HenryNSW

Hi, is it only blue groper or all color gropers ?

Thank you

Hello apologises up front for the newbie question, I am reading guideline on what is allowed in my local Aquatic Reserve, It says I can 'Line Fish'. so am I allowed to use a fishing rod? or is it hand line only? Thanks Henry

Thanks all for the suggestion. My question is more around should i kill the fish straight away or try to keep it alive? And if I keep it in a bucket which is better (I will try to change out water more frequently)

Hi everyone, Just been to a day hiking fishing trip out in the national park. No shade. We find a lot of fish die after a long day fishing (5am-12). We try to keep the fish in a bucket but apparently this stresses the fish (similar as a keeper net) so it is bad for eating quality. I see it as a trade off between bleed/kill fish or let it sit in a bucket.... It is a long hike so we cant carry ice (too heavy) Appreciate any suggestions on best way to maintain the eating quality

easy to call these people idiots, but just remember a whole lot of people willingly go into the water everyday , swimming into rip currents, swimming while there are sharks in the water.... why are risky behaviour by swimmers and surfers tolerated but as soon as any rock fisherman gets swept in, news/media jumps in and call these people stupid and idiots? When was the last time you saw on a life guard rescuing a swimmer wearing life jackets at the beach? by the same standard we should name and shame everyone that needs rescuing swimming in the ocean and surfers that dress like seals asking for sharks to bite them.... The heart of the problem is people's inability to accurately assess risk, and not experienced enough to properly assess their ability. Until a few weeks ago I thought I was 100% safe on the rocks with my life jacket and my specialised rock fishing cleats.... had to learn the hard way but glad to be alive. Government need to start educating people that simply wearing life jacket and cleats is not enough to save your life in a dangerous spot. ps. if anyone is wondering, no, I haven't fished since that fateful day... bruises faded, cuts healed, but somehow just feel like a bit of a rest for a while.

Thank you everyone for the indepth analysis and comments... really blown away at the complexity involved.

what about a searchable map ? similar to bush fire map, or Live Traffic map, showing the safety status. It will at least be useful for people that do care about their safety. I always check https://www.willyweather.com.au/ the tide/swell chart before I go fishing.

Hi all, Just wanted to bounce some ideas with people on the forum on how to better increase awareness for people on the danger on rocks. 1. Increase/Better signs warning people of dangerous unexpected swells around dangerous spots. (Using the Port Kembla incident, the first 2 hour that we were there, there were just little splashes coming across, given it was falling tide we expected the occurrence of water coming across the top to decrease... which was proven wrong). Even though I am no racing car driver I can drive 110km/hr on a road I have never driven before because I know if road condition changes then there will be signs (e.g. sharp corners recommended speed decrease to 85km/hr). I can walk around the beach on the rocks and see signs where there are unstable cliff edges or falling rock. On popular beaches there are sometimes signs showing the location of outgoing rip currents warning people not to swim there 2. Better Education and Messaging There are a lot of videos on youtube showing people how to spot a rip current, but not that many teaching people how to read the dangers in a fishing spot (using Port Kembla's example it will be how water turns at the step that carries people off the ledge). On the Water Safety NSW website it just talks about life jackets/ cleats, and watch the surf condition (Which doesn't mean much to most people). Give more precise information to people on the limitations of Life Jackets and Cleats. 3. Provide danger grading on the various fishing spots I go skiing, and there are black/blue/green grading informing people of the difficulty of the ski pat It is very hard to know how danger a spot is. I fish sometime at Clovelly and Little Bay, and it is weird to see people walking through coming up next to where I am fishing, having a chat/selfie and not wearing life jackets (since they are just walking and not fishing. In the Port Kembla example there were 2 kids standing near the edge before the video too because the sea was so calm which is incredibly lucky that they went off to a different spot just a few minutes before the swell came over the side) Keen to hear what members here think on any other ideas or comments how to improve general beach rock safety. I am keen to write to my local MP to help drive some changes that will help both general public and beginner fisherman like myself.

I think the issue is also education and messaging. For swimming everyone knows not to swim in the rip. For rock fishing all I know is wear life jackets, cleats, and don't go fishing when the weather is rough or 'condition is bad'..... which for me just sounds like don't go fishing if you see big wave and big wind. What is missing for beginners (as many members pointed out) is learning to read the location, know how swell impacts the location.... specifically where the water will flow once it comes over the top. My local fish store told me to watch a new spot for at least 10 min before starting to fish so I actually watched the spot for 10 min when we arrived while others were setting up so that's what made yesterday's event so surprising for me.

hmmmm have to admit that the only sign that I spotted while walking down from the car park was saying that [Only collect up to 3 shell fish] from the area. would be good to put up a big sign maybe right on the platform warning of 'rogue' waves. There were also kids there walking on the platform as well. technically they were not fishing but nevertheless they had life jackets on, but would have been better to make it obvious to people that it is a high risk rouge wave area and I was looking at a lot of forums and comments that just said people fishing there are idiots that didn't look at the conditions. but what most people don't realise is that the condition was deceptively calm, so it is not an issue of people fishing in rough sea/big wind condition, but people not aware of rogue wave condition

here is the news footage of when my bags and rod was swept in. I was already up the steps from the first swell (you can see me in white wearing red life jacket far right holding white rod). this was the second swell about 5 seconds later. https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/group-knocked-over-by-waves-one-day-after-fishermen-deaths-video/news-story/3db75889dc4d748de1764004aeca47d3 To be honest the news article is misleading because they say 'idiots' implying that we were involved in some idiotic behaviour when infact everyone was wearing life jacket and cleats and we did check the swell for the day as well, but we're not aware of the exact nature of the danger for that site. Telling people to be 'safe' in too ambiguous a term to properly educate people on exactly what they need to be careful about. can someone do a location report for this spot, and to be honest I think it would be good to have more signs warning people... because on my way walking up to the platform I did see any signs all I saw was 1 angel ring(life buoy).

