ginko

you might be using too big yakkas- I find the ones at west head easy to come by, but pretty big, and I have had very limited success with such big bait fish. Try hitting some likely looking spots further up, or just being more selective on the yakkas you keep. In my experience, the smaller the better, unless you plan to eat them yourself. (they are excellent sashimi and taste very nice baked too). Try using squid strips. You can buy decent squid at bait shops on condamine road and pittwater road. Much easier and more reliable than catching! That said, there are squid at west head occasionally, and sometimes pretty deep at Barrenjoey or off Sand Point. It will take about 3-4 days for the system to clear up after the huge storm. You might get some jewfish in the interim on some smelly bait (mackerel?) Hope that helps.

With 6hp, I'd echo advice to avoid flint and steel - the tide comes roaring through there, add even a light breeze, your 6hp might not be enough to get you moving too quickly. Even with my little tinnie's 15hp, I find it a nervous spot, especially due idiots in the huge barge-like powerboats plowing through the prime fishing spots and making wash you could surf on. In the harbour, I've seen a fair bit of kingie action around Clontarf (north east of balmoral). in a light breeze, you might get away with heading there. I'd say squid is the go for bait. Apparently the sand flats between spit bridge and balmoral are home to monster flatties.

I was hiking with my kids on Sunday, and saw huge schools of rat kings heading towards north head just as I got to "The Grotto" at grotto point. They were in close, and swimming with some speed, their golden backs clearly visible. Then Monday, I was down near Clontarf, and right at the top of the tide, the rats went by again (swimming seawards again). (there were also big schools of ~30cm mullet going by from time to time). I had my rod, and there were a fair number of other fishos attempting spin them up, but no dice on SP's or metal slices. Good to see a big kingie pulled out from amongst the rats.

Thanks Barnzey. That must have been the scene on the bottom last night, fiddler rays lying on top of one another there were so many. The fiddler rays don't look that enticing to eat somehow... but just in case I feel up to it one evening, what's the best way to dispatch them and prepare them. Do you eat the "wing" or just the body and tail. The ones I was catching last night were 1m+, so there was plenty of meat either way. Ginko

Headed out for a fish tonight, hoping for a jewfish on the high-tide just after dusk. Arrived late due to mrs not recognizing importance of getting to the beach before sunset! In any case, the surf was too big off the beach, so headed to south end of Narrabeen which was relatively sheltered from the ESE 1M+ swell. There was a heavy current running southward along the beach, and I figured all the tasty morsels off the beach would be collecting at the south end. With four nice-sized livies in the bucket, I got there about 6:30 for a 7:30 high tide. Not 5 minutes after the first livie hit the water, I was on to something big, heavy, pulling too evenly to be a fish. After about 5 minutes, of which 4 were just trying to get the damn thing up the beach, up came a big-ass fiddler ray. Maybe a meter or so long. Thick. I got my hooks out, and shoved it back in with my beach-rod-holder. (Please confirm if you KNOW that fiddler rays are ok to pick up bare handed.) Well, I was there for another 1.5 hours, and caught 6 more, and was broken off of 10KG braid by one more. Some more fisho's up the beach were also getting all fiddlers. I was casting into a decent-ish rip, with a live yellow-tail on snelled circle hooks, in the configuration of line: swivel: trace with running swivel:sinker, with the running swivel connected to a second trace with the hooks and livie on the end. It seems my livies/bait were too close to the bottom, thus the fiddler rays - is that correct? Any thoughts on what (else) I was doing wrong? My arms are aching, but next time, it should be because I pulled in something big and worthwhile.

I get squid eating my livies fairly frequently when fishing in deepish water near headlands with a decent tidal current (at least at the surface). You can get a squid skewer at any tackle store, and keep it handy in the boat for this occasion. When you pull up half-eaten yakka, take it off the hook, stick this skewer through a filet of the now-dead-yakka and send it down deep. hey presto, large squid. The really big ones do seem to be down deep: I pulled up a 1.6KG squid using this method. Then the age old dilemma: eat it or use it for bait...

