FishyMcFishFace
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Posts posted by FishyMcFishFace
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17 minutes ago, Yowie said:
Looks good, a nice feed of fillets. How do dart rate on the plate, never eaten any?
I rate it as good as Whiting or better, like whiting with a bit more bite, al dente. Not much meat on them but worth a try if you can justify the filleting with the size you catch. These were a bit small I think next time 28cm+ would be worth it!
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Hi hope everyone had a merry fishmas! Long time no post.
Headed to a Salamander Bay B&B for a Xmas break for 3 nights. Pumped some nippers Xmas eve. We brought the fold up boat so we launched early Xmas day from Taylor's Beach, during a rising tide.. tried for flatties along that area and around some oyster racks. I was on lures she was using the bait. No luck on the lures, she landed a couple of whiting one good size one and an undersized and a decent flathead. I hear there was a good deep spot to drop a bait near soldiers point. Would have loved to have gotten into some larger pelagics, but no bites, never mind. Maybe next time.
It was a lot of effort for 2 keepers 😆 was knackered. Had a solid sleep, then next day was far more productive, a beach session along fingal spit.
A very windy but sunny Xmas day.
For some reason I brought my 8000 80lb/100lb setup because, "you never know" However this did enable to cast a heavier weight into the wind.
Live and frozen worms on a 12lb paternoster rig. With the first cast not far off matching my Pb Whiting. Frozen worms being more popular.
We had a beach shelter, the plan was to chill and wait for the bites but I was too busy reeling in dart and whiting on my two rods.
Had a really nice feed, tried dart for the first time, highly recommended!
Anyway we had an amazing time in PS and want to live here.
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I actually caught my first and biggest ever whiting there at night on worms. This about 3 years ago (still my pb). I've been many times since and never caught one since!
I usually donut most times I try there, but it's just a handy spot to wet a line!
Good luck!
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On 11/30/2022 at 6:45 AM, DerekD said:
I do. Where are you based? I go to one store in Mona Vale or another in Drummoyne to get mine.
These are the sort of ones I use (various key words, eye, candy, bay, anchovy, flies)
I bought one of these clear anchovy ones from the Drummoyne store, the fly fisho guy recommended tying it to the bottom of a super small metal like a twisty. I suppose it's like two chances.
I haven't got around to catching on it yet.
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The tax man came to pay you a visit! 😲
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Alan and Jamie great guys, I left some stuff at home. Gave me some great info on the area resulting in some great fishing 🎣 I love it round there!
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Nice catch mate, I'm absolutely exhausted trying to catch a Kingfish like this. 5 mornings in a row this week!
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Thanks again @Pickles good to catch up with you and Peter again
Definitely an area to try on the fold up boat some day in the future!
Flathead and banana stir fry was delish 😆
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@kingfish101 incredible catch, well done!
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🤯Wooow, very nice capture.
Well done!
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1 hour ago, kingie chaser said:
Great report, great day out, great company, great feed on the way.
Looking forward to see the food on the table & maybe a recipe or 2 in the kitchen 😋
Smoked Slimy Mackerel mate, it's insanely tasty. Re-thought the 'slimy' to Pacific Mackerel. I turned my babyQ into a smoker using Hickory chips, covered in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and mixed herbs. Also did this with the Tailor 😋
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Never have I seen such a mixed bag of decent sized plate fish landed in enclosed waters as I did today. I haven't had a chance to fish much last year, and when I seldom get my boat out its plenty of bait but no good'uns, not a single kingfish for a very long time. Weather cloudy, seas calm, no rain, and perfect temperature for fishing.
Arranged to meet the king slayer @Pickles at Roseville/Rose Bay Boat ramp... same thing innit?
Unfortunately what I wanted to hear was Rose Bay which is probably because its 12mins away from my place😆. Turns out it was Roseville lol. Bob the absolute legend said he could still come around to collect me because we may fish in that general area, so I tried for some squid while they filled up on some yakkas. Trying to redeem myself, I thought to myself at least bring some bait to the party, I aimed for 3 squid at least. After an hour managed just the one squid off the wharf on a small slow sinking white Yamashita, better than nowt! Bob and his mate Peter arrived with a heap of perfect lollipop sized yakkas!
