BabySnapperKiller

Great Article! I have the honor to join Derek for two sessions and I was completely blown away: how to cast efficiently, all the different lures, different techniques of retrieval, targeting species. And I have to admit that I am now cannot remembering most of the stuff But I am still fishing, whenever I can, whether it is using bait or lure. I watch videos, listening to how other people fish, I enjoy talking to others on the spot, and really happy when someone lands a fish. "Have faith": Most of people I met, during the conversations I usually throw this question: "where are you based", and most of the time it is at least 30min of driving to the spot, or even an hour, fishing for 3 hours and get nothing, but still trying. Happy fishing!

I am thinking to buy another light reel (My sienna from friend is about to retire) and I was planning to go with Nasci. Do you recon the Carbon X is better? From the web it is now Carbon X 2 And did you get it from Aliexpress?

@Little_FlattyKastKing is growing rapidly these years in China, as for Piscifun I am not familiar with this brand. I think they are mainly targeting overseas market. Thanks for sharing!

Wow what a great 15 min session! Surprisingly seeing that KastKing gear in the Fishraider! Looks like the brand is doing great

I have metal in my box every time then I go fishing. The only successful metal catch was at night at the wharf, where mini tailor starts going crazy and bit everything moving in the water. And agree, metal casting is fun!

This is so true! Every cast I start a count! And sometimes wind is a bit stronger which affects my casting and I wonder how people manage to use lighter gear under that condition. As for current, not much thoughts on that as I cannot see LOL

I used Berkely 3inch minnow guess Ill stick with 1/4 to 1/8 then. My next visit to the tackle shop I shall keep an eye on the hook size for lighter jig heads.

The 1/32oz one feels like just the hook itself lol I will continue to play with 1/4 to practice my casting and line management then. This also feels very tricky, I always stay at one position and keep casting different direction as I thought perhaps I didn't work very well on my lure. Twitching, lifting, flicking

Yes @DerekD! I prefer heavier one as it gives me confident casting range. I probably forgot about feeling the bottom hit these days, I cast and watch the line slack, wait a few seconds and start to retrieve. Didn't manage to land many fish hence asking about whether I should switch to lighter jig heads. And my jig usually get snapped and costs me 3-4 on average in one fish trip

My biggest lure is 3.5 inch atm and I find most of the tackle shops jig head hook size is at least 1H

Thanks for the detailed info @Tommy TJ Does fish usually attack when the lure is sinking or retrieved?(heavier lure, faster sinking). I caught my first flathead by slowly winding. I also find that heavier lure tends to snap more 😭

I'v been into soft plastics fishing these days introduced by DerekD. I bought a bunch of 1/4 1H size jig head and try with different spots. The 1/4 gives me good casting distance and fast sinking. But when I watch Shroom's videos he always use 1/12, 1/16 ones. What size do you guys use?

Yeah that's it! You know every piece of the standstone there! Yeah I can get up earlier, weather looks not promising this upcoming week, I will PM you on your availability

Abused for releasing a kingie??? thats terrible... TBH, I do want to catch big and legal size fish and share with famliy and friends, however, the moment of holding my rod, feeling the fish took the bite and hook the fish measure as much as fun as the rest.

Agree @DerekDOne of reasons of my obsession with fishing is my adventurous personality. Love searching from the Google Earth/Maps and go and explore there.

Nice story and good experiment. I was on params last Wednesday around 8:30am near Medowbank, tide was pretty high and I just caught my first flathead using Lure, 45cm! Catch and release. I was using the 2.5 Berkerly T tait and slow retrieving. I am picking it up! Perhaps I will see you someday in the morning!

I bought some fresh squids from the shop and I was thinking about to use that as bait and see what I can caught. As a beginer I find the Milsons Point under the bridge is a perfect spot hence I woke up at 5:30am and arrived around 6, before the sunrise, beautiful weather and plenty of people on the spots, feeling excited. Find myself a location and start prepare the rig, it is always windy there so I kept a distance like the picture, in case cast line in front of others (The first rod is my gear, my second rod where I shot the pic). I brought two rods today. Then a group of 8 folks came, they looked around, decided to fish on my right hand side. Apparently they have more than 10 rods and they need space. And they just place their rod next to mine, less than 2 meters And they snapped my line, and then they moved my rod without my notice while I was finding something in my bag. They use live yakkas and squid, hopefuly they caught something big today. My squid didn't lure anything so I packed and left before 8am, mom is happy for my early return.

Great Post! Lots of big salmons and they are really fighting!

Agree! I find it really easy to make my own kind of sabiki rig, and I prefer use single hook, it takes time to place baits or fish when using multiple

This was a delayed update as I am finally able to sit on my desk. Dec 22nd, 2022 I didn't manage to get the Ajing lure so I went there with my Berkley minnow 3inch one and size 10 bloodworm hook. Got 2 yellowtails using bloodworm hook using chicken thigh as bait, after sunset, fish going crazy and they don't take any baits at all. And I switch to my minnow plastics. Turns out, these fish are completely nuts, you just need to cast and retrieve and they will bite, most of them are tailors (20cm+ only ), and they cost me a few jig heads and plastics. If I sink a bit more to the bottom, I ll get yellow tail, biggest one we got in that night is around 22cm. Then I tried my lures from my Berkley beginner pack, just cast and retrieve, and I easily get hooked by tailors. They are completely mad! 20cm+ tailors, I probably hooked around 15+ of these How tailor bitted my minnow I will try and see if I can upload the video I shot, tons of fish down there, I also saw a big one, could be jewfish? not sure how to fish that

Thanks Derek. Looks like Ajing lure is the way to go. I ll see if I can find that in my local tackle shop.

Hi, anyone has recommendation about fishing yakkas using lures? plan to head to mid harbour wharf tonight, not sure if they take plastics

Soft plastics on whiting, amazing! well done!

This is a delayed report as I was fully occupied by the work and family. Big shout out to @DerekDfor his kindness and efforts to go through all the details about lure fishing. This is the second session I had with him and he has shown me all the basics needed. Details Arrived at around 7am in the morning near the bridge. Using the new outfit I got as recommended, start with soft plastics, learn from different jig heads and plastics. After putting the lure on, Derek start demonstrating how to play with this lure, and on his second cast, he got a bite! As part of the session, Derek gave me the rod and wants me to feel and retrieve properly, and I was too dumb and lost the fish "Don't worry if the fish is off the hook, they are probably still out there", said Derek. And he casted again, and get hooked, and he pulled it up. Such a decent size flattie! Next, Derek shows me the heavier gear, and how to play with each different lure: squid jigs, suganpen, metals, GT needle, stickbait, .etc Such a great experience! Apologise that I cannot commit for a full day, and the pie is really tasty! Really appreciate everything from Derek! PS: My first lure fish is a baby snapper

Great photos. The kid is having fun!