ginko

Has same story myself... I was out in Pittwater this last weekend using mainly bait but with the odd lure cast thrown in. You can guess which were working best.. Yellowtail - caught with pillies, and used but not effectively as bait. Pike - soft plastic - silver/gold paddletail, later, it was used for bait, but did not catch anything Trevally - soft plastic - silver/gold paddletail Salmon - silver metal slice <dropped a great flattie at the boat - it was too big to lift in, and it cut the line when attempting to net it - caught on the silver/gold paddletail>. It did make me wonder about just going out with lures next time.

hm, I hit the northern beaches this morning, using pillies on a ganged hook - the surf was maybe a bit small. landed 2 ~35cm-40cm tailor, and was bitten off by another. It seems the surf was too flat for the flatties

In my experience, circle hooks are best if you want to land the sharks. They tend to hook just outside the teeth, and so prevent bite-offs. Even 80lb leader is no match for a shark's bite, so best to keep the hooks and leader outside the teeth.

It seems the kingies are coming right up into the estuaries now, late summer. On Sunday at full high tide, I saw a school in about 2 feet of water, way in the back corner of a sand flat. They made a huge commotion back there. I motored in as far as I could in my light tinnie, and watched the school swim out off the sand flat right under me. At the time I only had a light rod rigged with soft plastics for flatties, and they weren't taking that. Later in the day, towards low tide and in about 14m of water, but still well up the estuary, I was busted off by either a big tailor or a small kingie that smashed a 40g halco twisty retrieved at top speed. (12lb line, 20lb trace, soft mud bottom). Plenty of bust-ups on the surface. It took a few changes or lure before I found the size, speed, and colour they liked. Naturally, I had only one of them in my box. My heavier gear went untouched.

If you're on the north side try clontarf beach, east of swimming enclosure. The deep water is too far from shore at the north side of the bridge. Alot of snaggy rocks up there too. Re casting at narrabeen... into an onshore is always hard work. You might upsize the sinker and down size the bait to get better distance. Also, find a good rip where the current will take the bait out and where the fish are anyway.

Just watch out handling live cuttlefish - they're angry as and are keen to bite, and they're also bloody good shots with the ink! I've not used them as live bait, but cut into strips and used within a day or two (kept cool the whole time) they work a treat for practically any fish that swim. Like squid, useless once the flesh becomes opaque. With squid, its a good idea to get the two hook through just the end of the quill so that it is much harder for it to pull out. Otherwise, the tow hook can rip out, the squid goes side-on in the water, and then you loose the whole thing an you'll be towing around a pair of hooks. I prefer circle hooks, both front and back. Anything that's eating a squid will take the whole thing, except maybe chopper tailor which are a bit useless to catch anyway.

Is there a section in fishraider for council cleanup catch of the month? I'm still waiting to spot that beautiful Alvey poking out of odds and sods. Manfrotto is top-class in tripods, you'd win the comp hands down on that one. A few years back I was walking up a beach having a cast out here and there, and spotted the bottom of an eski washed up on the beach. The day had really started to heat up, and I needed a carrier for my bait. So picked it up, washed it out, and carried on. No lid, so not the most effective eski ever - that is until, about an hour up the beach, when I spot an eski lid washed up.... It served me well for a couple years until the lid flew out of my boat in some pretty rough weather. Some things are just meant to be at sea, I guess. Nice work on the blackies too.

OnAKing - watson's leaping bonito tasted the same as the stripeys, both as sashimi and cooked. One watsons + one mid-sized stripey from Sat morning were an addition to a bbq for four adults and three kids. The two big stripeys from Sunday were two full dinners+ for two adults and the three kids - and the kids are growing boys. All were dispatched with knife and then bled immediately, and in the fridge within an hour of capture. All fish were filleted, with all bloodlines cut out. Saturday's fish were sashimi with teriyaki sauce (not marinade!), and also bbq with lemon and a touch of teriyaki. Sunday's were one dinner with fillets done in garlic/soyasauce/lemon/sesame seeds/splash of maple syrup, and then another dinner with a tomato/vinegar chutney. When I filleted the Sunday fish I had to wash the fish with fresh water and store for a day, and this made it a bit watery after the day in the fridge. So Monday, I threw in some sea salt onto the fish and the fish kept beautifully after that til Tuesday. So next time, if I have to wash in fresh and store, I will throw some salt into the bag for storage. Also, next time I will pack my filleting knife on a road trip! One thing I noticed: on all the fishes' port side, on the inside of fillet about the middle from front to back but on the lower half from top to bottom, there was fluoro green stain on the flesh. This corresponded to a sac of very green stuff (bile?) in the fishes' guts. Anyone know what that is? Anyway, I think I am inclined to just cut this out, as it looked, well, not so appetising.

