linewetter

Well deserved Derek! You have given way more back to the overall fishing community with not only your articles and your time, but also inspiration and encouragement for others to teach the next person over a thing or two even if not an expert. The latter being the unseen bit but a big benefit that has definitely made me feel more comfortable with starting that initial conversation with others.

Keep on trying man. I’ll say that there are also times where I’ve caught a good amount of fish in a short period and times where I’ve gone fishing for several hours with no fish, so time out isn’t everything either. It just depends on if the fish are there in the first place and if they’re hungry for it. I’d go to the same spot everyday for an hour after work and some days it was non stop action and other days not even a nibble. It could be that the fish weren’t feeling safe enough to feed or maybe the pressure wasn’t right or maybe they were already full. But that’s all part of the fun of fishing 😁 wouldn’t be as fun if it was guaranteed fish every time

Hey man I have been hearing from @DerekD about you often whenever we chat and he mentioned we should get a conversation going 😃 I will PM you and get it started, I don’t feel like I do much different than everyone else so I feel like my success is primarily due to the amount of time on the water (several hours at a time when I can get it) but I’ll share what I know even if I think it’s stuff everyone else does

Had a change of plans tonight and was able to fish after an early dinner. I sent a text to my newfound night fishing buddy @Mike Sydney to see if he was heading out for the night and that he was. We met up together in Drummoyne and both tied on a Zman Slim Swimz in Greasy Prawn coincidentally. I like to think just a case of great minds think alike 😁 First few casts both of us had some nibbles and interest but no hookups. That...was the end of the action for a looooong while as we walked around casting. We were both super excited at first at the instant action on arrival but it just disappeared as soon as it came. I swapped from soft plastic to crankbait back to soft plastics while Mike switched between plastic shapes. Even so, we had no action. We walked to a different part of the bay where Mike told me the story of catching his biggest flatty at and started casting around. It wasn't long before Mike hooked onto the star of the night: The curse is broken for one of us!!! I started casting around hoping for a fish next. We finally found where the fish were hiding out because there was interest and tugs, but just weren't hooking up well. After a few dozen more casts, it was time to Mike to go. I walked him back to his car since I was going to leave too. On the way back to my car, I had a couple of casts too...which turned into me standing there next to the car determined to catch a fish. I could hear the fish now splashing, I could feel the fish HEADSHAKES on the other end of the rod, everything but actually hooking onto a fish. It was like the fish were taunting me and goading me into doing just one more casts and I kept falling for it. I kept casting and casting thinking "ok this'll be the last one then I really gotta go..." but then I'd feel the fish biting the tail of the paddletail and shaking it around and it'd entice me to cast again. After what was probably three dozen casts, I finally stopped and packed up my stuff. We are no longer the donut boyz, it is just me now, singular donut boy

Let's go!!! Congratulations man! I was happy for you when I read your text of the flatties but didn't know it was your first flatty on plastics! Man how good does that wriggler look too? One of many many more fish to come I am sure of it.

If you just want to catch anything at all, then wharves are pretty good for yakka at night. I see them all the time especially if you burley up. When I got bored I would tear the bread super small and toss it at my feet and literally see dozens suddenly show up.

Very good info! Especially about leaving the bail arm early on the Texas rig. That is something I hadn't thought about as a workaround to let the sinker sink first without it sliding straight to the hook. Going to try practicing rigging weedless (biggest weakpoint at this point) then trying out both the Texas rig and Carolina rig. The drop shot rig though I'm imagining using maybe off a wharf or somewhere that it can be put down vertically - that'll be my first place I was planning on testing that one out. It looks like the Carolina rig will be the go to for me for a better unweighted presentation but the Texas rig for more snag proofing. Thanks again for sharing 😁 Will also try the hook sizes you mentioned for the 2.5" plastics since I already have those in possession as well

I started night fishing recently with the hour change and it being dark much earlier now. I find it hit or miss so far. Even going to the same spots at the same times, sometimes I can catch a good amount of fish or get a lot of interest and then other nights it's just nothing at all. When it used to get darker later though, I did notice that the bite would die down for me as soon as it got dark compared to when there was still light out - this was a consistent observation as I would be fishing the same wharf, using the same bait (bread), casting in the same area day after day for weeks. When the sun was setting, I would still get good interest and decent sized fish, but when it turned dark, it went dead or the interest would be infrequent in comparison. But with lures, I feel like I have more times where I've had interest at night funnily enough in comparison to bait.

