Nicnat

Just got back from down the south coast today where I scored my PB Flathead and 1st Flathead on a SP. Got down there on Tuesday and woke up early Wednesday to a beautiful morning. For those that don't know the place, the lake opens into the ocean on a high tide and Crampton Island splits the north and south beaches with a sand spit across to the island and a little reef on the southern end. We were staying at the caravan park on the lake so I only had a 500metre walk out to the island and was walking out to the rocks at the northern end when I noticed some bait fish scatter across a shallow rock ledge on the beach. Having experimented with SPs on kings and bream, I had yet to catch a flattie on one, but with this little rock ledge surrounded by clean sand there just had to be some flatties around. So I waded out into a very small surf, in crystal clear water with not a breath of wind and not one other person around. The water was that clear you could see whiting, garfish and small mullet everywhere and the sun was just starting to poke above the horizon. Definitelty a morning to remember. After just taking in the scenery I finally started throwing a 75mm shad in anchovy colour into the shallow water. You could actually see it come back bouncing across the sand with the garfish jumping out of its way. I ended up standing in a foot of water on the rock ledge working both sides when I saw a puff of sand about 10mtrs out right in close to the rock and a big tail which I though belonged to a ray. It then disappeared and I started chucking the SP in that general direction. The first cast was a little wide and I missed the spot by about a metre on the way in but the second landed perfectly about 5 mtrs further out. A few twitches of the rod and a couple of turns of the reel and suddenly the biggest lizard I have seen launched itself and the SP dissappeared. This all happened in 2 feet of crystal clear aquarium water about 10 mtrs away from me so I could see it in every detail. I was so stunned at first I barely moved until the flattie woke me up again by taking off against the light drag set on the 8lb line. I almost lost my footing jumping off the rock onto the beach side as I wanted to get away from the rocks and walked down the beach a little. With shaking hands I remembered the 8lb leader and tried to go real easy and after around 5 minutes had him close in a couple of inches of water with every wave bringing him almost to my feet and then taking him back out again. Eventually the inevitable happened and the leader snapped with the biggest lizard I have ever seen flapping at my feet in an inch of water trying to turn himself around so I did the only thing I could think of, threw down the rod and grabbed his tail and under his belly and lifted him clear. Luckily for me she was as stuffed as I felt and didn't offer much resistance. I then let out the biggest yahoo that must have scared every seagull for a mile and admired the big bastard. As luck would have it, I had not brought a camera, tape or anything else to measure him with and there was no one else around - just me holding this whopper flathead. I almost had the knife ready to finish him off and walk back into camp victoriously when I just couldn't do it. So I retrieved my soggy gear and tried to get a rough measurement off the rod and then swam her in the shallows and watched her slowly head back out after recovering for a few minutes. Trying to work out measurements later she was a minimum of 90cm long and it was one of the most perfect mornings I've had - a 1st Flathead on SP and a PB as well. For those interested we also scored lots of salmon, tailor, bream and trevally over the 3 days with a couple of monster rays, but nothing compared to that 1st flathead

Hi Esky6 No big secret on the nipper location - I get them from the NE side of Captain Cook Bridge, just east of the sailing club. To keep them overnight I put around 2" of clean water in an old esky with an aquarium air pump on low. Pull out those that are dead so they don't contaminate the water and you should be able to keep them easily until the next day. A normal 40lt esky can hold around 50-60 nippers. If you have more than this I would split it into 2 containers as they will get too crowded.

Hi All After last weekends great session Rodhogger (aka 7yr old son) was keen to give the Bay another go. Hit the sand flats late morning yesterday to get some nippers and up around 6am today to fish the run out. The weather forecast predicted sun and light winds however my definition of "sun & light winds" seems to be very different to that of the Bureau of Meterology Had a couple of friends along today so the little tinnie was stretched to capacity as we plowed our way across the Bay. First stop was last weekend's spot - after 30 minutes not a touch so up anchor to the HWO. Another big donut there and with the pressure now on big time and a very uncomfortable wind making matters worse I take a punt and we head to another not-so-secret spot of mine with fingers crossed. 2nd bait down and we are finally away. After this there is a steady stream of Bream, Whiting, Flathead and Trevors coming in. An hour of this is plenty for everyone to have a ball and we head home with about a dozen fish. RH is also secretly relieved as he was confidently predicting "heaps of fish" which was not looking good at the start. Most interesting catches today ended up being the smallest ones - a 15cm shovelnose (very cute at this size) and a whiting barely 10cm

Hi Esky We only saw 2 other boats - one at the HWO when we first arrived and one in close to the groynes. We ended up about 5-600 metres off the groynes towards the sticks in about 5 mtrs of water. There were no other boats anywhere else near us - I think that's the first time for me in Botany. Nicnat

Yep, the kids certainly have a ball. And they are great motivation as well! I don't think I would have gone out if RH had not been pestering me all day, which was great as we ended up having one of our best sessions. However it can also have it's downside - RH also "motivated" me yesterday to play another season of over35 soccer. Not sure if I will be feeling as good after that one ...

