ginko

Yep, I hit the bays just up from apple tree bay, using lightly weighted soft plastic imitation nippers. These had worked an absolute treat the week before on flatties up in port stephens, and stayed on the hook much longer than the real ones! I'm not sure how'd they'd go with whiting, but for flatties, the were very good. But in trying out 3 -4 bays around apple tree bay, not a nibble apart from a leather jacket. A fair few mullet about though. Pretty quiet up that way still - water temp must be too low still.

Raiders, I had the rare chance for a day in the tinnie on a weekday. So I headed to Pittwater which I avoid at weekends due to traffic. Strangely, there was still a fair bit of traffic! So I moved up to broken bay, and got a few yellowtail at west head. With a huge swell out at sea, I figured I'd best keep my little tinnie inshore, and continued around to Flint and Steel reef. The reef out from the marks was covered with crab traps. There were about 10 spread all over the reef, right in the middle of the channel, and they were only marked with white, undersized floats. I'd hate to see what happens when a big cruiser gets its prop tangled in the line. To leave that mess behind, I finally hit the drop-off infront of the red channel marker and dropped down a nice piece of calamari squid on a # 8 hook on a heavily weighted handline, set out the yellowtail unweighted. Lots of burley in the mesh bag. The tide was just turning to the run-in, and I figured I was in with a chance for a jewie. The wind and current drifted me slowly westwards and into the deeper (~20m) water. It was very clear, and felt about 18 degrees. At about 11 am, the handline suddenly had a hit, but then nothing. I grabbed it, and pulled it up hard in case anything was still there, but I could not feel anything. I wondered if I'd just hit something on the bottom. But as I pulled the hook up to check the bait, there came a good solid pull. But for only about 5 seconds, then nothing again. I pulled in the line, with sudden short pulls every 10 seconds or so. Finally as I saw colour - it was silver, and really big! Strage jewie? With so little fight, I just pulled the fish up into the boat. A huge and very angry hairtail suddenly came to life! It was thrashing about in the boat, all teeth and wild eyed, flashing in the sunlight. I had my club handy, and dispatched the thing with two solid blows. Even still, I used my very longest pliers to retrieve my #8 hook, stuck fast it the fish's tongue. I have a big eski in my tinnie, and had to fold the fish in two to get it in. All up, 1.62m, and probably about 2kg. A new PB. This was enough for 4 people's dinners. Having eaten the smaller versions and found them a mouthful of bones, I have to support the view that the bigger models are much better eating. I cooked it with olive oil and lemon, wrapped in al-foil for about 25 minutes at 190 degrees, and then for a few minutes without the foil under the grill. Delicious! Somewhat belatedly, I realised that hairtails don't just have sharp teeth, their gill-rakers are also super sharp!

try a "slim beauty" - mich easier to tie, and better through the guides too.

1829, Technically I guess I should have written #6/0 hook, which is about the size of my thumb. There are also #6 hooks which are about the size of my 2 year-old's index finger.

It's been a while since I got out in the tinnie, so I headed to the solitude up Cowan Creek for the early morning on Sunday. Freezing, but a beautiful sunrise. My first stop had deep clear clear water, and no fish. So I hit the sand flats, following the lead of some gulls. But nothing there by tiny whiting and the odd stingray. Just as I was heading off the flats, some very fast pelagics zoomed in cleaning up the bait fish, but zooming out again before I could get any cast in front of them. With everything gone quiet there, I decided to try a spot I'd noticed on the fish finder the last time I was in the area (that day's trip also happened to be on a rising tide). The tide was pushing into a rock face in front of some very deep water over a rugged bottom. I got there, and dropped a mesh bag with salmon frames along with my anchor, and then put out a weighted hand line with a nice piece of Sergeant Baker (I hear this is good bait) and an unweighted arrow squid on the heavy rod. I then cast on the surface with lightly weighted squid strips. 10 minutes later, the baitrunner just screams off. I felt very good about not striking straight away, especially as I had a #6 circle hook on the other end... After slowly tightening up on the fish, there were a few hard runs, but then the fight seemed to go out of him, and I just reeled in the fish. I was wondering what the hell I had on... I was figuring kingie when it went off, but then maybe jewie after the first run, but when it ran out of steam I just did not know... I pulled it up, and there was a solid snapper. I lifted it by the trace into the boat and let out the war whoop of victory. Evidently that woke up the fish, and it proceeded to trash madly about my little tinnie. At one point, I feared it was going to jump back into the drink. A couple of bonks on the head with the cudgel stopped all that, and it was bled and into the bucket. I later picked up a bream and a leather jacket on the same unweighted line. (yes, a leather jacket on a #6 hook!). The weighted Sergeant Baker was untouched, and the jackets repeatedly attacked the unweighted and lightly weighted (cast & retrieve) squid if it went deeper than about 2 meters. The arrow squid was caught during the week and never frozen, and then about 1/3 of the tube (stripped of wings and skin) was fed carefully onto the hook. I cut strips on the trailing edge of the strip and tested it in the water, trimming with scissor to make sure the strip wouldn't spin in the current. I had # 6 Gamakatsu circle hooks, about a meter of 25lb trace, and 20lb braid. The water was about 20m deep and pretty clear, and I was about 15 m from the shore. The fish was just over 2kg, 56 cm long. The snapper was delicious, especially as my wife treated me by cooking my catch for me!

