wise one

Thanks for that. Looks like a trip to Penrith. Surprised we don't have a dealer on the North Shore given the amount of water we have around here! Bayview, Manly or the Spit come to mind...

Hi all I'm seriously looking at getting a Jackson Cuda 12. I've done lots of online research and am pretty happy that this is the craft for me, however it will be my first fishing kayak and so I would love to see one and maybe even have a quick paddle in one before committing my hard earned via an internet purchase or specific order with a dealer (I've not been able to find a dealer with one in Sydney!) So I was hoping that maybe a fellow Raider might have one and I could arrange to meet them on one of their fishing trips so I could have a look at the craft and maybe even have a quick go in it.... I live in Manly Vale so would ideally be looking at Pittwater, Manly, Middle Harbour, Manly Dam, Narrabeen Lake etc. I like the look of the Cuda 12 because: Its (relatively) small and so I should be able to handle myself and cartop It has a great seat It has great rod holders and other fishing features Its a paddle yak (I need to do some exercise on the top half of the body!) If you can help out, please PM me. Thanks in advance

Ditto the 3" minnow on a 1/32 oz jig head. You cant cast them far, but if you get near enough you will hook up nearly every time! Retrieve is sharp swish of the rod downwards followed by a pause while you take up the slack.

You can, but it may take a long time if the yakka's aren't nearby... Better to stick with well known locations that yakka's frequent. Examples: Watsons bay wharf Clifton Gardens Sow & Pigs reef The "island" at Balmoral Balmoral wharf The gas Works at Little Manly Inside North Head to Quarantine point and bay You will generally have better success down the "bottom" of the harbour, nearer the ocean where the water is cleaner. Once you've identified a couple of spots that work, you should have no problem in future trips. Good luck

Good to hear that the YFT are still around - hope the weather gods play the game for next weekend!

I use a short double tied to a good quality snap swivel. I then have a 2-3 meter trace of 60lb fleurocarbon with a 7/0 light guage circle hook. I attach the trace and the balloon (via an elastic band) to the snap swivel. I bridal my livebaits to the hook with 50lb dacron using a bait needle - not necessary but I think you get better hook clearance (less chance of point sticking into the livebait) and also the live bait stays alive longer. Inflate the baloon to about 4-5 inches. It serves a few purposes including holding the livebait off the bottom, letting you know where the livebait is and aiding in drifting the livebait away from the boat (using the wind and/or current). Fish you reel in free spool with just the ratchet on. When a fish hits the baloon will burst or snap free and the tuna will take line at a fair rate of knots. Give it 5-10 seconds then slowly increase the drag to set the circule hook. Then get ready to "lose" the anchor and give chase! I find it easiest to have a shortish anchor rope with a float attached, so on hook up you can throw the lot overboard and chase the fish. You can return to your anchor after the fight. The alternative is to pull up your anchor before chasing the fish but this takes a fair bit of time by which time the fish might have 200m+ of line in the water! Its a great fun and challenging fish to catch and (except for sharks) probably one of the largest fish you can catch close to shore.

Sorry for the inference that you would fish by boat near the LBG ledges - no way intended. Tomaree is a big headland, the LBG ledges are a fair bit round to the South of the headland. If you had a small boat and didn't want to venture to The Little Gibber or even the Lighthouse off Fingal, then I believe you would not be in the way of the LBG guys if you anchored at the Northern tip of Tomaree.Another spot worth a go is round the North side of Yakkaba near the little rock - you must be careful that you are not in the sanctuary zone but that stops 50m East of the little rock. Again the longtails follow the beach from the North and have to swim around Yakkaba and so this spot is in their path. In the bay, they can appear busting up on the surface anywhere from the heads to Soldiers Point, so a bit hit and miss - but I have seen them the most nearer Soldiers Point and in Salamander Bay where the water is generally deeper than near Shoal Bay.

I know the feeling, 3 years ago we chased them in the bay - I hooked up on my lightest rod and fought one for 1 hours 40 minutes before the hooks straightened with the fish circling 5m down...