Hi All Team Nicnat (Rodhogger and I) have been quiet of late. RH (7yr old son) is back at school and work has kept me busy plus the weather has been just so wonderful. So we were looking forward to getting a line wet this weekend. Pumped some nippers late yesterday and had the little tinnie ready to go, only to wake up to that sound that has become so familiar - RAIN! We therefore decided not to worry about it, however with the boat packed and ready and an esky full of nippers, RH was jumping around like a frog on drugs all day. We finally spotted a small break in the clouds around 2.30pm and made a break for it. Got to the ramp at Silverbeach with a rain shower just passing and not one other person on the ramp. Stuck our nose out into the Bay with the stiff southerly behind us so decided to keep things safe and were contemplating the HWO but ended up a few hundred metres off the groynes at a spot that has been kind to us in the past. Anchor goes down and conditions are not great - windy, water the colour of a strong coffee, good swell coming through, tide roaring out and the boat swinging back and forth. In my head I'm giving this 15 minutes just to get it out of RH's system and then back home for a warm bath. First bait goes out and another shower comes through and I'm revising my 15 minute estimate down to 5. However, half way through this thought RH yells out his familiar war-cry - "I'm ON! 6lb line peels off against a stiff drag and I'm thinking maybe we stick out the 15 minutes. A minute later a 35cm Bream shows itself in the murky water and is landed. As I net the fish the second rod goes off and RH launches himself through space to grab it. I barely have time to drop the bream in the keeper net when a nice whiting hits the deck. For the next hour we don't have time to scratch ourselves as every bait gets nailed within a few minutes of hitting the water. A mix of small snapper, good size Bream, Whiting, Flathead and rays all make it to the boat. The final tally is a dozen fish kept (mainly gut hooked), roughly that many again released (our keeper net was full) and several other "self-released" fish. After 1.5 hours the tide started to slow down, our nippers were just about gone and we had enough of bouncing around inside the tinnie so headed back. A great finish to the afternoon was when RH stepped into a hole wading back though the mud at the ramp and managed to get himself covered in mucky brown stuff. Here's a couple of shots with the 2 best fish - a 39cm Bream and a PB whiting of 43cm

Hi All Just back from a week up in Port Macquarie with the family. Weather was so-so and the seas outside were huge so only fished the river around Blackmans Point, Dennis Bridge and Maria River. Fished various days alternating between drifting live baits down the channel and fishing the flats with nippers and SPs. Rod Hogger (7yr old son) and Rod Hoggett (9yr old daughter) both had a ball pumping nippers but drifting livies was hell with both in the little tinnie. The river is a lovely chocolate colour at the moment and the big tides also made things interesting however we found lots of fish. Managed several good sized bream amongst the 1000's of undersized ones with fresh garfish strips proving the best bait. Best went just on 40cm (caught in a crab trap). Also managed several good muddies. Over 5 days of fishing we did not get one whiting - first time ever for us up in Port. However Garfish and Mullet were everywhere, especially on the flats at high tide and this is what we used to drift the channel for flatties. Ended up with several fish in the 50-65cm range with one going a smidge under 70cm caught by Rod Hoggett. This fish was actually caught at low tide on the edge of a sand flat in about 1 metre of water on a nipper intended for whiting with a size 6 long shank hook and 6lb line. It basically inhaled the bait with the rod sitting in a holder just doubling over and line starting to pour off. I grabbed the rod and could feel the weight straight away. Rod Hoggett (RH2) saw the action and ran over pleading to bring it in. I actually called it for a big stingray (which had annoyed us previously) so gladly handed the rod over and then casually instructed RH2 for the next few minutes on the fine art of pumping & winding. After doing several laps up and down the sand flat she finally brought it in close and I saw the big flattie shaking it's head in the shallows and nearly had a heart attack. My hysterical shouts of "Big Flattie, Big Flattie" sure livened up things then and RH1 and I were jumping around RH2 like maniacs. She was the only one to keep here composure although I kept freaking out with RH2 dropping her rod too quickly on occassion, doing her snag routine and jerking the line and generally doing everything possible to stress out the old man who was thinking of that 6lb line and no 6 hook. After a few minutes however, the Flattie was almost beached and we carefully dragged it out by the trace. The hook was way down the throat and the line looked like somebody had rubbed sandpaper over it, but the Gods must have been smiling on us.