Currently the tide was heading low @Pickles used his spider senses to conjure up a spot which is supposed to be good for Jews and all sorts at this turn of the tide. We put out some fresh yakka strips and livies, gave the burley a chop, and within 20 mins the iconic 30/20lb green bait cast outfit of Bob's went off and Peters also, in this time we landed at least 10 fish fish a very nice sized tailor, 2 Jew fish a mixture of rats and ranging from 60 to 74cm. Peter was on fire, 2 jewfish.. I still have never caught one!! Maybe this was my chance? I tried metal lures (Halco Streaker) and caught a good sized slimy mackerel, which I can't wait to try smoked. That was all I caught in this spot.
Tide was turning so we tried for some more squid, Peter caught his first which was big enough for more than a few baits. Moving on to the next spot, I saw some weird looking concentrated bust up, looked like a black oily mess about 2 metres wide with guls getting a feed, tried flicking some metals here but nothing took.
There was still a chance for me to catch a legal king, at the next spot somewhere in Sydney Harbour there were a couple of boats there, plenty of bait showing on the sounder and we could see the kings coming by every so often in waves. Here I lost count how many kings we landed, I was using very heavy 80lb braid and 100lb leader, the whole time I think it had an effect on the hook up rate compared to the other fellas. However, I finally landed my legal king measuring bang on 65/66 for some sashimi for later. We threw everything at them, livies, squid strips, I tried my lure whilst the bait did it's thang. WOW I hooked up on the Streaker metal again, I was rocking a 15lb/30lb snapper rod, was sure this was a salmon until it really started to fight as it got closer to the boat, it was undersized king lots of fun and fought hard on this lighter set up.
Tonight I'll be smoking the Tailor and Mackerel and enjoying the delights of kingfish sashimi.
Had a cracker of a day thanks to Bob, was great to meet Peter we were all buzzing at the end of it
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11 minutes ago, motiondave said:
I use a hand line with 50lb mono on it, a 1m length of thin steel pipe, and a plastic clothing peg. I only use it trolling and actually going, so I don't tangle the fishing rod line around it. Works ok.
Interesting idea mate, have you had any action from it?
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Half an old fishing rod with a heavy line in a rod holder could double up as a downrigger
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Big well done mate, took me a whole year to land my first king!
..And well done Derek!
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Wow, what a day you'd be glad to back home with a cup of tea after all that mate!
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Weather was rough and raining when I woke up and almost called it off, headed out to Gunnamatta bay. Still windy and tide was rising.
Got myself some worms suitable hooks and swivels from Mac's Bait Bar.
Went out knee deep cast out a worm, first cast got my possibly my PB Whiting, a good size 35cm+
The little whiting were chasing my bait when I retrieved it so i tried some lure but no luck
Wish I took a hoody out, was getting early signs of hypothermia shivering and numb hands 😆 so left earlier than I would have liked. The wind-chill factor was creeping.
Caught at least 8 and 3 keepers went home early with a small bag and a lovely feed.
Had some crappy fishing sessions recently (last 9 or 10 donuts) stoked with today so this one brought back my mojo a little bit 😁
Happy Valentine's Day (see pic attached) what else would you get a Japanese woman?
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21 hours ago, DerekD said:
Several years ago @big Neil from the Riverina area of NSW reached out to me for help with several saltwater species. Over time we got him his first king (not legal), squid, luderick on fly. Each goal took some effort but I enjoyed every trip with him. He also kindly offered to return the favour as the iconic Murray Cod could be caught in the Murrumbidgee river near where he lived.
Fast forward to 2021 and the time was right to take him up on his generous offer. I dragged a long term friend (Floris) along as he’d met Neil during earlier fishing trips and they got on well. Floris and his family have been friends of mine for decades. He loves his fishing but life got in the way and it was only in the last few years that he contacted me for fishing help and to see what had changed since his younger years. Floris is a Senior Lecturer at Sydney University in the Environmental Sciences and has an interest in Local Ecological Knowledge. This trip would give him the chance to catch another species or two on his check list, have some down time and pick Neil’s brain on the local ecosystems and the behaviour of the fish.The trip was about 7 hours, slow and uneventful. After a quick chat and break we headed out to check the shrimp nets Neil had set earlier and then the local ramp for an afternoon fish. In the past when I’ve caught up with Neil the weather has made itself annoying and this time was no exception with storm clouds hanging over our heads. The river was way up with the recent rains and the water temperature was down to 21°C so Neil was worried the fish had shut down but nothing ventured nothing gained. Neil has his launch method down to a fine art and had us on the water with minimal effort.