What a killer sunrise! Some nice fish caught as well. How do you plan to cook up the flathead and kingy?

Went out fishing tonight since I could be out later without worrying about work tomorrow thanks to Anzac Day. The plan was to fish for a bit then potentially meet @Mike Sydney tonight for the first time and to target big tailor on topwater together. Very strong winds tonight at around 35km/h at the peak and pretty choppy water in the harbour. I hit a couple of the bays close to home with soft plastics but had no interest. Brought out ol reliable white bread and still no interest. I was having a hell of a time with tangles and ready to call it a night after a couple hours of no interest, literally sitting in my car about to hit send on a text to Mike that I was calling it and had my key in the ignition ready to turn...when I get a call from Mike that he was available earlier than expected and ready to fish. That call turned my night around and I was no longer feeling defeated! Went to our agreed upon meeting point and did some chatting while I spent the longest I ever took to tie on heavier leader in anticipation for the tailor. No joke it literally was taking me like 10 minutes to tie it on because I kept losing line between my fingers for some reason. I'm blaming the wind even though we were pretty sheltered 😄. With expectations of choppy water due to the wind, we both went for subsurface lures at first but the water on the Parramatta River was surprisingly calmer than we both expected considering the wind forecast. This lead us to put on some poppers and Mike let me borrow a Halco Roosta Popper I think it was - never used it before but damn it makes a nice splash. Mike had some really big splashes and we saw swirls at our feet and fish in the water but alas we both came out with no fish on the other end. But tonight the fish was a secondary thing for me - I really came out to meet Mike in person and really glad I got to meet him. Really nice guy and enjoyable to be around, and looking forward to more fishing sessions in the future 🙂. May have come away with no fish tonight, but did come away with a new night fishing buddy ☝️

I have yet to try any but from viewing the setup, it seems like the drop shot setup lets you suspend the lure & give it a longer drop better than the Carolina rig since the weight comes after the lure. I'm thinking in my head that with the Carolina rig, because the lure is behind the weight, it's going to not be as fluttery since the weight in front kind of dampens any hops you give it. But I'm going to give both a shot in terms of seeing how they compare when I can. I could be totally wrong and the Carolina ends up looking how I want it to.

Those are some awesome pictures in that report. I'll admit, I'm surprised by the quality of the photos - super clear all things considered from back then (though it's not that long ago really). Did Han and Juul ever make it down to Sydney and fish with you or did you guys end up keeping in contact? I've never seen a hook like that before like you've linked. Looks like may be a little hard to get in Aus or at least for a reasonable price...I'll see if I can get some stateside. From reviews, definitely seems like those stand out hooks work well for improving hook up rates on a drop shot setup.

Interesting, I will give that one a listen. I've recently started listening to that podcast more and more but haven't listened to that episode yet - see it just came out a month ago or so. Thanks for linking it!

I will give that a shot! I have a pack of the power minnows already, so just have to get the hook next time to try it out. I’ve picked up on a couple things so far from watching videos - black and blue seems like a very popular soft plastics color there but not so much here it seems

Oh yes, the three setups are all the rage in America. Very popular over there, jigheads are too but I see those three setups come up more on social media from America. Ever since getting more into fishing, I’ve become interested in seeing what’s popular in other countries too, fun to see the different ways we differ even though we’re all out to catch fish.

Haha Derek did mention you were the go to person to ask for Texas rigging so was keen to see your input as well. I remember reading you mentioned about being able to mix/match various weights easily and that's what sold it for me. I have a small stockpile of jigheads in the weights I use but can get pricey if losing them often so was interested in Texas rig to save some money and have a more flexible option. Think I will try out both rigs at this point in the future and see how I go. Carolina rig, you're right, wouldn't be using a heavy sinker anyway. Just have to make sure there are no sharp points on it from the pouring process and probably won't be too bad after all. What are your go to plastics & sizes and accompanying hook size when targeting the typical bread and butter fish like bream or flathead? I had a lot of trouble with rigging a grub on the EWG hook, so good to know maybe I wasn't the sole reason why it wasn't working out 😅

Agree with @frankS, I had the 'vid before and it hit me like a ton of bricks too. I thought it was going to be just like the flu for me too since I'm in my late 20s but never felt worse. Get lots of rest and stay hydrated bn! The fish'll be waiting for you on the other end of this all 😁 If you end up having throat issues, I found that swallowing honey actually helped me quite a bit, never really believed in it before but my partner insisted and I tried it.

