XD351

Maybe people brining fillets for smoking ?

Yep and this is the only fishing show / podcast or anything of the like that i have found that always produces the goods in regards to information that is solely aimed at making its listeners better anglers and even though the show does allow a small amount of PB boasting this is soley in the context of allowing the listener to get to know the guest , after that it is all about pumping as much quality information out of the guest as possible while keeping it entertaining . When you have guests that are in the top 10% of lure fishos in Australia you can’t go wrong ! Sometimes the host Greg “DOC” Lures Vinall will do solo show and give a glimpse into his amazing fishing mind - these are pure gold as far as I’m concerned ! And just when you were going to ask - yes much if not all of this info can be used for bait fishing ! Instead of casting a lure across a sand flat you could always drift a live poddy mullet under a small bobby float across the same sand flat, my mates used to do this 40 yrs ago using cordial bottles and swim them out to the drop off - catching the damned thing when a big Flathead or Tailor took the bait was another thing altogether though! With lures you are trying to entice a fish into eating something that is not real , if you apply some of the tactics from this style of fishing to bait fishing you can improve your catch ratio considerably .

A fishing log is always a good idea but they become more effective if you fish an area at different times , tides , moon phase ,weather and time of year. For example : If you only fish an area on the first half of run in tide , in the morning , on a full moon and on sunny days your data will only indicate what you caught with these conditions and you may never crack the code for that area but if you mix it up and try different tides , time of day or night , moon phase , weather and time of year you can really tune into what is happening in that area. If you can get your hands on the book pictured below i can highly recommend it - it is in my opinion one of the best fishing books ever written and even though it was published many years ago everything in it except the depth sounder information is still relevant -depth sounder technology has come a long way since then ! You could also have a listen to some of the podcasts by Australian Lure fishing , on this podcast the host interviews some of the best lure fishos in Australia and the host is also a marine biologist / scientist so he understands how fish work plus he also designs and makes lures . Unfortunately most but not all fishing shows on tv or YouTube are big on product advertisements and pretty light on real information .

I’m a great believer that fish are in a certain area for four main reasons : Cover , protection or comfort ( like water temp ). Food, Spawning, Staging or moving through an area to get to an area for reasons outlined above . I generally pick a species i want to catch and do some research on it paying particular attention to Food and Spawning periods as these are the two main reasons fish will aggregate in one area in larger numbers. The fish are also in tune to with the spawning habits of their prey and you will find that the two spawning time are closely related . Take for instance Dusky Flathead in the Hawkesbury river , Spawning is just kicking in now and will go for a couple of months and this coincides with the prawn season so i would be using live or at least fresh Hawkesbury prawns and start searching from milson island downstream and out into broken bay looking for contours or channels that funnel the water flow into them as that is where the Flathead will be waiting. Winter time is the opposite - the metabolism slows down and they head for the warmer shallow water where they are more likely to be feeding on baitfish or the occasional prawn . Summertime i use medium to large soft plastics (75mm and over )that i can weigh down enough to get to the bottom in 10 -15m of water and drift jig them , Wintertime it is small to medium (under 75 mm)and it is up over the sand flats paying particular attention to weed beds and drop offs . Mulloway , Kingfish and Squid are another combination that always seem to appear together but that is another story altogether that you can spend a good part of a day reading fisheries data ( boffin fodder) looking for clues ! but in essence pick a species and region , look for the spawn season ,what the species predominantly eats then break the bait down into categories like baitfish , crustaceans ,molluscs etc and do a bit of study on these looking for any coincidences in regards to spawning times and peak seasons that are close to the fish you want to catch , look for areas where this bait will be more prevalent - ie: you’re not going to find pink nippers in a gravel bed and once you have a few pieces of the puzzle you will find everything will start to fall into place . Matching the hatch can help but sometimes you just have to keep experimenting until you break the code , lures for example have many varying attributes that can make one lure that appears to be very similar or even exactly the same to another lure next to it but one will have a different acoustic signature or action or maybe a different sink rate or have slightly different buoyancy and one lure will get smashed but the other won’t get a touch .

Ripper catch mate! I always look at wanda on the coastwatch app and it gets some good formations on it !

Drool 🤤🤤🤤! The water must be getting warmer , a dart in one of the catches yesterday and a fantastic haul of whiting here !

I loved my 2 piece MT6144 Wilson( probably a close second to my snyder mag bream i built years ago ) but i just didn’t see the value in spending half the price of the rod on one guide, binding thread , filler and epoxy finish . If i still had my rod building gear i would have only had to buy a guide ( probably would have had one in stock already ) ,bind it on and finish it . For now it just sits in a rod rack collecting dust .

You will find camping anywhere in Sydney around Christmas will be booked out pretty much a year in advance and most in coastal NSW will be booked out 6months in advance . If you get onto the National parks and wildlife website there is plenty of info on where you can camp in the parks in NSW . You will have to pay for a permit in the parks but there are a few free ones dotted along the coast but they are dwindling in numbers .

