nightstalker

Mate, the fishing was great - i know its not all 20kilo trout like it used to be but for a sydney fisho wanting to experience the reef it was fantastic and the bust ups - wow - there must still be some freight trains down there. .. Its also like anywhere - it takes time to work out local techniques - its not a case of chuck in and hook up unless youre doing everything right. Some guys fished the dories every day and caught very little - our little crew worked it out after a couple of days and went very well. The boat was night crossing - a beauty of a boat - great crew.

G'day, asked a couple of questions about swaines before i went - it got a few looks but no replies. Thought i would let you know how i went anyway. It was the week after the big wet in SE queensland so it was a rough trip out - top boat though - its the one thats booked solid from Gladstone all year and doesnt roll endlessly. Took a couple of days to get the fishing wired but once we did it was an endless procession of red throat emperor to three kilo, coral trout to four kilo, big bad tusk fish, GTs, Longtails, Shark and Spanish Mack to 18kg on the troll and various other unstoppables. About every hour I'd say.. havent been smoked for a while only for the next run to be unstoppable with nearly locked drag and 30lb braid fished over 750 and 850 spinfishers. Fished 50 braid over a tld on the troll and also used that for a bottom rod off the boat at night. Got lucky enough to score a midnight red emperor one night which was fish of the trip for me if not the boat - it went 10.94 kilo - a thumper of a fish. I recommend anyone to go - we had a ball and would of conservatively caught 200 fish over the week - awesome.

I think that proves that the divers and fisheries simply have no idea of how many grey nurse sharks there are out there. It is their so called research which drives the public debate and then the decisions. With the amount of diving that takes place in known GNS haunts it really says something that this is the first time that an adult male albino has been spotted. This shark is old yet has never been seen before, hello... Therefore there must be other aggregations of GNS and the numbers they use to shut us out of spots are just a joke.

Awesome jewgaffer, i do know what you mean by not hairy fishing and will pursue that, will however have a crack at a big marauder on dusk pinning my chances on a kilo or so tailor - should be able to get my hands on one with a bit of effort. Sometimes i wonder if i'm smarter than the fish but after a being a 20's idiot - i've gone back to my roots and thinking hard like a fish for several years now. so much stuff i saw as a kid with my old man is making sense now and have some great fishing mates that i get really deep with theories about. would love to check in and run them by you from time to time. I'm also a keen geographer and thinking harder about barometric influences, offshore currents and the like. we've recently got the north coast snapper pretty wired scoring regularly in the five to eight kilo bracket but would love to get my backyard wired on some of those marauders - not to abuse them but just to experience the thrill of working the buggers out. The one i got on the macleay was an unbelievable night - my mates lost 2 other and a heap of tailor came back scaled. Must of heard 30 jew smash baits on the surface that night - have you ever experienced a night like that. Nightstalker

Jewgaffer, i am reading your posts the way daniel listens to mr miagi in karate kid. It seems i have so much to learn. thinking of trying the end of the run in at one of the spots you mentioned in your report on sat night. the forecast is for ssw pushing against the last of the run in, which will prob mean a drop in barometric pressure. pretty locked in due to work for days to fish, but do you have any thoughts on how it looks for sat evening. i have put many hours in on the jew and finally cracked it about 3 weeks ago on the Macleay with a 13kilo fish but looking forward to scoring the hawkesbury jew my old man and i chased when we were clueless 20 years ago. i will be chasing squid, tailor and yakkas for livies and only fishing that last 1 1/2 hours of run in on dusk before running up the creek for a hairy, again for old times sake - the old man liked nothing more than wrestling with a big hairy. nightstalker.........

Hey guys, i look and listen a lot to all of you but rarely have much to say... can't believe some of the fish your catching. Going to Swains Reef in late August, taking a couple of spinfishers with 30 braid, a tld for the bottom with 30 braid and a fifty for some big battles at night. What im wondering is if your fishing the dories during the day, how has anyone thats been worked out just what to fish where. Is trolling better in the morning and afternoons for spaniards? What sort of bottom do you target for emperor? Whats the best time and tide for poppering the reef edges? So you know, generally whats the best way to divide your time on the water during the day to maximise your chances of a mix of quality fish? I wont sleep for the week and will be fishing off the boat well into the night on the bottom, but is it worth trying to get a livey or a squid for night sessions and whats the best way to fish them if we do, on the bottom or maybe under a balloon? Anyway, any info would be appreciated..... Closer to home, has anyone got any hairies anywhere other than JB, in years gone by Waratah has gone well too.

when we fish for them at south west rocks in the winter we use full wire dropper rigs with hooks snap swivelled onto the wire so we can change the hooks when they get bitten through. The rigs are good for at least 30 jackets, use tough bait like squid or occy and youll be surprised, often if you can get through the jackets there will be decent snapper underneath. Tell you what, dont fall in though cause they eat anything, including each other once hooked - if you did fall in they would piranah you im sure...!

Its only six weeks until the big annual trip to SWR. unlike the summer crowds we love going during winter, chasing all the goodies available at that time of year. The best catches in the last few years have included an 8.3kg snapper, 15kg longtail, 3kg trag / pearl perch / tailor and venus tusk fish. Previous years have yielded jew to 15kg, yellowfin to 20kg, Samsons, dollies, spotted mackeral and of course leatherjackets. Anyone else want to add comments about SWR, i'll throw a couple of photos of the snapper and longtail on soon.

Get out there during a week night mate been getting some good ones up to five kilos of a weeknight. Second to third pylon from the north. Squid it up too - theyll get bigger.