So I've read a few posts around here about people using the Texas rig and recently saw @DerekD using the Carolina rig a month or two ago on a trip out together. I was familiar with the terms but wasn't until I saw him using it that I got more interested in the setup and doing more research. Seeing the unweighted presentation appealed to me a lot, but I soon won't be able to fish for a little bit and unable to do my own experimentation until afterwards so wanted to see if anyone had info to share. Pics of the rigs for anyone reading that is unfamiliar, though I'm sure there are variations to what is pictured even. This was just the first one that caught my eye since it had both in one picture. A lot of info online when I tried searching about this seems to refer to much heavier braid (20lb-60lb braid) than what I'm using (6lb braid) so wasn't sure how applicable what I was reading was. Questions as follows: On the Carolina rig, my concern is bullet weight being too abrasive against the lightweight braid and wearing it down and weakening it. Is this a genuine concern? If so, how to get around it? The best alternative I can think is to do hook -> leader -> barrel swivel -> leader & bullet weight -> barrel swivel -> braid. But if that's the only alternative, will forgo the rig altogether because that's a lot of weak points for one rig. For Texas rig, is there a technique for positioning the bullet weight when it's in the water? It's free sliding, so how do you manage where the weight is on the line? I'm assuming when you lift/twitch/hop the lure, the weight is just going to make its way down to the hook and stay there but I could be wrong as I haven't tried it yet. If it is on the hook, how do you get it to get away from the hook to present an unweighted lure? If rigging weedless, what would be the ideal hook size for 2.5" plastics? I bought some size 2 Gamakatsu EWG hooks to try out (similar hook size I use for jigheads generally speaking) and at least for 2.5" plastics, it didn't seem the ideal size. I'm also quite interested in the drop shot setup having seen this video demonstration between the jighead vs drop shot. The drop shot looks 1000% better to me than jighead and much more realistic, but also a little more complicated to tie for me so it is a third place contender for now. The additional benefit I can see to the drop shot is that if you get snagged, you only lose the sinker and get your hook and plastic back. The main dislike I have with using jigheads currently is when doing any hops, I just don't think it looks very natural just like it's shown in the video. It obviously works still because people catch fish that way and I do too, but has been something I've been looking for alternatives to for a little bit now. I've also read that fish will eat head first and hit jigheads on the drop. Thinking with the unweighted presentation on all three rigs, especially with the drop shot, you might get the benefit of constantly being on the drop since it'll slowly flutter to the floor with every twitch, but you still get the benefit of casting range with the weight separated from the hook. Maybe it'll result in more hookups for me since it'll give a better entry point for the fish to attack vs when head of the soft plastic is constantly on the floor with jigheads. Drop shot rig setup:

Great rec! I’ll have to see if I can find somewhere to try the diff sizes out. I have a pair of similar gloves for sun protection but really thin for the summer, so no warmth benefit. Specifically bought them because they also had the thumb and two fingers exposed for tying knots. I like that the Daiwa ones you mentioned have a Velcro fastener at the bottom it looks like, my sun gloves are just slip on/off which makes taking them off only slightly annoying and wishing I had the Velcro securement instead.

Next time I’m up early again, I’ll hit ya up again to see if you’re fishing and don’t mind some company 😄 I actually really enjoyed fishing that early, seeing the sunrise and all was quite nice, just have to look for some suitable gloves that still allow dexterity because my fingers were freezing.

