Divey

Hi Roberta, I have been busy renovating a bloody bathroom. No fishing Pete's method of fishing the corners without a float is something he is a master at. He's perfected it. He never ceases to amaze me how he can catch big fish so close to himself whilst wading in the water. I have fished with him using that method and it feels just amazing when the fish take off with the bait and there is no float to look at. That's good news that the cabbage is going great guns for you. Good Luck, Lindsay.

Hi Roberta, How did the cryovaced (spelling) cabbage turn out? Lindsay.

Top fish there Sails. Congrats. It seems as though the 43 cm is the norm this year! check out this link below for resizing your photographs, http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm Regards, Lindsay

Well done roosterman, they are real healthy Blackfish, they are so fat. I noticed the other day when I was cleaning a few of the blackfish that we caught at Narrabeen, that some of the fish had noticable sections of white fat attached to the stomach wall. Regards, Lindsay.

Well done Live bait, Has anyone ever noticed or is just me. I reckon that when a blackfish gets over the 40cm mark they tend to change shape and take on more of a drummer looking appearance. And when you look at the photograph that Live Bait has given us you can see what I mean. Regards, Lindsay.

That's a fantastic haul fellas. Well done. Were they biting on cabbage or weed? The fish we caught yesterday were extremely timid and were just sucking the baits really softly. You could hardly tell when a fish was lining the bait up. I much prefer it when you're looking at your float and disappears right before your eyes. I just love that! Also, looking into the sun yesterday arvo was a real pain. Regards, Lindsay.

Mate, I'm pretty sure the fish will end up on a plate. After Peter caught the mullet and we all had a good laugh, Peter said that it was his wifes favourite eating fish and that she'd be pretty pleased with his effort. Regards, Lindsay.

Well, the Blackies were not on the chew as they were yesterday. Three of us fished 2 hours for a total of 8. Not good at all. But, the highlight of the afternoon was Peter wrestling with this mullet he picked up on a piece of cabbage! Peter with his hungry Mullet. I reckon we might try the blackie gear with some bread as the mullet were jumping all afternoon. Lindsay.

That's strange, the fish that Peter and myself caught the other day were full of really fine black stuff that looked like paste. Bloody horrible actually. I reckon they would have been very happy to see a nice succulent lump of cabbage floating in the water. Regards, Lindsay.

Hi Roberta, About three years ago when I first started fishing with Peter and a few other very experienced blackfish fishermen at Mona Vale, I very sneakily bought a bottle of that very special ingredient, 'Aniseed oil'. You know what? It's only good for refreshing your goodies pack after a pelican shits on it. And let me tell you, if your hang your gear on the pole at Mona Vale Swimming Pool, it's only a matter of time. Regards, Lindsay.

luderick -angler, There are a group of blokes around the Mona Vale area that tend to do the same thing with their fish as I have previously explained. The photograph of the fish ready for the refrigerator are exactly that, unscaled. We don't do anymore. As I said, the next day or the day after that we fillet and skin them. After you fillet the fish we slice out the rib cage with a really sharp knife taking the black lining with it. You will notice that the fillets are so much easier to skin with the scales on rather than a scaled fillet. I can remember years ago my mother mentioning something about iodine flavour in whiting fillets and blackfish fillets. You know what I reckon......it's an old fisherman's wifes tale. Regards, Lindsay.

Hi All, I was going to fish the high tide for Blackfish at Mona Vale today and I was a little amazed at the swell that had decided to move in during the last two days. The waves coming over the platform would have made it quite dangerous just attempting to get some cabbage and weed for bait. So, later on in the morning, I gave Luderick59 (Peter) a call and we decided that we would target Narrabeen Lakes again after the very successful fishing afternoons had by Peter and Roberta last weekend. I went down to Mona Vale at 1.30pm to get some bait and I was able to get some cabbage and weed for Narrabeen. Met up with Peter at 2pm and began fishing. There was not much happening for the first half hour and things started to fire up. On two occasions, Peter and myself had hookups at the same time which would have looked great from the shoreline. We had a great time and finished at about 4.40pm. I was very impressed by the size of the Blackies that are coming from the lake. Anyway, I forgot to measure the largest fish, but, you can see a 300ml steel ruler in the photograph. They're fat little buggers eh! Ready for the fridge. We tend to prepare our blackfish like this and then either tomorrow or the next day fillet and skin them. Good Luck and regards, Lindsay.