Cameron

Another tip for getting the pigs on the bite is plenty of burley. Get along to your local bakery and see if you can get them to sell you old bread cheaply. My son and I regularly get a big bag full for $3.00. Take along a bucket, mush the bread up and burley heavily when you first arrive, then a handful every so often. Sometimes you will see the drummer up on top smashing into the breadcrusts. It also can attract other fish such as bream, blackfish and trevally. Some days you can burley with bread but catch more on cabbage weed. Don't ask me why it happens that way, but it has been my experience

Thank you for all the reel advice. Having just given my son his 21st birthday present, which was a rock/beach rod custom built on a Purglas blank by our own Allen Glover, he will now have to put a reel on it. Without wishing to sound as though I am Allen's payroll, this rod truly is a thing of beauty. Even if it fishes only half as well as it looks, it will be a huge success. The first time it gets a scratch will cause us both a deep depression! The Baitrunner seems to be close to the top of most lists and would also double as a boat reel for offshore use I looked on the Shimano web site and noted that there was a shallow spooled version of the big Baitrunner, obviously to aid casting distance. As this rod is likely to get a lot of use throwing lures, that might well be the way to go. Maybe with two spools, one braid, the other mono. Dan, thanks for the advice about your Shimano sale. We may see you before long.

I am one of those people who the fishing stores must hate. My gear is predominantly old, tried and true stuff and while it continues to do the job I am loathe to replace it. However here is one for you blokes who know the latest gear and use it. If I was to go out to buy a good quality egg beater for the purpose of throwing baits and lures using 8 - 10 kg braid or mono from a top line 11-12 foot rod from the beach or rocks, which reels should I consider? While I would not say no expense spared, I would consider buying in the higher priced end of the market to get something good that will go the distance. That policy has worked in the past, considering the age of some of my gear! Any thoughts?

Tyrone, Winnie Bay was the spot. It was not an ideal day for drummer or blackfish as there was not a lot of swell, but it did not stop my son knocking off a 2kg drummer, along with some smaller ones. We fish as a team; he hooks them and pulls them in while I get to pick them up and stick them in the bag. The way I am fishing lately, that is how it seems! We also saw a whale jump totally clear of the water about 800 metres from the rocks. That was worth the price of admission on its own! Then to see a fly rod drummer was the icing on the cake. Mind you a drummer meal last night was not too bad either.

My son and I went drummer fishing last weekend on the Central Coast in the normal way ie big bag of stale bread for burley, bobbycorks etc. Down on the rocks we encountered a couple of other guys who were fly fishing for blackfish using home made green flies made up of what looked like fine strands of nylon. I have read about blackfish taking dyed green seals fur flies in the past, but have never seen it done. After encountering no success using the green flies they switched to bread flies ie large white ones and almost immediately one hooked up on a nice trevally. Then to top it off a little while later I looked across to see the same bloke doing battle with something that was giving him a pretty hard time. If it were possible for a rod to be tied in a knot, then this was about as close as it gets! Given that my son and I had been catching drummer on bread, I thought is it possible that a drummer would take a "bread fly"? Sure enough after a titanic struggle up comes a drummer of around the 1.5kg size, a mighty effort on a No8 flyrod. I'm not sure that this is about to change the whole face of drummer fishing, but it was really interesting to see a tried and tested technique for other species working on drummer. I think 9 time of out 10 a drummer would absolutely bury you in the bottom on that sort of gear, but it certainly was entertaining to watch it work on the tenth occasion!

Hooch, We intend to fish Winnie Bay this weekend with a bag of bread, hopefully avoiding the spot where you managed to put your foot. Last time we went there we caught some good drummer but were scorched by more than we caught. Stay tuned

Most situations on the beach can be covered with a 12 footer ( 144 inches on the old scale) although the number of wraps of glass make a difference. A rod designated as a 4144 (4 wrap) will do the job on bream and whiting, whereas a 6144 or 7144 is probably better for salmon, tailer and jewfish. The heavier rods will handle the bigger leads and baits required for these fish. A 4144 is a pretty versatile stick as it can double as a blackfish rod for off the rocks. I prefer to use such rods with an Alvey, so the winch mount is low, but there are plenty available with the higher mount to suit an egg beater. I know that plenty of people use shorter rods on the beach, but I prefer the extra length to keep the line out of the shorebreak.

My son and I generally take off for a week fishing during winter, but this year we cannot manage a week. I was thinking of heading off for a long weekend to a place I have heard about called Sandbar, near Forster. I understand that the caravan park there is on Smiths Lake. I'm not sure whether we will take the boat this time round, but instead hit the beach and rocks. We might throw the canoe on the roof so as to fish the lake. Does anyone know this spot and is able to comment on what we might expect there?

