[Mosman Bay Wharf and Clontarf - NEED HELP]

Would they still be around cuz it’s almost winter. The mornings have been like 9 degrees in Sydney. Surprised that we can still catch fish

[Mosman Bay Wharf and Clontarf - NEED HELP]

Thanks!!! I didn’t know you could use surface lures unless u were fishing really shallow water. I though whiting only ate of the ground. Was it a popper or a soft plastic?

[Mosman Bay Wharf and Clontarf - NEED HELP]

17 hours ago, DerekD said:

Those bream have been pretty educated over the years with all the people chasing them. They can be very bite shy until it gets dark and then you have a really good chance with unweighted bread but molded on the hook.

I agree. They wouldn’t really touch my bait until I used my yakka gear which is really light. Does anyone know how to distract the toadies tho? Do I just burly elsewhere to make them go away?

[Mosman Bay Wharf and Clontarf - NEED HELP]

17 hours ago, ireallylovefishies22 said:

Nice job on catching the bream, they can be tricky customers especially around pylons and jetties. While I've never fished Mosman wharf, I've fished Clontarf a couple of times. In the summer you get lots of poddy mullet, whiting and bream up on the flats. chucking out a poddy into the deeper areas will probably get you flatties, tailor or maybe even a kingfish if you're lucky. Last time I went, I saw plenty of smaller whiting in the shallows, but there would be the occasional 40cm+ fish. Using yabbies up on the flats and live poddies in the deeper areas would probably be my go to.

Thanks so much for the info. I’ll wait until the summer for the mullet (live baiting is fun). Whereabouts in the flats is best for whiting? I’ve also heard that there are squid during high tide under the marina.

[Mosman Bay Wharf and Clontarf - NEED HELP]

Hello raiders. I went to Clontarf with some prawns and pillows and fished right off the beach. We fished the big drop off but got nothing (it’s almost winter now) except toad fish so we gave up and went to Mosman bay wharf for the first time. We fished near the cafe (away from the ferry stop) and saw a couple of decent legal bream right underneath the pylons so we tried to lure them out with prawn heads as burly but only attracted the toadies. There were no baitfish around to my surprise so we started casting toward the pylons with little weight to not scare the bream but the toadie would smash up our prawns and pillies before it would reach the bream 🤬. Eventually, my friend started casting out but no hookups and tiny bites were felt. I persevered and painstaking went for the bream, desperate to catch something decent. Used a size 3 hook with bits of peeled prawn but the toadies were being annoying. I put on an extra big piece of prawn on a size 1 hook to target the fan belly leatherjacket that was swimming around but eventually gave up. Just when I’m about to give up I feel a big tug and  wait. It reel my line in but it turned out that a bream was eating it and I unintentionally set the hook as I was reeeling. It was a short fight (lasted about 30 seconds. 😂😅) and had to haul it up because I was standing like 3 metres above water. I was scared of dropping it cuz i had it on my yakka gear but managed to land it. It went in the esky after it was scaled and gutted for dinner. On my last cast, I get my line tangled on some seaweed but the seaweed starts jiggling and I realise that it was the camouflaged fan belly leather jacket that I was chasing before. I jag hooked it on its tail accidentally! I clean it too and then head home. (Surprised that I didn’t hook any of the toad fish there🧐)

Anyway, the leather jacket was a fluke catch so I would like some tips about the spot. Also my first time fishing Clontarf too.

[Advice for Walsh Bay?]

Also how king should my leader be if I were to use live yakkas there for kings or tailor

[Big Fishy At Balmoral]

On 1/30/2024 at 6:28 PM, faker said:

 

May I ask what gear you were using and type of rig?

I used a running sinker with a swivel and live bait circle hook. I just started doing using floats now though cuz I get more fish that way

[Fish ID. (Silver/ Sweep)]

Can they be used as livies? I catch a couple of them at balmoral

[Big Fishy At Balmoral]

*when not then

[Big Fishy At Balmoral]

2 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

Wow caught the Leather Jacket by hand, you are indeed a dedicated fisho, well done!

Yeah!!! The leather jacket skin hurt my hands a bit tho then it wiggles in my hands 😂. The skins too rough

[Big Fishy At Balmoral]

Thanks everyone. Heading out to see why beach today with my shimano eclipse lumo and gonna use beach worms. Hope I get something today☺️. Last time I only got 2 trevally (33 c/m and 35 c/m) and surprisingly I also got a luderick (38 cm). (Casted over the surf cuz I never get anything in the gutters 😭)

[Big Fishy At Balmoral]

16 hours ago, Pickles said:

Great work @TheFishyFisherman, not easy to manage a land based kingie over 65cm and a 73 is a good fish. 
I haven’t heard of “Shuman raider” (not a Shimano?) , but there are a lot of Bonito in the harbour at present and they’ll smash livies or Yakkas (one out under a float or balloon works well too).

Great to see young Raiders posting their catches (please look after the wharf and remove all your rubbish when you leave - I’m sure you do 😊)

Keep those posts coming.

Thanks! Also, I made a typo on the shimano and accidentally wrote shuman. Sorry

[Big Fishy At Balmoral]

Hello Raiders, I’ve only just started fishing with live baits. I went to Balmoral with a friend at about 11 am and started berlying with bread and slapped on some chum (a pudding bait I made with canned tuna and flour) on my Shuman raider. Pretty soon, we had the livie bucket full of yakkas with an aerator going on. We pinned the yakkas on the nose with our circle hooks but then disaster struck! Two greedy cormorants popped up and the birds tried to take our livies. We switched rigs to a sinking one on our rods and wait for the birds to go away. One they were gone, we set the livies out again with the drags loose and waited. My friend then went to the bathroom and left me to look after the rods when suddenly, the drag was screaming and the rod tip kept jiggling forward. I waited for a bit to let the fish run so it could hook itself and then I tightened the drag up a little bit (twisted the drag twice so it would be half tight - half loose). Whatever that was on my rod kept stripping line off the reel and the fishes head shakes almost made me drop the rod. My friend was heading back and as soon as he saw that I was on, he ran to help land it. I reeled in some more and then the fish tried to snap me off from under the oyster covered pylons and then my friend went to the lower part of the jetty and pulled the line and fish up onto land. I couldn’t believe it…… It was our first Kingfish!!! For a year, we’ve been dreaming of catching kings because we weren’t very experienced with fishing with live baits. We measured it (73 cm so it’s legal), bled it, gut it and scaled it and then put it in the esky. After all that, I checked if we had any yakkas left but we had only one. I burleyed again to get the yakkas feeding so I could catch them easily but then a fanbellied leather jacket came and started eating a piece of floating bread near me. It was so close to the surface and I grabbed it with my bare hands! My friend thought that it was probably sick so it couldn’t react in time (I gave the leatherjacket to a man who was fishing near me). I didn’t get a picture of the leatherjacket but I did get a picture of the kingfish.