chewsta

Gday Mike, We were trolling north from the 12mile area and then eventually back in towards the Sydney Fads and saw fads and traps scattered everywhere in between. Didnt get close enough to see wether they were marked or not But we did see a couple of Dollies on one that we got close too but as we got closer they had gone deep. It was also pretty late in the day, so maybe a raid at dawn might produce some good results. The water definitely was good enough for them to be there. Allen

Was out Tuesday morning and came across a lot of FADS off Sydney most looked to be private FADS but theres plenty of them. We may have been a bit late in the morning for the Dollies but the water was electric blue reaching a top of 23.5 degrees out around the 12Mile area and barely any current either unfortunately. But its quite a turn around seeing as we were also out on saturday and could barely get 20 degree green water in the same areas.

I'll be up at Hat Head with three mates for our annual trip from the 18th Feb onwards. fishing on CHEAPSHOT. will any other Raiders be up there around that time? Allen

A mate and I were cruising near Clifton Gardens yesterday morning (Tuesday) and witnessed an identical incident. Two other boats were at the marker fishing and doing okay on light gear too, from what we could see, one of the three blokes in a runabout was hooked up for a couple of minutes and slowly winning, when a BIG Fin and tail surfaced next to their boat and snatched his fish off the surface. We were probably 25-30metres away from the guys and we saw that it was a good sized shark from where we were. Five minutes later the same guys rod buckled over and flipped up and over the gunnel and into the drink. none of them looked real keen on going in after it.

Hi mate, a 5.8kg, 60cm winter Bream, in January? you wouldnt happen to have a photo for a more accurate ID would you?

Cheers mate, sounds promising.

Hi Guys, Taking a mate out fishing tomorrow and was just wondering if it was worth heading out earlier than planned to have a look around the fads and traps for some dollies before heading on with our other plans? Cheers Allen.

Yeah mate, I used to live a couple of doors down from him, I also played soccer with him for a few years. Good to see he doesnt take his Henry Lawson Champions shirt off, the man loves his soccer. hahaha Chewy.

Gday Jonno, The bloke in the blue shirt white hat in the second pic, his name wouldnt be Steve would it??

Gday James, On your way out, Give Bluefish point or The Colours a go mate. Both are in close and should have their fare share of kings at the moment. at least that way you can stop in close getting the feel of heading outside to wider grounds. You should be able to find the GPS Co-ordinates in the GPS threads here. Good luck mate.

Hi Slinky, I'm definitely no expert on the subject but Ive found these hooks are Extremely sharp straight out of the packet. Im talking Hypodermic needle sharp. When I was releasing the Marlin It didnt take much at all to get the hook out But the hook itself was VERY deep in the Marlins upper Jaw which is a pretty hard area, So i can see why a lot of guys love these hooks. Hope that info is of some use towards your decision. Allen.

Thanks again, guys. We've been getting a few calls about this, so here's a few more details. The fish was released nice and healthy, allthough a little confused. was caught on a Tiagra 30W LRSA - 15kilo, 21.3 degree water and took a lumo Pakula Mosquito. We only had two lures out at the time and were trying to get a third one out when it all happened. The fish had a go at the other lure aswell but we didnt realise this until checking the leaders of both lures after we had landed it. The other lure we had out was an Evil Angel - Pakula Cockroach.

Thanks Guys. was something i wont be forgetting in a hurry. nath: those are the camera pics mate. I'll post up the phone snaps aswell. They do make the fish look smaller dont they. how embarrasing, especially after the monster I described in the post. That fish felt every bit of a thousand kilos when i was winding it in, in those conditions. FishBones: Not sure if it was a private Fad or a trap, only one buoy was visible from memory. though once the Marlin was spotted, the Blinkers were on pretty quick and not much else was taken in after that. We were North a couple of Km's of 12 mile when we stumbled across it.