Thank you again for the more recent contributions. Just a couple of further questions Given that I am not the most stable & competent surf ski rider in this country, am I likely to be able to find it difficult to stay upright? There is 100kg of me these days and notwithstanding that I rowed competitively for a number of years, balance on the water is not one of my greatest attributes. In the event that I was to take a swim, how difficult is it to get back on? Also, are there mounting points for safety straps to secure gear in the event of a capsize?

Thanks for the responses I agree that hooking marlin from a kayak sounds like a quick way to get yourself drowned! And that issue of Fishing World certainly is one of the best for some time. At this stage I am not about to rush out and buy one, as I would probably want to sell other toys first such as a canoe and a surfski to fund it, but I am keen to get some practical info about them from people who have actually fished from one. Apart from anything else, fishing at sea from a kayak down at water level right at the moment is a job for eskimos,not 58 year old blokes who like to stay warm. I will make an effort to watch the television show that features the kayak.

Palm Beach is usually a good bet for salmon, particularly up towards the northern end. Look for a good gutter or a hole adjacent to a sand bank and fish either the change of light or change of tide, or together if they fall that way. I just might dust off my wetsuit and have a crack at them this coming weekend.

I recently read an article in the latest Fishing World magazine concerning a bloke who caught and tagged a marlin while fishing from a kayak offshore from Jervis Bay. While that sort of stuff is a bit over the top for me, I am interested in finding out more about the kayak in question. It is called a Hobie Outback and is propelled by a pair of underwater fins operated by leg pedals, rather than by a paddle as a conventional kayak would be. There was a write up about these kayaks in the June edition of Fishing World. Does any of our group have one of these, or know anyone who has one? It looks like a useful way of getting at the fish, particularly in those spots where it is difficult to get a boat there.

The river mouth bar is, as stated by others, a nasty place to be in other than larger craft, and then you need to know what you are doing. The Back Creek access is much better, but you still need to be careful, particularly when the tide is out. Try to come back when the tide is up because it is not difficult to hit bottom at the mouth of the creek. Others on this site may tell you about having to spend the night out on the bay being tossed around because the bar was too dangerous to cross!

And a great fish to eat as well; the black ones, not the silver ones. Now if I could come up with a technique for winching them out when they hook up on my blackfish gear, I would be a happy man.

Tim, Remind me to bring my GPS next time we go out and we can test it. Given the number of fish you are catching lately, the boat would be flat out making 5 knots on the way home Cam

Tim, Its the old story; no reward without effort. Made me feel cold just reading your report, particularly the bit when the fog moved in! I would have loved to have been there, but did not get back until after 6.00 pm and then had reports to write! But as they say, there is always next week. A 4kg tailer sounds pretty spectacular. I saw a mate catch one that big on Fraser Island some years ago, but have never sighted one like it around Sydney. Cam

Tim, I would not recognise it. Its a credit to you and must have taken a few hours to get it looking that good. And what a way to christen it with a 30 lb jew! Cam

Tim, See how your luck improves when I am not in the boat with you! Well done. Getting my daughter to come fishing with me would be a feat in itself. Cam

You should be able to get hold of a map from the National Park people showing the Steamers beach track. From memory it gets pretty steep down at the beach end but is well marked. There have been articles written about it in the magazines over the years. I can drag one out if you like. More recently than my trip in there on foot, I have been there by boat and trolled up heaps of salmon & tailer.

My daughter is on notice that any boyfriends must be able to fish, catch beachworms, brew beer, enjoy rugby, haul up anchors and generally be able to make themselves useful on board a boat. Any shortcomings in any of those areas automatically disqualify them from having anything to do with my daughter. Any boyfriend who misses my fish more than once with gaff or net is skating on very thin ice with me. Some people say that I am a hard and demanding man, but I do not agree.

I am also with Suncorp, but I used to work in their Banking Division. I have never had a boat claim, but they performed faultlessly when I suffered storm damage to the house recently. That is the real test of any insurer.

Just a further thought about sinkers on blackfish rigs. I find that keeping the sinkers on the line to a minimum works best. If you need to weight the float so that it is easily pulled under, wrap bigs of sheet lead around the bottom of the stem of the float. All you really need to see of the float is the top of the stem.

Jethro, This is off the topic a little, but hearing about your grandfather's exploits at Yellow Rock gave me the shudders. Yellow Rock would have to be the most dangerous fishing spot in Sydney, with over 100 fatalities recorded there over the years. I have not heard of any deaths there in recent days, but back in the days of the sewer outfall from the shore, it was bad news. I am glad that your grandfather survived it because otherwise there may not have been a Jethro!

Jethro & others, Via other searches on the net, I have managed to get in touch with a very helpful fellow from Launceston who is supplying me with step by step instructions on how to renovate split cane rods. I will put this up when I get a chance. It seems that this has struck a chord with a few of us who have old cane rods sitting in the shed or garage.

I really seem to have started something here. The "split cane club" has come alive! Seriously thought, they are things of beauty when restored. It seems that in America plenty of people are still buying them new in preference to all the modern materials, as trout rods. Some of the American web sites are fascinating to read.