sashkello

Oh man, just proves that expensive good-looking lures which mimic prey with scientific precision are absolutely not necessary to catch some decent fish. Well done! And I'll be honest, I would throw that stuff in trash without a second thought. Which shows that I'm just a know-nothing beginner when it comes to lure fishing. Minimizing the amount of stuff to buy is kind of one of my goals, so I must say what you're doing is really inspirational!

Huh... I guess there is more than one person with decades of experience fishing around North Sydney who frequented Bradleys Head in their youth, encyclopaedic knowledge of rockfishing spots and a particular interest in blackfishing... Must be your long lost twin brother. Thanks for the info, will report back when I try it out!

Yes, that's where I got that trevally on my way back! I think with how deep the underwater rocks are, at high tide there must be quite a few decent spots without much snag danger. Sounds kind of extreme, but I won't resist checking it out! Do you know if the rocks can be accessed from the south without hopping from the beach? Looks like it's less than 50m from the service road, however I didn't see any climbable gaps in the cliffs... And BTW, I think I met you at Bradley's Head about a month or two ago. Got me quite interested in black trevally, will give it a go sometime

Hi All! So I went out today to explore a new (for me) spot and headed to Cobblers Beach over at Middle Head. I arrived when the tide started to go out and quickly put up my surf rod with squid strip and a pilchard. In parallel I had a smaller rod with prawns. Well, all my bait kept getting stolen within 2 minutes and after hooking up two smallest pinkies I ever saw caught I decided it isn't going to work and that I should at least explore the surroundings. I went along the Eastern side of the beach, rock hopping and casting every 20 m or so to see whether the situation is different along the rocks. Well, it wasn't. So I proceeded towards the turn of the shoreline and reached a nice stretch of north-facing rocks. After casting around for a bit I really liked the location as there are quite a few snag-free spots, and rocks seemed pretty safe against the waves. I didn't go further as I was quite exhausted by that point and turned back. Got a barely legal trevally on my last piece of prawn, but decided to let it go to grow a bit more (sorry, no pic, I don't photograph fish I release). In any case, even thought I didn't catch anything to brag about I've put those rocks on my to-do list. The only issue is that I don't think they would be accessible from the beach at high tide, as there was a place where I had to wet my feet, and it was more than 1/2 out by that point. Anyone knows if there is another way to access them? From what I saw, it looks like a possible squid ground as there is a bit of kelp around, and sandy bottom is visible in places. Also unfortunately found a few discarded fishing lines with what looked like blackfish setup. So I guess I should bring mine next time as well... Other than that, if anyone has more info about this location, I'd be happy to learn more to be more prepared next time.

Hey everyone! Planning my first luderick fishing outing here, and was wondering whether there's any sea lettuce on Balmoral rocks? I've been there a few times, but haven't paid attention and from memory rocks there are quite clean...

Thanks everyone! Well, no surprises here Daytime fishos have to fish smarter, that's for sure.

Yeah nah, solunar activity is kinda like astrology. Well, maybe not astrology, there might be some scientifically-justified pattern, but it's way lower than other influences. 1. Dusk / dawn. 2. Tide. 3. Everything else. Plus of course things like surf and wind which fish might not care about too much but which are important for you as a fisherman...

Well, we all know how pretty much any kind of fishing is best at dusk or dawn. There is no question that fish activity significantly shifts when the sun is near the horizon. However, are there any kinds of fishing which are better in the middle of the day, or at least indifferent to it? Off the top of my head, leatherjackets don't really care about time that much. Same for flathead. Luderick is another one which I think doesn't follow this schedule, or at least that's what I've heard from someone. Anything else?

Casting distance will definitely suffer if it's too much below your rod rating. Nevertheless, metals still would cast pretty well, if your rod action isn't too stiff. Halco Twisties and other similar ones are pretty popular for any predatory fish... I think bonnies like those striped Nomad jigs, but I haven't tried that yet... That's just what I saw people are using off the rocks for them.

