werris

Saw a photo on social media of a kid I know from Narrabeen/I used to coach his brother. "Tommy" caught a 22kg jewfish earlier this week at night. Released it too.

North or South Curly?

I think it will be a late season run. The late start to summer has confused the hell out of flora and fauna alike. Things should stabilise by mid February.

"Servo" prawns are a rip off. Last time I got them (a very long time ago) they were $5 for 200 grams. That's $25 per kilo. Even Coles and Woolworths prawns are cheaper for much better quality bait.

The only way to stop an occy is to pull its head inside out from the back of the head. You have to slip a finger up in there and just yank. That's if you want to keep it. My old man used to love me when I caught occy for him.

Your a saint mate. Bought a tear to my eye. One day this day will have much more meaning to you than you could ever truly imagine now. And what a fish to confirm it.

I got 5 nice Tailor in about 1 hour last week from middle of Manly....right before dark.

Both of those Flathead are OUT OF CONTROL!!! The first one is the biggest I've seen. Thanks for the pics.

I reckon I could eat all those Whiting by myself...YUM!!!

Those bream love the soldier crabs that you can find by turning over rocks on the rivers edge. I've sat in a canoe, tied to a pylon under the bridge, tossing the bait onto the pylon, and then dragging it off the side and letting it sink along the pylon. The bream were snorting the crabs one night. That time we got 5 in 10 minutes and left it at that.

Anyone surfing that day mate? What a lovely place. I used to live in East Ballina, and surf North Wall all the time. I was too scared to paddle across to surf South Wall though...we used to make a day of it and drive around.

I used to catch more than a few at Manly Wharf as a kid. It used to be great fun watching them stalk the yakka, then seeing their mouth shoot out super fast to engulf the yakka!

In my experience also, Bream love poddy mullet heads and guts. It's usually Bream that send them back to me headless and gutless. Bream love mullet gut.

Same is happening at Manly Wharf atm. I get a muffin from Aldi and go chuck a bit in the water and the Bream go mental. Some of them are huge. But fishing got banned at the wharf years ago. Its' really frustrating because as a kid I used to fish from the same spots I can only feed the fish now!!! Went down and tossed soft plastics towards one school from the little beach next to the restaurants where the net pool is. Unfortunately even with burley from the beach I couldn't get the Bream interested.

I live in Manly. If a calculation was done of how much tourists cost Manly, they'd probably find it's more than they make from tourists! BAN THEM NOW!!!

That's an Avoca Ray Ray.

The straits between Bail and some of the islands around it are some of the deepest in the world. I think the one between Bali and Lombok is deepest. I remember doing the boat ride to Lembongan and the ferry ride between Gilimanuk and Banyuwangi on the way to Gradagan in East Java. Some of the best times of my life. But I was surfing didn't do any fishing. Nearly became bait a few times too. A fishing boat got stuck on the reef at Padang Padang last year, and the crew (Japanese I think) abandoned it. The locals jumped on and stripped the boat of it's catch...hundreds of kilos of frozen Tuna. Great time for the locals up on Bukit Peninsula. I love some of them people so much they are truly beautiful people.

Hi Howard Happy New Year, Very lucky morning for me, especially getting the Bonito fillet after forgetting the soft plastics. Hope to repeat it tomorrow. The Flathead didn't last long...Mum knocked it up for herself Boulibase style. Cheers

I went down to a trusty spot at North Harbour to take advantage of the huge tide this morning. Great decision...it was lively and very quiet with no one around. I went to start to rig up and "DOH!" I realised I'd forgot my soft plastics! Around the same time a bloke who lives in one of the old boat sheds woke up and we started having a chat. He asked me what I was using for bait, so I told him how I forgot my soft plastics but I'd grabbed a bag of servo prawns on the way, and he kindly offered me a lovely salted Bonito fillet he had in the freezer! Next time I go back I'm going to take him a few beers as thanks. I sliced up nice thin lengths of Bonito and rigged up with a small running sinker and 1/0 suicide on my little rod (6lb line) and got bites first cast but missed the fish. Second cast I got a nice little Flathead about keeper size but pretty skinny so I threw him back. Got a squire after that and started thinking "oh well no keeper fish today just a relaxing fish" when bang something hit hard, and off it went against the drag! After a few minutes I spotted the fish and it was a nice Bream but he was giving me hell trying to get him in. The rocks I'd normally stand on were covered in water due to the enormous tide, so I had to maneuver him in and grab a hold of him and luckily I got him first grab. 34mc Bream into the bucket. The Bonito was working a treat for bait much better than prawns would have...and maybe soft plastics. Next up I got a little Flounder that went back after a photo. Ray has got me addicted to taking photos of fish...I tried to get some of him in the water after I let him go but the photos didn't work. Next bait I got a little hit and swim and let the fish have a bit of line then struck...nice 46cm Flathead. As the tide peaked the fun slowed down then stopped and I thought I may as well pack up and be happy with what I had. I persevered for a bit longer with a few more baits, changing to fresh bait when the baits were getting a bit ratty. Just as I was thinking of reeling in and packing it in I got a few more little nibbles and then nothing. Left the bait for a bit then started reeling in and felt a bit of a weight...then realised it was another fish. As it got closer I could see a nice Flounder through the sunnies and thought "YUM!". Got him in and decided to pack it in...33cm Flounder. A great little morning for me as I really do not fish much anymore due to work and other commitments. Can't wait to go again tomorrow morning I love the holidays. Sorry to ramble on about a few bread and butter fish.

Went down to Manly Beach last night (North Steyne) about an hour before high tide, looking to target some Tailor with ganged hooks and some mullet fillets. Got this fella above (29cm about to go in the oven tonight) in the first 30 minutes, then sporadic bites from more Bream I think, but...I failed to hook up on any more, and no Tailor or even a Flathead. Not really a lot of action I guess I was hoping for a bit more. Put in about 2 hours and then went home to put my feet back up and continue the holiday DVD fest. Another bloke with worms got one very nice whiting looked to be about 35cm. Too much work and not enough fishing lately...I'll have to put in some time to get a feel back for beach fishing. It's a bit harder to hook up than in slack water etc. I can't complain though I just had a lovely fresh oven roasted Bream with potatoes for dinner.

Nice. That's what my sink looked like last night...if you take away everything other than one bream.

Last time I fished Manly Lagoon with live poddies all I got was bream. Funnily enough if I didn't hook up the poddy would come back with no head/no guts. Maybe they were small bream smashing your poddies today?

Great stuff. I live at Manly I wish Manly Lagoon was clean/that good. I'll have to make my way up over the next few days. Thanks for the great report.

Years back I surfed a place called Long Point down in the Caitlains, about 3 hours past Dunedin in NZ. It's really not that much further and your at the bottom of NZ. It was a wild place...big waves, crazy reef/point break with really long thick bull kelp everywhere. After a while a few seals swam in. I found it a bit of a novelty, but then a huge bull seal appeared too. I still didn't think much of it being from Sydney, it was basically swimming around in the line up. Then one of the Kiwis that was also surfing got a bit closer, and I pointed it out. He put his feet up on his board straight away. I didn't really get scared that day till I got home that night and read up on the area where I surfed...it's one of the worlds recognised Great White Shark areas like South Australia, Southern California etc. I'll never forget that day. The bull seals head looked to be about 100kg...just what was sticking out of the water. It was HUGE. But I never got scared of it...

Gday mate, nice surprise/great fish. Cheers