PaddyT

Frigates are the best big king bait ever- ive been smoked using those on numerous occasions-in fact i reckon only unlandable kings eat them.

https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/724 Striped Tuna https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/718 Frigate MAckeral https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/720 Mackeral Tuna

Striped tuna have stripes-mack tuna have mackeral pattern on hte back -and they are green, stripeys are purple

Ran a swim school for many tears with huge amounts of humidity etc- sealed the doors on the bottom with solvent based enamel and painted the surfaces with aquanamel- if i didnt seal the bottoms they rotted from bottom up.

yep striped tuna-aka skipjack

well done-you might find that the fish your wife is holding as a salmon not a king.

They are a very cool fish-actually very good chewing and excellent bait for macks, marlin, big kings

Tailor, salmon or kings-bonnies/frigates will tend to come tearing in from one direction (usually into the current/wind) and not swirl round like that-nice flattie BTW

Surge situation is far better than it used to be, the entrance can still silt up a bit but the key is when coming in swing west past the entrance and come back at it from there on the plane until you are in, ramp can be slimy, prepare to use 4wd when pulling out

Yep used to do heaps of it in Cowan Creek- catch your poddies up on the flats at the back of the creeks and bays -Yeomans, Jerusalam, Bobbin Head etc , rig only needs to be very simple-main line around 3-4 kg with a ball sinker running to a swivel, about 40-50 cm of 6 -8 kg leader to a 3/0 suicide /beak/ hook. Pin the poddie just in front of the eye socket and go for a drift, water depth 2-5 m . An excellent spot is around the sport and rec camp around the corner from Patonga and PAtonga itself. Deeper water areas and areas with a lot more tide will require more lead to keep the bait down, also dont be afraid to use quite big poddies-a 2 kg flattie will scoff a 20 cm mullet

Teva sandles-never ever barefeet, too easy to tread on hooks-Teva's are also excellent on boatramps and granite rock fishing platforms.

Honestly-go and do a seamanship course at your local Coast guard-learn about weather, waves etc. Swell wont bother you at all (as long as you dont spew or you are not crossing a bar)-wind and short period waves thats another story. Plan your voyage-if a afternnoon NE is forecast-well head north in the morning-weather is weather-spend some time learning about it-the forecast is your god when you are at sea.

reel in gear , normal drag , lots of point exposure on the hook. They hook themselves

yep stale bread is great berley , caught my biggest bream on bread too.

just remembered the name Halls and Little Halls reefs

16 free swimmers in one day off Broken Bay-bloody hell-thats worth the price of admission alone!!!

Yep they're the ones, i actually prefer them to Halco twisties as they can handle a bit more speed-stick to trebles for general spinning , on a high speed retrieve i missed less fish. The old style treble with ski jump sized barbs werent great but modern , slim small barb chem sharpened ones are great. These days when i buy metals i just rip the std trebles off and store the lures without hooks and just whack a treble onto the one im using and that doesnt go back in the tackle box - i just use it until i lose it. As i said dont get overly hung up on the lure brand etc- just watch the action/match the hatch-if you get "followers" the two most successful ploys are either crank faster (which gives a semi committed fish a bit less time to hesitate) or drop the lure size a bit- works most times.

For the harbour-some Raiders in 20gm and 40Gm , HAlco twisties and slices, Sea rocks are good too, Owner trebles in black are excellent retrofit hooks-you dont need expensive-and nothing wrong with a barrel sinker and a treble

Spot on-except the ultimate secret frigate lure at Terrigal Haven was a gold barrell sinker-the locals used to bust them off rather than let anyone see what they were using.

Sportfishing in this country started on the back of metal lures, Seascape reels and Butterworth rod blanks. I have spent an astonishing amount of my life hoiking lumps of metal to the horizon in pursuit of pelagics. The crunch on a rapidly retreived lure is something that never grows old. As Waza said its a worthy task. Ive caught everything from bonnies, tailor , salmon , spanish ,spotty, doggy macks, various trevally , samson, amberjack, kings ,every variety of tuna (except for a southern bluefin), dolphin fish even jewfish, flatties and bream on a rapidly retrieved metal. The key is match the hatch and know the lure and your target. Speed is often king especially with the tuna's,macks and bonnies, other fish like kings, prefer a lure with a little "side to side" (eg a Raider). If chrome doesnt work try white (secret metal killer of macks and kings)-bonnies are suckers for 10 fast cranks and then a pause. A really good trick is for your first cast at a new spot throw out your lure with NO hook and count it down to the bottom- you will never get snagged after that. In my boat there is ALWAYS a rod with a a high speed reel and a metal sitting in a holder on board (because you never know what will pop up). Crank fast , go hard!

Been a while since ive fished up that way, but my memeries are that the closer reefs are a far better option for mackies than the wider ones , try Sunshine or even Jew Shoal or the reef (whos name i forget) just to the north of the bar. There isnt any areas with huge pinnicles but they all hold heaps of bait and the macks will be there

Is that the old model Saragosa

To those guys wanting spots like this locked up- think very carefully about what you are wishing for-safety has been used as a reason to ban all sorts of activities that arent actually unsafe-this will become the excuse to lock up all sorts of fishing spots that either greenies want fishing stopped in or wealthy locals want "westies" to not intrude upon , or boardriders want exclusive use of -or whatever- as i keep pointing out-whilst a rockfishing death is an individual tragedy for those involved-in the overall scheme of drownings its not a major one-so as fishos we should offer support -i dont even rockfish anymore but would be appalled if those that want to are locked out of even ONE spot. One day someone elses sport or spot- the next day yours.

They used to be rare around Sydney-there is now a colony in Broken Bay, the HArbour, Botany each.

Yep-thats up there with banana's , just hook more fish-then you wont be so worried. Saw a sail weighed at Narooma back in 1991 , also hooked a wahoo at the island that year-your dad might be in with a shot!