Kracka

All I can say is...im SUPER jealous. Well done and great report

Nice catch and first post. Welcome I bet some nice pan sized fillets came from that trip. Well done.

G'day Michael. Welcome to the forum. Always great to see new faces joining. I usually fish the Northern Beaches off the rocks or the Harbour early am. Im going for luderick this Saturday crack of dawn around Lane Cove if you wanna join. Most of the time if theres a good swell I'll fish the rocks around northern beaches so if you want to learn some rock hopping one day im happy to show you the ropes next time I'm out that way. Feel free to ask for advice in the chat. Plenty of good hearted raiders with a wealth of knowledge they're happy to share and teach us young blokes. Keep us posted how your trips go. Tight lines.

Thank you all for the insight guys. Will invest in a few floats and see how they do with my long blackfish alvey rod. If I end up buying an ISO rod and reel it will most likely be when I'm over in Tokyo next year ? That was one of my worries as the ISO floats I saw being used sat low in the water so they're hard to see over long drifts and heavy wash. Might use the ISO floats in the harbour. That's an interesting set up. Have never seen that before.

Gday raiders, Just wondering if anyone has used the japanese ISO floats for blackfish/luderick. And if so, how do they compare with a quill/pencil float? I would imagine the pencil floats offer less resistance to a down given that both are weighted properly BUT I've seen quite a few blokes off the stones using these ISO set ups and they swear by them. The long ISO rods and reels cost an arm and a leg... Plus I just love my good old alvey rod and reel blackfish setup. So just keen to know about the floats if anyone's had experience with them.

Ooops meant burley lol. Good luck. Let us know how you go. Tight lines. Hope some more raiders can help u out some more

I've done well at north narrabeen for whiting and bream using live nippers. That was Feb though. Given that the waters are a bit cooler now you'd want to target bream Flathead and Aussie salmon. Soft plastics or small chrome lures are probably your best bet. As for timing... If you're fishing midday you will want to make sure it's a high tide and there's a little wash or a gutter around somewhere. I've never done well in broad daylight unless the fish have some sort of cover like a gutter or some white wash. Bream will be an easy target if youre after a feed. Very lightly weighted running sinker rug with a peeled prawn, cunjevoi or nippers will see you onto fish. The terrain makes a huge difference. I'd put my money on fishing where the rock and weed meets the sand. About 50m south of the ocean baths there. I'd check the swell forecast too. If it's not too bad from the rocks and you have a buddy with u and the appropriate gear... I. E. Cleats, id chase drummer. 10X better eating than bream or flatties imo Best fishing is low light periods or overcast days. Also barley helps a lot

Usually parra river will have some but u will have to throw in a handline with a snapper sinker and drag it along the bottom in a few areas. Can pay off sometimes but haven't done that in a while so not sure how it is now. Most outings I'll set the alarm at about 330am (to beat the traffic) and head to the northern beaches to collect a few types of weed from the rocks/swimming baths. Usually around monavale, curl curl, Avalon have a pretty reliable supply. Good thing is there's cungie too which Ive snagged a few large bream and blackies on in the harbour while it was still dark. Black fish inside the harbour (and I'm talking up around lane cove) have no problem downing a nicely presented cabbage bait. Oddly enough... I seem to snag quite a few ocean black fish up that way. You can tell from the lighter appearance (and more purple on them) in contrast to the darker blackfish that dwell inside the harbour. It's a lot of extra miles but pays off when the weed in the harbour is hard to find. An outing a few weeks ago I had some of that hairy greed weed left over and accidentally brought it home. Chucked it into my freshwater shrimp tank and the stuff grew like crazy! I used that same weed a few days ago andnailed a few thumper blackies on the stuff (sorry no pics unfortunately). Might be good to try growing it at home. I've tried growing cabbage in a saltwater aquarium before but it hasn't grown well but the stringy weed however will grow but you really have to ramp up the lighting. The hairy weed stuff that I got from the ocean rocks is though... Growing well in fresh water. Who knew... And catches fish.

Alvey all the way. Built to last. Now that is a rare thing these days. Sydneyelvis. Some very nice pigs there! Well done. Not much can compare with a pigs power except maybe a big groper.

