XD351

Nice pig mate ! The old Snyder has caught a few of them I can tell you ! Where the alvey will come into its own is after you have finished your session on luderick ( using a centre pin )you can swap reels and fish unweighted or very lightly weighted baits for pigs and bream in the washes . The ability to get a light bait out using the side cast feature and the bigger diameter spool makes the alvey superior to the centre pin for this style of fishing . I would still look at getting a centre pin , personally I wouldn’t worry too much about the nostalgia of using an old steelite or Avon - they won’t make you a better angler or catch you more fish and there is a downside with bakelite reels - it gets brittle with age so you have to be careful not to knock it around too much - the Avon doesn’t have this problem but with it you need to look for corrosion issues. There are a few blackfish/ luderick pages or groups on facebook, sometimes reels come up on them for sale .

You can adjust the spool tension by loosening the knob in the middle of the spool . You will find it difficult to get that big heavy spool spinning enough to cast it like a centre pin - just cast it like a sidecast and you will be fine .

I noticed a decline in the early 80s , maybe that generation succumbed to the lure of the lure ! When I was a jetty rat in Sydney harbour literally every wharf and rock wall had a lud fisho on it and the hole at the caravan park et Narrabeen lagoon was chockers ! Last time I fished there I was the only one there fishing for luderick 😭😭

You could try the wall at foreshore boat ramp - might be worth a try when the swell is up ?

Do you get any beep noises when pushing the buttons- especially the squelch?

Great report and you got a feed - gotta be happy with that !

Forgot about the parra ! When I was a kid we used to catch them in the canals at meadowbank and there certainly was no shortage of them at Rydalmere last time I was there - some nice 100mm units would be nice !

Awesome work guys ! Congrats on the win !

A nice 45cm flattie would have been better 🤣🤣🤣 Reel has been rebuilt and will find a new home as a mullet rod in a mates boat - swapped it for a tub of worms to get my worm farm up and running . I might even try some freshwater mullet ( live ) to see how they go , I can catch them more reliably than poddies and do it closer to home . The Sedona sure isn’t anything special in the way of a reel ! 3 bearings , no line roller bearing and pretty flimsy imho - I may have an older model as the big box store says they have 3+1 which is a line roller bearing but still not worth the $150 price tag - $80 maybe but no way $150 !

I believe it started out as a track to a lookout then someone clambered down behind the end house and put the peg in . I remember the bloke who owned the house used to hate people going down there as it was eroding the ground around his support pillars for his house . Iirc the last straw was someone fell off there and they cut the peg off and fenced the area off . We mostly got tailor and bonnies but I have seen few 1m + kings caught in there - buggered if I could get one to eat my live though !

There are two ovens platforms, inner- access from the beach and outer - down the rope , I believe this is no longer accessible. you also have a few options at south palm beach , on low swell you can fish off the front , if it is a bit wild you can go around to the side where the baths are . when you are looking for spots think about your egress or retreat path - if you have to beat a hasty retreat because that really big set is about to smash you the last thing you want is to have to clamber up a ledge . Also plan for the worst- if you get washed in how would you get out ? Many places on the northern beaches have angel rings fitted - think of this as part of your personal safety equipment and if it is missing report it and give the area a miss until it has been replaced. I would highly recommend you do at least one trip with either a guide or someone that you are 100% certain has some extensive experience fishing off the stones . The reason for this is they have spent the time on the ledges and understand the nuances of each one intimately- the ledge you fish today and it was safe to do so could take your life tomorrow because of a swell height or direction change .

We used to do overnight trips down there ! I think it has been closed off now .

