PaddyT

Drop the possesion limit to 10=bag limit, gets rid of confusion plus 10 is plenty. As i said before the trial ban of witches hats in Port Stephens is an interesting one so results of that would be good to see. I know that Qld dont allow witches hats anymore and on my last trip to Moreton Bay back in April the "sandies " were still as prolific as ever (and thats with no bag limit in QLd BUT with a ban on taking females). I dont leave my crab traps unattended due to "farming" problems in the past, Mind you no point in changing rules and regs when there arent enough Fisheries Officers out their enforcing the ones we've already got!

Used to pull some cracking whiting around gunamatta- they wouldnt eat anything other than live bloodworms which we used to be able to buy from the Bait Bars near Tom Uglies Bridge, havent fished round their in years but cant imagine its different now. Servo bait is usually garbage

Use some common sense here folks, the entire estimated rec take of blue swimmers in NSW at last estimation was 27 tonnes vs about 190T of commercial take- 160 odd tonne of which all came from Wallis Lake- and this figure varies very little from year to year. They reach legal size inside 12 months- they are simply not under any threat from either commercial or rec fishing. When we bag our fellow fishos for taking a LEGAL feed using LEGAL methods we simply give ammo to the greens and scuba divers who want to stop us doing what we love- so dont do it! Making claims that a few pots will wipe out a population is nonsense and should be called out as such. Getting back to methods- it is my understanding that there were some concerns about by catch- especially sea turtles in witches hat type traps and thats why restrictions were brought in to Port Stephens- it would be interesting to see the outcome of this.Mud crabs are also very fast growing but I havent had the chance to look up any data about them in NSW-most commercial fishing effort is in the north of Australia but there is still a reasonable commercial catch in NSW under the general estuary rules- rec fishing data is scarce though.

Yeah right, cheers Rick- I thought up on the ref they carried ciguatera -algae grazers - but the ones at SOolitairies ate everything we put in the water

Battle of the Fusiliers? cool looking fish ive only seen them off the Solitaries , anyone ever eaten one?

The rock fishing spots are in the Noosa National park , Woods Bay is at the mouth of the river- also be aware rocks are different up there , they are granite so cleats are useless, use rubber soled shoes with good grip

The rocks are not a bad spot, long walk though, have a look at Fairy Pools and out to Hells Gate, usually some kings around, trevally of all sorts of species including GT's (tend to be small) , occasional macks and tuna (macks usually but I have seen the odd pod of longtails there ). Really nice place to fish - pelagics really current dependant- I fished it quite a bit back in the 90's when I lived in Brissie but I cant say I ever had the place wired. Never tried for Jewies but it does have a good rep for them off Fairy Pools. The river around Woods Bay can be a lot of fun for small trevors and micro queenies but the bite usually switches off by 30 minutes after sunup and in summer thats really early in Qld. Oh and be aware - heaps of snakes on the walk out to the National Park early morning before the tourist start making noise.

Nothing to do with any sort of trumpet champ, there are no bans on crab traps in the Hawkesbury in saltwater (above Windsor bridge is considered non tidal for regulatory purposes), as to your info about it being decimated by traps its just plain wrong, there are millions of muddies and blue swimmers in the system.

Huh, there are still millions of crabs in the HAwkesbury, how did you get that info- I can catch them at will and so can anyone if they learn a bit

Egi rods seem like a bit of a con to me- any light spin stick does the job, just use "light" hands

Good point at the end Jeff - the local ETEC/SUZI dealer to me I wouldnt trust him as far as I could throw him , the local Yammie guy is a gem.

This- your boat is a big lump of plastic and needs a lot of grunt to get going and hold on the plane , comparing to a 150 (whatever stroke)on the back of a much lighter 5.7M aluminium boat is not a good move IMHO , you will regret underpowering a boat , you will never regret going to max rec HP , those haines hulls love power and sitting in the sweet spot of 4000 rpm will be easier with more.

Yep - I reckon a 200hp , BTW where do you get such lightweight crew!

Just saw a boat on an FB page that I follow- its a 2101 Striper which has a 150 Yammie on it- WOT it only does 25 knots- its essentially underpowered. Being a yank boat with a wider beam etc I guess it would weigh a bit more than yours . i still reckon looking at the HH website you are potentailly going to underpower your boat with just 150 - 2 stroke/4 stroke or not. Also noticed you have an AUX motor on the transom, thats a fair bit of extra kilos on the bum of the boat

Yep good point-didnt go all the way back- Zoran would probabaly be better off thinking down the lines of a 175 to get what he wants

How is comparing a properly powered 21 ft boat to an underpowered 21 ft boat a comparison on 2 stroke to 4 stroke? Agree with the homework comment

Bit of carp bashing in various ponds and lakes is always good as can doing the same around Yarramundi. Foreshore around cowan creek is worth a go (bobbin head etc).

I will only offer the following observation- go and have a look at people who use boats for work- what do they use ? It doesnt start with E

Plenty of whiting in the creeks and rivers in the general area around Coffs, Jacks are an option in the warmer months (locals do keep quiet about it but if you can track down EP's around Sydney then jacks should come with a bit of effort- just upscale your gear-40lb braid- 50lb leader) Heaps of bass on the nth coast . Damn good offshore options

you can still get decent frozen prawns- find a tackle store that stocks Hawkesbury prawns- they do cost more but they are a far superior bait and they are packaged properly at the time of capture, as someone said earlier DO NOT use supermarket prawns as bait

Thats true Jon , unfortunately off Sydney the FADS get hammered by impatient, discourteous , ignorant folk . I rarely bother and do as you do, find a fishtrap field , much better pickings most days and usually much more peaceful. 100% on the better fish running wider off the structure.

Go west young man- not to many in Coogee

Yep, putting the fish down, getting stroppy and catching micro dollies, Sydney FADS are a bit of a waste of time, other ones less hard hit up the coast can be pretty good. PS- dont troll round the FADS when boats are already on them

I would wait a while, water is still not warm enough close in (Sydney FADS are in too close IMHO) and they need time after deployment to build up a bit of crap on them

Best option with circles and livies is to bridle rig the livie, that generally keeps the hook clear of the bait as the fish swallows it, I still hook 95% of my kings in the mouth using 8/0 live bait hooks. I am mainly downrigging around strucure or dropping livies on deep reefs. I do use circles when marlin fishing with livies or skip baits. What Jon said about the old mustad circle is true, in general circle hooks dont need to be sharp at all because of the way they roll into the corner of the fishes mouth