61 crusher

Nice catch, well done 👍

What about getting a T bar or plate fabricated to sit between the winch post & the bow of the boat, it could be clamped to the trailer & have wheel studs attached for fixing the spare to, or you could try the caravan & trailer guy in erina on the central coast highway he has a good range of spares & if not might give you the right advice, I’ve found him to be reliable

Yeah definitely a top bloke but I don’t think you’d want to cross him even though he was a gentle giant, I do remember him having issues with bladder stones & had a top notch surgeon friend trying to help him but he might’ve just been scared of going under because of complications of being a big guy i did try googling but couldn’t find anything it kind of reminded me of a soft deformed coral that was kind of firm to touch with a thin bone covered in a membrane protruding out one end that hardly moved, couldn’t find it in any books & think I hooked something similar one night in South Australia when the only thing eating my bait was sea lice

If they were mangrove worms they were as fat as your thumb & up to 150mm long & didn’t move much Tried scampi at a restaurant once which might be similar to mantis shrimp, I think they had seen better days & were over cooked & tasted a bit like a ripe prawn smells 🤮 I wonder if Con’s Dream of building a mother ship & taking clients to remote reefs & atolls came true, I hope so but somehow I think his health might’ve got in the way, during quiet periods of work I’d spend many an hour chatting to him & his brother, like you very knowledgeable about all things related to fishing

I don’t live in Sydney anymore but do remember at valentia st hooking starfish on more than one occasion, also on two separate occasions had caught prawn killers or mantis shrimp but never anywhere else in Sydney & a weird looking creature that I’ve hooked else where (looks like a bit of intestine firm to touch with a stick like appendage at one end & pinkish in colour) probably came from the bilges of the ships that dock at berry island. I’d say I would’ve met your mate as I fished there quite a bit over the years My two piece butterworth was my 14th birthday present & came with an Olympic high speed reel, bought from a tackle shop in Chatswood, loved that outfit & remember being able to cast from one side of fig tree bridge & hit the guard rail on the opposite bank, like you fond memories

That looks friggin fantastic Frank so much extra light, that fan will come in handy on those days that you build up a bit of sweat working on the lathe, nice touch with the two pot plants 👍

You could try tidying the end below the runner & then trimming the butt end so that the runner end just slips inside up to the binding & use what KC suggested then run some thread over the join for added insurance, would also be lighter than inserting the metal, I had a similar issue as a young kid & the guy that fixed my rod he either used a bit of dowl whittled down or a thin piece off a broken rod & inserted it inside the hollow sections glued & then bound over the joint with thread. The rod worked fine & only a slight variation to the parabolic curve

Hi Waza around that time you’ve mentioned I managed a couple during the day as by catch chasing tailor during the day in the hole around Clifton Gardens in a 12 foot tinny, an old bloke told me back then he used to occasionally bag them in the hole near concord hospital just up from the Ryde bridge in the parramatta river One night I scooped up about 20 odd prawns & jumped on my pushbike & got to Valentia st wharf (Hunters Hill) just before dawn & with my new 2 piece green butter worth beach rod, first & second cast got a 36 & 38cm bream, next cast picked up a 65cm+ jewie, next cast picked up a hairtail over a meter & next was a big blue swimmer it went quiet after that, best land based session I’d had as a 14 year old

Great bit of information for anyone wanting to fine tune or have a go 👍 well done

That’s an awesome right up & great photos, good on you for sharing

Good sized snapper 👍, in the pic I can’t make the length, how long was it

Last year in Jerusalem bay while fishing for hairtail (only got 2 on pillys) the yellowtail were around but not in great numbers, come twilight they had disappeared but the Cowanyoung replaced them & were thick but no hairtail around, it might have been to do with the big morning high tide. Out of curiosity Waza have you seen a hairtail caught on a Cowanyoung if so I reckon it would’ve been a big one?

