Squ!rt

@THEJET ^^^ cabarita/fivedock is good

crosslands reserve is pretty good for kayak and flathead, the place i circled is a decent sand bank, caught several flathead there years ago, also you can hire kayaks if you dont have your own, good little spot on that bend for flatty and bream, put the kayak in further up where it says "crosslands Boat ramp", and drift down you get some decent little bream in the straight before the corner.

It honestly Comes down to how far you want to escape the rat race of syd and also, do you want to be in a secluded place camping or do you want to camp in a caravan park, and how close do you want to be to the water or would you prefer to camp and walk on a little hike or not to get to wet a line. If caravan park style i have been to many, busy around xmas though, but good if you have kids. or if you want a bit of serenity and the fishing isn't that fantastic, but heaps of play room for kids to run wild and hardly any people, head up the coast to some of the national parks such as Myall Lakes and then its just a little drive upto Forster if you want some decent fishing. send me a pm @Jay88, over the last couple of years have gone to many places with and without my kids around that holiday period but always somewhere to chuck a line in.

Caught a couple of squid for bait near chinamans beach and also under spit bridge last week, they are around, good sizing for bait, caught on a yamashita 2.5g pink and green tiger glow was used at chinamans. they seem to go for pinks and bright greens lately where as before a glow or neautral worked very well.

Thats a cracker of a fish from a kayak, kudos for paddling for 3+ hours, pulling that in then paddling back. stonker of a fish, welcome to the forum, look forward to seeing more reports

Seen some monster ones fly by and caught between the bridge and coon island over the years in the channel, photos of a monster squid i have seen, it covered an 80 series bonnet with the tenticles hanging over the guard. looked liked something from jurassic park.

on the heads side of the bridge near the rsl i have seen kingys in there, im normally land based but catch taylor regularly there,

Try any spoons or wobblers near the bridge? or a vibe?? been going pretty nicely near the rsl on a silver spoon for taylor, have seen some reports around of some good squid too.

Comes down to how heavy your tackle box is to be honest, the esky and bucket i dont believe will be to heavy, will come down to what you normally take for a beach trip, i take my whole tackle bag which has small and large sinkers etc, two rods, food and drink, rod holder etc. If i go for a beach fish nowadays, i just take the beach rod, and one plano box out of my whole bag and a rod holder and small everyday backpack for food and drink, cooking etc. if you think its going to be too heavy i would also curve the front of the sled with the masonite, and if your going to make it be able to hold in things id drill holders like 1x2 pine for specific things to hold them in, dont make a big cart out of it etc.

Have you considered something like an uglystik?? something around the weight and dimensions your after>> Ugly Stick Dinga then pair it up with a decent reel that you can change spools between your 10 and 20lb line options if you want to do that or just go with a Penn Slammer III 3500 or another Daiwa BG, i personally would be looking at the slammer due to higher drag rating, but upto you. This combo of the ugly stik and the penn slammer is in your price range totals about $440, leaving $100 odd dollars for more lures etc.

The only value i see for a filter is if your draining a old tank or swapping fuel out of one to the other, saves any sediment going into the new tank, but other than that i don't see much value. I use a generic mesh filter in a funnel when i fill my old ute up but thats carby so..

about 21 years ago when i was 6 or 7, we went to my Grandparents house in a small town in the Snowy Mountains with the whole family to celebrate my dads 40th birthday, the day before my dads birthday we went out to our orchard to collect some apples so we could make apple pie, and get some just to eat in general. While we were there me and my cousin chucked in the yabby net in the dam to see if we could get some for my dads birthday, the next day me and my cousin went out to the orchard around lunchtime to check on the yabby net and grab some more fresh granny smiths, long and behold we filled the net alright, it was quite heavy pulling that one in, it felt like we were pulling a wall. 40 yabbies on the day my dad turned 40, we couldn't believe it, geez did they taste more special that day, it was amazing. gotta love what the snowy mountains gives, fresh fruit and some awesome yabbies, not to mention the trout in the Tumut river, but thats a story for another day.