BAIT - easiest place is NW corner of Cabbage Tree Island. You cant miss it as there are always boats catching livebaits there.GPS Marks - don't have them and you don't need them. The Little Gibber is probably one of the better spots (on the shore directly inside Broughton Island. Anchor 100m from the rocks and set a livie 2-3m under a balloon and wait for the tuna to swim past (they follow the beaches down the coast and the gap between The Little Gibber and The Sisters / Broughton Island "funnel" them past your waiting livebait). If your boat can't manage that distance then straight out the front of Fingal Island is good (that is where I got the second one). They are also caught off the rocks at Tomaree (the Southern headland at Port Stephens) so you can anchor and fish here (lots of bait here too but also a few noahs that often steal tuna hooked by the LBG guys). Finally, if the weather is bad - fish in the bay. 2 options - 1st is to anchor and livebait at the wreck in Salamander Bay, 2nd is to drift with the engine running and keep a look out for the tuna "busting up" then drive over there and cast a 40 gram slice into them and wind like fury.

Just back from our annual fishing trip to Port Stephens. We targeted the longtail tuna with some success! Mrs Wise One caught the first tuna (and her biggest fish to date): Caught on a live yacka under a balloon at The Little Gibber. This one was taken on 15kg mono on a Stella 20000SW so was brought to the boat quite quickly! Current was roaring south and 23.5 degrees - no wonder the tuna were there! Having put some sashimi in the fridge and steaks in the freezer, the next day we tried for snapper (unsuccessfully) so then went back to the Little Gibber on the next 2 days. However the water had changed, no current and a cool 21.2 degrees... Only a bite off from a shark of unknown species. The final day, we decided to target kingies at Fingal Lighthouse. Bait was rippling on the surface and the current was again pushing hard to the south. It looked fishy but we couldn't find a king. Instead we at first got a decent mack tuna and then hooked what was obviously a good fish - this time on a slow trolled yacka down deeper with a bean sinker on my kingy rod (5-8KG heavy barra and 400 Calcutta reel with 30lb braid). Anyway after a long hour + fight and some chasing around the ocean (great driving by Mrs Wise One) we secured our second longtail of the week. I've caught longtails most years at Port Stephens, but having Mrs Wise One catch one was great (and then for me to catch one too was the perfect end to a great weeks fishing). So no snapper or kingies, but we certainly had a successful trip on the tuna and brought plenty of steaks back for ourselves and a few close friends! We also saw the tuna in the bay one evening - so you don't need a big boat! Anyone that hasn't caught one of these beauties should seriously consider a trip to Port Stephens over the next 3-6 weeks as they are on big time.

nautica - Current was strong from NE to SW at 3knots+ puppydawg - each year sees a few wahoo, but yesterday was the most I have heard caught in one day!!!

Went out yesterday on "SGFC Hoodlem" and managed two nice stick-faces, both caught on lures just inside the Shelf and South of the Bait Station (Long Reef Wide). The water was quite blue and 25 degrees + Other boats managed to find a scrap of floating rope and pulled small YFT and a number of wahoo off it!

So far its not too bad, most launchers are even walking their boats down the ramp. Only issue I've seen (apart from a longer wait) is that some boaters insist on trying to turn their boats around in the gap between the new and old jetties instead of just reversing clear of the area before turning the boat around! Biggest issue with the ramp is only having 2 taps to wash down, having to pay for these (even though you pay to park anyway) and at least 50% of the time the machines are broken anyway Love the speed of construction of the toilet block too THey seem to be spending all the time putting nice new sandstone paving down rather than actually building the toilets. I would also like to see the carpark re-surfaced - some pretty big potholes that might hurt the trailer / boat if you dissappear into one

The 4 key issues are surely: The quota was doubled to make it economically viable for the super trawler - NO NEW SCIENCE Local depletions will occur due to the size of this thing - no bait = no predators The multitude of small boats will be lost - loss of jobs and local economy Lots of small boats spread around cannot result in local depletions The pollies and vested interests have avoided answering these I hope the Sea Shepherd can stop this thing!