I had a look at the Wilson catalogue and there is no mention of a low mount rod in the live fibre series so you could be flogging a dead horse there . Cutting the butt off will change the characteristics of the rod but not as much as cutting the tip down - you will lose a little bit of butt power as you are moving your grip towards the tip and you won’t end up with a 12ft rod - more like 11ft something .The tip section will be longer than the butt section which will make the rod tip more vulnerable to breakage as it won’t have the heavier butt section to protect it when the rod is in two pieces . At around 250 bucks it is an expensive way to get a rod for an alvey ! The stripper guide will more than likely be in the wrong spot , maybe too small and could allow the line to flog against the blank during casting - killing your casting distance. This was one of the crucial checks i made when i used to build my own rods ( long time ago )- find the spine , set up the butt section according to reel type then tape on some guides and head for the local footy field for some casting tests .Once the optimal stripper guide placement was established i could then work out the guide spacing for the rest . Is there a particular reason for wanting the live fibre ? I own a few Wilson rods - all low mount : MT8144- has fuji guides and seat and i use this for jewies . MT6144- has cheap guides and needs a new stripper guide and is now retired as i bought an Alvey rock and beach 62 to replace it ( spend $40 to buy the stuff to replace one cheap guide on a rod that cost $100 or spend $150 and get a new rod with fuji guides - new one it was !) . The Alvey is a slightly heavier blank in the butt section but similar in the tip section , i would have been happier if it had a fuji seat on it but you can’t win them all !

I would check with the National parks website ( Kuringai chase national park) before camping in jerusalem bay as it was prohibited when we used to hike in and fish for jewfish there , we got pulled up by a ranger in a boat one morning but fortunately for us it was summer and we used to sleep on the rocks and didn’t have a tent or sleeping bags so he couldn’t prove we camped there. If you cross the creek or sand bar at the end of the bay try to do it at low tide , we waded / swam across the creek one night at high tide completely oblivious to the sharks that frequent there ! You can also hike down to flint and steel point ( end of west head rd ) and access the little beaches either side - the one on the west side has pit toilet but please don’t swim on any of these beaches especially the one on the eastern side of flint and steel - sharks frequent these as well . Please be aware that it is now summer and total fire bans will be in place a lot of the time and you really need to be ultra careful entering the park as you can get trapped in there a fire breaks out . There are walking tracks all through the park and the National park website should put you on to some maps. Strange that ! I was only thinking about doing an overnight trip to Jerusalem in my boat a day or so ago ! HTH!

Pretty much the same rig i was taught to use by the old guys fishing off luna park wharf 40yrs ago but they used mince meat for bait - probably because it was cheap and readily available . I went from handline to rod then back again - you can’t beat the feel you get with a handline and i noticed that when using a rod the yakkas always seemed to stay a little deeper and wider - maybe they could see the silhouette of the rod ?

Next time you go to buy Mustad hooks take a look on the packet and see where they are made now ! I have always found that the suicide and 9555b hooks i used to use ( always Mustad) had eyes that would break if i tried to open them , must be something to do with the tempering process . I think that with the hooks that are designed for the user to make up gangs they leave the eye are softer so it can bend a little

This was common back when Black bass fishing was all the rage - even after Jack Erskine re worked the drags on the reels they still couldn’t get enough drag pressure to stop the bigger bass ! I have seen photos of one guy with blisters on both thumbs that he got trying to stop a bulldozer heading back to its snag ! These days the drags are much better than what they had in the 80s and 90s !

It will sink mate . If you are fishing off a wharf you will need to tie a rope onto it anyway so just tie it off so the bucket sits near the surface . You could try drilling the holes in the middle third or even 3/4 of the way up from the bottom of the bucket and that way when you put it into the water the top section will trap air and make it float ( provided your lid is airtight ) and when you lift it out of the water it will drian down to the bottom section leaving some water in there for your bait to swim in . There are other ways to make it float like an inner tube that fits around the bucket ( something off a wheelbarrow would be close to the right size ) or you could hack up a kids pool paddle board ( cut a hole in it that the bucket fits into and trim the outside so you end up with a donut shape ) we used to do these things to out nipper sieve so it floated . One tip is if you catch a slimy mackerel never put it in the same bait tank as a yakka or poddy mullet , the slime on them gets into the water and chokes the other bait .

If you have access to a drill and 6mm ( or there about ) drill bit just drill a heap of holes around the top third of your bucket ( use a bucket with a sealing lid ) or even better one of the plano bucket top tackle box units as you can cut the bottom out of one storage section to access the contents of the bucket with the unit fitted to the bucket and they have lids on the compartments that clip shut solidly , tie a rope to it and dangle the whole lot in the water . The holes in the top third allow some water to drain out when you lift it out of the water making it lighter but doesn’t let the livies bang around as there is still some water in the bucket and they allow some water flow through the bucket . One thing that kills livies is temperature rise - if you use an aerator it can warm the water up , i always wrap an old towel around my bait bucket if it is not in the water and keep the towel damp so it keeps the temperature in the bucket down- evaporation does this . I use a white bucket as it makes the livies light up as they try to match the colour of their surroundings . The other good thing about the plano unit is the spare compartment can be used to store any dead or dying baits and keep them fresh without contaminating the water where the live ones are - this kills them real quick !

