Pickles

Headed out with Buddies Steve and Kyle - showing them some new grounds around Wisemans Ferry / Webb’s creek area. Bagged 5 legal Flatties to 55cm and two Jewies (and 19 soapies). Got them all just before the turn of tide on fresh prawns on light gear and 12lb mono.

Looks like a great day @AlbertW. We’ve all been seasick - you eventually get over it.

Brilliant effort @xerotao - a really good feed of crabs there. Love the family pics.

Hi @Aussie_fisher, I think what you are seeing / catching are “Jelly prawns” or immature prawns (juveniles of the ones we eat). I remember clearly this time 16months ago, after the last “big wet”, launching at my local ramp and seeing many thousands in huge schools in the shallows. I put my squid lights on at the back of the boat and it was a massive cloud of “jelly prawns” and excellent bait for small Yakkas.

A detailed and helpful account of “thinking through the issues” - thanks for sharing Hilly. It’s always helpful to be be able to put a few sessions together over a few days and try different stuff in order to “crack the code”. I always struggle with - is it the lure/bait? Conditions on the day? Time of year? Etc, or “All the above” in which case “Will it work next time?”, but that’s the challenge of our sport.

Great work @TheFishyFisherman, not easy to manage a land based kingie over 65cm and a 73 is a good fish. I haven’t heard of “Shuman raider” (not a Shimano?) , but there are a lot of Bonito in the harbour at present and they’ll smash livies or Yakkas (one out under a float or balloon works well too). Great to see young Raiders posting their catches (please look after the wharf and remove all your rubbish when you leave - I’m sure you do 😊) Keep those posts coming.

Sooooo jealous of those squid Basil - what a top effort, makes me want to move to Tassie.

Bream (2) were on tiny bait fish set up, but burleying heavily.

Loved reading your report Albert - you’re right about Neil - the FishRaider community is made up of top blokes like Neil and Steve. It’s so hard to find fish prospecting and local knowledge makes such a difference.

Went out with my nephew, his son and one of his mates. Other than Sam’s mate, they had never caught a Kingie before. We loaded up with Yakkas and after boating 5 Kingies we left the harbour and headed off shore where we boated a good feed of Trag and some for the freezer, we decided to head in before the wind picked up and left them on the them on the bite.

Great result for your young bloke Rob. Cobia fight every bit as hard as Kingies and taste just as good.

Nice mixed bag again Dave, at least you got to keep the big end of the Bonnie.

Hey @bessell1955, when I was out getting spiked by a catfish, my dutiful wife was hedging (box headgear) with the battery operated hedger I bought her for Christmas and got stung by 3 paper wasps - we both had a mournful evening.

Invite them over and they catch as many as they want (I don’t like catfish anymore)

Fil, they were taking just about anything we threw at them and from the surface to 5m. This time last year after the “wet”, they were pelagic and smashing prawns on the surface - I took a buddy out and he even caught one on a halo twisty(tailor lure). We stopped fishin about 9.30 - 10.00 and could have caught twice that number - a very overcast day with a big low and dropping air pressure. I’ve caught them like this before and stopped fishing after we caught (and released) 66 fish.

Yep, you picked it @R E G I C Y C L E no 3 in 55mm, gold, purple and rainbow trout colour, all painted with red nail polish on the base of the bib. The Feral cats were black, purple, yellow and a light yellow/ gray with body stripes. At the moment that are hitting anything pretty much, we caught fish on every thing we threw at them.

If you give me your number, I’ll ring you and you can come and get all you want @Toadmaster - cause I ain’t getting near one ever again.

Haven’t had a spike by a Fortescue (when I used to do a lot of prawning, we used to call them “Scoobie Do’s” ) and after a catfish spike, I don’t want the experience.

@R E G I C Y C L E, I do both and James and Brady caught some on SP’s flicked under structure whilst I was manoeuvring the boat, but there were ski boats pulling skiers and doughnuts around which tend to push you too close to the trees and rocks. So trolling the drop offs and structure was also the go, but this does result in snags which can be expensive if you lose good quality lures. Some of my favourites are FeralCat signature 5+, stump jumpers, Ogee’s and predator boomerangs.

A great report Ben, thanks for sharing, it was a great read. I don’t compete in fishing comps, but do in hunting trials with my Lab’ and understand what a buzz it is when you achieve your goals and even more so when you have one really good “run on the board”. It’s frustrating that 3rd fish didn’t come in for you

1. Cut the line when handling catfish - don’t try to get hooks out (even with pliers) 2. Always have a thermos when fishing areas with “dangerous” fish. 3. Keep a first aid kit on the boat with Panadol or pain relief. 4. Don’t forget to Pray for a safe day. A last minute invite last night to head out to Brooklyn / Pittwater today was tempting. However I cancelled out of a Sydney Harbour planned trip due to BOM prediction of strong SSW wind and choppy seas, so wasn’t confident of a pleasant day - and how correct I was, but not due to predictions (the wind and swell wasn’t great, but fishable). The event that turned the day sour was getting spiked in the knuckle of my second (rude) finger by a catfish. I’ve had a Red Rock Cod spike in the past and that was extremely painful and knew what was coming & what to expect. (This is the first time in memory I forgot to pray for safety on the boat. People say praying that produces results is purely “co-incidence”, however the more I pray the more coincidences happen). I had my faithful “Thermos” with me and had my finger in HOT water within 15seconds and this helped enormously to deaden the pain. My buddy didn’t have a first aid kit (Panadol), so we headed straight back to the ramp. There is filming going on at Parsley Bay and planned for Australia Day long weekend (weekend fisho’s be warned) where we were able to get the thermos refilled and the “Hawkesbury water Taxi” kindly gave me some Panadol ( legend), for which I was most appreciative. What did I learn - refer to 1. 2. 3. 4. top of post. 15 hours later my finger is still sore and swollen, but far less painful than this morning. Oh Bye the way, we bagged 3 nice 40cm snapper, a 42cm bream and 4 Flatties over 40 cm (as well as 3 shovel-nose )and a catfish 😖).

The weather report was for strong winds and big seas, so offshore session on Kingies was out and Flatties have been quiet offshore, so plan B = Bass on the Derrubbin. I took @James Clain and his buddy Brady out for a morning session. We bagged (& released) 40 by 10 am all on deep diving hardbodies in a variety of colours.

Greatwork Neil, always good fun catching hard fighting fish on light gear.

Good on you for getting out @Powerofwill - hook into a kingie on a yak and hold on for the ride 😊😊

Great work @Crabstar. Nice when you can nail the target species and a great eating fish.