SquibblyDibbly

Looks like a fun morning mate. Bass are great like that, doesnt matter how big they are, they all hit the lure and fight (at the start atleast) like they're monsters.

Hey Raiders, On the weekend I had one of the funniest fishing trips I've ever had. I went with a few people down the coast, visited an estuary I've fished my entire life. It rarely opens to the ocean but when it does the mullet/bream/tailor fishing for the next few years is usually pretty good. We wanted a few live mullet to throw off the beach that evening so down we went with our mullet setups; bread for burley, light gear, little floats and hooks with tiny bits of squid tentacle for bait. A little bit of bread burley and within a couple minutes we had a feeding frenzy. Literally a frenzy, I've never seen mullet so fired up. A full piece of bread would be devoured in seconds. Catching them on the floats wasnt much of a challenge so out came the poppers and man was that fun. The competition for the poppers was so strong the mullet were doing aerials, climbing over each other to chase the poppers, grabbing the lure and tail walking like mini marlin. After a couple hours the mullet slowed down and we went back to floats (we ran out of bread burley), we'd nearly had enough and were going to head to the beach when bang, 3 fellas hooked up at once. These ones were fighting harder than your average mullet, the triple hookup ended up being 3 stud bream. One of which caught on a nuclear chicken soft plastic grub that had been cast out and left on the bottom without being worked at all, the other to on little bits of squid under a float. The livies caught salmon and tailor off the beach that afternoon but I must admit the mullet fishing was my favourite part of the day. Cheers, SD

Hey raiders, Just back from a long fishing weekend down the coast. A couple sunrise sessions (low tide and a few hours either side) off the rocks produced plenty of squid. The few that we returned to the bottom as bait on those trips resulted in some epic battles with eagle rays, a carpet shark and one random monster I never had a chance of stopping. A floated live squid didn't get any attention. Spinners and stick baits didn't see any action either on these morning trips. High tide was the middle of the day, trevalley on bread bait and salmon with metals were on offer off the rocks or the beach. An early afternoon till dusk session (run out side of high tide till low tide) off the rocks with plenty of burley brought some excitement. Plenty of yaccas but surprisingly hard to catch (plenty of competition from rubbish rock species), spinners produced pike close to the bottom. Half a dozen rat kingies spent ten minutes smashing through the baitfish in our burley. They didn't take any lures and the only one hooked was on an unweighted bait and managed to get tangled in another line resulting in a lost fish. Live baits were ignored as well. Still great to watch the kings going nuts at your feet though. All in all a great trip, I'll be back down in a few weeks to settle a score with those kings. Does anyone have a great setup for catching yaccas off the rocks? A Bobby float with a little hook or two worked but you spent a lot of time catching little trevalley, sweep and assorted rock species to get to the yaccas.

The curse of the tiny bream.. Switching to a smaller hook and using pippi or peeled prawn may help you hook whatever the smaller nibblers are. At least you could find out what they are. I've also found a slow wind in can sometimes help you hook up when there is a lot of competition for your bait.

Hey mate, I likewise tried to get some info on nearby wallinga lake and the south coast but was unsuccessful on here. Tabourie would have opened during the big rains a few months back. I've driven past a couple times recently but unsure if it is still open. I too am curious on the condition of these south coast estuaries, in the past they have really come to life after big rain events that open them to the ocean. The nearby areas offer some great beach and rock fishing. Here's hoping the fishing is good.

Hey mate, I've never had them die on the way out, some do live on the hook longer than others though. I usually have my livies under a float when fishing off rock shelves. I'd only use a sinker if it was off the beach or if I'm trying for jewies. Good luck!

Hey Henry, Get your bait up off the bottom to avoid the rays. If your paternoster is tangling it could be because you aren't using a swivel connecting the main line to your paternoster rig? 20lb mono is more than enough for salmon and tailor. My favourite off the beach for sambos and tailor is 20lb braid, 20lb mono leader. 50g metals. Hard fast rewind with a few long pauses along the way to let the lure return to the bottom. Walk the beach and have a few casts everywhere you stop until you find them.