Yon

@Scratchie I just listened to this and loved it! Thanks mate, it was informative and fun. Great job!

Spent about 2 hours following a large school of salmon along the Bronte cliffs with a mate, until they came within casting distance... Quickly put the cleats on, headed down to the water and rigged up. First cast I was on! But I felt like I had lost it, only to suddenly feel a big dead weight back on. After about 10 minutes of dodging waves and carefully reeling it in, I saw a BIG foul hooked salmon at my feet. Was just about to grab the leader when a wave came in, ran the main line against some barnacles and busted me off! Favourite lure and poor old foul hooked sambo gone! Cursing the WFT Gliss line I had been using (great for casting but absolutely no abrasion resistance), I rigged up again and moved to a safer spot. Unfortunately I was out of singles, so had a treble on and promptly snagged up, Gliss line snapping instantly again. Most men would have been smart enough to pack it in and go home, but not me! Not with a school of fish around. Rigged up again, snagged again and lost my third lure! I’m not happy but now it’s a question of principle. I’m going home with a fish or I’m staying here all night! Fourth and last metal, I’ve run out of singles AND swivels (travelling light) so I’ve tied directly to the split ring on my metal... I cast and hook up, bring a fat salmon all the way over the reef, it’s at my feet as I grab the leader and SNAP! The knot on the split ring gives out and I’m cursing my lack of patience for not removing the ring. At this point I’m out of gear and I’m a defeated, sad man. My mate gives me the salmon he caught as a consolation and I walk home with my pride damaged and my tail between my legs. I fillet the salmon, red meat for the dogs coat and fillets for us. Kids were ecstatic - they ate the entire thing as sashimi before I even got a chance to prep the batter. So altogether the salmon are 2 for 2 and I’m 4 lures poorer. I have to say though, this just makes me want to fish more! Now all I can think about is how to get back out there once I can find more 40g metals (which are currently sold out almost everywhere!). I’ve gotten rid of the WFT Gliss - No good for rock fishing - and replaced with some stronger X9. Hopefully that huge school of salmon sticks around for a few more weeks and the swell drops enough for me to safely get them.

Perfect. Thanks mate.

Thanks guys 🙏 Is there any squid to be had on the shallow rocks off Gerroa?

Thanks guys. The more advice the better! Very much appreciated. @SaltyGreek for live squid, do you put them under a balloon or just pop them into a gutter on a running sinker rig?

Thanks @noelm ! No, I’ve never collected pipis, but I think the theory is that you drag your feet in the shallows at low tide and feel them? Does that sound right? I’m excited to try my luck!

Hello Fishos 👋, Taking the wife and kids to Gerroa for 3 nights for a little holiday away from Bondi. I've only ever thrown fast-retrieve metals off the beach for salmon, but from reading all the posts here it looks like Seven Mile Beach (2 min walk from where we are staying) has so much more to offer. Can anyone give me some advice about where and what I should fish while there? I don't want to fish off the rocks by myself in an unfamiliar location, so am primarily looking for advice around where to fish off the beach and what gear / rigs would serve me well. Assume I know nothing about fishing off the sand, b/c I haven't done it since dad took me to Fraser Island to chase Tailor in the 80's... If it's super calm I may throw a squid jig off the safe rocks there to catch some bait but otherwise really want to do some beach fishing in the gutters... Many thanks in advance! Yon.

Agree. Had some of my best days in the rain.

Give it a go and let me know. Any firm fleshed fish will be good.

Well done!

I’ve had this in several forms. I have to agree that spicy 🌶 is best!

The recipe below will work with any firm white fleshed fish, but it’s spectacular with Salmon. So many people trash Australian Salmon, but it’s actually a fantastic, sustainable and very healthy table fish. I’ve had this recipe with rice or warm Turkish style flatbread to mop up the sauce. Great either way and a winner on a cold winter night. Ingredients 2 Filets of firm white fish Crushed tomatoes (or one can) 3 Tomato puree 2 small cans Garlic 8 cloves Coriander 1 bunch Green Bell pepper 2 Red Bell pepper 2 Spicy red Peppers 6 Salt Pepper Allspice or Montreal steak seasoning Directions 1.Soak fish in freshly squeezed lemon juice for several hours prior to cooking 2.Cut bell peppers, Coriander and Garlic into thin strips and sweat in the bottom of your pot in olive oil for 10 min 3.Cut tomatoes into strips and add, along with the Tomato puree into the pot, cook for 10 more minutes 4.Cut fish into cubes, dress with salt, pepper and either allspice or Montreal steak seasoning to taste and add to pot 5.Cook for 15 minutes serve over rice or on its own. Enjoy!

I've started using Gliss for it's incredible casting - literally casts further than anything I've used before. I've got 300M of 20lb Gliss from Dinga for $15, spooled up with about 1.5M of 30lb Black Magic tough trace on my spin rod. I've gotten casts of well over 100M with the wind behind me, using a 40g chrome. Brought in a stack of fish over the rocks yesterday with extremely little abrasion damage yesterday, in pretty rough landing conditions. I was very pleasantly surprised with how well it performed. For the price you simply can't go wrong. I've just bought 300M of the 40kg to try on my cliff fishing setup which is a lot more punishing, but so far so good. One thing to note is that the FG knot seems to really mess up the Gliss for some reason. A double Uni knot to connect the leader worked like magic. Just need a relatively short leader though as you're casting a bigger knot, so if you want distance, you need to have that knot outside your guides. Just my 2 cents...

