The Poacher

Well done - your wife will be your boats biggest advocate now. Maybe you can trade it in on an even bigger one!

Hi Brettman, I hope that someone has an answer as I would love to know too. Cheers, The Poacher

Marlin01 - sounds good. Will keep an eye out for a blue Centre Console - I am in a White Haines 5.8 or a white Cruise Craft 625, Steve

Hi All, Bluefin - I am at SWR from April 13 to 22. If you are around would be great to have a beer and share some stories. Marlin - I thought I was keen making 12 rigs ready but I can see that I am slack as you have prepared 60. I must admit, when they are on the chew, you can go through them quickly as one fish tends to stuff each rig. I am not going to use any more red tube. On reflection, if you can troll gang hooks with few bite offs - I am going to make my traces very short - at least when trolling. I dont think Queenslanders understand how exciting a big mackeral or wahoo in NSW can be - they are an awesome fish. Like you say, by then the floods should be gone, and the bigger spots and spanish on the chew. I swear the same fish put on 2 kilos between CHristmas and April. Dogtooth, would love to see your finished rigs if you get a chance to put a photo up. Cheers, Steve

Hi Ray, I have used the ganged hooks before,must mostly on pillies. These days, l just use a single 4/0 suicide for the pillies. I understand the trailing hooks theory you described, and will give it a crack, I think I might rubber band them to the slimies tail so they don't tangle anywhere. With your trolling rig, do you crimp the hooks on? Ie, how do you get the middle one to hold? Also, what strength wire do you use? The addition of the red tube is a new idea. I just did it yesterday and used the red plastic from my beach fishing gear. Thanks for the tips, Cheers, Steve

Here is a better quality photo

Hi Bluefin, In the past, I have used the same rig for both. Last year, we had more success slow trolling away from the main reef. Should I have different rigs?????

Hi Dogtooth, Do you mean that I need more "winds" in the haywire twist, and that I should use .105 guage wire for Spanish??? Please advise, The Poacher

Hi Raiders, The weather is SO bad, and I havent fished for SO long that I am starting to loose it a bit. I am now preparing wire rigs for a holiday that is still 6 weeks away. Anyway, here is a pic of my latest effort - a wire rig for South West Rocks targeting mackeral (either is fine with me). I have actually made about a dozen rigs, from 27lb wire to 55lb with single and double hooks. This is 55lb wire with a treble stinger. Would use this for a big slimey or a small bonito. Any tips on better options? I will try anything. I am about 5 minutes from putting the BASSMASTER game on the Nintendo. THanks, The Poacher

You should look at an Edgewater too. They have a local importer and are great boats.

Great fish, better than a snapper

Sounds like a great day. I've had flathead eat squid before- why wouldnt they. The kings are a bit hit and miss at the moment, The Poacher

One tip might be to try setting a bait half way down. You dont want them right on the bottom - you will get more kings, and less crabs. Cheers, The Poacher

The little stream comes off a decent set of hills and is always flowing. Must be spring fed. It is completely choked with weeds too - but there is so much aquatic life in it. My kids splash around with a little bait net, like the toy ones, and they pickup shrimp, fish ( I think they are those mosquito fish) and all these little swimming bugs. The bass are solid because they have stacks to eat. I am going to catch some crickets and grasshoppers and feed the bass - ie, no fishing for a while. The Poacher.

You are the Fish Hunter!!!! They are the best fish to eat, and off the beach is always an enjoyable way to catch them. Might go down to my local tomorrow, Cheers, The Poacher

