Mike Sydney

Hi Kent! I don’t want to share the exact location I was but this was sand flats in the harbour. i also got one yesterday at George’s River (picnic point) so it seems anywhere with a sandy bottom and shallows. These were all in super close to shore and a lot shallower than I’d have thought. As in, only ankle or shin deep. I’d have a crack at Rose Bay sand flats. While it wasn’t where I caught this lot I do plan on having a crack at Rose with this lure over next couple weeks. Double Bay also has a similar sandy setup and I reckon there’s whiting to be had chucking out from the ferry wharf.

That’s sick mate well done. A real beauty!

Patient as a saint!

Yes I’ve seen a few videos mentioning that. Some suggesting getting rid of the front ones too and having only the assists. I can definitely see the reasoning as the whiting always attacked from behind and frequently missed their first strikes at the lure.

After posting of my first fish on a lure a few weeks ago, I’d been in contact with @DerekD who had given me some helpful advice on how to fish lures more effectively. Ahead of a weekend’s fishing I’d been assigned some homework – grab a 70mm Sugapen and prepare to catch some topwater whiting. I was very excited, having never caught a whiting or a fish on a topwater lure before. I bought two of them at my local tackle shop and headed out at lunchtime to a nearby bay to sneak in some practice. It didn’t take long and I soon landed my first whiting with a ‘walk the dog’ retrieve across the top. Not a huge whiting, but a whiting nonetheless and in quick time. And on a lure again, hot dog! I came back that evening and was just getting ready to cast when I heard a splash a few meters to my left. I cast blindly towards it without thinking and knew immediately I had made a mistake -the Sugapen was halfway up a tree hanging over the water’s edge, perhaps 10 foot off the ground. I spent the last of the dying sunlight to try and get it back, figuring I’d at least figured out which branch it was on. The first 30 minutes of darkness I spent up the tree, below the tree, in the tree, shaking the tree, breaking the tree. At one point I’d taken my belt off to drag the branch down a few foot. I must’ve looked like a right moron – or high - to the dozen or so spectators but I didn’t care, I was getting my lure back. Except of course I didn’t. I’ve been back a few times during the day and still can’t find it. I asked the council guys if they could cut some branches for me, but they just looked at me strangely and said they only do the bins. I’ve stared up into that foliage for so long I’m seeing it in my dreams. I almost reckon I should stop fishing that bay before I go even crazier. But anyway, later that weekend I spent a day with Derek who promptly dumped all over my technique and gear and then began ‘showing me the way’ – walking through casting, casting, and how to cast, and then moving on to rods, reels, leaders, lures. How to find fish, how to land fish. Different retrieves. It was an absolute *game changer* – my casting distance improved out of sight and i began realising how things had gone so wrong for me fishing lures all winter without success. I learned how to keep the slack out of my line, which I hadn’t been. how to actually let the lure hit the bottom, which i definitely hadn’t been, and that a retrieve isn’t simply pulling back in a straight line. I’m sure a lot of it was basic stuff, but for a beginner like me it was pure gold and not something that I really found out there on the net. Energised, I went back to Sugapen Tree and landed seven whiting on the other suga in an hour session. My previous best entire day had been three, so this was really something. One of them thrashed a bit as I was taking the lure out and I got a bloodied finger from a treble - ouchie, but didn’t take the gloss off the catch. As a bonus to top off the week I landed two small flathead - another first - and a nice bream on a vibe too. There was time for one final lesson. As we’d been fishing a bank, Derek had warned me about making sure the rock I was standing on was properly stable. I brushed off the advice at the time – I mean I appreciate the fishing advice mate but I think I know how to stand up - but this morning the rock was not stable, and nor were my thongs. Down I went into the mud and oyster rocks, cutting my hand, ripping a hole in my jeans but somehow not hooking myself with a treble again or banging my head on a rock. It was a nasty fall and I should’ve copped it worse. Lesson learned and a bit of humility – footwear and footing are important after all, even if I’m not out on the rocks proper. Anyways it was a fantastically productive week with ten more fish on lures and a couple more species. Thanks @DerekDand the FR community for all the guidance and I’ll see you out there. Cheers, Mike

Congrats champ! Plenty more coming for you I am sure.

Hi Raiders, After some six months of trying, I finally broke the lure drought and caught my first fish on a lure! Followed quickly by my second and third on the same day. Over the months of fruitless casting in the winter I kept having people tell me – just wait until the water warms up and they’ll be hooking up. This proved very true! I arrived at the usual spot in Neutral Bay about 8am after dropping the kids off at school and within about 5 minutes I had my first fish on a lure – a baby snapper. Mixed feelings as while I was delighted that I’d finally caught something on a lure it was hardly a trophy. These were basically all I caught as I learned to fish over the winter months on bait, but it was still marvellous to have something on the hook from a lure. Threw him back in and five minutes later I have my second, another baby snapper on a tiger/gold Savage blade. Things quietened down after that and we fished until lunchtime before heading off to the pub. Seeing the storm approaching I snuck out for one last flick at the same spot around 8pm that evening, and was rewarded handsomely almost immediately with a beautiful tailor on another blade, black this time as I’d heard the silhouette was important at night. I couldn’t believe just how ‘night and day’ it was from my usual fruitless luring. This time, a school of tailor literally fought each other over the lure, with my hooked tailor being chased by his mates as they tried to pull the lure out of his mouth. I reckon I was even in with a chance of getting two on a single lure if I’d stuck it out! As I pulled him up the other tailor leapt out of the water. It was a wild sight seeing a frenzy like that for the first time and a great reward for months of perseverance with lures when the ‘easy option’ of bait had been delivering for me all winter. Almost immediately I was summoned home to deal with a sick kid so sadly had to put family ahead of the rest of the tailor.... So, from no fish on lures in five months of trying to 3 in a day. I try to think about what I did differently, but nothing really springs to mind – could it really have just been so dang hard to lure in the winter? Hopefully I’ve turned the corner and am in for a productive summer!

Excellent thanks for the replies both! on a side note , if I catch a fish like this one which is not on the DPI bag limit sheet I got with my license can I assume it’s good to use as live bait or keep? Keen to be a responsible fisho, what’s the rule of thumb for fish not on the size or bag limit lists - are we free to do as we please or is it the opposite?

Hiya raiders! First time poster but have been reading this site for a few months - you all have been a wealth of knowledge as i started my fishing journey back in May. This poor chap pictured was hooked in the eye at Rose Bay today as he came in for a bite of chicken breast. Length was perhaps 12cm, very small indeed. what am I looking at here? Is this a juvenile Yellow Perch, a striped snapper, some sort of baitfish, one of those hallucinogenic Salema things ? I couldn’t make a positive ID from googling so figure why not come to the experts. some quick thanks - Waza for the write up on Bradley’s Head / White Rock which was amazing. Whoever posted that recent squidding guide too, incredible detail. I started fishing as a way to get out of the house back in Sydney’s Covid lockdown and as I’m sure with most of you I now can’t stop. Only a dozen or so fish caught and released so far - bream, tailor, fan bellied leathers and a bunch of baby snapper. This was the first catch in what has been a slow few weeks. any clues or definitive identification would be welcome. Heck it could be a super common baitfish but I am very new to this whole thing!! cheers, Mike