Thanks for the name on the mack baits, and I saw the green bonito and blue mack colours bringing them in on Saturday morning - they're $15 online + delivery: $$$! Given my habit of digging treble hooks into the cunjevoi, I might give the softies and skirted squid a go first.

So I hit the rocks at the south end of Avoca Beach this weekend. And so did about 70 other fisho's! Saturday, I got there just before sunrise, and struggled to find a clear place to put a line in the water. I finally found a gap, and started with the spin gear and a 30g halco in pure silver. About 20 minutes after sunrise, the fish started busting up on the surface, and after about 5 minutes of fruitless spinning right through these schools, I finally managed to get one - a watsons leaping bonito, small, but extremely beautiful. There were a few fisho's using a lure I'd not seen before (and I can't remember the name...) but it was an odd looking lure: blue/green with a flat front edge that was angled to pull the lure down. They seemed to run about 1m under the surface, and on saturday, they were the definite winner lure. (name please?) I tried a spanyid (greenish tinge) but no luck. But by now, about 40 minutes after sunrise, the rock was really crowded and there was little room to cast anyway: the wind was blowing from the south along the rock and all the floats were drifting off to the left of the respective fisho's. So I switched to a pillie about 3 m under a float, and landed a decent stripie. But that was it for the morning - about 60 minutes after sunrise the rate of captures fell dramatically, so I cleaned my fish and headed back to the rental for a cup of coffee and brekkie. My wife, incredibly, gave me leave for a second morning, Sunday morning was even more crowded. The best remaining spot had decent wash but copped a fair bit of spray and wash. I could not cast out to far either due to crowding on the rock and heaps of floats/lines out in the sea. Out went a pillie, and 5 seconds after it hit the water in the wash - bam! I was into a good one. Up came a decent bonnie, Out went another bait, and 5 minutes later, on again, a slightly larger model. They really can pull, and it seemed that there were more and better fish in close. With two big ones in the bucket - I thought I'd give the spinning a go. I found the only gap was in front of some un-likely looking water, and, sure enough, it held no fish. There was another fisho spinning with saturday's gun lure there too, and he didn't get a single hit. So, again the coffee beckoned. Tonight it was teriyaki and sesame bonito with mango/pineapple/capsicum/basil/red-onion salad. Still enough fish for another meal for five! The rest of the weekend was good, with incredibly great weather. But sooo many people there: huge queues to get a bite to eat, crowds in the surf, crowds on the rocks. After a weekend fighting the crowds, the drive home to Sydney at 5pm on Sunday was ifantastic: almost no traffic at all. Maybe everyone was heading back out to the rock for the evening session.

When you're drifting the livies out in the wash under a float, how much leader do you have there, and do you put any sinker just above the hook(s)? I tried a livie under a float at South Curlie this week, but the current kept taking the livie up to the very surface of the water. (it was pretty windy, and the wind and the wash were going in opposite directions, so the wind was pulling the livie back into the current of the wash ). The livies survived ok up on the surface, but it seemed that being on the surface attracted way more birds than fish... (I had a cormorant, a gull and a tern each attack the livie, but no kingies).

were you north or south of Curl Curl? I went by the south end about 2pm - bit of a nasty swell there on those rocks - and there was a hell of a lot of spray and pretty ugly swell.

yep really bad at west head, balmoral, and near spit bridge. loads of mados and sweep too. makes it really hard to get any yellow tail. I found that the yellow tail were only available in the dark (dawn or dusk) and during daylight, no bait will survive. even after dark I had to ghost-cotton my pillie pieces onto the little hook, and cast and retrieve the pillie on the surface to avoid the leatherjackets stealing everything.

Yep, in Pittwater this morning, I pulled in the biggest hammerhead I've yet seen, maybe 1.5 m. one hell of a fight, circling the boat about three times before I got him alongside. Bit off a # 5 circle hook and 80lb leader as I tried to get its picture. It was super strong, but not fat, so definitely not pregnant with pups. No kingies, just some salmon on the surface. My squid bait was taken by a flattie when it was well off the bottom in about 15m of water. Odd by catch, but a nice one. One small tailor too.

Wednesday, I was fishing land based from Cremorne point, and there was a school repeatedly busting up the surface just east of Kurraba Point (so between Cremorne and Kurraba points). I watched a guy drift his boat expertly amongst the school and have a great time. But in just over an hour from shore at a great looking spot with a range of softies, I managed only one small flounder.

