Berrero

thanks mate. not sure on the bait, asked the guy at Mac's for the 'bag of small pillies in the freezer' and pointed to them only to be corrected and told they were little mackerel. they certainly looked like small pillies but had the wiggly lines on the back like mackerel and lacked the pillie spots. tweed bait brand from memory and labelled as blue bait. either way they were cracker love a good pillie but hate the poor hook point exposure at times. will definitely keep these guys on my radar. also I think you are on the money with the spot. have had a lot of big takes in the wonnie. a hit and miss system for sure though.

hey raiders, Up at 4am on Saturday to head down to the wonnie to drift for some flatties. didnt have a very good start, within 30 mins of hitting the water we got stuck in a good 45 min shower. was out on my friends new barge with absolutely no cover, needless to say we got pretty wet. considered calling it early but we pushed through and after about an hour we realised it was the right decision after I boated my new p.b flatty at 84cm. old gal fell to a whole little baby mackerel (sold as blue bait I believe?), like a small pilchard. maybe 2-3 inches long. single 3/0 hook pinned through the nose as you would live bait. was a good fun fight on my 10lb setup. she even managed to break my landing net once I got her in 🙊 Considering she spat the hook as soon as she hit the deck I'm glad this happened once I had her in the boat few quick pics and sent her on her way. (excuse the gloves, bare hand all fish usually but after copping a bad barb on a knuckle a few months back and still unable to bend it without some hefty pain.. I dont risk it anymore with the flatties.)

agree. would be a ridiculous amount of force applied on that line!

I fish there quite often, still see people taking oysters off the rocks for consumption. I tend to warn them and point out the signs all over the place but they always seem not to care

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought they only gave out consumption recommendations on eating fish caught east of the bridge, with their recommendation being anything caught west of the bridge shouldn't be eaten edit: ah yep just had a second read of your link and found it No fish or crustaceans caught west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge should be eaten. You should release your catch.

I think filter feeders would be up there for dioxin levels.... apparently most of the dioxins found in fish in the area come from eating the prawns which bed in the mud that is contaminated. I'd say the cockles would be the same since they live in the mud please tell me he hasn't eaten it 🤢🤢🤢🤢

Hi Dave, Further to what Waza said, it is also illegal to collect any shellfish from Iron cove; see below https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/668258/collecting-animals-and-plants-from-rock-platforms-and-sand-flats-around-sydney-english-1.pdf

I've seen people fishing for carp at Engine pond near Botany Didn't see them catch any but they told me they had caught a few that day when I asked

not too keen to give up my spot just yet 😛 but would say keep researching and looking around. the spot I've been working doesn't exactly have pedestrian friendly access... not breaking any laws or trespassing, but if you didn't know the point I use to get to the waterfront you would never know it's there... good luck and keep your eyes peeled

Bit of a weird report today. Honestly I'm still in a bit of shock. I have been working a specific channel land based in port hacking the past few weeks, finally starting to crack it and finding out what structure is holding fish. The spot I've been fishing is about a 300mtr shuffle along a rock ledge from where I park my car. On my sprawl along the ledge today I noticed something... a big blue nose sticking out from under a rock overhang. It was only in about a foot of water about 2 meters from the shore. After moving a bit further along the ledge I could see the broadside of the fish and he was a stonker. It's not every day you get to just sit and watch a 40cm+ bream hanging out doing his thing. After spending a good two or three minutes just sitting in awe and admiring the hell out of the monster bream, I thought stuff it, why not. I only had one rod with me (my beach setup which I've been using for bigger vibes and hard bodies, 10ft lox, 8-10kg, slammer III 4500 with 30lb). Already had a 110mm vibe tied on and just dropped it about a foot in front of where the bream was holding - fully expecting it to just dart off the second the lure hit the water. Boy was I wrong. It fluttered down and as soon as it hit the bottom this bream came out and absolutely annihilated it. No fight unfortunately, it was essentially broom sticked up and onto the bank 😅😅 Has been a few hours now and I still can't get the grin off my face. 1cm shy of my p.b but I feel size is irrelevant with a story like this. I think I'll remember this catch for the rest of my life.