Years ago I caught the odd one on prawn or pilly tale around fig tree bridge on the lane cove river in quite shallow water yeah thats an interesting one as well- i can confess that i didnt actually catch a salmon until i was 22- Id only seen them twice before that-once when i was about 15 off the rocks at Avoca and i pulled the hooks on one and another time when i was 17 just off Broken Bay- they were not a commonplace capture around Sydney then, i then went to the south coast and caught a few in my 20's, moved to Brissie for a few years but when i came back in 1999 they were everywhere (and still are), i avoid the buggers in general now When the cannery down south first closed up they weren’t that common off Sydney but overtime they’ve become quite prolific & some fishos reckon a bait stealing pest but then again they give you a great workout on bream gear & go hard

Pre dawn one morning heading out under Gladesville bridge with a fog sitting on the water we nearly took out 2 rowing boats that had battery operated white lights on the bow 200ml high that were virtually flat with no glow coming off them, if it wasn’t for the ripples we saw coming off the punt that was with them which didn’t happen to have any nav lights, it could’ve been devastating, lucky we were only just on the plane & both of us were keeping vigilant, what blew us away was that they were right in the middle of the channel instead of off to the side “bloody idiots”

It’s amazing what fish will take when they’re in the mood like the slimy’s going your 8oz jigs & I have also experienced that sound of rain on a calm sunny day & then seen the school of baitfish mouths wide open moving along the surface, also saw a school of salmon doing the same travelling along north head close to the rocks for about 11/2 hours this time though there was heaps of micro plankton & it was like a never ending line of fish no more than 2 meters wide heading south another good read Waza cheers

Looks like you trimmed your beard for those beauties 😂 well done 👍

Thursday I took the dog for a walk at Terrigal at the skillion about 14 minutes from home & was surprised to see hardly any trailers at the ramp today however heaps as well as lots of people some even sitting around not adhering to the distancing rules, I was at the ramp for no more than 15 minutes & saw a few snapper & a few flatties been cleaned. The ramp was 3 abreast as the surge was making it rather difficult, I helped one of the guys I’d spoken to before covid19. latch his boat to the winch to make things easier As I was heading out another 2 guys who were hitching there boat up as I was leaving offered one of there fish to the guy I had just helped, he knocked it back so they offered it to me & I gratefully accepted 80cm kingy, they had managed to bag out. I kept my distance the whole time & the only thing I touched other than the winch clip while I was there was the kingy that he kindly put on the gunnel for me. It’s great to be a local

Curious about the title @jenno64 is that 1.5m of calamari or were they caught in that depth of water?

It would definitely work for me Waza, I’d be so wide awake the snooze button would be useless 👀

Hi Waza another good read, nothing better than livening up a slow session with a bit of fun. One I was party to was while game fishing years ago, the guy who was next up if a rod went off was fast asleep 💤 , so In comes a 15kg outfit lure & trace disconnected from the snap swivel & then out comes an old vinyl record, then we inserted the snap through the hole in the vinyl & added a clip, then fed the record back out & engaged ratchet, well waking up & nearly jumping out of his skin to get to the rod was priceless in itself 😂. I was actually surprised what a good fight the record gave, pulling line & darting left then right & when finally pulled in every one was cracking up 🤣 except the guy who caught the record fish. A story I heard, don’t know how true it is though. Was 3 guys fishing in an open boat off JB & they were catching snapper except for the guy in the middle & he says “ how come I’m not catching any & you guys are we’ve got the same bait” well one of the guys being a smart alec says “its what we are doing with our fingers before baiting up” looking puzzled “what do you mean” well the guy at one end of the boat says “you have to put your finger where the sun don’t shine before you bait up” “Yeh right” was the guy in the middles response. After several more snapper come over the side all pannies so far, the guy in the middle discreetly decides to do what his mate suggested & hooks up to an absolute thumper of a snapper 😂😂 & fish of the day

I own a 560C barcrusher 2010 model which is 6.1m in length unlike the newer models at 5.6m & I was born in 1961, hence the user name

Good session & love a fresh feed of calamari 👍

Good one scratchie & here I was thinking it had something to do with a bad rash or infection 😂 Years ago as an apprentice ten of us threw in equal dollars to buy 3 x $250 (750 x $1) books of scratchies, we all thought we couldn’t lose, well we all ended up out of pocket by $11 😫

There is also a fisheries hot line number that one can leave all relevant details on that gets sent to all fishery inspectors out in the field & if there are any in the area they can respond to the report 1800 043 536

Well done good report, what a great smile & first fish 👍 good on you for persisting & getting fresh bait & as @mii11x said get a dairy going it will definitely help in the future don’t forget to add conditions like barometer, tides etc even if you don’t have any luck 😎