just came back from fishing at Port Kembla hill 60, was stupid enough to believe my friend that that the rock platform that those fisherman drowned was different to the ones we fished.... nope same one. long story short, a couple of swells washed our whole gear into the sea. luckily a guy in fishing boat was nearby and fished out my 2 bag. but lost my light rod and most of my tackle. the swell today was around 1 meter mark so deceptively dangerous. I got knocked over by the pure force a rouge splash that dumped a huge amount of water onto the platform, and the big swell finished the job for the dozen guy on the platform. anyway a guy watching from the top captured it all on his phone so keep an eye out for it on youtube. Got a couple of cuts and bruises but I Am still alive and learnt a valuable lesson. (do your homework before hand and don't just rely on your mate's view on a location's safety).

thanks all for the advice. @paddy, thanks for the video, interestingly because i didn't want to buy a special pliers I actually ought the exact same nail punch set to try and open the hooks that way.

How do you guys open up the eyes on the hooks ? I use a side cutting to first pry open the eye and then slowly twist the eye open. keen to know any tricks that people found useful over the years that can open up eyes more easily Recently I found that Jarvis walker chemically sharpened red suicide hooks behaves very differently when you try to pry open the hooks. the ones from 'Made in Korea' are more 'bendable' but the ones from 'Made InSouth' just snaps off at the tip of the eye.

Just as an FYI I noticed that Jarvis Walker suicide hooks have different qualities I am making my own gang hooks by opening the eye and putting swivels between the hooks. I noticed that there are 2 types of Jarvis walker hooks and you can see it on the label stickers. "MADE IN KOREA" which I can open the eye no problem, but there are those "MADE INSOUTH KOREA" which the hooks eye snaps completely off when I try to open the eyes. Note the spelling mistake in the label "insouth" instead of "in south" Just as an FYI tip for those that want to buy Jarvis walker hooks to make their own gang hooks, make sure you choose the ones with label "made in Korea, packed in vietnam" Cheers Henry

Hi all, thanks for the advice and the difference between Snelled vs gang hook I used proper gang hook and last night caught a big tailor 60cm ☺️ Tailor have really sharp teeth, and I noticed that where Australia salmon goes for the head, for tailors a few of my baits had clean bite marks with chucks taken off middle and tail section before I finally landed this tailor. Thank you all Henry

Yes one of them I got it onto surface before it dived down again.... ruins the whole fishing experience because it is so tiring try to fight these things pulling my rig back in. I use gang hook for whole pilchard because I manage to catch a king fish once from the spot, long time ago so still hoping for miracles I use bait because surfers and swimmers don't like us fisho walking up and down the beach... so have to stay in 1 spot. Sounds like no sure way to deter sting rays...

Hello I have been fishing the eastern suburbs beaches over the past few weeks and I have lost a lot of rigs due to sting rays my rig typically is set up for salmon/tailor fishing main line --> sinker --> leader with gang hook main line = 50Lb mono, leader = 40LB fluorocarbon bait i use a whole pilchard. (fresh from local fish store, or frozen service station bait). I fished this morning from 5am-7am and I have lost 5 sets of rigs (including sinker.....) to stingrays, also a lot of lines I tried using paternoster with gang hook but it usually just tangles together is there a particular set up or bait spray I can use to deter sting rays? is it the flurocarbon that is attracting the rays? should i make my lines more visible? thanks Henry

I have uploaded the gang hook that I tie. The front 2 hooks always gets bitten off so I dont know what is the issue? Is the 40LB flurocarbon line too thin for tailor's teeth?

hi all, Had a really bad night of fishing, I tie my own 3 gang hooks and I have 40Lb and 40Lb flurocarbon which I think is stronger than normal mono. But tonight I keep on keep my gang hook biten off just before I land. Only the last hook remained near the tail, but the first 2 hooks were gone. Just wondering how many pound flurocarbon I need to avoid bite offs? My friend says it is tailor but I didn't land any so I don't know, there were still salmon around the beach when this happened. alternatively I am thinking of using maybe tying my own wire gang, but don't know if I use brass or aluminium wire and if this will scare fish away. Thanks Henry

Tried a couple of different drag setting with a friend and due to the wave action we ended up just holding the rod cos we couldn't see the bite and found that we were just sitting on empty rods.... Once we started holding the rod we just had drag on real loose and gradually tighten once we feel the bite.... Would be nice to just park the rods and enjoy a beer but looks like fishing is hard work. My friends were using 4/0 gang and I was using 6/0 snelled gang and we were both catching so both works I guess. On a side note at 8pm we both caught port Jackson that ate our hooks and sinkers... so don't know if this a common trait.among port jacksons.

thanks all, this some how turned into a hook size discussion but still appreciate the comments. 1. should I have just a tiny drag (avoid bird nest) and just let the fish (salmon/tailor) run for a minute before striking or have a pretty tight drag (but I am using braid) ... 2) we have pretty big pilchard here in Sydney so anything less than 6/0 will get buried in the bait. but I will try 4/0 this arvo....

was using 6/0 suicide hooks

Hi all, I fished yesterday with Gang hook pilchard for maybe some australian salmon/tailor. I put the rod in rod holder 45 degree angle. I had almost a dozen bites where the fish just bite the pilchard in half head first, but I didn't land any fish, in fact most were gone by the time I reach for my rod. I left coz I ran out of baits... Should I have set the drag tighter or have no drag and just let fish run with the bait before I set the hook? I have 40LB braid, and 40LB flurocarbon leader sorry if this has been asked before, I tried to search for 'drag' but had too many off-topic results. Thanks in advance Henry