Mike Sydney
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Posts posted by Mike Sydney
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Every year in mid April through to end of May, schools of big tailor come and play under bridge lights in the estuaries.
The season started tonight and I was chasing them on surface using the Nomad Riptide 95.Last three years I’ve picked up dozens of 50cm+ models in the Parramatta and I find it doesn’t really matter what you throw at them or what tide it is. Permanent lights and bridge pylons they’re around night after night until early June.
It had been a fun start to the day, I hooked up my first kingfish at cooks river mouth on a grubZ 1/4oz only to drop it trying to net it. Was disappointed of course to lose my first but boy did the reel get a workout.
Anyways tonight I landed 8 big tailor about two hours into the tide, the smallest a 40ish and the largest at 52cm.
Some blokes stopped for a chat including an ABT finalist last year and while we were talking we saw activity on the surface and I was delighted to cast in and catch straight away with them.
Some happy snaps below of almost 4 meters of tailor on surface. I find they like a pop and commotion more than a walk the dog so was dragging/sweeping the lure tonight.
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The approach to Tempe station at high tide.
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Went down to Tempe bridge this morning cooks river.
several cars submergedsomeone had driven through the SES tape blocking the road more cars trying to go through.
I waved many back but several idiots ignored me and drove past, three of them bogging out in the floodwaters.
the bridge was closed anyway so they had nowhere to go, one moron even thanked me as a I spoke to him only to ignore me and get stuck in the floodwaters.
I know people are stupid but the idiocy I saw this morning was mind blowing
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Hahaha 😂😂 what a tale. Lure gone. Lure back. Lure gone. As I started reading I was shaking my head you’d lost it already - it was a gift to replace your recently lost splash prawn after all! - but glad you got it back. Though at least you were casting it and getting hits before it decided to take a break from you.
I ended up gifting a Cranka crab to another fisherman on Sunday night. He left delighted and minutes later I snagged and lost another cranka so now I’ve only got one one left with a missing claw. Losing lures sucks!still @Little_Flatty did you keep that found lure at Iron Cove? That balances out the loss of the wobbler 😂
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1 hour ago, mrsswordfisherman said:
Nice recovery there. Do you think it may have been some chlorine on the cover too?
It was basically bubble wrap. The cover had been off the pool for several weeks so Amy gave it a hose clean and left it to dry. Just the magnifying glass scorching it up but the speed it happened was wild.
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12 minutes ago, Fab1 said:
Fair enough.If it’s a running type grass like couch or kikuyu even a nuclear holocaust won't kill it don’t worry.Its coming to the end of the grass growing season as night time temps are dropping and grass will slow down.
We’ve got Sir Walter in the back yard. A few weeks ago my wife put the pool cover out to dry, two hours in 26 degrees. Shocked to see how quickly it died:
Brought her to tears. But just a week later after some watering and seasol she was basically good as new again. A sturdy grass for sure, a couple weeks later it’s too long for the mower to clip in one pass !
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Stunning photos Dave and what hospitality. I’m not sure which is prettier, the sunrise or sunset photo. What a beautiful part of the country.
The other birds nesting, are they apostlebirds?
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I realise it looks huge in the photo (which is a screenshot of a paused video) but they were of course about the size of my little finger. Each of them came out of the water a muddy brown looking like a moving piece of algae/seaweed and didn’t “blue up” until they were placed on the rocks (which were probably pretty warm for them TBH).
I wondered about residue on the lure but just gave them a quick safety rinse. From what I read after, it’s only direct contact from a bite that’s the concern but better safe than sorry!-
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Ouch @mrsswordfisherman that hurts. I am battling critters in my lawn too - first time I’ve had to deal with funnel ants. Lawn is only a year old after we did a knock down rebuild. Dozens of these little mounds of dirt they’ve pushed out from their tunnelling. Started on the edges but they’re everywhere now front and back.
We’ve an exterminator coming to deal with them next week, they inject something down into each hole.
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I’ve had trebles become doubles plenty. I still catch with doubles as I’m far too lazy to replace trebles. Figure that if folk often replace with singles I’m not really missing out on much!
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1 hour ago, DerekD said:
Maybe but while @Mike Sydney has the story I didn't see a brag mat so it makes it difficult to claim. How do you measure an octopus anyway?
I’m not sure but how many tickles until an octopus laughs?
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Ten tickles.
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My experience as a night fisherman is the full moon sucks. Exciting high tides in the estuaries but rubbish fishing.
Yes it’s an easy bogeyman to blame and I’ll still go anyway but I’ve had enough bad nights fishing on a full moon to believe the pattern.maybe tonight is different there’s a lunar eclipse at 7.03pm Sydney time
edit: agree it’s still worth going out as you definitely catching nothing at home, and it’s always a pleasure being out under moonlight. Not much prettier than a full moon on the waters edge
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21 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:
Pretty scary stuff. I won’t ever look a leaves and sticks the same way again!