A short report from my trip to Lemon Tree Passage. Was staying in the south part, opposite Tilligerry Creek. Yabby holes all along the shore, but where I was they were kind of sparse. Still, pumped enough yabbies for a good session. Planned to walk along the shore, but bite was happening within seconds, so just stayed put. Had to walk quite a bit out in the water, as it's very flat and shallow. Was looking for bigger fish, so didn't bother with small hook and expected the bait to be taken off 90% of the time. Got rewarded quickly with this almost 40cm bream on 5-6th cast. After that changed the hook to a smaller long shank because I'm still to catch a legal whiting (never really targeted them before). After two more smaller bream (maybe barely legal, didn't measure, let go immediately), hooked up what felt like a good-sized whiting, but turned out to be just below the limit. After yabbies ran out, switched to plastics (Berkley prawns, paddletails) to try for flathead, but after 20 minutes with no takers rain started in earnest, so I wrapped it up and headed indoors for a nice whole-cooked bream dinner. A word of warning: there were a few rather big (>1m) rays in the water, which spooked me quite a bit. Wouldn't want to hook one of those on light setup (or any setup for that matter), and definitely wouldn't want to step on one.

Are there yabbies then? Can try pumping some for bait... Thanks for the info!

Hi all! Heading to Lemon Tree Passage this weekend for a relaxing stay and wanted to try fishing there, in particular the south side facing Tilligerry Creek. Can venture to Karuah River as well, if it's worth it. No boat, will stay onshore. Apart from walking the coast and casting for flatties any other tips for the area? I guess there'd be some whiting around as well? Would it make sense to take a surf rod and cast squid strips & pillies farther out for something bigger? Or is it all shallow anyway? Cheers!

Hello everyone! I've been trying to perfect my squidding game for the past year and it is going with some success. Recently I wanted to explore different ways to do it and try catching squid off the rocks for a change. I've got quite sick of frequenting popular jetties and Spit Bridge where more and more I find myself shoulder-to-shoulder with noisy crowds, while there are so many stretches of rock which seem potentially holding some squid. I've spent about 10 hours trying all I can think of around Rocky Point Island at Balmoral and a long stretch of rocks to the north of the beach, up to the point where it turns towards Chinamans. The first problem which I have is of course the rocks themselves. After losing a couple of jigs I decided to only cast in the areas where I can clearly see the bottom. However, it limited me to 3-4 spots around the island itself and 2 spots on the north rocks, with the second one being a long walk almost to the limit of where I was able to reach on foot without some acrobatics. My successful outings always included covering the ground casting every 20 meters along the shore until I find the squid, but I obviously can't do that in such situation, and so end up casting for hours in one very small area, which is probably pointless... The second problem is the waves & wind. I've chosen days when the foretasted wind and surf is low, but still the waves are there and it pretty much destroys whatever retrieve you are trying, and the jig mostly just goes with the flow of the current + gets tossed around by waves + gets dragged by the line in the wind. I kind of feel like I have very little control over it. I watched some videos of people rock squidding and the seas seem pretty flat... I don't know if it's just an illusion when seen on screen or whether the video is shot on the kind of day you can get once a month... I mean, yesterday wave height was predicted at 1.2m in open sea, and I have only seen numbers below 1 maybe twice since the start of the year. I've chosen Balmoral specifically because it is not exposed to the elements as much as open-sea beaches - and The Spit is just around the corner after all... Lastly, I've realized that I have not only not caught, but haven't seen a squid in the water not at night or within 1 hour from sunrise or sunset. Again, there are videos of people pulling them out in bright sun, so it must be possible, but I just wasn't able to replicate it... And I'm quite reluctant going out on the rocks at night because I get snags as is, can only imagine what a nightmare can it be when I don't see the bottom... Well, that's my frustration poured out, dealt with that. I'm sure there are lots of experienced squidders here who might have faced same problems and learned to deal with them. Any advice? What am I missing, ladies & gents?