I hit Mona Vale this morning - first time this "summer" with livies in the bucket. Only one livie actually, as that was all I could get last night. Mona Vale was the one beach showing holes on the surf cams yesterday. Very flat everywhere. In spite of the flat, I got there very early due to about-to-go-fishing-insomnia and chucked out mr livie next to the only structure on the beach, some rocks ~ middle. 30 minutes later, the line goes dead, then tap tap, then slack. I wind in, guess this is a tailor, but still only very light taps. A few more times, and still gently going slack even as I reel the bait in towards the meager breakers. Going for broke, a big strike, and I got 'em, a little tailor goes into the bucket. But lost my one livie for a little tailor. and after that I only had servo squid for bait, and it proved useless. I don't think I'll try it again. Pillies seem robust enough for the odd fish, but squid is the s@#$@S out of the servo freezer. Beauty morning though. BB

I hit Narrabeen Beach early on Friday morning, using perfect squid for bait... nothing doing at all. Hardly even pickers, both in the holes and in the wash. I think it was just too flat and the low tide did not help. Still, a beautiful morning, even without shooting stars.

I think there are public bbq's in the picnic area there, so I might see you there with a flensing knife.

I was out in Smith's Creek this morning - the water was crystal clear and the wind was fairly strong. I tried loads of burley, and had only one solid run. Sadly, nothing to report, as the line snapped - it felt like a nick in the braid rather than a very strong fish.

any hints as to how to avoid the undesirable species (wirrah/kelp fish/crimson wrasse), or is it just the case that they are part and parcel of targeting pigs?

I've pulled up loads of livies with the same bite pattern after a bit strike... what's the best way to land the creature that is doing the biting? wire trace? leave the half-yakka down there and hope for the second strike? I have had both small hammerhead and decent sized tailor caught at the times when I've also experienced the "half yakka". BB

Butch what bait did you get the drummer on, and do you have any tips to avoid the undesireables that the burley brings? I had a quick session off the rocks and caught about 9000 sweep, crimson-banded wrasse, kelpfish etc. No drummer! I was burleying with really well soaked bread and cabbage weed, and fishing with both prawn pieces and cabbage weed, both under a pencil float and then using a tiny sinker and no float, and fishing into water that was about 4m deep but with lots of big boulders here and there on the bottom. BB

Check the BOM site for water temps - looks like maybe the last gasp of summer temp coming through just now. That said, I saw a nice kingie well up cowan creek last weekend (and caught a bonito too). good luck! There may be a bit of extra burley in the water, given the big swell out there.

