Boban

Hi Byron, how you going? Any luck up north?

My late uncle used to take us to that junction and we would hike up as far as we could go. I haven't been back up there in years. Those photos give me such good memories. Thanks for that.

You don't look like your complainin' Well done.

Some good info there for you. I recently went there and you will have to get a handle on the No Fishing Sanctuaries in place. They keep adding new ones like Whitehaven Beach. Your trip will be governed by the wind in my experience and unless you get good weather, that will determine where you should go. Here is a thread I posted earlier about my trip http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.php?showtopic=22068

There's nothing like surface fishing. If you told me that Cowan Creek could produce those surface hits, I would have had my doubts. Not anymore though. Some of the 'following' fish, were stonkers. I wish I had my sunnies as Greg saw a lot more than I did.

I was planning to work today but Greg soon put that plan to rest. The temptation of fishing with Greg and getting a ride in the Skeeter was too much for me to resist. Given that I had taken my boat to Port Stephens for some marlin fishing next week (which the weather has care of) I had no sunglasses or any of my jigheads or soft plastics. Fortunately my hardbodies did not get taken up in my bag. Let’s just say I wasn’t altogether prepared. As I got there a little early I decided to tie on a River2Sea popper and first cast out, it got smashed and I thought, what a start. Then the line popped and I thought, F…..k me, why didn’t you tie on a new leader. Easy, stupid took it all to Port Stephens. Greg arrived and we got underway, which really is a bit of an understatement. His boat really screams. Did I mention I had no sunnies. It felt like my eyelids were rattling. What a boat. Then Greg showed me how to fish, quite literally. We were surface fishing and watching the fish follow the lures then smash them was awesome. Worth the price of admission alone. But I couldn’t score a legal fish to save my life. Greg caught about 15 legal bream. One went over a kilo, and, had he been fishing a comp, he would have bagged a 4 kilo plus bag. Man did he kick my butt. You could say it was luck, but I think it was a case of Greg really knowing his stuff. He swaps rods, lures, you name it, but he gets the business done. I had my share of strikes but nothing seemed to stick. Well nothing of size anyway. Then I got another hit. F…k me not again. Missed it. Left it there for a second and twitched it again. Bang, I was on and it was off towards the rocks. Time to apply the “Mitch Palm Drag” as Greg called out “Don’t let him get to the rocks”. Well I finally got him in and I was yahooing like a kid. And best of all, it was a good fish too. Over a kilo and my best on lures to date. Man was I happy. I have to thank Greg for a fantastic day on the water. Not only that, but he stayed out until I got one that counted. Did I mention that I got the fish of the day. It opened my eyes to this type of fishing and I’m still smiling while typing this. Yeeeeeeha. Here are a few phone pictures that really don’t do justice to the fish. You can guess where the camera is. Thanks again Greg. One half of the live well Greg with a couple of his better fish My lone legal fish

It sure looked like your boat though mate. Did anyone borrow it for the day? Doesn't matter anyway, the guys were pleasant enough. Anthony, I figured that was possible, but I was thinking more along the lines of getting off the water and keeping them alive. Worth an experiment at some stage I think.

Bring it on baby, bring it on. Yeeeeeehaa........

I went up to Port to drop off the boat at my Parent's place. I did not even think about fishing in those conditions. But I will be back soon and hopefully all will be well by the time I chase the beaky's with Stewy in my boat and Ross a little later on. Here's hoping the weather is kind to us.

How good is that.

Top dolly there mate. Plenty of meat in that fish. I'm surprised it stayed still for the photo.

Yeah talk to Roscoe about it. Im sure he will be impressed.

I have been fishing for a long time and a long time ago I decided that the exposed rocks (those facing the open ocean) are no place for me. I'm not altogether happy with the risk. I am a very strong swimmer but the surf has taught me a few lessons I don't want to revisit in the vicinity of rocks. Now that's just me. However, as a newby, I don't recommend rock fishing without the presence of someone in the know and definitely not solo. There are so many options available to you that are more appropriate for fishing alone. From the shore around Sydney Harbour certainly comes to mind. As to tackle, I would start with a 7ft rod 4-8kg with a 4000=5000 size reel. Put some 12Lb Fireline on your reel and that is in my opinion about as versatile a combo as you could get together. It wont be suitable for everything, but with a spare spool you will cover a lot of situations. Another tip is to get to some socials and keep an eye on this site. There is someone (sorry I cant remember who) that is looking for regular company on his boat. How good an offer is that. Welcome to the site. Cheers Mitch

Well there you have it. I try to mislead the mob by re-naming you and you undo all my efforts Dan. Oh well...... It is scary though. I think its one of the roughest sheltered waters around. This on top of the morons (there I go again) that tend to frequent the harbour and you get a dangerous mix.