3000 is a bit on a bigger size for this kind of rod and fishing. I'd go with 2500 or 2000. Since my fishing journey started, I find myself gradually downsizing everything instead of upsizing, and in Middle Harbour I mostly use 2-4 kg rod with 2000 reel. It would suit 6-10lb braid pretty well. I don't know about Ultegra, but other two are very good reels for their price, try them out at a real store and see which one you like personally.

When you fish in the surf, salted bait is the way to go because it stays on the hook way better. There is no point in all the benefits of unsalted bait if it got off the hook when hitting water and you don't even know if it's there at all... Sure, use fresh at other times, but I find myself not having any fun when beach fishing with bait which crumbles easily.

Hi all! I've got some leftover squid pieces frozen from my squidding sessions (heads, flaps, other offcuts) and I thought to use them when going out on a boat next time to try and catch kingfish. As far as I understand, they mostly hunt near the surface? Does it mean the best way is to float the bait freely unweighted? Or do I suspend it under the boat 2-3 meters down? Any other advice? Cheers!

That spot is always so crowded, I gave up going there... Never peace and quiet, just people casting over you from all sides. It must be quite overfished. Quite hard to go from the shore as well, due to very strong current - your jigs just get swept along. After sunset you can sometimes see tiny squid under the lights and they would take small jigs, but get scared easily and tbh are so small it's barely worth bothering. Maybe it's better off the boat, but then I see them tangling with people who cast off the bridge all the time and it must be infuriating... Saying that, I always manage a couple of small ones for bait there, but enjoyment is limited due to crowds and rubbish.

Reporting back. Abercombie River around campground is not too shallow, but very sluggish and very murky. No luck there and haven't seen any fish activity at all. With a lot of debris in the water, prime for losing your lures. Other than that, it looked like it would be very fishable on a better day... Campbells River is basically 10cm deep at bridge crossing, even though the flow was good and clear, didn't bother walking along. Oberon lake good as expected, got a 40cm rainbow within 10 minutes and walked away to envious looks of dozen other fishos who were still casting for nothing... Beginners luck...

Regarding colours, yeah, another thing to catch people rather than squid... 90% of the time pure white works just as well as any other (or even better than any other). Black might be better at night. Pink or other bright maybe with a pattern is an option for higher visibility in murky water. If going out in the dark, good glow is more important than colour, so get a UV torch if so and make sure your jigs glow. I'm hardly a seasoned squidder, but all I have ever caught was on the three aforementioned colours, plus red/white half-and-half which is also pretty popular. I've noticed pink sometimes scares smaller squid away, but on the other hand when they seem not to see black/white, pink produced a reaction, but that happened like 2-3 times for me. Would guess other bright colours might work similarly in such situations... But as I said, white should be your go-to and the probability that colour change will be essential is not high... More important is the size actually - don't stock up on those 3.5 giant ones, they will scare majority of squid away. To start, you want to get the feel for it and catch something instead of targeting giants... Get a range of sizes from 1.5 to 3 - any squid would typically take 2.2, even tiny ones, but also you will find that in different conditions you will prefer to use different sizes based on how quickly they sink and where and how fast the current is flowing. Tiny jigs can be used in still water with extremely sluggish retrieve. I.e., if it's shallow and the weed is like a meter down, then large jig will sink too fast and you'll have to pull it at a very high rate, and get snagged all the time anyway. But if there's current, you'll have to use a heavier one to be able to work it properly.... A lot can be said about it, just try different ways and see how it goes at your location. Sometimes you simply suspend it off the edge and they take it, sometimes they will not commit unless you speed it up and make them think it will flee unless they grab it in earnest. For places, they can be found almost anywhere with weedy bottom / kelp forests - just look at satellite images on google maps. If you're looking to go to a pier, then they like structure, and in all likelihood any pier would do. I reckon more important is to cover some ground - from what I've noticed they can hang in water static or move around 10-20 square meters area for hours, so if you cover all area around and get no touches or follows, then move. Take polarized sunnies if it's daytime and you'll be able to see shapes moving after your jig if they are interested. If they simply aren't there, they won't touch the juiciest jig you've got...