And if you want to catch some taylor, swansea bridge at night goes off like a cracker with a little silver wobbler lure, my regular night spot for good fun with taylor, also the channel heading towards coon island is a treat.

Go and have a chat to the guys at fishermans warehouse at marks point, they know whats happening in the lake and also sell fresh bait, In regards to places to go it honestly depends on where your planning to put the boat in?? alternatively here is my landbased guide for fishing the lake mac system> Fishin' Lake Mac Landbased Fishing Landbased Maps link> Landbased locations Jewies and Kingys are known to be caught in Swansea channel near Swansea rsl on the ocean side of the bridge, heaps of good flatty spots on the lakeside of the bridge on the flats, if you want anymore locations around the lake system, feel free to send me a pm, i have been out more than several times, helps when you live on Lake Mac..

done

hoodies like the reel deal tee, and a beanie its getting cold

@Scratchie Looks like you guys will be doing alright for these reds, if the snapper are down my end, Im sure as bat poop, you guys should get on fine up your end and hopefully get a decent haul, im out for that weekend unfortunately was hoping to come meet up and get to know everyone etc may be up in the area to come have a chinwag but its the family funtime geocaching adventure weekend or atleast the kids think its funtime adventure..

there is a place the seaman have caught jerasic sized monsters but you better have a big enough boat and it aint for the faint hearted, a wee 300 odd NM offshore...

Always pays in the long run to do it yourself, especially with any wiring, if anything goes wrong you will know exactly where the wiring is, the connections, what fuse/relay goes where etc. Same as cars even if its simple audio wiring, you will learn a lot more doing it yourself, i do all my own car/bike/boat any engine services and wiring myself, i'm only a young whipper snapper but i can tune my old carby cars and bikes by ear faster and better than most of my qualified mechanic mates. (some people don't even know what a dizzy is...) good on you for having a crack mate, you just saved yourself heaps of dosh $$$$

Awesome report and good looking fish, have never caught blackfish, seen it caught a lot in my time, from memory near the entrance they used to catch a lot. might have to start growing some weed in styrene tubs and try and go for some this winter. @jimbo61 how do they taste mate?? similar tasting to what fish, perch? tailor?

yeh wow, its still clear under yarramundi bridge as its flowing but in the big lake section at devlin road its pretty nasty. ill try and get some photos out there today.

how far up the nepean? land based? kayak? I normally fish the Yarramundi end and occasionally Devlin road but that's turned into quite the blue/green algae as of it lately. Ill be heading out that way this week upon further inspection of if anything has changed to devlin rd, years ago water was clear, now it looks like a sea of green and red. yarramundi still nice and clean, need a big downpour and bring the bass down from the dam.

It may be a dog leash free zone but generally speaking the dog has to be under some sort of control,also what time where they there til?? most dog owners will still be there after the time. this needs to be enforced by local council patrols or rangers. I'm a dog owner and obviously a fisho, i have taken my dog in the past when i go for a beach flick, she runs around a little but not far from myself, never far enough to disturb other people or if your close she will come say hi, wag her tail and lick you to death, and although i don't see her intimidating (a boxer) she is completely controlled, most of the time she just lays on towel and gets excited when she sees a hookup, or when someone comes and says hello. Like everything i guess from both sides of being a fisho and a dog lover, always one person to leave a sour taste, hopefully next time you go for a flick near dog section of a beach@jimbo61 and see a dog its me having a flick and my doggo will just lay down beside you wagging her tail.

yes, 200 odd meters at around 10-15lb is suitable or 235yds at 12lb and obviously less yds/metres for more lb weight of line or more lb and more line if running braid remember in a decent wind you will be lucky to get out 50 odd meters or even less if its coming back towards the beach, 200m mark is good not to much not to little amount of line.

yeh its not cheap to build let alone quite some time to script and code it into an app that suits ios and android, let alone linking it in with gps follow me location services. but would be fantastic, and user friendly.