Yes master Stewy, I shall be positive......and ready for action. I was going to go up tonight, but with the weather forecasts, there's not much point really. Not for me anyway.

So I see you have a time machine as well....27/11. Well you still have time for some Christmas shopping I guess I must say you are a braver man than me. I couldn't imagine being in a yak with that many Dicks in boats around me. Well done on the fish mate.

Mate, you certainly put in the hard yards for those fish. I know exactly how you feel body wise. I wish I didn't have to leave early yesterday, as a trip to the reefs would have been our next stop if we had the time. Well done on the Samsons. If only they were the WA model size, we would have a ripper of a target for jigging. See you on the water some time.

"That's fishing" I think is the best way to look at it. Get the basics right first, then time of the water. I've brained them, I've come home with nothing much. I posted this report to demostrate exactly that. With all the good reports, you have to realise that bad days are par for the course as well. I did notice a lot of logs in Middle Harbour, which to me suggests a lot of fresh water is still in the system. The squiding has not been easy, I can assure you. What all this adds up to I don't know, but it sounds like a decent excuse In the end I'm glad I got out. As I'm not a fan of seafood, keeping fish is not the top of the agenda for me, although my parents like a feed of fish. I've wondered about this somewhat, but has anyone caught their squid the night before and kept them alive until the next day's fishing? Water quality is a real issue with the squid, so I would be interested to hear of any methods you guys may have tried. It would sure save a fair bit of fishing time in the morning.

Don't think the kingies are a given either mate. Like yesterday (same day as you went out), we got the bait but no kingfish. But that's the thing about chasing the bigger ones, the time spent between strikes can get rather tedious. You soon forget about it though when you get that reel screaming. I've never really chased the marlin (but that will change this summer), but I don't expect it to be anything other than an expensive exercise. Don't you love cleaning the boat when your eyeballs are falling out of your head.

The mission was fairly basic, get my brother in law and number 2 son a kingy before he leaves for the Whitsundays (where he lives) that afternoon. This had to be done before 11am, so time was going to be tight. With that in mind we got up at 3am (or at least I did) for an early start. We got to the ramp at Forestville only to find that some poor bugger had forgotten how to launch his boat. It was a ~ 4.5m runabout tinny that ended up half way on the concrete ramp sitting on the outboard and hull. He then decided to park his car and trailer on the ramp, thus turning this 3 lane ramp into a one laner. He wasn’t there when we got there at about 4.15am so he must of gone for help. Well we launched and got to the spit bridge were we got one squid and 2 yellowtail. You could tell that by 5.30 this was going to be a busy day. Boats everywhere. Saw NETIC there and said hello, not that he knew who I was, but I recognised his boat. I was in the Cruisecraft Explorer. From there we tried a number of different spots until we ended up with 7 squid and 2 yellowtail, but this took us up to about 9.30 and it didn’t leave us with much time to fish. The best part however was when Pino my BIL got inked. Almost a bullseye but not quite. You could hear me laughing for miles. Got him Got to our spot and saw Netic and his mate again. Asked him how he was going. Not good and only had one squid (or at least that is what I thought he said). Had the bait ..... We had the baits set ready for the Kingies, but the royalty was not willing to play their part today. The bream rods however accounted for a 50cm flatty and a flounder, so things weren’t all that bad. Anyway we got to keep 5 of the squid, which to my wife is a good thing. She hates the fact that I turn them into bait. All in all a good day on the water. The royals will await my return……

Yeh a few people have had problems getting their pictures small enough to post them. Good to see it only took you a year Nice fish mate. Did you troll it with a downrigger or just drop it down.

Well done. It's a good start and it will get so much better from here mate. You've got a taste for it now.

I actually look forward to the planned Sydney Marine Parks. It will finally get all the lazy arse, couldn't be stuffed fisherman to finally do something because it is in their backyard, not somewhere they holiday. When it becomes a vote winner, then you will get an opposing policy from the Liberals, unless of course, Labor realises that it could lose the next election over it. Yep, bring it on greenies.

And this is what the future holds for us unless we get off our collective arses and the let pollies and those extreme greens know its not on.

Mate, you are supposed to work most the time and go on the occasional charter. I think you have mixed things up somewhere you lucky bastard. Another good day for the clients