SCOTTYB

Not a trader myself, but my oldest schoolmate was the youngest FX trader in the southern hemisphere back in the day - he is a surfer, not a fishraider, but could probably hook you both up...

Thanks Mondo - apparently Stanwell is very shallow for a good 50m or so with few gutters at the moment. My brother was there recently and he said surfers were just paddling over a very small gutter in close, then able to walk out another 30 - 50m for the breaks. Had some good success learning at the long Jarvis Bay beaches years back, although there was much less wave action at the time, and seemed easier to get them to come up. Cheers and thanks again.

Near the Roseville Bridge can be good for little ones - there is a small park there with picnic tables, fenced off from the water and used to have plenty of bream and flathead. Haven't been for a while, but used to take friends kids there, and would at least get them excited with small bream. Walking through the park opens to a sandy stretch which follows around to the boat moorings, and would catch everything from bream, flathead, whiting, and small (10 cm wingspan) rays. The variety in the landscape over just a couple of hundred metres was great, particularly if the kids got bored with one spot.

Hi Raiders, Noticed a couple of posts recently noting successful worming at Cronulla and I think one of the Brighton beaches? Loved Roberta's guide to worming, and as Dad likes the beach at Stanwell, this is where most of our beach fishing occurs. We'll have to try next time we go regardless, just curious as to whether any Raiders have tried worming at Stanwell Park? Are some beaches just 'full o'worms' or is it hit and miss? Would appreciate any insight. ScottyB

We were off the rocks at Minnamurra today - heaps of yellowtail and big mullet responded to berley, which was a bit of fun. Other than that, 6 undersized flatties, a heap of undersize tarwhine, couple of trevally and undersize bream plus the odd rock cod. Biggest surprise was a small (25cm) Samson fish. Didn't get pestered by the big ray that frequents the area, although did have a couple of divers at our feet for a good while which shut things down a bit. They speared a couple of 30-40cm fish that we could see, not sure if they did get anything decent. Haven't been down that way for about 6 months so weren't sure how things may have changed - still, a good day out.

BOM forecast maps for over 4 days are useful indications also: http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/4day_col.shtml

Hey Geordie, Can't help so much with freshwater options, but you are surrounded by some great salt options to explore around Botany Bay if you want to try beach fishing. Rivers and lakes you have easy access options at the Georges River Bridges (Taren Point, Tom Ugly's). Cooks River also has had a heap of posts around the forums here. While the weather isnt so crash hot you can help feed the addiction cruising the forums here - LOTS of good intel from previous posts, generally sprinkled with some great humour and poetic licence! Just having come over, you'll have a great excuse to fish, simply by getting to know and explore your local area!

Gotcha. Salmon really are great fun, although no boat for me so we've only enjoyed them from the beaches and rocks. With such a hot bite I can understand why you wouldn't wanna waste time with carefully untangling lures/nets etc.

What fish and why were they dropped at the boat? Not hassling, just curious...

against a guy who probably weighs double what I do, and who has no problem with breaking the law...but the saddest bit is that there were TWO other men fishing there, who saw it all, I tend to pick up crap every time when I'm at a spot just because I like a clean area and it costs me absolutely nothing to do it... but there is no way to report offenders even if you do see who did it! Maybe there should be some gov't ad campaign raising awareness about these issues...? Hear that... Govt campaign won't do jack - like anything, its individuals that make a difference. Suppose thats partly why we tend to fish out of Syd - some of our favourite spots got overrun. I know you need to be careful, but the only govt interaction that would be positive would be to add funding to fisheries to be able to police such behaviour. I'm betting a lot of fishraiders would jump at a position as a fisheries (or PT) officer.

Could have been that they had burley that the slimies were partial to. One of the most successful (fluke!?) ways I've found is using an Atomic Prawn soft plastic. I say fluke because I was just trying out the sp, but with a quickish retrieve bagged out on slimies. Now, whenever we know they are around, I pull out the atomic and they seem to love it - sometimes have to vary the retrieve in terms of speed, but works consistently.

Where are you trying to fish? I've seen plenty of places where the rod holder has been a shortish length of pvc jammed into a crevice and then packed with quickset cement - again, have no idea about legalities, but would save the trouble and risk of drilling. I guess you would just have to plan the trip so that you have enough time to fish the period of time that the cement would take to set. Might be a bit of a heavy weight getting the cement down to the rocks, but sometimes dragging a pack loaded with fish on the way back up to the car will be just as challenging!

Mate that's awesome, not that its much consolation, but I can't think of a better way for a 7yo to build up the muscles than lifting a swag of flatties! Bet the 9yo was jealous!

We've used power pro with sinkers, and not had any dramas. Having said that though, its usually a heavier line class than 10lb and sinkers are normally on droppers. The few times I've run a sinker direct on the line, haven't had any issues though. When you talk about dry line - not washing off after a session, are you leaving your rods rigged up? If you are, it could be that sand or something is drying in the sinker against the line. This would be abrasive when you next use it, I would think would only take a couple of casts for any grit to rub against the braid, weaken it and help snap the line. You might also have a rough spot in the eye of the sinker - sometimes worth running a paperclip/nail of the appropriate size to match the sinker hole and smooth out the hole that the line runs through. Just a couple of thoughts..

Couldn't find the post I was thinking of but this post may help you clarify your thinking... http://www.fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.php?showtopic=58885&st=0&p=420592&hl=+shimano%20+baitrunner&fromsearch=1entry420592

No worries - funnily enough, over the past few years I've been slowly switching to Daiwa reels, but never used a Daiwa Baitrunner. The others seem to go great guns, with the exception of one small 2000 size reel that was 2nd hand - just seems to get dry and gritty faster than the others.

From memory I think there is a post around here that talks through the makeup of the Shimano v others. If memory serves correct the post mentioned Shimano getting the tick for the first baitrunner??? We've had two of the Shimano's in different sizes and only been able to compare to a no name online shop brand - shimano definitely gets the thumbs up for a baitrunner as long as you take care of it.

Thanks gummybusta - have family that way although they are lucky to be just cut off from town, not floating a bait down the hallway. No boat for me, although thought that some landbased options would create concentrated amounts of food for different species - or would that also only be at river mouths that open to beaches/rocks etc?

Hi All, Been thinking about some of the posts I've seen about freshwater/runoff etc. From what I can see, when we have heavy/consistent rain like we've had in Sydney and flooding in other parts of NSW where do you target the fish? Do you find you have to go further out (ie stop with rivers and move to beaches and rocks), or is this just a jewie philosophy (and if so, is that something you can rely on? Or, do you find that your fish are still in your favourite location, just hiding much deeper or holding tighter to structure? I'm not trying to get super scientific here - just that the old man and my brother went for a casual fish yesterday for zip - very unusual, but apparently the current was super fast on the tide change, and most other fishos had grabbed undersized specimens, with the exception of one chap who had fished through both tide changes and gotten some stonker bream. Probably rambling now, so the simple question - when it rains heaps and for extended periods, how do you change your fishing style, what do you target, and do you change your locations? PS I've said from time to time that the fish are already wet, so they don't care, but maybe there is more to this.... Interested in Raider Thoughts...

Hi Wrangler, Just curious, were you in a boat, or fishing from the rocks at the point? ScottyB