adkel53

I fished off Kiama on Wednesday. After some searching we found birds everywhere and heard reports of fin busting up around other boats. Soon hooked up and after a 55 minute battle on 24kg tackle we lost what would have been my pb tuna at the boat! After another 90 or so minutes we came across a school busting up and heading in from our left. Without us changing direction or speed they intercepted our spread and a double hookup ensued and another two of the crew went in to action. About 45 minutes later a 40ish kg model came over the side but the second fish was still slugging it out down deep. About 45 minutes later up came a fish that we estimated (conservatively I think) at 60 kg. No stuff-ups at the boat this time though . It was 6.10 pm when we set sail for port with tuna still visibly busting on top in the fading light and calm conditions. Simply magic. We arrived back in at 7.20pm. A day to remember - barrels with fins clearing the water and two in the boat. Sore arms and shoulders to boot!

A great introduction to fishing in Sydney! A good way to remove the blood line is to cut along the fillet through the blood line then skin the two half fillets. By starting at the tail end on one and the head end on the other, and holding your SHARP filleting knife at an appropriate angle, you will be able to remove almost all of the red stuff and the skin in one motion. You might still need to trim a little of the red stuff off. You also remove those bones at the front of the fillet (pin bones) at the same time. What remains from each fish is four long. clean fillets ready to be sashimied or cooked. Try these methods on some of the kingies you are sure to catch in the future: 1. Mix up some olive oil and lemon juice (about 50:50) and season with salt and pepper. Cut the fillets into appropriate sized pieces, dip in the mix and bbq until just done. 2. You need: A bunch of coriander 3-4 garlic cloves Juice of 2 limes Large dollop of hot English mustard – say a heaped teaspoon full 2 tbspns extra virgin olive oil Salt and pepper to taste Fillet and skin the fish, removing the red meat. Cut pieces so that they are not too thick (max 1 cm). Process coriander and garlic in a food processor and then stir in the olive oil, lime juice, mustard, salt and pepper (or simply put it all together in the food processor). Marinate the fish for 30-60 minutes in the mixture before cooking quickly on a hot bbq or in a hot pan. DO NOT OVERCOOK Note: Cooking the mustard removes its heat but leaves the flavour behind. Trust me! You could use this on any white fleshed fish or even chicken.

Gulps are biodegradable, Powerbait is not. They are much like most of the other sps on the market. I use a range of plastics for my lizard fishing and alternate between them. Gulps work well and i gravitate towards the 4" jerkshads, 5" crazylegs and 2" or 3" shrimps. Lots of others that would work just as well I think. My favourite colours are nuclear chicken and lime tiger in the jerkshads and crazylegs models and banana prawn in the shrimps. Again, lots of others that will do well. As for regular sps, my original favourites were squidgy fish in the 70 - 100 mm sizes with blackgold, grasshopper and poddy mullet among my favourite colours. Black opal shads are also very good. More recently I've gravitated towards 3" Zmann Minnowz due to their ability to resist the ravages of chopper tailer which are sometimes about (and provide food for big lizards!!). Lots of colours available. Try new penny, gold rush, smokey shad, bad shad, opening night and rootbeer gold to name but some from their extensive range of colours. As to dyes, I have used spike It in either pink or chartreuse for a number of years on the tails of squidgies. No scientific evidence of its impact but it certainly doesn't put the fish off in my experience. The gulps don't absorb the dye very well and the Zmanns not as well as the squidgies either. Ike to use S factor (BS factor my mate calls it!) on standard sps. Again, have not conducted any real tests to see if it makes a difference but it certainly doesn't put the fish off. My advice is to find a few plastics that you think will be successful and fish with them until you gain some confidence. Good to have a a couple of rods rigged with different ones and alternate between them to find out if any one style is being preferred on the day. Ten casts with each or something similar is a good starting point. Then there is the question of retrieves!! Hope this helps a few Raiders.

