lakelad

Cheers for the comments, here's a photo of the fish. As well as eating some I will definitely salt a few up and see how that goes as bait. Had some on the boat, delicious! The fresh bonito has worked well for me in the past so will try get out tomorrow.

Hi All, Was looking for a window to go fishing yesterday, around weather and family commitments, at 4pm I secured a window until 7pm between activities.. busy weekend.. Although less time than I usually prefer it allowed a solid 2 hours after putting the runabout in to chase some fish. Worth a shot. I was planning to chase the usual suspects of bream, flatty, trevally, snapper around etc. the breakwalls and drop over with some last minute servo mullet. However after a quick chat at the boat ramp hearing that it was flat as with the westerly blowing and bonito were about I thought I'd go troll some lures and throw some jigs around and see how I went. I threw out a skirted surface lure (pink/purple) as I exited the channel and after not long going North off 9 mile beach I heard the wonderful sound of line racing off! In came a nice, perhaps small to average sized bonito. With the confirmation they were about I threw out another skirted lure in the orange variety and it wasn't long before I was pulling in more. I seemed to get the larger ones on the orange, which was also the lighter rod of course! Great fun on a light rod. I also managed a quick moment to send my mate (who was too busy to come) a quick video of both lines taking off and asking which one I should get first Having used bonito as bait with great success lately and also enjoying them for dinner I continued to catch a bag (bleed them straight away is recommended, more raider preferences here for those interested). I won't need to get those servo mullet fillets for the next few sessions, might even try salting some as per this raider thread. All in all a good few hours and was back home in time for the next adventure. Stay tuned for how the bonito bait goes!

ah.. thanks mate, I wouldn't mind a hoody myself!

That's great if it's in your area and not sure what to do, free clinics including replacement parts..

Alright, can someone tell me what a hoody is?!

Checkout this @Farvos, has some related info and closures listed/mapped. https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/closures/commercial/estuary-prawn-trawl-fishery-closures/hawkesbury-river

Thanks for the tips @beachwormer that's great knowledge, will give it a go! I caught some Luderick recently (spearfishing) and one had a couple of parasites, that appeared to be a tongue louse. Is this common?

ssshhh.... rick.. I turned up at the standard go to spot today and had to navigate through the large car park of boats.. with some luck they'll put the boats away now for another perfect Sunday.. 😂

Nice work @Ryder, I can't seem to get them on the line but get a few spearfishing. One day I might get some time to learn the intricate tide/berley/weed bait combos to get success with them, certainly an art. That's a great haul, enjoy!

I took the kids out today and we got a quick fire 5 squid on one drift before the little ones wanted to play on the sand. Secured a nice leather jacket on the spear gun when I went for a dip also, but visibility not the best underwater with all the weekend traffic. Now to dig out some steaks for a surf and turf 😄

Well done on the first King mate, thanks for sharing the plastic info too, those nuclear chickens go alright 👍

Looking at doing this myself @Regan, how'd you hook the squid up for kingy's, just one hook through the hood?

Yeh I like the build quality of the Yamashita, need more time on the water though to to compare brands/colours This photo shows the RUI I had success with yesterday:

Yes, I almost got the bag limit yesterday in about an hour before the Southerly hit. Just started chasing squid recently so was having a ball 😃. There seemed to be quite a few boats picking them up, I got the most hits on natural brown style Yamashita 2.5 and also 2.5 RUI "revenge glow battle".

Looks great mate, love the underwater photos 🤙

Thanks @rickmarlin62, I'll have to experiment with that and see what comes of it, is it the same approach for say 20m of water offshore as 5m inshore? I imagine you can only do this for slow drifts as depth increases (without increasing head weight..).

@Woodsy1/ @Scratchiewhat's the approach for drifting with soft plastics, just weight them appropriately and drop them close to bottom and sit back with a tight drag? I've been using bait on paternoster rigs, but have some 6-7 inch plastics in the bag to try.

Cheers for the confirmation, with ~6 hours between low and high and 3 hours delay in the channel, more within the lake itself, there should always be somewhere to fish the tide change! That said, not sure how how noticeable it would be say Warner's Bay North or Mannering Park South. I understand the lake level is more affected by pressure systems than tide for the outer regions. Might have to do some important research/time on the water investigating this

@rickmarlin62 how far into the lake does the tide change effect the fishing? Belmont bay, Swansea of course and up towards Murray’s Beach I suspect? What about across to the West, coal point, wangi point way or further south/north? Also, I was told the channel entrance to lake at Marks Point is 3 hours behind the heads for tide, is this about right?

What colour vibes are they finding work best @rickmarlin62? And are the branded ones a whole lot better than the ebay specials, I've got some of both in the 70mm sizes but not used them much. Jewies have eluded me in the Lake, I've sat on the barges around the place for hours with livies and no luck might try some vibes if I can find a couple of good places to try it out? http://www.fishingworld.com.au/how-to/how-to-catch-jewies-on-vibes

And I thought he'd cooked one of the blue swimmers 😂

@flatheadluke thanks for the info mate and photos, looks like a great setup. 18 yakked and 3 squid is impressive! Marine carpet is gold hey, I just made a marine ply box for a dual battery switch and relay and it looks great carpeted. I’ve been getting this live tank project moving the last few days around holiday activities and have mounted the tank to the transom. This took a little while as I had to shorten the middle rod holders to allow engine in full locked up position and also not infringe on bench seat. I wasn’t keen to raise it higher due to blocking the view and the potential to get in the way fishing, also didn’t want the weight any higher. Have plumbed the bilge pump section in also, my larger outlet was too large to get near the top of the tank so I’ll drop back into the chandlery and get a couple of 19mm elbows for outlets so the water level can be high. Will be good to have one outlet either side anyway as the boat rocks and rolls. I’ll also get some tinned electrical cable to extend the bilge pump wiring into the boat via the existing glanded entry the motor cables use to keep it neat. Next thing I’m out of switches with all my latest accessories :), will look at adding another smaller switch panel.

Thanks @zmk1962, I spotted these horizontal offset drains at WW and was thinking this could be used for the “IN” and just as effective as a bung for getting the water out from the bottom of the tank. Saves making another hole in the tank and just as functional.

Cheers @zmk1962, appreciate you taking the time to upload the photos and drawing, makes sense and I'm sure this post will help other raiders in the future gets the best out of their livies. I think I'll go with one larger 50mm outlet (vs two 19mm ones), and the bottom inlet with no return valve. I'm hoping this will keep the fish alive longer. *Edit - I thought about reversing polarity on the bilge pump for draining, but the non-return valve won't like this.. I'll just mount the bung from outside so I can get water out without putting my hands in with crabs or something bitey..

@Welster, @zmk1962 with your water entering down low, do you have issues with the water going back out when the bilge pump is off? I understand fitting a non return valve isn't an option to rectify this, as the 12v pumps don't have enough head.. Also, I spotted this cockpit drain at whitworths, could be a nice larger overflow fitting?!