devoker

I am having decent luck using transparent, bright uv colours such as whitebait, fire tiger, electric chicken on clear sunny days. However, they are getting almost no hits on overcast days when there is very little water visibility. Should I try darker colours or uv colours on such days? What are some of your recommended colours?

Indeed it did. However, it is also worth mentioning that I have been practising a lot. I spent more than 40 hours in the last 7 days fishing, before and after work almost every day. Feel free to call me crazy.

At least you have a boat and not worry about the wind direction and tide so much. As landbased, every night before I think about which spots could be the best and what I would do if the wind forecast was wrong. I often have second thoughts about the spots I chose while driving there. You can just head where ever you want.

I met with Derek yesterday to get some flatties at one of the bays in the harbour. It was low tide so we went to fish off the rocks. We started with 3 inch minnows with 10 g jigheads to cover some distance but we didn't get hits. I wanted to try the new 7 g metals I got earlier and swapped. It didn't take long to hook a 40~ cm flathead and soon after Derek landed a much bigger one. The next few minutes we weren't getting bites, so we kept changing lures. I can't remember if we caught a few more fish in between (probably not legal ones if we did) but I decided to change to my favourite soft plastic which is 2.75 inch white paddletail. While I was tieing the lure, Derek asked if I wanna swap spots and I said why not (Derek might have regretted saying this later 😀). Right after changing the lure, the first cast I landed a small snapper. After releasing it, the second cast I got a hit before it even reached the bottom and came a smaller flathead which was released. Derek was wondering if I could hook 3/3, but unfortunately I casted 5 metres left off and missed the opportunity even though I felt a bite. Then Derek went away talking on the phone while I continued fishing and landed another snapper probably around low 20s. I didn't bother measuring or taking photos of any of them as I didn't want to waste time because bite was non-stop. He had to leave around 6.30 and I got another big bite. This time it was a bigger flattie than the first one I caught and Derek was swearing because he had to go 😀. He was at least happy to have caught the biggest one. After he left I caught another bigger snapper yet it measured 27 cm (not a legal snapper yet so far) and also released but I did take a photo finally with the other flatheads. I kept fishing after and landed a flathead almost as big but again probably a few cms shorter than the biggest one. I am glad that I didn't try to lift this one instead swimmed it close to the rocks and carried up with the swel because right after landing my leader snapped. While I was trying to unhook it, it started shaking its head and lost the jighead on the rocks. It was the same exact lure that caught my first jewie, salmon, and many other fish, so I was very unhappy to lose it even though I am not superstitious. I searched the area for 5-10 minutes but it was so hard to see the white plastic on the oyster beds. I gave up and tied another one of the same but the fish activity seemed to have stopped. I put them out of their misery and cleaned them. Seagulls were enjoying the guts I threw to the sea. After I finished, I took another 5 minutes to search the area as I didn't want to give up on my lucky lure and finally I was able to find it. I could now happily head back home with lots of fish. I think I lost count at some point but I landed 4 flatheads and 3-4 snappers It has been my most productive session so far. Thanks again @DerekD for everything he taught me.

I wish I could know it wouldn't live so I could take the jighead out to avoid other fish getting hooked in the guts. Thanks Donna, will do.

Usually I mix it up, 1-3 slow or fast twitches followed by pause and sometimes slow rolling and pausing. I don't think the technique matters when there is a hungry salmon near your lure. Maybe it was the colour or maybe it was the profile. There is no way of knowing what worked on that occasion.

I know this section is to brag about your catch, I am writing on behalf of the fish this time. He tried to eat a lure longer than itself and survived to see another day! He is probably telling all its friends about this adventure.

Instead of creating a new topic, I decided to post here. It was a tough morning today. The wind was very strong and I had to switch a few spots. I was mostly spinning metals as the wind wasn't making plastics easy. I had a few hits, hooked a fish once but dropped the lure halfway, instead I pulled lots of weed and branches I was about to leave and wanted to land at least a small flathead or a snapper, so I switched to the 2-4kg light gear with 2.75" padddletail. I had no bites and I decided a few more casts. Then, I hooked something big. It felt very heavy at first and shaking its head so I thought a flathead at first. Then, it started swimming sideways very fast. I was wondering if it was rat king. It went deep at first and started pulling drag. I loosened the drag a few clicks and let it run away. Then, started swimming sideways again and made surface. When it jumped out of the water, I realised I hooked my first salmon, again with a small soft plastics on light gear! It wasn't an easy fight yet I was relieved it wasn't a king and it was much easier to control. It jumped out a few times when it got closer. I was glad I placed the net very close to me (and glad I bought a net a few days ago ). The fish 2 metres away but still fighting. it went down and up a few more times until I felt ready that I could land it. I grabbed the net quickly and moved the fish in very carefully inside the net. Finally, I was able to land my first salmon! It measured around 43 cm (before it started moving when I took the picture), but felt a lot heavier and thicker than the jewie. I killed, bled, and cleaned the fish quickly and head back home. It will be a nice dinner. It was a good fight and now I understand why @DerekD loves to chase kings with the light gear. It would have been too easy if I hooked it using my heavy rod. It made me believe in myself that I can also land a king using light gear one day.