I have used Yamashita white squid skirts very successfully on bonito when trolling so can't see why they wouldn't work just as well off the stones. Insert a suitable sized/weighted torpedo shaped sinker into the cavity, tie a single hook on behind (I use an O'Shaughnessy) and wind like crazy!! Bonito love 'em, as do mac tuna and salmon. The pink/purple blue ones should work well too. They all come in four sizes and 7 colours. Check them out here: - http://www.ejtodd.com.au/Lures/Skirts/Yamashita_Golden_Bait_Octopus_Skirts_small.html Kel

Late last week I fished Botany Bay with a mate in the hope of nailing a few lizards on plastics. The thought was that the unseasonally warm weather may have resulted in unseasonally warm water and that the lizards might be out to play a bit earlier than in past years. We were right on both counts - the water was almost 19 degrees in most places we tried and we landed 7 keeper lizards. Three were 50 cm and a bit more, three were mid 40s and the last one just under 40. That one went back in to grow bigger as 40 is our personal minimum length. We dropped a couple too, including a bigger fish that parted the leader soon after hooking up. All were taken on either a 4" Berkley Gulp jerkshad or a 3" ZMann Minnowz. They hit the lures hard and most had engulfed the jighead. I used a Berkley MF 50 soft vibe for a while, getting a couple of hits but both failed to connect. Has anyone had success on lizards using these lures? They look the goods and seem to get a nice vibration going on a slow speed retrieve. All of the fish were males with some gonad development happening and all had empty stomachs (which might account for the aggressive nature of the takes). Good to get out with a mate, have a pre-conceived plan come good and have some early season success. Kel

All this warm weather had me wondering if the water was also unseasonally warm and whether the flathead of Botany Bay might come out to play. Only one way to find out so my mate and I hit the bay yesterday. The water was indeed unseasonally warm 18 to 19 degrees in the places we visited. We worked hard but caught 7 legal lizards and dropped a couple more. The best (and first was 52 cm and two more went 50) the other three we kept went mid 40s and one went back as we have a self imposed size limit of 40 cm. They were hitting hard and most had engulfed the jighead. All were males with some gonad development evident and all had empty stomachs. They were all were taken on 4" Gulp jerkshads and 3" ZMann Minnowz. I also had a couple of hits on a Berkley MF50 soft vibe that didn't hook up. Any one had success using them on lizards? They sure look the goods and vibrate well with minimal rod work. Nice to put a plan into action and have some success so early in the new lizard spinning season. Kel

Have a sqizz at my roasted whiting recipe hereabouts. Would suit any white-fleshed fillets.

Great story title and great read. The Lord works in strange ways!!

This recipe is per chef Neil Perry and was in the SMH recently. I made it tonight from a couple of nice whiting (36 and 34 cm) that I caught in the Georges River on Friday. It was delicious and would also be good with any white fish fillets.- flathead, bream, snapper, blackfish, drummer and trevally to mention a few that I reckon would be suitable. Crunchy roasted whiting with fennel salad whiting fillets 1 1/4 cups panko breadcrumbs 2 tspn ground fennel ( i ground whole seeds in a motar and pestel) 1 tspn chopped fresh dill 2 tspns extra virgin olive oil dijon mustard salt and pepper Fillet and de-bone the fish. Skin them if you wish. Heat oven to 120 degrees C and cook the bread crumbs on a tray until just coloured (not browned). Remove and allow to cool. Turn the oven up to 200 degrees C Mix the breadcrumbs, fennel and dill together in bowl. Mix in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Coat the fillets with a thin layer of dijon mustard and then coat them with the crumb mix. Place presentation side up on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cook in the oven until done - 5-6 minutes for thin fillets like whiting. Place some fennel salad (see below) on your serving plates and serve the fish sitting on top of it and with some lemon or lime wedges. A crunchy coleslaw or green salad on the side goes well with this dish. For the fennel salad, finely slice a fennel bulb (use a mandolin if you have one), sprinkle with sea salt and squeeze the juice of a lemon or two over the top. Leave to marinate for about 10 minutes, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and grind some pepper over the top.

Squid stuffed with feta, chorizo and parsley Ingredients • 50g feta, crumbled • ½ chorizo (75g), finely chopped • 1 tomato, diced • grated rind of ½ lemon, juice of 1 lemon, plus wedges to serve (or use limes) • 1 cup (70g) fresh breadcrumbs • 1/3 cup chopped parsley • 1 tablespoon chopped oregano • 6 squid tubes, cleaned • 1 tablespoon olive oil Preparation method Preheat barbecue (or a griddle pan) on medium. Combine feta, chorizo, tomato, lemon rind, breadcrumbs, parsley and oregano in a bowl. Season with ground black pepper. Spoon into squid tubes, pack in and secure with toothpicks. Brush with oil. Cook squid for 2-3 minutes each side. Drizzle with lemon juice and cook for another 2 minutes, until opaque and well browned. Serve with lemon wedges. Very tasty. This stuffing also goes well on chicken breasts that have been halved, packed with the stuffing and wrapped in foil to hold them together. Bake in a moderate oven for 25-30 minutes.