G’day Raiders, I lobbed up to the lower Hawkesbury for a quick arvo sesh arriving at 11.30am and with a high tide around 9.45am it was going to be another run out drift session for flathead . Bait as usual was whole and half pilly on a spikes half pilly rig and cyclops rig . I started off on the southern side of dangar island and drifted all the way down to the mouth of Cowan creek , these were a series of short drifts adjusting to run along any drop offs or to drift through any current or trash lines -this resulted in one bite and a missed hookup on what I feel was a small flathead. A few more drifts around the mouth of Cowan were performed but still nothing 🤬 I could see the trash / current line extending in a long southerly arc towards flint and steel so I decided to try again at a spot just south of middle ground and drift through the current line again . This resulted in a 58cm mulloway which had me fooled into thinking it was a big flathead -I was now excited- until I saw silver ! Not complaining though as it was good fun on light gear and it was released after a quick photo. I then decided to go up river to moony and try a spot which has treated me well over the years but once again I couldn’t lose a bait and there was a fair bit of what I call glass noodle weed ( clear weed that looks like fine noodles ) and every time I have come across this weed fishing in that area has been poor . I decided to try the deeper water along Long Island - first 10m depth then in the main channel which resulted in the loss of my green cyclops rig 🤬🤬 I decide to give one last spot a try on the way back to the ramp , this is a hole between dangar island and the point next to the rail bridge . A few minutes into the drift my rod went heavy and thinking it was weed I wound it in but I could feel some very faint kicking as I did so - maybe a crab ? Anyhow I felt my leader knot go through the guides and spotted my hook - no crab but I had hooked someone else’s braid so began hauling it in - still feeling these faint kicks . A few seconds later up came rod and reel and not long after that a small mulloway still hooked in the lip ! The fish seemed ok as it swam off so hopefully it survived, the rod and reel (Sedona outfit ) are in great condition and will get a rebuild - the reel is currently soaking in some outboard engine flush to kill the salt off . Back at the ramp I pulled up next to another boat to strap my boat on and got talking to the guy who owns it , he had done a two day trip and caught a few fish. Mostly Mulloway around the same size as mine but also a few 60cm flathead ( he didn’t show any to me so can’t confirm this ) but I did ask him what he caught his fish on - live herring which he apparently caught somewhere in Cowan - I wouldn’t know where to start looking for them , maybe the end of Jerusalem ck?. He reckoned he was using whole dead squid , butterfly yakkas and lives - only the lives got touched . So where to now ? Do I go back with lives ? Do I go and try jigs and lead vibes ? Maybe some big paddle tails ! Will live yakkas work ? Or will live poddies ? I dunno. I have 5 days to decide ! On another's note I spotted on one of my FB feeds a big hair tail was caught in the Hawkesbury in the last few days so maybe they are here early !

You’re not alone - trust me !

Mate that’s epic ! Congratulations! And an awesome report with fantastic photos!

The one year thing was a case of shoot first , ask questions later ! The DPI and the minister knew all too well that the scientific evidence would have squashed the idea of a fishing ban so they conveniently ignored it . We ( rec anglers) have to tread very carefully here because this ban has set a dangerous precedent- if the government can just roll in and ban something without any research, public consultation or any evidence that it was needed then this will not be the last ban they impose upon rec fishing ! Every time a minority party jumps up and down having a hissy fit or uses what is essentially extortion tactics in parliament to get what they want the government of the time will simply give them what they want to shut them up .

It is the southern end of Lake Macquarie Noel.

I lived there for a year in 2007- nice place ! link to dpi map https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/680450/Map-lakemacquarie.pdf Below I have added a few spots I used to fish for flathead usually using prawns or half pilchard as bait . ( red circles) I never put traps for crabs out as it was illegal back then but is permitted now - link to post on here about it if I were going to try for a crab I would do it in the yellow circles as this is an extensive shallow area with lots of weed and not much current . If you want to fish the main inlet channel ( Swansea to the ocean ) stick to the last and first hour or so either side of a tide change as the curren rips through here hard . Please don’t swim in the lake unless it is in a caged area or shallow with good visibility as there are some humongous sharks in there - especially around pulbar island. I used to swim in the clear shallow water around the islands in the main channel at Swansea . There are two tackle stores there - one on the south west side of Swansea bridge and another at marks point ( this one has a YouTube channel also that does a weekly fishing report every Friday ) sorry can’t name them on here due to site rules - they will be easy to find by doing a search on the internet. Unless they have updated it the ramp at chain valley bay is only very small - I wouldn’t want to launch anything bigger than 4.5 m tinny there . Sometimes I could catch poddy mullet at the ramp also .

Anyone want to have a guess how long it will be before they deem them a “threatened species “ and turn every headland in NSW into a protected habitat zone - no fishing , no diving , no nuthin !

This is from the DPI Fisheries Facebook page - posted about an hour ago . https://www.facebook.com/share/p/YZXJhoBUayvTDcZa/?mibextid=WC7FNe And for those that don’t do Facebook:

Also a by election coming up down there -pandering for votes ?

If what I watched on the budget estimates review where minister Moriarty was questioned on many occasions about various things relating to this ban is anything to go by DPI doesn’t know when it will take place nor do they know why it was enacted . Scary stuff for us fishos ! The feeling of contributing to rec fishing by paying my fishing fee is now well and truly gone for this fisho .

Just gotta keep at it ! From what i have seen on social media there ain’t a lot of flathead around .

I used to fish for them back then but sort of lost interest once the cold started to get to me as I got older . I would have devastated if it was a pb flattie 😭😭😭😭

Great report and Epic haul of crabs and garies mate !