+1 for hen and chicken bay, has been unfishable for about 6 months now for myself. some green weed algae stuff moved in and overrun the area. used to be my favourite wading spot for flatties. havent caught anything there since. would see mounds of life swimming around my feet while wading. nothing since the algae.

that's a shame. sometimes the best part about fishing isn't catching the fish. tight lines

would advise against using a paternoster with 6lb line, as well as using it with a sliding sinker throw the sinker on the end of the paternoster or single hook if you want to run sliding sinker have had troubles in the past trying to tie paternoster on anything under 10lb

Probably just made to order and shipped out of china like a lot of online stores these days. No hate at all on products from china, it's just the norm

Thanks mate. Thats a stonker Even the little ones go hard

Thanks pickles. If only you knew where it came from lol 🤢

60cm trevally landed on 6lb on the cooks river, sydney Fish of a lifetime. Took me for a few walks up and down the river passing rod around trees and rocks. Definitely got a bit sketchy for a while especially needing to land it on an oyster bank. Took over 30 mins in the river with him to resuscitate before he finally swam off. Don't think I'll ever top this fella! Zman slim swimz 2.5" motor oil Size 2 jighead 1/12 oz Daiwa TD zero 2-5kg rod Stradic ci4+ 2500 spooled with 6lb braid 6lb leader Tight lines 🤙🤙

Thanks Noelm, great advice as always.

Hey raiders, it's been a minute. Hope you're all well. A friend from work has recently invited me out to beach fish a few times and after splurging $49 for a kmart special he has successfully got me hooked. I'm looking to spend a bit of coin on getting a decent beach setup. I understand how open-ended this question is, I've done a fair bit of research but all I could really garner up is responses like "just buy x", etc. I have an idea of what I want to get, I'm just not sure on the why between all the options. Hoping a few of you raiders could help shed some light on a few things or even throw out a recommendation yourself. I'm mostly wanting to target tailor, salmon etc. Not going to be chasing big jewies or anything but understand that it's a definite possibility as by-catch. Is 12ft a good rod length to beach fish? (a friend recommended me a 9ft6 rod??), what weight rating should I be aiming for? Have been looking at reels anywhere from 3000 to 6000 series. So many options. What should I be prioritizing, drag pressure? Carbon or composite rod blank? From my looking around online carbon seems lighter but easier to break? is this a reasonable worry or will I be ok if I don't cast like a lunatic? planning on running 20lb braid to 30lb leader, will this suffice or just plain overkill? Currently have a penn prevail II 12ft 6-12kg in mind (max casting weight 85g has me a little worried, as well as possibility of rod being like a noodle throwing the bigger sinkers around) Reels have me a bit stumped. I do have a ci4+ 4000 spooled with 15lb, would this be ok? happy to respool. It rarely gets used on my med-heavy estuary setup anyway. I've only been bait fishing thus far but if possible it would be nice to have a setup that could throw slugs and hardbodies around as well. Thanks a bunch in advance. Tight lines.

apologies - I understand how vague of a question it is. I'm not necessarily after a "this is where I should have my holiday", more so after suggestions that would be worth the 4-6 hour drive for what I'm after

Also havent been fishing in well over a month... I'm getting the ITCH! (all plans above pending covid updates obviously)

Heya raiders. After a very long slog the past 6 months between work / uni / covid etc I will be taking 2 weeks off from the 15th of august. I'm not ashamed to admit that I am planning to use the full two weeks to fish to my hearts content. I am local to Sydney and will be fishing mostly around the local area but I'm tossing up the idea of packing up my gear jumping in my car and heading up / down the coast for a good 4 days or so. I havent ever fished outside of the sydney area (grew up in qld) and I'm not really sure which way / how far I should go.. other than what looks pretty on google maps just wondering if any of you raiders were in my shoes what your recommendations would be. I understand that everyone would have their own favourite place but if I'm committing to heading out of town for a few nights figured I'd do a bit of "research". I cut my teeth fishing estuaries and wading sand flats so locations with these would be ideal. Will be land based but not ruling out hiring a tinny for a day or two. I'm probably looking to cap the driving to around 6 hours one way. Thanks in advance raiders. And you can bet your last servo prawn I'll be posting reports. Tight lines

I'm usually a perfectionist when it comes to rigging plastics straight - even if it takes half a dozen times to get it right. just wanted to check because I was pulling my hair out swearing I had the grub as straight as I could and was still spinning

Hey raiders, One small thing I've started doing as of late is after rigging a soft plastic just checking out how it performs on the drop before casting it out to ensure that it falls properly and naturally. My go-to are paddle tails but throw the occasional curltail grub and one thing I've noticed is that practically all of my grubs seem to drop in a spiral. I just wanted to check if this was just due to the nature of the corkscrew tail or if I should be going back and try rigging it again? I tried a few times on my last trip to rerig them but it seemed to always have a slight spiral on the way down. Is this something I should be working on trying to improve or is it just part of using grubs. I usually use 1/16-1/12 jigheads, could the low weighted jigheads be causing it / making it worse? Thanks

Thanks rebel. And nice catches Kyle!