Most of the time i just use the same rag i clean the boat with but if they get really dirty or the rag won’t remove all of the scales from them i use one of those green scourer pads and they are also good for scrubbing the bait board down as well - just watch out for the epoxy on the fore grip binding as it will scratch it if you hit it with a scourer ! Use hot soapy water only !

I often park my truck in there to have a snooze but this is usually varies between 2 and 6 am during the week but I haven’t seen any suspicious activities -that i can remember anyway , Can’t say what it is like on a weekend though . I would give the guys at Drummoyne bait and tackle or Ottos at Drummoyne a call as they are local to that ramp and may know of any problems there .

I suffer from that constant wind issue too ! But mine always blows from the south and a foul wind she be 🤢☠️☠️☠️

I have often looked down from the lookout above phegans bay and you can see the sand and weed patches - this screams out big flathead to me !

I’m to blame ! Well maybe my boat is i dunno ! I booked my boat in for a service a couple of weeks back and it started raining the afternoon that i took the cover off it and hasn’t stopped since ! Back in 2007 i moved up to lake macquarie and all was going well until my boat turned up - within a week most of the central coast was declared a disaster zone from the massive storms that hit the region , no power for a week and the lake flooded but I didn’t dare mention that my boat had arrived a few days earlier - they might have burned me at the stake 😂

You could also try the fishing club at the pub in Umina . When i fish that area it is usually drifting for flathead either side of the channel marker at half tide rocks . You really have to have your mind focused on your surroundings there on a weekend as it gets very busy ! You can fish the little beach opposite half tide rocks , an hour either side of high or low tide preferably on the neap tides and you want your bait to trot across the bottom . just north of that spot is the novotel and the channel swings to the east as you travel upstream to get around a decent sized sand bank , fishing here at night on the run up tide with nippers will yield some bream ,flatties and whiting ,try fishing the edges of the banks where it drops into deeper water at first as the fish will stack up here until they feel there is enough water over the bank to get up there and feed . You need to pack light and fish light here and chucking a lure around is also an option - obviously you want water over the flat so the last of the run in and most of the run out would be my preferred time with a lure. The flathead push right up over the sand flat as the tide rises to hunt , you can go there at low tide and look for the lays where the flathead have buried themselves into the sand . One good thing about being new to the area is you have a lot of exploring to do !

Great idea ! I lost the handle on a new winch on its second trip and i now keep a spare in the back of my car . I don’t know if it fell off driving to park my car or some mongrel knocked it off and i also keep spare shackles for the trailer chain for this reason ! Fortunately for me i had a wheel brace that had the right size socket to fit the winch -bloody slow going but it got the boat on the trailer ! I still want to try a battery drill in low gear with a socket in the chuck to wind the winch over - lazy bugger i am !

If the reels were mine i would s end them to Shimano or a certified Shimano service agent -that way you will get genuine parts ( quality) and someone who knows what they are doing and what to look for . I have bought bearings off many ebay sellers for various things and it is a lottery as to what you will get but usually they are crap . I know one thing for sure I wouldn’t be a happy camper if i hooked a good Marlin , fought it for a couple of hours only to lose it because the reel that old mate up the road who also fixes mowers, only charged a box of grog and “promised me he knows what he is doing “ butchered something or used cheap junk parts causing it to lock up . Seriously - $50 labour a reel once a year isn’t that expensive when you look at what it cost you for everything else !

Yep she is a big girl ! Its a fantastic thing those fishos do ! Never seen one over 90 and a pb of 84 but I don’t usually target big flathead ( legal to 45 does me and fits on a plate better 🤤 ) but i do have an urge that is becoming more irresistible to go out and stalk the flats for one ! I was listening to a podcast today about how one group of people are trying to rebuild and re seed the oyster reefs that used to abound in the estuary systems in Nsw . This will give many benefits to the eco system and anglers in the future , a lot of fishos might be surprised at some of the things going on in the background - unfortunately many fishos don’t even know about them .

If you do a YouTube search for Fishing the Hawkesbury bruce schumacher you will find a series of videos - all be it old that show you some of the better spots in the system from spencer down stream. You can also download an app called navionics for your phone or ipad that will give you a marine chart showing depths and contours , this will allow you to check out any likely spots like deep holes , rock bars and areas that cause a disturbance in the flow of the river - it also give you tides and i think moorings as well . See below: this is a screen shot of the app i use - i have no ties to it i just think it is a useful app for fishing .