Seems like I'm not the only one bemoaning the quality of the "stainless" steel used in lots of fishing gear. I have ordered a pair of the Tackle Rats ones from a store in QLD. $27.95 plus $10 postage. Might report back in a couple of months when i have some idea of their claim to be stainless. The old Alvey worming pliers were indeed brass and were an excellent product. Unfortunately mine are somewhere on Steamers Beach south of Jervis Bay!

Say $20-$25?

Can anyone recommend a brand of reasonably priced stainless cutters or long-nosed pliers that will stand up to the rigours of salt water boating without rusting within a few weeks? My last pair of "stainless" pliers are a rusty mess. Surely someone makes a truly stainless pair at a reasonable price.

Last year I was catching plenty at this time trolling close in along the rocks around Sydney. There were mac tuna mixed in with them. They don't seem to be around this year though.

Makes sense as it is a Victorian website. Just curious as I rarely fish for whiting with bait.

Has anyone tried these? What was the result? http://www.specialtyfishing.com.au/products-page/best-sellers/hybrid-whiting-rig-size-8-shimmer-blue-made-exclusively-for-australia/ Kel

I've been reading quite a few reports of almost legal sized reds being caught recently, especially in Botany Bay and the harbour. Set me wondering as to whether we are experiencing the early phases of the return of legal sized ones in these recreational fishing havens or whether they come into these estuaries to grow into pre-pubescent teenagers and then leave again when their hormones begin to rule their lives! It seems that other recreational only fisheries like St Georges Basin now have some reasonably sized reds available on a regular basis since netting was banned there. Some discussion on the Fishing World website re the merits or otherwise of estuary netting is what started me thinking about this. You can see it here if you wish. http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/starlo-fights-to-ban-nets I've made my views clear there! Arthur

Great fish and isn't it just great watching one like her glide off into the depths. Maybe time for a bigger net though! Big fish like that one can come along when you are least expecting it.

What would be the latin name - Pagrus (or Chrysophyrus) auratus tailless (or darrenus after the angler)? Maybe - Pagrus auratus ssp. shortarseis? !

The point about recreational versus commercial fishing regulations is that the pros seem to have very few restrictions applied to them, especially in estuaries, where as we recreational fishers face more and more restrictions on where we fish and what we take. Do the 86% of non fishers have the "right" to consume unsustainably caught fish as many sold in the markets are? There is a lot of other sustainably produced food (including farmed fish and prawns) out there to eat. Additionally, the pros don't have to catch a few of one species then switch to another . Why should I? I really feel that it is up to me what species I target each trip. Lizards on lures one day, whiting on bait another etc. Why do I need to go prepared for several different methods of fishing if I don't want to? Over time, the biomass of each species that I keep will be much the same as if I am restricted to a small quota of each on each trip. i live a good hour away from the closest ramps that give access to the places i like to fish. A typical trip would cost me about $50 in car and boat fuel alone. Restricting my catch to 5 x 40cm lizards (that is my own personal size limit) seems rather unfair to me. Here is another problem with this particular limit. Imagine one has caught and kept 5 small flathead (say low 40s). Then you move on somewhere else and find s few larger ones (say 50-55 cm)? Much more food in these. The temptation for many (assuming they like to fish within the rules) would be to ditch the smaller ones and keep the larger ones. Should we be encouraging that? I am a keen conservationist and I release lots of legal fish. I sometimes keep my bag limit if I am fortunate enough to catch it (which is rare). At other times I keep enough for my immediate needs and perhaps a few for the freezer to keep me going until my next trip out. I think there are many fishermen and women just like me. We abide by the rules and have our own self imposed ones. These new changes will impact on us far more than they will on the types who fish outside of the rules with little chance of getting caught. Instead of wasting our licence fees and taxes on making these unnecessary changes, NSW Fisheries would achieve far more in terms of fish conservation by employing more compliance officers and properly policing the regulations, bag limits and size limits that are currently in place. That's my view and i'm sticking to it.