There us a big low tide tomorrow (saturday) arvo. so when the fish go off thee bite on the low tide, try betting back some of your gear. Today, I went on the low tide to a regular haunt at spit bridge and could easily walk in front of the casting platform, over the rocky area that is usually under a few feet of water, with oyster covered rocks that have eaten so many of my rigs. Twenty minutes there, and I cleaned up maybe 200 meters of lost lines, retrieved three squid jigs, one hard body lure , about thirty sinkers, and a working pair of pliers. Better than shopping for sinkers, and fewer lines to tangle in in future.

Just be careful with your anchor there. There are big boulders under water. I have got mine jammed a few times, so you should be careful if you use a winch that is stronger than your anchor rope. Also, if you get there too late and there are only sweep, try over by barrenjoey head. There are also a fair few squid over there, get them down deep on slabs of fresh bait and a squid skewer.

Definitely 15hp is the go on 3.7 meters. 9.9 will only just get you planing on flat water, and if there's someone else in the boat, forget it. Not that you'll often squeeze two into a 3.7 meter boat.My engine is a 15hp 4 stroke, and uses about 5 litres of fuel per trip, each with about 1 hour of top-speed travel. Service is about $200 plus parts, once per year. There is no issue with weight vs. boat for me... maybe older models weighed more, but all 15hp are pretty light in my experience. I have a 3.7m tinnie with that 15hp, and it works a treat in sheltered waters. On flat days with low-wind and stable conditions forecast, I'll venture a little out in broken bay... but never outside. In a tinnie that small, it's just too risky, as a single big wave at the wrong angle will swamp the boat, and winds of over 15 knots on open water is too much. Even the lower part of Port Stephens was really too rough when it was windy.

must have been one confused bream. Great work getting it back on that one cast with the livie rod.

Tried again today - but no takers (on either squid or yellowtail) - excepting that my lone live squid had it's head bitten off by a chopper tailor... I salvaged the hood, cut into rings/strips and then trolled those. I did get a 56 cm salmon on one of the strips (with an old fly in its mouth), and a pike (!) on another. Loads of largish yellow tail at barrenjoey head in about 14m - none at west head (but a plague of mado's and sweep there like I've never seen). They were a bit too big for bait really, unless the kingies are really aggressive. No kingies at barrenjoey either! There was a bit of a swell going but little wind and overcast skies: a gorgeous day on the water.

I was downrigging through Careel Bay (#5 circle hook, 35lb leader) for early kings today, but had the bait taken first by a tailor, then by a salmon. When I checked the salmon - it had this fly in its mouth. The hook was in perfect condition, caught on the gill-rakers, and the fly was mostly in good condition, but the tail ends had evidently made their way into the stomach and were covered in a greenish goo. The hook had no sign of line on it, so I am guessing the fish was lost to a knot failure rather than a broken/bitten line.

I haven't encountered any kingies yet in Pittwater either. another few weeks I reckon. re: the squid - it should be fine. make sure no air in the bag, and then when you use it, cut off rings, slice through the ring (to make a strip) and peel off the mottled skin. (or use the head and tentacles). One time through with a circle hook and troll that. In my experience in Pittwater, these have worked better than live yakkas (although I've not yet tried a live squid vs. a squid strip).

onya mr squid! nice one on bailing the tinnie in the rain, waiting for jewies. I hope you have a better day's weather when you take out missusquid at the weekend.

onya mr squid! great report, and great to hear you got one in the boat again.

re: 3.9m tinnie outside. I'd think again about that... just one wave over the side of a tinny puts you in serious trouble, and outside especially, who knows where a near-submerged hull might drift. A very high freeboard all 'round, including the transom by the motor, is crucial to preventing swamping, and then loads of positive floatation. Power in the motor is always a plus. Centre console, at least 30hp (on a small boat) and high freeboard are essential. I'd be more happy with 60hp+ and at least 5m. Forget longreef boat ramp in all but the calmest of the few calm southerly days, and in under 4m tinnie, I'd forget outside too. Downside risk of a swamping should never be forgotten in the rush to get a fishing session in. Also, even the non-fatal downside risk of wrecking your tinnie or its motor in the surf at the boatramp will surely ruin the fun. Even an early session is going to end mid-morning, by which time the wind and swell can pick up significantly over the calm of dawn. If you'd like to try offshore, use a boat fit for purpose and take advantage of the fact that such a boat will make quick work of getting outside from any properly protected boatramp such as Rowland Reserve. There are plenty of boats available for purchase or hire. BTW, good snapper are available in deep water in the estuaries in spring - just drop down a good piece of squid and some burly into a deep hole over boulders and see what you can pull out.