I love them. We eat them as sashimi, fish 'n chips, fish tacos, smoked - you name it. They're very versatile and have a great flake. My fav is Moroccan Fish Stew - simply can't be beaten. It will fill you and warm your body on a cold winter night. If you've never had it, it's the easiest recipe there is: Ingredients Filet of white fish, like basa or Perch 1 Crushed tomatoes (or one can) 3 Tomato puree 2 small cans Garlic 8 cloves Coriander 1 bunch Green Bell pepper 2 Red Bell pepper 2 Spicy red Peppers 6 Salt Pepper Pre-mixed fish spice Directions 1.Soak fish in freshly squeezed lemon juice for several hours prior to cooking 2.Cut bell peppers, Coriander and Garlic into thin strips and sweat in the bottom of your pot in olive oil for 10 min 3.Cut tomatoes into strips and add, along with the Tomato puree into the pot, cook for 10 more minutes 4.Cut fish into cubes, dress with salt, pepper and fish spices to taste and add to pot 5.Cook for 15 minutes serve over rice or on its own.

I’ve been following that large school of salmon currently hanging around the eastern suburbs beaches for the past couple of weeks, but they’ve been out of casting range for me or I’ve just had the wrong gear. Anyway, I headed over to a local tackle shop and bought two new lures, one of the expensive slow jigging ones and a simple 40g metal. This morning I talked my mate into braving the rain and out we went chasing fish again. Lost the expensive Japanese shore jigging model on my first cast. Gutted. Not much action after that so we moved on. On the way to the next spot a mate jogged past and told us that there’s a huge school of salmon around the other side of the headland, so off we went. Unfortunately these too were out of casting range and the rain and swell were intense. We were about to give up 30 min later when the rain stopped, the swell dropped and the school turned around! Cleats on, down to the rocks and second cast I hooked up. After that it was a fish every couple of casts until my arms started to hurt. In total we caught about 12 salmon between us, landed 6 big healthy fish and kept 5. My daughter mixed up her famous beer batter when I got home and we fed 6 families tonight. Still got a third of the fish for dinner during the week Dogs got the oily red meat and frames will be used for berley. Nothing wasted. Honestly I think that this is the best day fishing I’ve had. The prep, finding the school, catching them and the good company on what ended up being a gorgeous day. I’m not an overly reflective person, but seriously, how lucky are we to live here...

Oh yeah my kids LOVE fish and they love catching them even more. My daughters have been giving me a hard time about how long it’s been since I’ve caught a kingfish. Between them they will eat an entire fillet as sashimi. Unfortunately I don’t have a boat to chase them around in and it’s been super quiet on the rocks for me lately, so I’ll just have to keep trying 😂

Yeah agree - last year squid was no problem to come by. Now I can’t get them in the harbour or off the rocks. Strange.

The kids wanted Fish N Chips for dinner last night and I’ve been told to take a few hours a week off work, so I’ve been heading off to the rocks along the Waverley coastline to chase Luderick and Squid the past few evenings. Usually the Luderick are pretty reliable everywhere between Bondi and Bronte... But... after about 5 hours trying in the past two days I’ve only managed to catch 2 Luderick and absolutely no squid. I’ve hit all my usual spots and not even gotten a bite at most of them. Been awfully quiet the last few days.... Luckily the two that I did catch were fatties and fed the kids. I ate salad 🥗... Hoping it picks up soon. On a side note, I watched two guys in waders get knocked over by a big wave and almost get dragged in. Waders + no PFD is a life threatening mistake, like wearing concrete shoes! I spoke to them about it after checking that they were ok, but there was a bit of a language barrier so I’m not sure the message got through. Wear those PFD’s Raiders... They will literally save your life.

Fantastic video! Looks like you guys had a cracking day. My kids have been hassling me about how long it’s been since I brought home a kingy. Land based has been very quiet lately. Maybe it’s time to invest in a boat!

I think that this mystery has been solved. That is *exactly* what my line (Well what was left of it anyway) looked like.

😂😂😂 Mate that story made my morning!

100% mate - I wasn't aggressive or confrontational (I never am) and had no intention of making an issue of it. I was just puzzled that someone would do something like that. At the end of the day it's just a fish... More to catch another day.

I was trying a new spot on one of the Eastern Suburbs beaches and about 20 min in had bagged 6 Luderick, which I popped into a shallow rock pool behind me. The spot itself is next to an ocean pool, so there were a fair few ppl around. Suddenly a lady tapped me on the shoulder, pointed at some homeless looking guy and said “that man just threw your fish back”. I walked back to the rock pool to check and sure enough, all my fish had gone, including one I’d already spiked and bled! I asked the guy if he’d taken my fish but he just walked off. Not really sure what to make of that. It’s so bizarre. At any rate the spot is awesome, so will have to return and just use a keeper net or something to mind my catch.

Salmon is the best! I fillet and skin them, cut the red meat off and give it to the dog (great for their coat) and divide the rest between sashimi and fish no chips. Last one I caught fed 9 of us!

I’ve lifted them before but this felt a bit different. Harder to lift and more powerful when pulling down.