Raiders, I hit cowan this morning on the falling tide (can't always hit it at the right time) and tried for some hairies in the rain. There were about 4 boats there at ~5:30am when we arrived in the dark. Loads showing on the sounder, but no hairies. Lots of yakkas! My boy, 7, caught a few of these, and we sent them out on a circle hook for what looked to be jewies lurking at 18m deep. One livie did get taken, but missed the strike. The sounder still was showing, and at around 7am, the gulls started circling and diving over a school of something... My boy had a big yakka take his hook, and as he pulled it up, saying "it's really heavy" I peeked over his side of the boat. Kingie! actually, it was just chasing the yakka, which was a big one and really panicing. I'd grabbed the net when he said "heavy" and was expecting a tailor or bream on his line, and was happy/a bit sad that the kingie did not just swim into the net! Anyway, I think it is the first time I've got the net out for a yakka! Then 5 minutes later, he was onto a decent sambo. A great fight! Now that was heavy. We got it in the boat, high 5's and then all went quiet. 10 mintues later, out of the blue, more gulls and alot of surface action. In the quiet, I'd just rigged up a #2 long shank with a half pillie on my flattie rod as I thought we might switch targets... but when the surface action started, I just cast it out gently, with the drag set to withstand a serious run. Something was on the pillie straight away, and streaking circles around the boat. I could see its size, (about 40-50cm) and it was super fast, but it was too blue for a kingie... around and around at about 50 kph, then it turned straight at the boat... WIND! and into the boat came a Watson's leaping bonito! I've never seen them at this time of year, or so high up the system. In the end, no hairies, 2 super-wet and smiling fishermen. Bonito sushi and miso/salmon soup tonight.

Raiders, I hit Narrabeen this morning - it was looking great: nice gutter, decent swell outside, and beautiful wash running over the gutters. The beach was pretty low, there has been loads of erosion in the huge swells last week. I was fishing for whiting with beach worms. I tried in close, out on the sand bar, on the banks, in the holes, in the middle of the beach and next to the rocks... All on the rising tide. All that for one flathead, about 15cm who went back in of course. Is it just me, or are the beaches very very quiet at the moment?

You can launch at Akuna Bay 24/7. Good ramp, but watch out for oysters if in thongs. $11/day or get an annual park pass.

Anyone else with a better filleting technique? 1. very sharp, long flat carving/fileting knife 2. slice under the pectoral fin, towards gills, all the way into the spine, and up to the back of skull 3. swivel knife and slice from skull backwards along the edge of the dorsal fin 4. around end of dorsal spine and behind rib cage, insert knife right across to belly-side of the fish, and continue slicing all the way back to the tail 5. turn fish around, and slice meat away from ribcage, working from back to front of fish, eventually re-joining original slice into the fish. 6. repeat opposite side 7. with tailor, and especially salmon, I want to remove the dark red flesh: so I then turn each filet, skin side down, and slice from tail-end forwards with the knife just skimming along above the skin and thin layer of red meat. 8. each filet is then cut down the mid-line and any remaining red meat is excised from the mid-line, leaving clean filets. This seems to yield decent fillets, but it takes a fair bit of time... any better ideas? All red meat and frames are put into the freezer in a big ziplock bag for use as burley next trip. I too, missed fishing on the weekend for reasons that had nothing to do with the weather.

Were you fishing at the bottom of the estuary? I was out on Saturday in huge winds (35 knot gusts) in my little tinnie with a mate. Not much luck, since we could neither get good bait nor park the boat in any good spots. The best we got was one each of this crazy beastie, which I later id'ed as an eastern smooth boxfish (and poisonous). When the wind dropped later in the day, we tried drifting the main channel on the last of the run-out tide with our one lone yakka under a float and prawns down deep - well, for not a single bite! I think the drop in temp had all the fish out of the upper parts of the estuary, down to the warmer ocean end.

It looks like more work than it is! 1. take a sharp knife, and carefully grind off the epoxy over the existing whipping holding the broken eyelet on the rod. do this with the knife over the eyelet, and not over the rod blank. 2. unwind the existing whipping. 3. the old eyelet will pop off. 4. buy an equivalent replacement eyelet at the tacklo, whipping twine in your favorite colour, and buy rod epoxy.<- key step! 5. now, clip one side of the eyelet onto the blank, and whip the other side on. (if you have access to a drill, you can carefully put your blank into the drill and spin the blank which can make the whipping much better and easier). You will probably take about 5 attempts before you get a nice even "whip" on the eyelet. I think it is slightly easier to whip from the eyelet outwards. Check that the eyelet doesn't shift around the rod blank as you whip - you'll need to start again if it does. 6. unclip and whip the other side. 7. mix up the epoxy really well. like 2-3 minutes of mixing. make sure you have even amounts of epoxy and hardener "in the mix". 8. put on a thin coat of epoxy in a well-ventilated space that's warm. (it will take days to harden if the temperature is below 15 degrees) 9. wait at least a day until the epoxy is hard. you can apply a second coat if needed. It's a bit of work, but I've done it twice, and I actually enjoy looking at the job I did. In fact, I wish I'd even spent more time getting the whips perfect. The expense of twine and epoxy (about $15 each) can be justified (at least to a fisho) by the knowledge that you'll be breaking plenty more eyelets.