Yesterday was quite a long day, starting at 3am. I woke up wide awake and could not go back to sleep and after two hours, I decided to just get up and go fishing. I sent a text to the only person I know who would be fishing this early (@Little_Flatty) and asked if he wanted company since I was headed out his direction anyway. I actually never met him before but we had exchanged numbers a while back with intentions to meet up one day. I packed up my stuff and set my GPS to a point on the map – intending it to be Drummoyne but ending up in Five Dock somehow which lead me to a bay I had not been to before. I put on a couple of topwater lures hopeful that I would land something on topwater this morning but after an hour of fishing it, no dice. It was quite dark out still so I figured that was probably the reason for the lack of interest. It was around here that @Little_Flatty got back to me and we made a plan to meet up in Drummoyne to fish together. It was awesome to finally meet him, I know he usually fishes pretty early in the mornings based off his fishing reports and I’m not usually up this early so the window of opportunity is slim. But today was just one of those days where he happened to be going out fishing and I happened to not be able to sleep! After no interest with the topwater lures in Five Dock, I decided to switch to soft plastics when I met up with @Little_Flatty. He was throwing topwater, I was bottom bouncing….surely one of us would hook up if there were fish in the water having covered both areas of the shallower water. I had gone with no scent during the first 40ish minutes of throwing plastics and had no interest. I mainly didn’t want to bother putting any on but decided to just pull it out and slather a bit on and throw my lure back in the same area…just wanted to see if I’d suddenly get interest. And that I did….I hooked onto a small bream soon after: Only a few casts after releasing the bream, I hooked onto a small whiting in the same area I had been casting with no interest prior to scent application. It was around here @Little_Flatty switched to a chubby lure I think it was, and applied some scent and ended up hooking up to his own fish as well. Well well well…Definitely not a scientific test by any means, but it does make me feel like it did something since I had been getting no interest up until now. But then again, there are days where I donut even with scent and everything looking perfect. That's just fishing. After some good conversations and untangling a bird from my line (flock flew into the water out of nowhere and into my line before I could retrieve my line fast enough), it was time for @Little_Flatty to go. Soon after, it was also time for me to head to the local tackle shop and pick out my new rod. I had spent quite a bit of time contemplating my next rod and came out with some very specific wants. I had a couple of rods in mind already and after testing them in person and consulting with the generous finance minister, I walked away with a rod slightly above my budget but one I was at least happy with. It is the Palms Pinwheel: I hadn’t heard of the brand before but after talking with the tackle shop who mentioned the brand is known in the shore jigging world and doing some more research on it, I felt more comfortable deviating from the usual brands I’ve been looking at. After purchasing the rod, I was excited and dying to use it. I went straight to a beach north of Sydney with my partner that I hadn’t been to before, but looked pretty good on Google Maps for its sand flats and got to wading and casting. After a couple of casts testing it in action, it was the perfect rod for me and matched exactly what I wanted. It didn’t take too long to bend the rod and properly christen the rod with a fish using the Daiwa Double Clutch. It wasn’t big but I’ll take it! I swapped from the double clutch to soft plastics after hooking into too much weed. The swap to plastics proved to be a wise choice as I happened to find a school of tailor next to some structure that went rabid every time the plastic hit the water. I was okay losing a jighead and plastic to those teeth but losing a double clutch would hurt :’) Follow up cast into the same area got me another tailor immediately: And then another: It was after this tailor that a boat moved in to park and the area was no longer cast-able. The tailor were great fun to catch, even though they weren’t big, I love their aggressive demeanor of snapping at anything that moves. The feeling of instant action and feeling the hits swarming as soon as the lure landed is like nothing else. The original plan was to take home a fish today which is why I made the extra drive out to the beach to fish, but unfortunately time was not on my side today – had some F1 racing to watch so cut it short and ended the fishing there.

Some quality fish you got! Shame about the flatties, never a good feeling losing a fish like that 🥲 especially when they’re big. Also quite a nice rod you got there

Very interesting regarding the weed comment! I have had similar experiences with smaller bream, like around the 20-25cm mark. I had hooked into it and it caused the same sensation of being buried. I thought I had snagged and was pulling and pulling and it would not budge. Only realized it was still on the other side from some head shaking. Eventually got it to lift and when I brought it up, I was very surprised how small it was considering how hard I was pulling to get it off. That explains it

That’s a huge mullet! I always see those big ones always teasing in the estuary, never taking anything. Awesome to see they CAN be caught!

Impatiently waiting for the day I manage to hook into a kingy only a matter of time. Very likely we did go over landing good fish on light gear - think it was the day we went over black fish since we were quite high up that day above the water. All thoughts went out the window this time around though in my excitement 🥲 It is awesome you’re still keeping in touch with Jakob - how cool is that, from a post he made on FB asking about fishing gear to this. Something to be said about human connection here but I’m not creative enough to come up with it!