GK510

Nice effort Miller. You've got plenty for a feed as well as some nice kingy baits. Cheers, Graham

Try the pontoon at the boat ramp under Roseville bridge. Its a little further upstream than the other suggestions however. I went there last night, berleyed a bit with a mix of pilchards and bread and they were soon in abundance. I managed to catch about 25 in half an hour using a sabiki rig. After this I moved upstream a bit for the low tide in the hope of a jew. Unfortunately the Jews were not as forthcoming as the yakkas. Cheers, Graham

Thanks for the replies people. I will have to give this a crack next time. I have been using a paternoster style rig and varying the size of the sinker depending on current/wind etc. Main line to a three way swivel, sinker off the bottom of the swivel and about 1 metre of leader to a two hook sliding snell rig. Is this suitable for a butterflied yakka? Or should I look at using something else to let the bait float around a bit more? I guess this would all depend on the location and conditions? I was fishing down under Roseville Bridge, but right up the end as far as you can drive from about 8am till Midday. I had a whole yakka out for most of the time I was there and it was only just before I was going to leave that something took it and went for a good run. I started to pull him before he went for another run. I resisted the urge to tighten the drag as I have had a number of bust offs from doing this in the past. Slowly but surely I reeled him in and surprisingly it didn't feel that weighty. Perhaps he was swimming towards me??? It was only when he got to the edge of where it drops off and saw the shallow water that he went nuts and busted me off. I got a slight glimpse of him and it looked quite large, 70 - 80cms at a guess. Otherwise, I only got a couple of undersize bream. Another bloody "One that got away" story. I'm getting sick of these I have been busted off by something large on my last three outings. Looks like I may have up the stakes a little so I can whip some jewie arse Cheers Graham

G'day Raiders, I have been trying to nail my first jewie lately using various baits and rigs. Yakkas have been my main bait and I have had a couple of good hits and a bust off just this morning. I often have to pre catch my yakkas which obviously means that they aren't always live. After doing much research on the forums, I noticed many people referring to using butterflied yakkas as jewie bait but I couldn't find a picture or diagram af a butterfly filleted yakka. Would anyone be kind enough to explain how this is done, or even better, post up a diagram/picture? I would also like to know how people rig butterflied yakkas. Single hook? Two hook rig? or otherwise? I am usually landbased and I have a bit of trouble with rigging larger baits. That is, when I cast them out, they often bunch up on the hook/hooks or sometimes even come off completely. Is there a way that you can stop a two hook sliding snell rig from bunching up when casting? Or should I be using a different rig all together? Gee.....so many questions Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Graham

Sorry to jump on your wagon Dan, but I'd be keen to know similar info on any recommended websites. Please PM me if you have anything to divulge. Thanks. Graham

Nice work Ceph. It's nice to know I wasn't the only one brave / stupid enough to be out dodging the showers in search of some piscatorial pleasure. Looks like you beat me to it. I tried for a MH jew on Friday, Staurday and Sunday with no success. I tried using live yakka, butterflied yakka, squid and pilchard. Maybe I should have tried using some plastic goodness. Oh well, maybe next time. Well done on a cracking jew. Cheers, Graham

Thanks for the reply Mariner 31. I haven't had a look at the set up myself, but I have been told that there is 4 wires that go to the main oil tank. Two in through the top,which I assume would be for a sender, and two that go in the bottom of the tank. I'd imagine these would be for the pump? Not sure about wires going to the tank on the motor though.......My friend siad he hasn't had the cover off the motor himself as yet.

Howdy all, If have a query on behalf of a friend who has a newish boat with a Yamaha 130 fitted. It has Yamaha digital gauges, one of which shows the oil level. The question is, does this gauge read of the main oil tank or the smaller one that is on the motor. He has clocked up a fair few hours now and the main oil tank is down to about half, yet the gauge hasn't moved at all. He queried this when he had a service recently but was told this was normal. I guess if it does read off the smaller tank on the motor then it will always show full until the main tank runs out. If anyone can shed some light on this subject that would be great. Cheers, Graham

Hey Plastic man, I've caught a couple in Narrabeen Lakes. Both of them were taken at the bridge near Woolies at night on hawkesbury prawns. I wasn't actually targeting them however. I have also seen a couple of other fishos hook onto an EP at the same spot. There was one night when both a mate and I jagged one each. One of which went 38cm. I wouldn't necessarily say its a strong hold, but I guess if you were there at the right time, you might get lucky. Cheers, Graham

Nice work on the Jewie. I went out on Saturday with the intention of trying for a jew in MH. Looks like you beat me to it! I was landbased however. I tried to berley up some yakkas in several spots without any success. After several hours trying, I gave up on the yakkas, went and bought some prawns and settled in at a spot just out from Tunks. I made up another berley mix and got a bit of a trail going. I wasn't long befroe I could see some sizeable bream coming in for a feed. Shortly after, they were followed by heaps of Trevors. I managed to hook onto a few Trevs and one bream. The biggest Trev went about 45cms. They were great fun on my light gear. I also had a few Kingys come cruising back and forth through my berley as you did at Manly wharf. They were just out to tease me however and would'nt take anything I threw at them. I decided to use one of the Trevs as bait and put out a nice strip in the hope that something would come along and find it attractive. No joy however. Maybe next weekend I will have more success in catching some livies and boy if I do, the jews better watch out... Cheers, Graham.