Hey SickWolf. Sorry no experience with Avoca Rocks specifically but I fish other headlands along the northern beaches often enough for drummer. Optimally, they bite very well during (if you can fish it safely enough, that is) and after some big southerly seas have battered the coast. Also low light periods, really overcast days and when the water is discoloured (has that green tint) you will find they bite quite well. The main thing to look for though are Bommies, eddies and some consistent white wash with milky water breaking up food sources such as cungie and cabbage weed. Have a consistent burley trail going such as prawn shells, heads and bread (or any bait that youre using) all finely chopped up with some moist sand and throw in a handful close to the rocks every 10mins should see them fire up and stick around. On a very flat day you can still catch them provided you have some sort of consistent wash there and have a good burley trail going. If there's no wash at all i would target groper or move to a different spot instead. In terms of swell specifically, it varies upon the location. A ledge facing the same direction as the incoming primary swell can get pretty hairy in even a relatively low predicted swell. You will have to factor in wind direction, any cross/secondary swell, tide height, wave height as well. E.g. a rising tide to 1.7m with a 2m swell will see waves coming up to 3.7m and will more often than not, be dangerous to fish. In terms of swell and wind, A NE swell with 20knot plus NE winds will likely make a NE facing ledge hard to fish. Westerlies will flatten the sea BUT this gives you an opportunity to fish spots that usually are more uncomfortable to fish. Still be careful. Conditions can change at the drop of a hat. I usually find a few spots that can be fished in a variety of conditions. A good example is Long Reef. A SE swell can make the southern side hard to fish but it makes the Northern side very comfortable to fish. And there's always some sort of wash around. I also have a few spots that have Bommies situated in front of where I fish which breaks up the incoming waves and I fish there safely enough. And it's great as the drummer usually sit there and wait for the food to come to them. My suggestion would be scout out a few places via Google Earth and scope them out so you have a few spots to fish depending on the swell on the day. Drummer can be found at any headland just about. Hope that helps u out a bit. Hopefully a few raiders can help you out with that spot specifically. Edit: I'll also add. A good idea is if you have a spare 10-15mins here and there a few days leading up to your outing, check out the online surf cams near where you will fish (if it has one) throughout the day. You will be able to visualise the local conditions and correlate it to the swell and weather forecasts for that day. You may not get a great view of the rocks but you can usually get a glimpse of the rocky corners and how they are effected by the swell. That will give u some indication at least. I'd also suggest keeping a fishing diary on your phone. It's amazing what patterns you can pick up at each spot. I have found a few spots that fire well for drummer on a falling tide and about 100m away it fires up on the rising. All day fishing for the win ?

Wow never knew kingies could get that big ? the hulk of kingfish... Thata unfortunate about the other fisho. Always pays to be safe and never risk it. The conditions can change at the drop of a hat. Ill definitely scope the snapper spot out before fishing it. And avoid those nasty ledges.

Sound like heaven Hopefully will get a chance to head that way soon. I'm pretty keen for it. Honestly...id be lucky (and happy) to land a small kingie with my luck. Nailed on a popper around Forty Baskets one morning some time last year as I saw them busting up some baitfish close to shore. Mustn't have hooked him properly. Another time I was up around Roseville bridge (not sure if it was a jewie or a king...maybe even a shark) there was a lot of surface action...chucked a live tailor out under a balloon...15lb stripped to the bones Gave up on kingies after that...

Mona vale is a top spot for weed. I guess theres blackies to be had off the rocks there too? Never fished it. Theres tonnes of weed in other places too like curl curl and manly which is always great as sometimes the council does a thorough cleanup of these pools, removing every sceric of weed they find ?. Usually a handful, three tops, is enough for a few hour session...burley included.

Sounds great thanks Wazza. Ill collect some next time im around Narrabeen. Ive got my prawn net handy at all times now since its a long handled net. At least if the blackies dont go for that...youre guaranteed something else will take the shrimp. Weed doesnt really offer that luxury unfortunately. Thanks for your help ?

Thanks for the feedback Raiders, much appreciated. I gave them a go on weed last outing a week or so back 3 hours prior to first light and had only had two downs but the float was difficult to see as my headlight ran out of battery ? forgot to bring the spares... The peeled prawns worked well...no blackies...plenty of bream and jackets around though. Wazza i know what u mean about the little green nippers/clickers. I used to collect them up at Nelson Bay to target the big bluenose bream lurking about. They love em. Only ever managed the bream and some thumper trevs on em though. Ill see if i can collect a few for the blackies. Thanks!

Other suggestion is (if your on a boat mainly) keep your bait in a big zip lock bag in an esky of ice-seawater slurry. Take out a few to thaw out as needed. After the trips over your unused bait should still be reusable. Not really ideal if your planning on being mobile land-based though. Rock fishing is easy - bread or cooked prawns - you get hungry...munch away lol.

