AlbertW

Great fish and awesome camera quality! If you wouldn't mind could you let us know the general location?

@DerekD I have found some american ultralight rods going up to 12foot, I'll send you a pm if you want the links

Looking good Hilly!

That's a stonker trout. Well done!

A limited time collaboration between Jackall and cup noodles (The instant noodle brand) They’ve showcased cup noodle inspired pompadours in multiple “flavours”. Sadly, a Japan fishing festival exclusive. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C136lASv3hJ/?igsh=MXB4bnVudHgxdXhsaw== https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1_oycEPC0Q/?igsh=dDlrOGsxMTBsa3pt

I'm just grateful for all the great people I've met fishing @big Neil (that includes you haha). I don't reckon I can name another hobby/passion where it can land you in a strangers boat at 4 o'clock in the morning even though it's the first time you've met them.

Good on ya Pickles, the Jewies have started to turn up in Botany bay as well.

Yep, hopefully a few more outings and then I'll be fine

Yep, got it shipped over from America, it comes as a spin combo by Zebco

Thanks for correcting me Paddy, I've got no knowledge about reef fish as this is the first time I've even seen a groper in real life.

I tie a leader to my braid and on the end of my leader i add my sinker. Then connect my squid jig to my leader with a dropper loop

Hey @noelm I think male blue gropers stay blue but the female ones start to turn reddish brown

How did you attach the sinker to the main line? I usually do a singular wrap uni knot or use a friction lock by running my bottom line through the sinker eyelet multiple times. There are multiple ways you can work it, I mainly use a smaller sinker, around the size of my pink maybe a bit bigger depending on the depth. This allows you to find the bottom, work the squid jig normally and allow you to deadstick it. Hope this helps! Albert

When trying to grasp the depth of a new location the paternoster rig works really well, also for cuttlefish which in my experience feeds a lot closer to the bottom and are usually the suspects that eat stationary jigs.

The groper!

The banjo I landed

Look at that bend! 👀 👀 👀

Hey all, Went out the weekend before school started again and managed to snag a ride in my mates boat. We had a later start, launching at around 7 am after the usual boat ramp had been closed due to an accident so we launched off Roseville. Headed out towards the heads and started with at a reef nearby. My mates and their dad mostly fish bait off the reefs but after being cold turkey with bait for about a year I decided to only switch over when I couldn’t catch anything. I had brought along my shimano jewel snapper rod paired with a 5k and a 2.5 foot American 100% fibreglass ice fishing rod paired with a 3k. I started off with the ice rod just for fun but didn’t except to hook up first cast after dropping down a 3inch slim swimz in space guppy. Felt very solid and peeled drag for a bit but spat or pulled the hook. I kept on lifting the minnow off the bottom and letting it sink back whilst my mates started to pull in smaller reef fish. Suddenly on the drop the rod loads up and started peeling drag. The fish hooked was solid and felt so heavy that I fought I snagged the bottom until it started running. Started pumping it up and after 10 mins of fighting it I managed to pull up a freakin’ banjo ray. Had a few laughs and snapped a pic before chucking it back in. We moved spots and drove to a reef way off manly beach and I stayed with lures. My mates then started pulling in bigger fish such as wrasse and sweep whilst I was getting nothing on jigs, plastics or vibes. And to make it worse, with it being my first time that far inshore and 3rd time fishing off a boat I got pretty sea sick. It started off with a slightly sore stomach but as it got worse I couldn’t take it anymore and just sat down whilst the others fished. They then pulled in the first blue groper of the trip and after that more started to roll in. There was even a singular tiny rat king landed which momentarily cured me off my seasickness for about 5 mins. Then I decided to just make myself let it all out as my mates were saying it would make me feel better afterwords. It was like nothing i had ever experienced before and left my throat sore for the rest of the trip. I finally started to dabble in a bit of bait again on the ice rod as I still wasn’t well enough to fish lures again and managed to land a groper as well. We then started to head back as the wind started to worsen when I had the brilliant idea of trolling some deep divers on the way back. We kept hooking up on the troll and after making my mates dad drive back and forth a couple times (each time saying it was the last time but then hooking up again we finally headed back in with 5 more bonito in the esky. We got back to my mates house and distributed the fish, with me taking a groper and some smaller reef fish. We had actually bagged out on groper after an hour and landed 6 good sized groper that trip and a ton of smaller reef species such as the earlier mentioned sweep, wrasse, leatherjacket etc. All in all, the seasickness was a bit of a pain but the amount of fish we got was worth it. Cheers, Albert

A lot of fisherman on social media have also reported a lot more sharks being caught and sighted in middle and sydney harbour, one going 3m when measured boatside.

Yep, gonna use the 3 inch for manly as it only has tiny bass and 4 inch for the Nepean or Wyong river

Good stuff @TheFishyFisherman, it’s great when persistence pays off!

Good stuff Hilly! Might have to try the smaller version for bass. Thanks for the sneak peak earlier haha

Thanks for the vid Derek! The guy that made the video has a lot of tutorials on his page and I always seem to find one of his when I'm doing some research.

Well done @linewetter , the first of many!

They’re there, probably just not active or you just didnt find them.