Would a flattie go for a legal sized whiting put out as live bait? I wouldn't have thought they would go for something that size?? I guess if it was a monster flattie a legal whiting would be fair game. I've caught flatties on yakkas before but I've never tried using something the size of a legal whiting as live bait. Thats not a bad idea. I have been reading all the posts about the jews that have been caught recently and I have been getting keen to have a go at poppin my jewie cherry. I might have to give it a go tonight. I was landbased. Unfortunately I haven't been able to procure myself a boat as yet. Mainly due to the fact that I don't have any room to keep one Alright! Its time for me to knock off work and I think I may just have to try my luck again tonight for some more flatties. And perhaps, as suggested by King Slayer, a jewie if I'm lucky. Cheers, Graham

Right !! Thats it !!! All this talk about jewfish has got me keen as. I think I am going to have to start targeting them. I have only ever caught a 25 cm miniature version as bycatch but after reading this thread, along with all of Jewgaffers other posts on the subject, plus seeing photos of fish such as the one above, I have to get into some of this action I know its been said many times before, but I really appreciate the time and thought that members such as Jewgaffer put into their posts. I know I'd be lost without all the knowledge given out on this site. Awwwww....lets all have a group hug But seriously, thanks to all that take the time to help novices such as myself Cheers, Graham

Well done Dan. Definitely one to remeber. I would have to say that you are certainly not the only person on Fishraider for whom fishing has become a bit of an obsession. I know I could be counted in that group. It's great to see that your persistence has paid off. Cheers, Graham.

Went for a night session at Clontarf on Tuesday night. When I arrived there was quite a bit of surface action so I threw a line in with fingers crossed. It wasn't too long before I was on and I pulled in a Whiting of about 25 - 30 cm. As he was only boderline I didn't bother measuring him and he was quickly released to fight another day. I baited up, cast out and almost straight away I was on again. Once again another Whiting. Luckily he was destined for the same freedom the last one was awarded. This same scenario happened four times in fairly quick succession then it went fairly quiet. It was at this time that I was starting to kick myself for not keeping a couple of the Whiting.If I had been bothered to measure them, at least two would have been legal. Another hour passed without any success and I was thinking of calling it a night when I hooked on to a nice flattie that went about 47 cms. I was now a little happier and this motivated me to stay a little longer. I looked at my watch and saw that it was nearly 10:30 and I really needed to get home for some beauty sleep. I decided one more cast and that would be it. Lucky for me, that last cast netted me a PB flattie of just on 54 cms. Cooked them up last night in a light beer batter and they were scrumcious Cheers, Graham

I was down under Roseville bridge yesterday arvo doing a bit of landbased fishing and had a bit of a chat to a NPWS ranger who was checking cars for parking tickets. I queried him as to whether there is any plans to fix the road and do something to enable the flushing of boat engines. He advised me that there is plans to upgrade the facilities. Apparently, it is on the agenda to install kerbing / guttering in the area where the taps are for flushing boat engines. Hopefully this will allow some drainage of the water to stop it from damaging the road. With regards to the availability of water to flush your engine, it is planned to install some sort of coin operated machines with time limits to distribute water. This is to discourage people from using the water to wash their boats. It is also planned to install another 1 or 2 pontoons at the ramp. I was advised that they have been given a $100,000 grant to carry out these upgrades and there is another $100,000 in the pipeline. I have not seen anything in writing regarding these upgrades so I have no idea when it is all going to take place but it will be good if it all goes ahead. In my job, I change cars every 2 weeks so unfortunately I can't get an annual National Parks pass as it would not be feasible to be getting the rego number on this pass changed evry couple of weeks. I have spent approximately $100 this year already in National Parks fees between Roseville and Akuna. It would be good to think that these fees may be going somewhere worthwile. Anyhow, we will have to wait and see what happens. Has anyone else heard about htese planned upgrades or does anyone have any thoughts regarding this??? Cheers, Graham

I cooked him whole in the oven. Personally, I think whole is the only way to cook bream. I stuffed it with some finely sliced orange, lemon and lime, some bazil and parsley, drizzled a bit of olive oil and white wine over the top and wrapped it in foil. Unfortunately, it didn't taste as good as some of the smaller ones I've cooked using the same method. I was using 6lb braid with an 8lb flouro leader. I'm not really sure whether bream are more solid than salmon or jews. I've never caught a salmon and my one and only jew was only 25cm. The bream was very fat. I have added another photo below which gives you a bit of an idea how fat it was. I weighed it on electronic kitchen scales nad it was 1.95 kg to be exact. I used a filleting knife to snap its neck. Cheers, Graham.