It'll be interesting to find out what Raider's suggest. I've never tried Powerbait in saltwater. Works well for trout and carp in F/W IMO. Whenever I bait fish ill gather/catch livies and use those...the unused are released. Ill buy bonito or pillies (salted works best) as they keep better - sometimes prawns - using majority of it either as bait itself or in the burley trail. What I used to do if theres a lot of remaining bait after an outing id triple bag it and freeze it for burley next time OR grind it up in an old "fishing only" mortar and pestle and use that as a scent additive to SP's. Bream love stinky stuff that moves in dirty water. OR If there were any other fishos around I'd give it to them. Using dead baits now, I figure out my average needs for each of my fave spots and I know how much bait is enough now. I.e. for an early am session ill only need 500g worth of prawns or a whole bonnie.

Haha they are a real bugger of a fish to catch and even moreso to release. Pretty funny watching em drift off with the current when u release them inflated like that though lololol. Glad to hear you guys caught some other fish too. Well done.

G'day Spool. The fish will be there, particularly in the areas youre fishing...jetties, weed beds, flats etc all provide fish with a structure for cover and/or feeding. What may help if youre not doing it already is... Burleying with whatever baits you are using will help tremendously. Tides are key as well as low light periods - an hour prior to sunrise as well as before sunset and an hour after dark. Ive found the bite drops off significantly after dark (depending on your target species), but its still worth fishing...itll just require a more targetted approach species-wise. I.e. noahs, jews, bream etc. Id suggest pick a target species for an outing and stick to it for best results. Winter theres a tonne of fish around. Luderick for example, although theyre a year round option we target them more in winter as the warm water pelagic actions slows down. These guys will require more specific gear and fishing methods so feel free to ask members. Plenty of blackie gurus around on FR to help u out as well as previous posts. Heck, feel free to tag along next time i target them n ill show you if youd like. I fish the harbour and rocks. Bream are good and flathead can be caught...theyre in a "hibernation" mode as the water cools off but they can still be caught easily enough. Live bait, strip baits (e.g. bonito) works well...SPs even better and can cover more ground. Leatherjackets are an option too, theryre around in plague populations sometimes. If you after something bigger...winter kings are an option as well as larger jewies. I have seen a few big kings up at the Spit - coming right into the burley trail more often than not. Havent targetted them...yet hehe. The stones are great this time of year with luderick, bream and drummer being the main targets. Again...depending on your target species, unweighted baits give the most natural look and will tempt more bites and larger fish too. As an example, i very rarely fish for bream with any weight nowadays. Its all unweighted...bonito strips, luderick gut or live prawns and nippers. Made a huge difference to how many fish i catch as well as the size too. Thats my 2c anyway...hope it helps and keep us posted how you go on your next outing. Dont give up. Itll turn around for you. Edit: ill add...like with lures, always take a variety when you go fishing. What works one day may not work the next. Always best to go that extra mile and cover tour bases. Its also good to have a few back up spots...especially when rock fishing. And important to note certain spots will fire at certain times. I.e. high (leading up to or running out) and low (falling/rising). It pays to travel and keep a fishing diary...youd be amazed at the patterns you can discover and how you can make it work to your advantage.

Wow. Thanks so much for that Waza, i appreciate it a lot. Very detailed. Im really keen to give it a go. Who knows...might use up some sick leave the coming weeks to scout it at least hehe. I understand the Reds will come up only in rough seas. Same as Long Reef they tend to come in closer to the bommies. Fingers crossed, hopefully ill get to report some success ? ill keep a close eye on the swell forecasts

Haha make use of another fishos burley. Cheeky but effective ?

Yeah pillies dont do very well in the washes. Even salted ones tend to get picked off pretty quickly. Its amazing to think that you can catch such big Reds so close into the rocks. As you mentioned...itd be the reefy spots that they favour. That sounds great waza. Maybe PM the National Park spot if youre happy to share. Currently ive been getting ones around Long Reef casting wide with salted bonito strips or pillies. Even though most are legal i put em back into the drink so they can get to that big size one day...hopefully. itd be noce to land a big red one day. Theyre definitely on my target list...right next to that 20kg jewie haha

G'day big Neil. Thanks. Yes hopefully some more reports to share soon...besides the blackies of late. Hopefully a few jewies (if im lucky) or some big Noahs in the weeks to come. Just hanging for a chance to get somw time off work ? story of our lives i guess... The photo is of a Siamese Carp that i caught in Thailand. Went in at 23kgs. Tonnes of aligator gar, redtail and mekong catfish up to 30kgs. Fiji...not much from there unfortunately. A big barracuda, a missed wahoo and a few whiting like fish. Truly a beautiful place to visit and the locals are just as great.

Thats incredible. Good on him, sounds like nothing can stop him. A true fisho and very nice of you guys to help him out with his catch. Inspires me to go after some Reds now. Never caught one over a half a kilo lol. Must be a bit of an art to tackling reds like that i reckon.

Sounds great, thank you. Ill give it a shot next outing ?