Its not Warringah council - upgrade has been managed by NSW Maritime (I believe) under the "Better Boating Program" and maintenance / running comes under National Parks (hence the fee to access and use the ramp). The central pontoon will be OK provided boaters use it appropriately. Ideally we need one side for launching, the other for retrieving - then boats tied to the pontoon will not "block" the ramp lane. Provided boaters tie their boats up as far away from the ramp (when launching) and as close to the ramp (when retrieving) the process would work OK. The problem is that we won't have everyone doing the right thing so it will indeed be chaos at busy times (Sunday in Summer). It would be good is Maritime put up some recommendations / rules on use of the ramp (I hate signs, but in this case I think the use of the ramp needs to be so different from the way it used before the upgrade that some signage would help). A few boating officers down there for the first few months of use "assisting" boaters would probably be good too. It could be a great ramp with the upgrades, but equally it could become a basket case. We will have to wait and see.

Launched at Roseville yesterday after a 6 week enforced "holiday". It was very quiet - which was good because it will take a bit of getting used to the new pontoon. Great for launching, but retrieving was more interesting - I'm used to driving the boat onto the trailer - the pontoon gives you a lot less room to do this! Walking a boat onto a trailer is also a little tricky if you don't get the position of the trailer just right! I think it will get very entertaining in Summer and particularly News Years Day!

I think ideally one side of the pontoon for launching and one for retrieving. If someone launches and ties their boat to the pontoon, then that will block the lane for any wanting to retrieve their boats and you can imagine the confusion (and collissions) if a launched boat tries to get past a boat awaiting retrieval on the same side of the pontoon. You need to imagine the pontoon as a "conveyor belt" with one side moving out to sea and the other side heading into the ramp. On launching you tie the boat up as far away from the ramp as possible so as to leave room "inside" you for the next boat to be launched. On retrieving you tie the boat up as close as possible to the ramp so as to leave room "outside" you for the next boat to be retrieved. The issue will be that we have two lanes on one side of the pontoon and only one lane on the other - so shich side for launch and which for retrieval Logic would say 2 lanes for launch in the morning, 1 for retrieval and then reverse this after midday - however that adds further complexity Given the abuse I have seen hurled around when drivers don't reverse on a perfectly straight line and "between the lanes" on the ramp, I can imagine some hot tempers flaring with the new ramp setup. Perhaps Maritime should have some boating officers around for a few weeks to ensure everything goes smoothly. Or maybe we could have "tidal flow" traffic lights on the pontoon!

Will now be 3 lanes, not 4. Pontoon down the centre replace "lane 3". It will be interesting to see whether boats using the pontoon "block" the access to the ramp. Hopefully some signs on "how to use" the pontoon / ramp will educate users so we can alll efficiently use the ramp and avoid "ramp rage"

When I looked at it last week, the sign still said closed until 6th July.... However it looked a loooooong way of being complete - I woul be (very pleasantly) suprised if it was open today. Anyone else driven past it today and can give us an update?

Went to have a look at the ramp last Sunday (24th June). Seemed to be a long way from completed..... Even though it says to be completed by Friday 29th June. Anyone heard anything about a revised completion date or indeed that it will be completed on time? Anyone driven past and can let us know if the mobile traffic sign has any updated message? I was planning to launch my boat there on Saturday but don't want to tow it all the way there to find it is still closed (which I suspect will be the case). Cheers

Here is some pretty wicked video of our catch - if you thought the photo's were scary get a load of this! Enjoy!

Only a small fella - circa 50KG. We didn't know how big it was when we switched, but were happy it was a baby once we hooked up and started chasing it. A bigger fish on 10kg would have probably gone deep and been impossible to get up in the attrocious conditions!

The mighty "Gale Force" (Viking 54) won the T&R competition with a single striped marlin on 10KG which was switch baited early Sunday afternoon in 5m seas with a 30knot wind blowing! This is the rather large set at the point of hookup: This is what the cockpit looked like when we were backing downn on the fish: The celebrations after the tag went in: With that fish we won: - Champion Angler T&R - Champion Boat T&R Marlin - Champion Boat T&R Overall Lowsy conditions, but a happy crew! Lets hope the yellowfin turn up soon because the marlin fishing is certainly very quiet.

Ballooning at anchor - the wife pulled it up and drove the boat to chase the fish! In Southern waters, the longtails tend to be a little skittish and so much harder to catch if you have your motor running (which generally rules out slow trolling). I have managed a couple on slugs in the Bay at Port Stephens, but these require loooong casts and light tackle (3 years ago I hooked one on 4KG spinning outfit, fought it for 1 hour 40 minutes, had it circling the boat for 10 minutes, then the hook straightened )

Just took me 2 attempts