Maybe I spent too much time trying to unhook but it was already bleeding a lot when I landed it. I tried my best to swim it holding it in my hands, but failed to revive unfortunately. I felt bad, but I guess this is in the nature of fishing. Thanks, Rob. I hope I catch more flounder as I love eating them. I hope we meet again soon for another fishing trip.

Sunday, afternoon, I met with @DerekD to chase kings in the harbour. Unfortunately, I had got caught outside during the storm and had to wait for it pass for more than 15 minutes. Derek was lucky that he was still in his car and went back home without taking a step outside After the storm passed, I decided to stay for a few hours without any hope because the water was extremely murky with all the storm drain water. Instead, I decided to chase the bread and butter species. I wasn't getting much hits until I felt a very strange hit and my rod got heavy. At first I thought I was pulling weed as it wasn't fighting at all. Then, I saw a round fish was coming on the surface. It was a decent size flounder, probably legal but I wasn't thinking of keeping anything after seeing the water so dirty Also, caught a pinky and a tailor both undersized and released them. Yesterday afternoon, we met once again to chase kings. After seeing a squid chasing his lure, we switched to squid jigs and Derek managed to catch one very soon while I wasn't so lucky. He showed me how to use squid head and strips to use as bait and we set the bait with a floater baloon and left it like that (without any luck though). While waiting we were using the light gear and worked soft plastics. All I caught until then was a finger size grinner and I was hoping to get at least a flathead. I was using rapala crushcity suspect 2.75" paddetail , which I really liked as quite durable yet relatively easy to rig straight. After casting around the area for a couple minutes I felt a very strong hit. At first I thought it was a big flathead as I was feeling the headshakes, then my line starting peeling and my drag went crazy for a couple of seconds. It was fighting harder than a flathead. I thought it might be trevally at first. I was worried that it might be going under jetty so I tightened the drag a few clicks and tried lift the rod in the opposite direction. After a few seconds it calmed down a bit but it was still occasionally pulling drag. Finally I saw a longer figure and realised it was a jewie! It was too tired in the end and I slowly moved the fish next to Derek and he helped me land the fish by holding the net. I landed my first jewfish (48 cm soapie) in the harbour using a soft plastic! I was quite happy at first, but the next part was not what I was hoping for. We saw that the hook was too deep and the fish was bleeding. I tried taking the jighead out but failed and we decided to cut the line. I took the fish into water, tried swimming it for a long while but it couldn't swim properly. it was trying to go away and got out of my hands a few times, but everytime it turned sideways. After trying for like 5 minutes we decided to call it and left the fish to meet its destiny

Yes they are but tsurinoya is much easier to walk than berkley. Btw, allblue blux surfer is another knock off of sugapen, much cheaper than jerry blade but it is only available in 95mm size.

For flathead, go as heavy as you can to cover more ground faster. If the water is deep enough 1/2 or 3/8 should be fine too. Flatheads don't care much about presentation and subtlety unlike bream. You won't many many bycatch probably though. I had a quick test yesterday with the help of my wife. She was using 1/8th with 2 inch grub while I was using 1/16th with 2.5inch (water depth was less than 2 m probably). She caught 1 flatty and a whiting in 10 minutes while I didn't get any bites. She could cast further and retrieve much faster.

Good luck fishing with 8-10+ metres deep water (most of the Sydney harbour) with 1/16. Shroom fishes quite shallow water and it makes sense. It takes forever to reach to the bottom. Even 1/8 is very annoying if there is some current or wind. For flathead fishing, it doesn't matter anyway because they most likely hit anything, so using heavier jigheads makes life easier. Whike using lighter jighead increase the hit chance, it decrease the total coverage time, so it is a trade off. I prefer using as heavy as the water depth allows so I can cast and retrieve faster if I am targeting flathead.

Funny enough, I was testing the action of the topwater lures I bought from <retailer removed> and hengjia bent minnow and tsurinoya pencil had much better action than berkley slurp and pro tech bender. None could match osp bent minnow though. Pencils are relatively similar btw.

Tsurinoya and tsuyoki topwater pencils are quite good.