From the sounds of it, you're casting these yakkas, as opposed to trawling them behind a boat. If that's the case, you probably need two hooks, size 6 or bigger, on a sliding snell. Put the "end" hook in first, between the head and the start of the dorsal fin, and close enough to,but behind (ontop of) the spine. Do not go through the belly-side of the spine as you'll puncture the swim bladder. Then the second hook (the one on the snell) goes through the tail-wrist, again avoiding the spine. Some people also put a small elastic band or even a zip-tie around the tail-wrist to hold that second hook on more securely for the cast. Slide the second hook so that there is almost no slack between the hooks. There should be about 6-8 turns on the snell to make it stiff enough to survive the cast without all the pressure going onto the end hook. Try to get the first cast into the right spot, as each subsequent cast increase the chance that your bait will fly off. If you are trawling, you'll need to go through the nose or bridle rig the fish, otherwise you will be pulling it backwards through the water. If there are tailor around, try putting a second hook near the tail of the fish. Tailor tend to bite the fish in half, so if you don't have a hook in both halves, you will likely end up with just a half-bait on your line. Also, I find the multi-hook bait rig a disaster of tangles and not the best for catching yakkas. Much better to use a very light rod (kids' rods work really well) or a hand line, and a number 10 or number 12 hook, a tiny sinker or a big swivel, breadcrumbs or wheat-bix burley and small pilchard pieces on the single hook. Burley is the key: a fair bit to get the fish around and then light bits to get them on the chew. Many people use mince (ground beef) for bait but I find it not as convenient or effective as pilchard. If you are casting, try to get smaller fish, since the big yakkas don't cast very far.

Is it squid that is braining my livies? This has happened to me a couple of times at night off the beach (like Narrabeen). Occasionally, seemingly without being touched by fish, my livies come in very dead, with their brains and eyes very neatly cut out and otherwise untouched. Are squid to blame? Anyone caught squid off surf beaches? If so, what's the setup?

Sorry for the blurriness - the camera's focus was screwed up by the water's surface I think. But these were definitely not blennies or gudgeons - their body shape was exactly like flatties, even if photos don't show this so clearly and just from the photos, I can see how they look like they might be blennies. Maybe I should have tried picking one up and seeing if it spiked me! I could not see the flathead in the comparison photo - it just looks like sand? We'd hiked a fair way along the spit-manly walk to get to 40 baskets, but I think there is fairly direct access from the back roads in clontarf.

Billseeker, I saw the wind forecast for the day, and the 30-50km/hr ruled out hitting juno point on the changing morning tide after rain and high barometer. Evidently I need a bigger tinnie! Instead I trolled around in Careel Bay and near Taylors Point for kingfish on a yakka and squid strips. The yakka lived for another day, it was completely untouched, and the squid seemed to get eaten by pickers in about 2 second flat after hitting the water (chopper tailor?). Came home with a donut, but what a great day to be out on the water. Very few others out. Beautiful fronts and cloud systems rolling through. Good on you for the PB flattie and the Jewie to match.

On Anzac Day we took the boys out for a walk from forty baskets beach to manly. On the way, just south east of fairlight beach are some great little rock pools. While I fretted about blue rings, my 3 boys busied themselves poking fingers into each pool. Then the eldest cried out "flathead"! I swear, they are anatomically identical to full size flatties. As you can see in the pics, they also displayed very good colour changing to fit in with the colour of what ever they were lying on, including the ability to match different parts of their body to different backgrounds. Can anyone tell me if these are "for real" flatties, or some guppy-sized version?

I hit Dee Why early this morning. Fished with yakka fillets and pillies at the southern end of the beach. Just pickers before the sun came up, and then about 1/2 after sunrise on the rising tide, the tailor came through. I picked up dinner as three tailor took my pillie on 3 ganged #4 hooks, and then switched to try to catch some whiting. Just one small one on worms, and no other bites as the tide came up to full at 9:30. There is a huge current running north to south along the beach, and only 2-3 rips down at the south corner.