Hi all! I'll be heading from Canberra to Oberon this weekend and will surely fish Oberon Dam (and then proceed for Duckmaloi & Lake Lyell), but I also thought to check out whether there is any place I can stop for a quick flick on the way? Looks like the road is crossing Campbells River before entering Black Springs. Is that section of the river next to the bridge fishable? NSW anglers access map doesn't show any access points on it... even though I did encounter some fishing reports from the river (but nothing in past few years). Any other streams I can check out on the way? Cheers!

Never did I have a session when scent produced some bite when there was none before. All it did was give me false hope. Same algo: I start normally, begin losing hope, add scent, still nothing. When I get one squid I typically will get another 2-3 in next 30 minutes, and forget about the scent completely. Oh, and it does give your jigs hard-to-remove unpleasant odour which permeates everything, so there's that...

From what I've experienced - they can show up pretty much anywhere where there is sand+weed (or even in the middle of nowhere), and while it does depend on the weather / tide etc, the element of randomness is very high. If you don't catch anything in 30 minutes, time to move on. If you catch 1, there is a reasonable chance you'll catch 2-3 more within next 20 minutes. At some spots I would see a dozen of them just hanging in water one day, would get one every 2 casts; and then nothing would touch the jig for hours worth of fishing when I come there again and again in hopes of replicating the experience. I spent hours reading about squidding on this forum, watched days worth of videos, went to the same spots in conditions exactly as described, and got absolutely nothing. But along the way I kind of figured out certain things for myself, and I did learn to catch at least something almost every time eventually (and not to be a stubborn idiot and spend hours when I know nothing is there to catch). The key is to relocate quickly if it isn't working, and to not go in conditions which spell misery. Always have a backup plan - take a second rod with a bunch of soft plastics or something like that. First off, just look at google maps and figure out locations near you with lots of weed next to sandy patches. Explore first on a bright sunny day to make sure you know how the bottom looks and to avoid snags and shallow water. Get yourself a small (1.8 is OK) jig in white. There is absolutely no need to have 20 different jigs, that's a marketing ploy. All squid I ever caught, I caught on three colours - white, black and bright pink. All those striped, shiny, orange, whatever - I'm 90% sure they would work just as well most of the times, I don't think they are picky, but I just find myself coming back to those three and it does end up working, so why bother thinking about colors when there is simply no big difference? A couple of times I noticed that pink scares smaller squid away rather than attracting them, but on other occasions, they seem to be more excited to attack it. Make sure they glow in the dark and get yourself an ultraviolet torch if you're planning to go out in the dark. Cast along the edge of the weed and maybe over the top if there is enough depth. Talking about depth, it varies by a lot. You can find them in deep holes, or they can hang out meters from the beach right on top of sand. Some people say you should retrieve extremely slow, to be very low over the weed, but I actually found that they are really reluctant to commit unless you speed up a bit. The moment you do, it starts chasing and now grabs it in earnest. So, I do medium speed spin for a few secs, then let it sink, then repeat. Some people heavily recommend paternoster rig, and I've tried it a couple of times recently, but no luck at all with it, even when spinning works well. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or it only works from the boat while drifting...

Can you please clarify what is meant here? Is it a paternoster with one dropper loop and weight at the end? Or you mean in reverse - jig is at the end and weight on dropper loop (I assume it's a long dropper and would only work if there is decent current then?)

Yeah, it surely is way harder than it looks. Haven't caught a single one not for the lack of trying. Quite a few of them on Narrabeen beach, can make them rise consistently, but I always get smashed by waves and either lose them or they slip through... One thing I learned is that tide doesn't matter that much - saw plenty near high tide or low tide. However, for some reason they do get quiet during the very peak of high and low tides. My 2 cents...

Cheers! I'll try it. If nothing, will help at least to see what's going on around