Right side has the gaff/tag poles held in by two pvc pips right at the back of and above the side pocket

I thought this was a Tawny Frogmouth, had this one at work a couple of years ago, sorry about sideways photo. Anyway owls are damn cool birds

BOM- everything else is derivative

A good rule of thumb is Number of rods while trolling =number of crew plus one. Mixed spreads can be a bit tricky to set up , without 'riggers what I would recommend you try is your biggest minnow in close short to the prop wash, your next minnow about 20 meters back and a skirt straight down the guts a long way back, if you can elevate the middle rod (in a rocket launcher or bait board) then you should get minimal tangles.The ability to do sharp turns when you have a full spread in the water is a good one, if I am marlin fishing with crew then I will typically 4 skirts max- i dont see the need for a crap load of lines in the water, If i am solo then 2 lures only. Sometimes if i think there are tuna or wahoo in the area then i will switch out my long corner skirt for a big laser pro or bibless minnow. Simple is usually best . As for J Bay its a good spot but like anywhere it can have quiet days- just be careful not to fish in the sanctuary zones or a bit later in the year near the Tubes when all the LBG guys are there. Murrays Beach area is squid central , downrigging them for big kings at this time of the year around the cliffs usually goes well.