Esky6 - Thanks for rubbing it in. RH also likes to read these posts and encouragement is one thing he doesn't need! Pete - RH has earnt his nickname well and any rod in the boat tends to be "his". And yes we are having a good run lately but the Old Man is feeling the pressure to keep producing fish. RH is starting to expect fish all the time and we had to work hard for it today.

A very frustrating start to our day on the Bay this morning with heaps of boats everywhere restricting our efforts. Tried a few different spots for live bait but gave up after being surrounded by heaps of other people trying to do the same. A change of plan was called for so we headed to one of our ever reliable spots and found only one other boat there We started our berley trail and set the rods and it was very quiet for the first hour or so. The tide probably wasn't helping but suddenly one of the rods finally went off and RH pounced (7yr old son). A minute or so later a nice 30cm Bream hit the deck. This was the start of a pleasant couple of hours with regular bites including a couple of serious runs on light gear that ended up with pulled hooks. We ended up with close to a dozen bream ranging from 25-35cm and lost that many again as they were biting very timidly and only mouthing the baits. We tried pilchards, squid, slimey strips and yellowtail but they were only going for prawns on the light lines. As we are heading to Port Macquarie for a week tomorrow all the fish bar one went back and RH was very pleased with his tally of 10 fish vs my 1.

Hi Marcel I read your story and couldn't resist replying. You're report hit a few similarities - I've got a 7yr old son (you might know him better as "Rod Hogger") and the pressure is always on to get some fish and keep things interesting and it can be a real pain to have several hours on the water and come back with nothing whilst at the same time dealing with the short attention span of kids. I come from a LBG background so am used to soaking livies for long periods of time or throwing lures a few hundred times a day but try doing that with RH and he lasts 15 minutes max. Add this to the limited amount of time we all have which makes every moment fishing precious, you don't want to come back pissed off. To avoid these ongoing frustrations, I've had to change my entire "philosophy of fishing" over the past year and have found other benefits to come from this, including much more enjoyable "father & son" time and improved fishing results. As you pointed out there are safety aspects to having a child on board plus we fish out of a 3.8m tinnie so this limits things even more in the continued quest to get bigger & better fish. And you know what, I have discovered bigger & better is not required for a 7yr old. For them the entire experience can be an adventure so I have had to adjust accordingly * No more rushing to the ramps and speeding to the fishing spots - RH wants to help launching boats, starting engines, packing gear away, getting baits, etc so it becomes a total experience for him rather than just fishing * He can't last more than 15-20 minutes sitting in one spot with no action and hates drifting around, so I have to think carefully now before I go. What spots will be working? What are the tides doing? Do I have multiple baits for every occassion? Do I have different gear for different situations? If things are not happening after 20-30 minutes we move on - flexibility is the key * I don't go out anymore with a specific fish or spot in mind (only a general idea of likely targets) - the best day we had a couple of weeks ago featured salmon & tailor on lures early, fishing for yakkas & squid, live & deadbaiting for rat kings and bottom fishing for bream. We scored on all these techniques and left the kings biting as RH was getting tired * Most fishing sessions these days last 3-4 hrs max. Even with fish going off everywhere RH gets to a point where he wants to go home * Most importantly we have to catch fish every time we head out! Of course this is what we all want but even more important for a child. Whilst Kingfish are great to catch, RH is not really big enough to mix it with a decent King on 8kg gear - he'll get dragged over the side so we chase everything depending on what's happening. We had a great session on slimies last week and chopper tailor this week. 1-3 kg gear and they go great and RH managed around 30 fish both sessions. I have learnt that to a child there is not much difference between a 30cm slimey on 1kg or a 70cm king on 5kg tackle. They have a blast everytime they get a hit and I have learnt to fish vicariously through their eyes. My proudest moment was 2 weeks ago when RH hooked a 65cm King on a live squid on 8lb gear amongst 6 other boats. It took him 3 laps of the boat and 5 minutes to get him in and when I netted him the guys in the other boats all clapped. RH had the biggest smile I have seen and it was one of my happiest fishing days and I didn't even catch a fish the whole bloody day (now you know why I call him Rod Hogger) and all the fish we caught went back in the water. My wife has a term for it - "Daddy's Fishing Charters". I prefer to think of it as showing a child the joys of fishing and rather than getting a buzz out bringing home a trophy fish, I get a buzz from seeing my son have a great time. Sorry if all this is a bit long winded and I don't mean this to be advice or a "how to fish with kids" column, but by changing my views on this great sport, I am now better at it, fishing less in terms of time on the rod but enjoying it much more. So a shit day catching only slimeys becomes a great one and my 7yr old son showed me how. Hope this helps and I'm sure there is great fishing times ahead for you and your son.