Very good point. Rules mean Nothing to many people when they are not enforced and hence the chances of being caught are minimal. I have been checked only twice in my fishing career - once on the harbour and once at Jindabyne. As for the bag limit changes, I think some of them are ridiculous. Ten legal whiting or 5 legal flathead would feed a family of two adults and three teenagers just once. I feel that one is entitled to keep a couple of feeds for the family if they so desire. We don't all live close to the water or have the opportunity to fish regularly (many are confined to weekends and holidays). Hence, the opportunity to catch and keep a few feeds for the family will be severely curtailed by these changes. On the issue of size limits, I think that some should be increased - flathead and jewfish being at the top of the list. Currently it seems that it is ok to take some species before they have the chance to spawn but not others. How many 36 cm flathead or 45 cm jewfish have spawned? Remember when the kingfish limit was lifted from 60 to 65 cm? The rationale given then was that a 60 cm kingfish had yet to spawn. What is the rationale for reducing the size limit for dolphin fish? It was only introduced a few years ago. I'm also in favour of maximum size limits for some species. Let the big breeders do their thing I say. Perhaps the thing that pisses me off most in this discussion paper is the very last recommendation. That is, to allow bow hunters to target carp. If that is not a sop to the "Fishers" and Shooters party to buy their vote for these proposals then I am a monkey's uncle! How many fishers in NSW are clamouring for the right to shoot arrows at carp?

I use the 2-3 juice or milk bottles containing frozen water (preferably 3 litre ones) in an esky and add just enough seawater to cover the fish, which I spike in the brain immediately after capture. If they are a bloody fish like kings, tailor, bonito, trevally and the like I bleed them into a bucket for a few minutes by cutting through the neck area and breaking the spinal column, rinse and put into the icy cold water. Works a treat. Here is the proof. Several weeks ago I caught a lot of flathead with my mate Greg from his boat. Greg was in the habit of trying to keep the fish alive in his live bait tank. That day the pump was not working properly and the fish we kept died. We kept manually changing the water. When I went to skin the fish the next morning (after icing them on the way home and then putting them into the fridge immediately), I found the flesh to be softer than I am accustomed to and the fillets difficult to strip the skin from without breaking them in half. I had given three fish to another friend and he reported the same thing. Greg and I went out again three days later and caught a heap more lizards. This time I had taken a bag of ice which we put into a tub and added some seawater to make a slurry. The fish we kept were spiked and put immediately into the ice slurry. The result - nice firm fleshed fillets that skinned easily. Greg rang me to tell me what a difference that treatment made. He thought flathead were just a soft fleshed fish!

After dabbling in fishing a few times as a kid while on rare coastal holidays (I grew up on a farm in the Riverina without ready access to any waterways) I was introduced to rock fishing in my final year of university by a mate when we shared a house at Avoca Beach while on a a practice teaching placement in Gosford. So began my lifelong love of fishing. He and I have kept regular contact since those days in the mid 70s and shared many wonderful holidays with our respective families. These always seem to have involved fishing of some kind or another. Today I had the chance to take him out on Botany Bay with the hope of finding some of those lizards that were so abundant a couple of weeks back. He now lives in Nowra and we get to fish down that way a bit, but never, until today, on my "home patch". Our last trip on the bay together was in his late dad's boat two days before my wedding day in January 1978. We caught some good sized tailor on lures that day. Today we began early about and hour after high tide and threw everything we had around a number of my old faithful lizard haunts. Alas, the lizards were not playing ball and our sum total was two lizards around 40 cm and two decent sized trevally in about five hours of lure tossing. On the way back in he commented "the fishing wasn't the highlight of the day, just getting out here with you was". The bacon and egg rolls and coffee from Kurnell were a close second! I think that is what you call mateship!! Tight lines. Kel

There is another well known site where "playing the man" is tolerated by the administrators. Here, people tend to express their opinions in a friendly manner and agree to disagree without resorting to name calling and slagging others. Let's keep it that way! Trung, I thought your original post was excellent and written in the right spirit with a nice touch of humour. Your last reply indicates that lures and bait both work - SOMETIMES. Keep up the good work on the water and on here. Each to their own. Fishing is a pleasurable pastime which people can enjoy in a myriad of ways. Provided they are acting within the rules we should just let them get on with it.

I'm not sure that the Raiders posting replies are anti bait fishing - most, like me, were just expressing a preference for lure fishing when the circumstances permit. I'll certainly be doing some bait fishing over the winter months - whiting on worms, blackfish on weed, blurters on prawns to mention some possibilities that I have in mind. Hopefully the bonito and mac tuna are around off the headlands like they were last winter and I'll have some fun catching them on lures. I might then use some of them to catch a few lizards out a bit wider. There could even be a soft plastic down there with the baits too. Remember, Trung started his excellent post post as a result of an encounter with an anti lure fisherman! Tight lines - no matter what is on the end! Kel