Went out for a solo mission on Sunday a couple of weeks ago. Dropped the boat in at Akuna and headed off to get a few livies. Once I had caught about 10 or 12 yakkas I decided it was time to go and hook into a few monsters. Wouldn't you know it, after trying spots X,Y and Z, nothing seemed to have the taste for my yakkas that day. How unusual. NOT!!! As the hours passed by I only managed to pull in a few small snapper. I had decided to call it a day and head back in when I realised how many prawns I had left and thought to myself, I can't let these go to waste. It was time for a last ditch attempt for at least something to take home for dinner. I anchored at spot W, burleyed up with my remaining pillies and threw a line in with fingers crossed. Almost straight away, I was on. It felt like it may be something quite reasonable. Had a couple of quick runs before surrendering. It ended up being another snapper, although this one was right on the 30cm mark. As it was borderline, I decided to put him back after telling him "I'll be back" in a really bad Schwarzennegger accent. All went quiet for a while so I slotted the rod into the rod holder and reached for a drink. No sooner had I taken my eyes of the rod when I heard that singing that we all love to hear .....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Finally, I was on to something. It was taking line at a rapid rate and I started to get concerned he was going to spool me. With great care, I tightened the drag a couple of clicks and started to reel him in. I was using 6lb line with an 8lb leader and was getting worried that I was going to have a bust off as this thing felt like it weighed a tonne. After a couple more runs, I finally got a some colour. It was now that I decided it would be a good idea to reach for the net. Very cautiously, I scooped him up into the boat. This was one serious bream. I had only ever seen bream this sort of size in photos and almost couldn't believe that I had this one sitting in the boat. When I got home, it was time for the big stats check. He was 43 cm and just on 2kg. I think it may be a while before I catch another specimen this size. Cheers, Graham.

I went to the lake at about 8 pm last night determined to give the plastics a decent go. I have not really had any success in the past. In fact, I had only ever caught one small tailor on plastics. That was until last night I was fishing at the Woolies bridge on the northern side. I managed to pull in two flathead and one flounder. One of the lizards was only small, about 25 cms or so but the other one was about 45 cms. The flounder was about 25 cms. I have to say that I was quite chuffed with this effort. I have been doing a bit of study on the internerd into the use of platsics and I reckon it has payed off. I tried changing colours etc to see what worked best. As it turned out, I ended up catching each fish on a different lure. The small flattie was caught on a Gulp 3" minnow in nuclear chicken, the flounder on a Gulp 3" minnow in watermelon pearl and the bigger lizard was caught on a Squidgy wriggler in silver fox. I am very tempted to go and have another crack tonight Cheers, Graham

G'Day Bongo. I have had a Symetre 2500 Fi for just over 18 months now, matched up with a Shimano Raider rod. I have found this to be a great combination. It's really smooth in operation, both casting and retrieving. In my opinion, you can't beat it for the money. I have mine spooled with 6lb braid and it works well both lure and bait fishing. I would hate to think how many casts the reel has done but I normally go fishing at least three times a week, sometimes more, and it has never missed a beat. And I must confess, I'm not too good when it comes to cleaning my gear after fishing. I gave it its first service last week, which wasn't too dificult, and now it feels like it performing like new again. Anyhow, enough of my raving. In short, I would recommend it. Cheers, Graham.

Here's my contribution. Looking west while fishing landbased next to the Spit Bridge. It kinda lost a bit of its quality when I reduced the size but you get the idea. Cheers, Graham.

Once again, nice poem PJ. I certainly have a severe case of the fishing flu So when is the book being released? I reckon every poem of yours that I have read has been top notch and would certainly hit the spot with anyone that has ever wet a line. Cheers, Graham

I hit the lakes yesterday and picked up a couple of nice lizards. Both went 38 cm. They were both taken at the Woolies bridge. Before this, I was trying my luck at the park at the end of Wimbledon Ave. First cast I managed to pull in a 32 cm Bream. Needless to say, I had a nice feed of fresh fish for Christmas eve dinner. Cheers, Graham.

Nice one Pete. Nothing like getting out for an early morning sesh. Especially when you can catch a couple of nice Bream and be all done and dusted and back home in bed without even knowing. I think there may be a few people on here who will want to know the secrets of your "Stealth Mode" I've been doing most of my fishing around Narrabeen of late but I think I will have to venture up to Pittwater and try my luck. Cheers, Graham.

Good question Livo. I've found unused corners very difficult come by these days. Does anyone have a spare unused corner they can lend me so I can put one of these beaut storage racks in it? Cheers, Graham.

There has been several times I have been to this spot at high tide and there has been lots of baitfish hanging around in the shallows near the wall. The squid seem to hang back a metre or two from the wall and then come in and smash the baitfish before retreating and getting ready to attack again. I haven't seen squid everytime I have been there, but they have been there on numerous occasions. I would be worth flicking a squid jig about and seeing what you come up with. Cheers, Graham.