Hi All Hit the Bay this morning and tried all our favourite haunts for very little. Water was dirty and stirred up. Ended up at the HWO and started chucking around SPs. They quickly came back chewed & chopped so threw out some metals and for the next hour proceeded to catch around 30-40 tailor. All between 20-30 cms. Rod hogger had an absolute blast as usual and the session proved very educational as RH has finally mastered the art of casting (got to after 50 or more casts)

Hi All Being on school holidays Rod Hogger is pestering me constantly now to hit the water at every opportunity and upon seeing the weather forecast for the next few days decided we should try and make the most of this morning. Still have lots of slimey mackeral in the freezer so bait was not a problem and with the high tide headed straight for the HWO. The water was very dirty with lots of weed & kelp from the big swell and no kingies to be found However we found some good size bream on the chew. They were very tentative and were only mouthing the baits. We managed half a dozen with that many dropped again as we were lip hooking them only. All were keepers with none undersized and with RH managing another 38cm bruiser to go with his other big bream caught earlier in the week. This one went really hard and took line against the drag several times which had me expecting a good sized pinkie at first. Once RH got bored with this (which doesn't take too long) we zipped across to one of the drums but only found big yellowtail (all 40cm +). Also had several bite offs with us hooking the fish, bringing them half way to the boat and then losing the hooks with clean breaks. This happened at least 5-6 times so must be something with sharp teeth down there (jackets?) Ended up keeping 5 and headed to Molli Point although didn't have much joy there either. One of the big livies was harrassed by something as it did a few big lunges/laps around the boat at one stage. The final episode was a small occy caught on a SP. It must have had 10 lts of ink in him as he had several goes in the water and then after I lifted him in he had a few more over me and the outboard. RH at this stage was at the furthest tip of the bow not wanting to be in range. We also had a visit by fisheries inspectors and they commented that they had not seen a lot of good fish caught in any of the other boats. All in all another pleasant day on the Bay.

Hi All Just a quick report - The wife was going to the fishmarkets this morning for the planned seafood BBQ tonight so RH & I decided we would head out again early this morning for a quiet fish down at Como Bridge to see what we could contribute. Put some of the Slimies we caught yesterday to good use as bait. A much less frantic session produced a 39.7cm Bream for RH (I was trying to stretch it to 40cm but just couldn't get there) and I even managed to contribute a flathead. Lots of undersized bream but plenty for the BBQ tonight. Unfortunately RH was not at all impressed with the fighting qualities of the bream & flathead as he is now used to much harder pulling scalies and therefore Kingies are back on the agenda for later this week!

Hi All Rodhogger (aka 7yr old son Nicholas) has been pestering me since he cleaned up on Salmon & Kings a few days ago to head back out. So decided to hit the Bay again early this morning. This time however I decided lets get serious and chase some big ones. Hit Yarra Bay for livies nice and early. An hour later had half a dozen Yellowtail swimming in the esky, but no squid. So we scoot across to Watts Reef and 45 minutes later 3 squid have occupied the other bucket. By this time the Bay is packed with boats and its the bottom of the tide so we decide to head across to the Drums and actually found one without a boat near it. Motoring past we also pick up fish on the sounder and expectations run high. RH by now is also busting to catch some "serious" fish and I start to get the live bait gear ready. Whilst doing so I throw out a pillie tail and give this to RH. 10 seconds later I hear the infamous "I'm on" and RH has a serious bend in the 9lb bream gear. Not long after a Slimie Mackeral comes to the surface and a quick lift into the boat and I'm thinking this is good, as I need to stock up on bait. So I bait another rod and give this to RH again and rebait the bream rod. Well, the slimies must have been shoulder to shoulder down there as any bait only lasted 30 seconds at most and all were hit hard. RH by now had forgotten all about big kingies and was doing what all kids love the most - catching fish non stop. To make things more interesting I pulled out my 2 light spin outfits (6lb) and RH was going off with squeals of delight every time he was hit. I barely had time to rebait, untangle rods and despatch fish. We had slimies flopping around everywhere and after 30 or so started throwing them back. Eventually I managed to rip RH away from the action and we left them biting. The esky with the yellowtail was now filled with slimies and the bucket with the squid was kicked over in the mayhem and they have now all joined my bait freezer. We did have one livie in the water that whole time and when we pulled it in found the largest numb-ray ever attached. No kingies but RH had a ball and reminded me how much fun you can have catching bait. Also watched a pod of dolphins swim by in the morning to good to see the Bay firing.

