oldsalty

9 am start, servo bait, hand lines, good shit!

flathead are one fish that really eat a whole heap of lures, plastics, blades, hardbodys they all work well. Dave Green is a fisho journalist who really knows his flathead, google his articles on them and read his lure choices and tactics

hey, the big mullet you see that jump and school up in full view in the shallows don't eat bait. They feed on some sort of algae in the water column and apparently jump to clear their gills of something. they will occasionally smack a lure out of territorial reasons to get it off their turf cause they are annoyed, they don't eat small fish or crustaceons, the mullet you have caught are probably silver mullet which like get big, but not as big as the others. ive had this convo with numerous novice fisherman asking why cant we catch these big fish that are jumping all around us.

No worries, afew other things I thought of too, Its easy to think your snagged over these grounds when half the time your hooked onto kelp. a lot of the time u can tear ur exspensive jig free by tightening up the drag and continuously whipping the rod at slightly tighter drag increments until the kelp breaks or is pulled of the bottom (as long as you use braid). And if you do break your line its not too hard to don the flippers and snorkel in shallow water and go in and get it! and if you come across a large cuttlefish (and have the heart to kill it) the guts sent down are like a giant smoke signal with ink perpetually sending a smoke signal to any kings in the area.

Hi, I did about 4 or 5 years of learning to catch squid in the harbour which eventually turned into regular captures of kingfish. I no longer live in Sydney. I did try the jigging at the spit in early mornings which normally proved successful, but the early starts are a killer. I found the bigger southern calamari are a much better bait generally for the fact that a big one is equal to 4 or 5 arrows if not more in size. I started off blind but found the key was to move around and identify good squid holding spots and use the casting and very slow retrieve method of 1 jig. try go as slow as u can without getting snagged and add in afew whips, if u read the forums you will find a lot of commonly mentioned squid spots like balmoral island, middle head and the shacks, these are spots that are in videos, but there are plenty more if you look closer. All you need is water deep enough to see some form of reef, could be 2 ft to 30ft ,sometimes broken sand but most of all weed, gardens of weed is where they live. the more of this territory the better. Now the key is to not spend too much time in one spot waiting for them to come on the bite, don't anchor, work out ur drift so you can float over the grounds from start to finish, half a dozen casts will tell u if they are there, don't wait for them to come on the bite as they may not be there. You have to go in for a close look for potential squid spots as you could be motoring past many squid and you wouldn't know. If I launched from middle harbour I wouldn't stop till I hit chinamans beach (caught my biggest squid here on a beat up kmart jig with the wooden underbody showing) , then onto balmoral island (mostly on the northern side even catching big squid into the swimmers area) , then Grotto point where the lighthouse is (on the point is a nice patch of broken reef dropping into deep water, I never seen anyone squidding here and have caught heaps at this spot), further north sees the shacks which ill try if no ones there already, but even more plentiful is Dobroyd reef just out from the shacks, its a big area of reef that is shallow at the front and drops off into deeper water, caught some whoppers here and aslo heaps of smaller ones. then you can head into north harbour where there are also many spots, the gas works is over fished but if you head closer to Manly you will find a stretch of shallow weed beds and reef out the front of the high rise units, plenty of squid here, and further towards manly around the skiff club pylons sometimes holds a lot of squid. After that you can head back into the main harbour where the inside of south head has huge stretch of squid grounds (just watch out for the nudists!) and then plenty more spots as you go further into the harbour. Just be willing to go in for a closer look, u cant tell a squid spot until u explore a little closer, and people don't wanna tell u where to look either. As for jigs the old standard 2.5 in the best u can afford is good, if its deeper water out the back throw out a 3.5, and ofcourse , cheap jigs sometimes turn up monsters, ive seen a huge 5.0 kmart jig catch a small squid in 2 feet of water, and I caught my biggest squid on an absolute piece of shit. Really though, I caught squid in all colours of jig, I had a brown and yellow jig In natural colors that was worn away with beak marks on it, it didn't really resemble its former self but still caught squid. So if you launch at sunrise then hit up as many spots as you can it usually takes 1 or 2 hours to get enough squid for a session, nothing wrong with squidding at the spit, but I hate early starts, so this is just what I did......................

hey mate, the drummer you are talking about in Lord Howe are silver drummer, a very different fish to the black drummer, which they don't get on Lord Howe, cheers

Thanks mate, Maybe the darker hrs would be better, ill give it a go. Cheers

Im on the the northern beaches and seem to be having trouble finding any squid this winter. I mainly fish in the harbour. I used to have a boat and had no trouble a few years ago but even from a kayak or landbased i haven't seen many this winter, that includes spearfishing and snorkelling etc......lol Are they still around in numbers this winter??? Cheers

thanks fellas, Yamba sounds good, used to go up there when i was a kid. I saw it got voted best town in OZ on some travel website, prob still abit too quiet for me just yet though, the fishing and the lifestyle up the northern rivers is lookin pretty good though, cheers

Anyone have any knowledge of these areas??? Im thinking about spending a bit of time in a new area and looking for a place with good fishing, rock/beach/estuary and offshore too, spearing/snorkling, and good surfing. How is the fishing up there these days? I'm pretty sure the Richmond river is still commercially fished but how does the area/coast in general compare to somewhere like Sydney that although is heavily populated, has alot of options available. Id like to get out of the city but not somewhere to quiet, anywhere in OZ is fine but gotta be warm, top end is great but i need to get in the water regularly,if you go too far north the waves stop., ive done the West coast , so im thinking Northern rivers? any info aprreciated, Regards.