Hi guys, Well, what a way to turn a miserable day on its head and kick it in the fads! Nathan (PackAttack) and myself had planned to head offshore to try and jig up a couple of kingys due mainly to the fact that every weather website had been predicting low winds and swell for the better part of the morning. Sunrise and half way out to 12 Mile Reef we were facing a pretty stiff cross wind and a current running the opposite way, providing absolutely terrible conditions but we pushed on in the hope that it was going to get better. After two very dissapointing attempts at jigging, the call was made to throw in the towel and head home as we had a long slow trip in the 5 metre Ally Craft we were in. Very Dissapointed, we decided to troll past a few Fads on the way home and hope for a Dolly or two to try and save the day for us. After about twenty minutes of trolling I spied a single small Styrofoam Buoy floating ahead of us and then two bright blue flashes in the swell and chop, yelling out to Nathan that this buoy had Dollys on it, we both looked up and realised that they were not Dollys but the two Pectoral fins of a 70 - 80 kilo marlin sitting right on the small float. We quickly lost sight of the fish in the swell for a minute so decided to circle back past the small fad when we realised that the fish was actually following us right at the back of the boat! It cruised along with us for about 5 minutes but only showed a bit of interest until we surfed down a big swell and pulled the lures away from it quite quickly. Then all hell broke loose!!! Then in a flash It all happened. The fish screamed up on the Lumo Mosquito, the rod loaded up and then the ratchet screamed... and screamed and screamed. it was hard as hell to fight the fish in the crappy conditions but to cut a longer story shorter, 35 minutes later the two of us had it boatside grabbed the leader and had our first Marlin from MY 5.10 Metre Ally Craft runabout. To say we are stoked would be an understatement, the rest of the day was a blur as all we did was laugh in disbelief about our by catch of Marlin while out targetting Kingys. Not a bad way to save a bad days fishing.. We took a couple of snaps aswell, they werent real easy to take out there at the time with the conditions and adrenalin rushing 100 miles an hour in opposite directions but here you go. Hope you all like the pics... Me, Nath and one of the retrieved and nearly straightened Dojo hook . Cheers guys Allen...

There is always Hat Head aswell mate. The creek out of there is very easy and sheltered, Bait collection can be done from a man made reef right near the mouth of the creek or you could shoot across to Black Rock and Fish rock. Both of which are half way between SWR bar crossing and the Hat Head creek opening. Hat Head is also much quieter and some great rock fishing is also off the point at the mouth of the creek. The whole town of Hat Head is also a stones throw from the beach. Hope that helps mate Allen

Thanks Jig, Only problem is I'm working off a Mac and all the related card reading software is windows only. So i thought ide ask incase there was an easy way to view, without having to buy or setup a Mac to PC conversion program on my home Mac. Looks like its the only way to go though. Can anybody recommend a good reliable Mac to PC conversion program? Preferably a free download. Allen

Hi Guys, Im currently using a Navionics Gold Australia card in my GPS unit and was wondering if anybody knew of any online maps that i can view that are visually similar to the Navionics etc, Charts. Im interested in the contour lines and rough depths and basically just sussing out a few places along the coast of New South Wales both Inshore and offshore without having to go and sit in the boat for hours on end. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Allen

Those are some excellent fish boys. Great photos too, well done! Cheers Allen

Mickeybee, PM sent in regards to more info on the comp mate. Sorry it was late I hadnt noticed the message from you. Allen

Will do mate, lookin forward to it. hopefully the weather improves for us all.

Gday mate, A lot of the tackle shops ive been into recently have them on sale for $199 as a combo with a 7foot (possibly Catana, not sure) rod. They are a Great reel!

Awesome, well good luck mate, not that you need it. judging from your report you've got the place pretty sussed out. Migh bump into you down there and say hi. I'll be on team "BreamBassin" (a Blue Stratos)

Well done on the results mate, I'll be fishing it this Sunday but the weather is looking attrocious at the moment. fingers crossed it gets better, and hopefully our results will be as good as yours were too. Cheers mate Allen.

Hi Robby, If your talking about these holders (attached) they are pretty good for baitfishing as they get your rods horizontal to the water so the rods arent in a highstick position when a bait is taken. BUT Ive had a few break unexpectedly fishing for Kings from the force of a bait being hit. Even small kings can eventually break them quite easily after a bit of wear and tear. So tie your rods off to the boat aswell. They also tend to spin if mounted on a grabrail no matter how tight you do them up. So if your thinking of using them for kings, just be careful. every other type of fishing Ive used them for, Ive had no problems though. They are a great idea though and easy to use, if only they were made from something a little stronger than plastic. Cheers mate Allen

Nice work Iceman, are you fishing the Squidgy comp this weekend up the Georges River mate? Any other Raiders entering?