Merry Christmas Raiders, Got out again this morning, and had an interesting day. Water was very fishy but nothing wanted the yellowtail for at least an hour. A king smashed my surface bait, missed the hook, and then one minute later swam down to the poor mans downrigger and ate that. He went 73cm, and was FAT. No fish for a while so I changed locations twice. Eventually came across a massive school of salmon. They were in this massive eddy flowing off a prominent headland. The big news however was the 8ft shark swimming around and sucking Salmon off the surface like they were dry fly's!!!! It showed itself 4 times but not long enough to get a photo. We pulled a few salmon but they werent that interested in lures. Then I thought, I wish I had a squid - I remembered that I had a frozen squid I had caught a week ago. So it went 10 metres down on the downrigger and lasted 5 minutes - not a huge fight and up comes an amberjack - was almost a red colour as it came aboard. Happy days. We went home, and then over to a friends property for lunch. He has a tiny creek running through his place that he has discovered contains some bass. Creek is probably too strong a word for it, its more of a storm water drain with the odd pool and tonnes of weed. Anyway the kids wanted to fish, so we dug a worm and ran it under a float. Nek minute, a nice bass comes in. COnfiscating the rod off the kids (dont complain, you know you would have done it too) - I walked 50 meters to the next hole. The creek constantly runs, and the next hole sat below a set of "rapids". First worm in got smashed the moment it hit the water, but missed the hooks. You can see in the photo its a pretty tight location with lots of trees. Anyway, we re- baited and dropped the float down - a decent bass then came up and swallowed the float!! It spat it out, and then swam down casually and ate the worm. It was a great visual fight and I managed to get it out for a quick photo and then a release. Its possible to imagine that this part of the creek, on private property - has never been fished, or at least not for 50 years. No one would imagine there were bass this far up the watercourse, and they couldnt get access anyway. Watching the bass eat the float was probably the highlight of my day- it was awesome, and just watching swim around this tiny pool liked he was the King was cool. He probably was the boss of his tiny pool. All the best raiders. The Poacher.

Thats the Christmas spirit Kel! There have been a stack of shoppers on the central coast - I had a few double hookups trolling out of my kayak during the week. But as you say, all 25cm, Cheers, The Poacher

It was so shallow we had one yellowtail unweighted and the other with a 4 ounce sinker and was slow trolling them. Got one fish on each. The surface takes on the unweighted yakka were unreal. The bonito attacked the yakka - big splashes, lots of noise - it was cool, The Poacher

Merry Christmas Raiders, Had a crack at the kings about 2 weeks ago with no joy whatsoever. But the reports on FishRaider were pretty consistent, and with a good forecast thought we would have a crack yesterday. Went up to our usual spot, a shallow inshore reef, and work it for an hour with livies for one rat. So went to a deeper reef, but no one home. Finally, tried a headland I have driven past for years. There was a school of yellowtail on the surface and it felt fishy. Had a solid king (prob 80 plus) follow the second cast on the soft plastic to the boat, but it didnt hookup. So stuck the livies out. Here is the embarassing part. 10 minutes later I was on the floor cleaning up some of the assorted crap, when I heard a noise that I thought was the bilge pump having a heart attack, but no, it was my rod double over with line crackling off. The fish went nuts, and I was only in 5 metres of water, after a couple of shortish runs I got it up, and was quite surprised to see a relatively modest king (73cm) come up. No world beater but was really happy to catch one after a couple of lean summers on them inshore. 10 minutes later the unweighted livie was smashed off the surface in a spectacular strike. We were expecting a king, but were surprised to see an absolute horse of a bonito come up. He went 73cm as well, but was like twice as fat as the king. He went straight on the ice as well! Was a great feeling to pull a couple of fish just before coming home. Cant wait to get out again. Merry Christmas all, The Poacher

Sounds like you had a good holiday Power Fisher. The trevally is a great fish to catch from the shore - fish like that will give you memories for a long time. I am not sure its a golden, am sure another raider will help you with a positive ID. Merry Christmas, The Poacher

Hi Trung, I love on the Central Coast and I have been to Chipmunks - you deserve every flathead you can get to balance the score after suffering through a kids party there! The Poacher

Hi Joseph, I got the tape measure out when I got home and based on the markings on the photo, it would go 68cm, Steve

Hi Raiders, Saw the forecast for this morning was going to be better than the weekend so I threw the Kayak on the roof last night. Every since I bought the straps that all the surfers up here seem to use, getting the kayak on is so much easier. Anyway, tried some surface lures for 10 minutes but didnt look like seeing a fish. So I put on the Ecogear SX40. Again, no fish. I thought the cooler morning might mean the fish were a bit lethargic. Anyway, put a 3 inch plastic on (Jackall $$$) and slowed it right down. Third cast got smacked - it towed the kayak around for a few minutes then just circled around - took me forever to get it the last few metres (was only 4lb line). Anyway, eventually got the big girl in. THen off to work - what a great way to start the day! The Poacher

Great report (from a local) but cant help you with any advice The Poacher

Sounds like you had fun!