Hi All Thought I'd post this follow up to our last session which ended up with Rod-Hogger (my 7yr old son) getting his 1st Kingie. We headed out on Botany Bay again today with the firm idea of getting some more. A beautiful sunrise and calm conditions saw us skipping the tinnie across to Yarra Bay. A few birds were working so we trolled a little with no result. Just as we were pulling in the rods we had some Salmon erupt close to the boat. Out come the lures and for the next hour we drifted around Yarra Bay catching 3 and losing another 4 or so that jumped off. RH again the culprit connecting with all the fish. How is it that you can fish next to someone with the same lure and not get a touch!!!! Once the sun popped up we headed across to Watts Reef to catch some live bait. First cast and I caught the biggest squid I have seen. His hood was from the tips of my fingers to my elbow long and he took line off against the drag. Half an hour later and we hit the HWO with only one other boat there (bonus!). Second cast on a pillie tail and RH nails his 2nd ever Kingie (about 60cm). Over the next hour he managed another 2 on live squid as well as a great bream and at one point we had a dozen or so under the boat with a uble hookup. Just about to sit down to a calamari lunch. Great day all round. Sorry no photos this time but great video action showing RH battling beasties.

Hi Mikey1 Glad you guys also had some fun. I think we took off around 9am. Did the kingies hang around after we left? Any bream arrive?

Hi All. Been a bit busy since the last post a couple of weeks ago but have managed a few session in Botany Bay over that time. My 7yr old son who got his first Sambo in the last post has managed consistent bags of bream since then, mainly around the oil wharf, hot water outlet and in front of the groynes. We were not going fishing this morning as the predicted wind makes fishing in our little tinnie a bit uncomfortable but woke up at 6 and it looked OK. Quickly woke up my little rod-hogger, hitched the boat and headed off to launch at Silver Beach. Headed across to Yarra Bay to look for any Sambo's or Tailor but not much action happening. Rather a rough crossing as well so decided to play safe instead and soak some old pillies I had left at the hot water outlet (HWO). The end of the wharf was full of boats but only a couple of guys in yaks at the HWO. We settled down just before the tide was full and were then joined by a couple of other boats. Virtually right at the top of the tide one of the other boats hooked up, then the other guy next to him but both lost whatever they hooked a minute or so into their fights. Suddenly our little 9lb bream outfit took off. Rod-hogger (RH) dived across to wrench the outfit out of my hands and then the fun started. Initial reaction from the at that stage unknown bait stealer were only a few headshakes and RH managed to get him half way to the boat. He must have seen my ugly mug because that's when he took off on the first run against a drag screwed down about as tight as a 7yr old can get it. Over the next 5 minutes we had 3-4 more good runs, 2 close calls around the anchor line and the rear of the boat, ended up circling the boat twice with much cursing from myself as I tried frantically to remove rods, nets, bait, etc, etc out of the way and almost lost RH over the side with a couple of big lunges near the boat. The end result ... 60cm of hard fighting Kingfish and another first for RH. Had some hard explaining to do as to why we thow back a fish that is that size. Now he wants to get a bigger one so he can keep it ....

Hi Yakfishing Berley was a mix of stuff I had left over in the freezer - mainly old prawns, pilchards and some pellets. The bait was some fresh prawns. The fish seemed bloody hungry and were hitting all the baits hard, however nothing happened until the tide started to run and you had to have your bait right on the edge of the hot water boil. A couple of boats anchored almost on top of us but were fishing a little away from the outlet and weren't getting the bites

Hi All. Have been reading the forum for the past few weeks to get ideas on where to fish the Bay as we aquired a new tinnie a few weeks back. Finally got out and launched at Kurnell this morning and headed to Yarra Bay. Salmon and Tailor were chopping up the surface and we managed three losing a few others that jumped off. Once the wind came up and the tide turned we headed to the hot water outlet and berleyed up a dozen bream in about 1 hour. Lost a couple of rippers at the boat as well as a few small snapper and rays and were back home by 10am. The best part - my 7 year old son got all the fish bar 1 bream. Took him 10 minutes on 9lb gear to boat the big salmon in the shot. Not sure who had more fun. Need to bring a video next time.