With the river running so strongly and deep using lures was a bit of a struggle. Eventually after trying some spinner baits and deep divers they got put in the too hard basket. We picked locations where we could tie off the bank just upstream from a back eddy. Using paternoster rigs and running rigs kept our baits (a mixture of worms, shrimp and cheese on each rod to see what they were taking) near the bottom. We tried several likely locations with Neil getting more and more concerned we’d break his 100% success rate of putting visitors onto the iconic Murray cod.
At one of the locations my rod buckled over and it looked like the cheese on the end of my line was going to be the bait of choice. The hit was solid but the fight was soon over with my first Murray Cod coming to the surface. Neil’s record remained unblemished and after a few quick photos the fish went back into the water. A visual estimate called it at slightly over a legal 55cm.
A quick recharge of energy with a snack.
Shortly after the rod Floris was using bent over. The fight was just as quick and resulted in a lovely Murray cod, legal (or a touch under). A quick photo session and release then high fives all around as the primary goal was achieved and every fish from now on was a bonus. Once again cheese and been the bait of choice.
A couple more hits here and there but no hook ups. It had been a long day so we got off the water just before the storms hit and headed back for a home cooked dinner. One of Neil’s hobbies is pottery and one of mine is photography. He had been struggling to get photos to do his works justice so I gave it a go. Here are some of the results.
The next morning involved a leisurely start and a drive to the next town to give a different section of the river a shot. One of my secondary goals was to catch a trout cod and this stretch of river was the best chance I had. This time the weather was gorgeous and sunny to the point we kept picking shady spots along the river to try.
Again we mixed up the baits to see what was working. As the pressure was now off we had a line each in the water. Floris picked up two smaller Murray cod followed by Neil. I was getting ribbed about letting the team down. Although a little later I made up with it by hooking the largest cod of the day. Neil picked up another cod and then my rod buckled sufficiently to indicate a fish on. The fight wasn’t impressive and saw the fish skipping across the surface but when it came into the boat I took a look at the lower lip and realised it was a trout cod – second goal achieved. A few photos and back in the water. In these smaller sizes to the inexperienced eye (me in this case) the Murray Cod and Trout Cod look to be the same fish. There are several indicators, such as the bottom lip of the Murray cod is as long or longer than the top lip whereas the trout cod has an under-bite. Neil picked it instantly as he knew the other indicators to look for.
We had a few more bites in the area which appeared to be trout cod from the way they hit but both were lost in the structure we were having to fish. Neil picked up another small Murray Cod and then a yellow belly/golden perch on the shrimp.
We called it a day in the late afternoon as the fish seemed to have shut down and the main goals had been achieved. 10 fish in two days fishing in difficult conditions was a great result for us. Back to Neil’s for dinner and then bed. The next morning saw us driving back to Sydney. Looking back at what was written it doesn’t cover the friendly banter and discussions about fish behaviour. I couldn’t really do the few days fishing with Neil justice in a simple post but I have come back with memories which will last me a lifetime. I saw an area of NSW I’d never seen in person before. These few days were a break that both Floris and I needed and I think Neil appreciated the company after what he has been through in the last few years.
Thank you for reading this far.
Thank you Neil for being such a wonderful host and inviting us along to such a beautiful part of NSW.
Thank you Floris for the company and doing the majority of the driving.
Regards,
Derek
Nice report mate great photo's looks like you guys had a ball. Congrats on your first Murray Cod. Really nice Earthenware Neil, a fine craft. Cracking write up!
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Nice haul! Mahi mahi is on the bucket list, hopefully soon i capture one!
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43 minutes ago, Blackfish said:
That would look great Framed and hung on a wall.
Very nice.
There's heaps of others, I tried to find blackfish for you. I liked this Calamari one:
https://antiqueprintmaproom.com/product/the-australian-tooth-cupped-cuttlefish/
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I bought myself a Christmas Pressie, I think this will look awesome framed on my wall. 🤩
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I always wondered if kings would be interested in nippers, now I know thanks!
Nice report and cute pics 🙂
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Sounds like a killer session! That's proper fishing that! Congratz on the PB!!
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Whiting and Dart Port Stephens
in Fishing Reports
Posted
Unreal mate 😍