Hi everyone, Im looking for one of those drop down jockey wheels you use for launching on the beach, there more like a tyre than a small wheel. Does anyone know where i could source one out in sydney ? preferably nth beaches....... any info much appreciated

Gday again guys, Just thought id put this back up as i still havent had much luck finding a quote under $4500, Any one else got any ideas??? Companies like toll and general freight say its too big where as specialized boat transport companies are very exspensive. any info much appreciated oldsalty

Thanks heaps for the info guys, I will have a look at those options and see how i go, Much appreciated, cheers, Oldsalty

Hey guys, Im at a bit of a loose end trying to find an answer to my question so the fishing community might be able to help, How would one go about transporting a boat from Sydney to Perth? Has anyone done this or know of anyone who has moved a boat around oz? Its about 5-6 metres long on the trailer, 2.5 metres wide any info much appreciated, cheers Oldsalty

Hey, I have a Daiwa Saltist 50h which has just been taken off my boat and put on a 11ft beach/rock rod to be used for casting metal, lbg, beach etc..... I am having huge issues casting the friggen thing!! i have used baitcasters, overheads bfore but this is just not happening. I tried changing the 50lb braid to 25lb mono but still no luck, i have stripped lots of line off the spool thinking it was too full aswell, played around with the magnetic cast control but each time i give it a bit of oomph it just backlashes like a mutha. Anyone have this problem with this reel? or have any tips? any info appreciated, Oldsalty

Thanks guys, Plenty of usefull info there.Im leaning towards the pedal powered option. Is hobie the only/best brand for these types? Also can extras like sounders, downriggers, rod holders, gps etc be fitted to all models or only certain ones? im sure afew of these will come into play after purchase. Thanks guys

Hey all, Im looking at a trip around oz and my boat is simply to much work to lug around and keep on the move. So ive decided a kayak would suit my needs best, but i have absolutely no idea about these things. I know there are heaps of kayak fans on this site so i was wondering if u could give me the lowdown? I like the look of those hobies but do they have disadvantages over the paddle powered option? The yak would have to be versatile ie, skinny freshwater, estuaries and rivers to close inshore pelagics etc... I also tend to have a lower back injury from time to time. Do u guys ever feel it down there and are the pedal powered easy on ur back than the paddle ones? Im sure ill have heaps more questions but they'll come out as i discover more! any info much appreciated cheers OLDsalTY

Thanks mate, Ill try ur advise and see how i go.

sorry mate, my mistake. Its a 5380i and was bought in sydney not overseas. cheers

Thanks dudes.......................i'll change it over. Shouldnt be a problem.

Does anyone know how to change the temperature reading from farenheight to celcius on these furunos? thanks dudes

Hey all, I recently bought a navman tracker 5501i which was working great but now its acting a bit funny. I used it up in south west rocks and put in afew waypoints of reefs and it recorded my routes i had taken over afew days. On the last day all the waypoints were now sitting over land and the routes were my boat had taken were had moved over land aswell. Its as though the map had moved across a couple centermetres. I used it in the harbour yesterday and made my way from roseville ramp through middle harbour out to dobroyd then as far as the tripod and back. The route it recorded had me driving over mountains in north bridge and traffic up the mosman hill, whats doing? any info would be much appreciated

hey squidboy, I used to have a hornet and allthough they can handle some swell, at the end of the day they are a bass boat no matter what size u get. They excell in calm waters, but get out of there depth pretty quick in anything serious. The top enders or nomads are a much better option as they can handle diverse conditions aswell as be applicable for calm water work with an electric. I chose a tabs territory 485 which is there version of a nomad or top ender. It has a bow mount for electric work but can easily handle light offshore work on an average day. Of course they have there limits but in terms of vesatility they will eat a hornet for breakfast. These boats start at a smaller size with a pod and a 60 as a recomended hp. My territory is also abit heavier than a nomad or a top ender and i can launch it by myself no probs. good luck

thanks guys, i will look at installation myself and c how i go. zenman, whats sicaflex marine grade?

Hey all, I'm in abit of a pinch as i need to to get a sounder and gps installed on my boat before friday but most local shops are booked out. Would anyone know of any freelance guys who may be able to sort me out? or maybe another solution to my problem? please pm details if u can help. I live in narrabeen . thanks guys, any info will be appreciated