Yes i suppose that’s the key takeaway - not to remove debris absentmindedly. These octopus moved on the lure so I knew something was afoot but if they’d been still they were the colour of your average bit of random debris. Brown and wet 😂
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24 minutes ago, Yowie said:
Occies like crabs, so that is why you pulled up a few.
The blue rings are standing out, so he is a bit agro.
When they first came out they were mainly brown with a few bits of yellow. The blue rings were shown once I put them on the rocks.
Has been a dangerous week actually - last weekend there was a fish floating around very close to my ledge at night just hanging around, like a flathead but with an eel tail. I tried to net it for a closer look and it was half in and fell out - just as well I realised later it was a cobbler…
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Had a morning out at the cooks river mouth yesterday looking to catch a feed using the cranka crab at the cooks river mouth.
Arrived an hour into the run out and went down onto the rocks below the airport tower wall. Beautiful weather and the water was very clear. Lots of bream around and I figured it was going to be a quick and easy catch.
Tied on a cranka crab and started casting. Not much interest at first and was collecting a lot of leaf litter.
I was told very early on to always check before I pulled off leaves and sticks from a lure, good thing too because my first critter caught was a nasty fellow:
What do you know! My first blue ringed octopus. Thankfully it crawled off the hooks itself so I didn’t need to handle it.
This was quickly followed by a second blue ring. Then a third, all three taking the crab in about a twenty minute span.
I gave up after that and went home without a feed!
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Well done @faker some nice catches there, you eating them ?
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I’ll second the vote on the Berkley bender as a cheaper alternative to the OSP. Besides bream on surface, I’ve also had success with the 105 model catching surface flathead. Yet to land a really big one but have had four surface flathead on run out tides on the sand flats using the bender.
They come in closer to $20, the 76mm ones around $16 bucks and the larger 105s $21. One of the big retailers - the orange one - had a promo a few weeks back offering two for the price of one and I stocked up.
The 105mm model is still pretty light and can be cast on your bream gear, though I’ve been using a 12lb leader instead of my normal 6lb when casting it.
Three bloops, pause, rinse and repeat.
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Forgot about until yesterday actually! Then forgot again until you tagged me. Back in the game but some catching up to do!
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@XD351 an interesting read from back in 2012.
The daily telegraph article talked about a couple of stabbings and someone getting clubbed with an iron bar. A small group ruining it for everyone basically.
I’m surprised so many wharves are still open for fishing TBH, I fish almost only at night and Gladesville, Abbotsford are almost no go zones for the general public, overrun by absolute tools itching to fight. Last time I went to Gladesville a group of maybe a dozen had speakers, rubbish everywhere, smoking and were trying to pick up a couple of 12-13 year old girls who were walking past.
As with most bans a “small group” ruins it for the rest of us - though there’s a helluva lot of these small groups around at night on the parra-
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I can understand this one to a degree, in that I’ve taken my kids swimming on the beach/ rock pools next to it which is well within casting distance and the one time I went there it was packed with kids on that stretch of beach. But then you can fish from any beach so maybe it was long term anti social behaviour that drove it and has reappeared of late.
Mind you the three or four times I’ve gone to fish that park at night I’ve abandoned due to not being able to find a car park within miles so personally won’t miss it
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That’s a stunning fish. What an absolute horse, and on surface as well - catch of a lifetime that, well done!
On such light gear too. You’d have been delighted to have a mate work the net for you as I’m sure she would’ve tested your leader knot if you were lifting her up!
Well done @FlicknFishWithAnthony that’s the stuff of dreams.
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11 hours ago, dmck said:
Dont get disheartened, this young kid is world class and the game is worth watching just to see him.
True that, his double was the icing on the cake after his World Cup run. - day two was a horror show though it felt like I was back in the 90s. Shows how far we’ve come in the past ten years that it’s a shock instead of the norm!
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Something to take my mind off the NZ - Australia test cricket at least. What a hiding we’re copping. Fingers crossed the tail wags for a few hundred runs 😒
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@DerekD another option for an Australian made hinged topwater is the Vex Deadn range, I’ve used the Deadn80 which is beautiful though only for tailor so far. There’s another manufacturer from Ontario as well Lunkerhunt which makes a lot of interesting lures including hinged surface lures which are now available in some local retailers. A lot cheaper than OSP.
Interestingly the Lunkerhunt range includes a topwater spider which I suspect would be very popular with the fish here - on my “to buy” list for sure!
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My favourite time of year
in Saltwater Fishing Reports
Posted
Yes it is. The one I was using tonight is the “Fatso” model. I usually find tailor a pest when I am targeting bream but during this window I love chasing them on surface lures. Big splashes is just too good to pass up.
That is a big height for a handlie with such big fish - must’ve been working those biceps @Yowie!
I agree the lights seem to be what do it. It’s the same at any ferry wharf at night. The only difference is the size I find during these months (I presume it’s them leaving the estuaries for the open seas)
The “pointy end” has cost me a lot of money in lost lures. It’s nice to get a return once in a while 😂
I’ve been stocking up on topwater hardbodies each pay since Christmas as I’ll probably lose several to those teeth in the next few weeks!