You might try going to Manly Aquarium at feeding time to get a better idea of jewies eating habits. They have a whole load of big jewies swimming around in the aquarium, along with every other fisherman's species. Maybe call ahead to to ask what time to be there to witness the jewies actually eat what is chucked in... I was there and watched the midday feeding, when all the food was snatched up by the bream. The bream's eating was also interesting: the bream acted much like seagulls, where they grab whatever food they can, and then immediately try to swim off to somewhere quiet, and only then do they attempt to eat what they've grabbed. When I fish, it doesn't feel like they're doing that, I usually feel bream biting at the bait and then they either get hooked or they don't when I strike. Maybe I could be waiting longer with them before striking. It is a great place for a sydney fisho to visit. BB

I've had a conversion to the packed lunch. Last week I bought a new beachrod and blew my budget by a wide margin, so I thought I'd make up for it by packing my own lunch rather than buying a sando for oh, say, a few weeks. The unexpected upside: no need to buy sando = freedom to go to waters edge at lunch, no need to wait for someone to prepare sando = a few more minutes free time. So I jumped in the car and hit Neutral Bay. I found great conditions for a quick spin: moderate breeze, clear water, and a falling tide (I was at a point next to deep water, not the flats at the north end of the bay), sunshine with a touch of cloud cover. I wolfed down my lunch in record time, grabbed my pliers, broke out the spinning rod, and started sending out a 35 gram silver metal lure. The lure was tied to a loop on the end of 6kg mono trace, and then a swivel and 8kg braid. The casts were going out a huge distance and I retrieved at high speed with the lure waggling along across the surface, moving well in the loop of the trace. I didn't attempt to give to much extra movement on top of the natural movement of the metal lure, just kept the reel spinning at a pretty even pace with just a slight pull on the rod tip from time to time. 5 casts in, and Bang! I'm on. Bonnies are great fun to catch land based: he raced all over the shop, left and right of me, rising to the surface and then diving to the depths. I got him up, dispatched him, a quick pic, into the bucket, a quick stop to buy some ice (much faster than buying a sando)and back to work. A classic scene as I walked back to the car: there was a mum and her ~5 year old daughter walking down the pavement opposite me. The daughter spotted the beautiful fish in my hand and stared at it as she walked along. Her mum's gaze alternated between looking at her daughter's looking at the fish, and just looking at the fish herself. The mum smiled at me, I smiled back... and the daughter just kept walking and staring at the fish, and then she walked full tilt into a recycling bin left out on the pavement for rubbish day. Thankfully, the daughter was fine, and laughed at herself and went off with her mum talking about "that nice fish". thanks, packed lunch! In the pic, my beach tackle bag (best purchase this year), my serious pliers, the 35g lure is visible on the rod, and the bonito(some 40cm).

There's already a fair few mentions of ginger, but I've found having a slice of raw gingerroot under the tongue works too - it helps give you a great cool feeling when you breath in which is a pretty good antedote to nausea. Also, pre-tie all your rigs and have your rods set up before you get outside and into the swell - nothing like having your head down while riding a swell to bring on seasickness. And when all else fails, throw up downwind!

The water in cowan is v muddy at the moment... I drove through on Sunday and there is still a lot of murky fresh floating on the surface (and heaps of sticks etc in the water - be careful if you're driving at night!) I've caught a jewie in the arm leading up to jerusalem bay, with loads of berley. From time to time, there are heaps of chopper tailor there which will pick off your baits, so you might try a livie instead. I've noticed that the sand flats in Jerusalem Bay are all very sensitive to the tide: good at the start of the run-up, but then the fish tend to follow the very edge of the rising water and so they become inaccessible except by foot or by kayak. Your motor will foul the sandflat, and get itself heartily fouled with sand if you try to drive over the flats even at high tide. The fish come flying off the flat at the turn of the high tide. so I'd guess that you might be in with a chance if you get there at the top of the tide and drop a livie down for the bigger hunters that must be there waiting for the exodus from the flats. You can catch poddie mullet on the flats with lots of bread burley. (I'm not sure if you're allowed to trap them, but I suspect it would be easier than catching mullet). That said, you can also try the traditional jewie spots: the bridges up the hawkesbury, and the drift from juno point to flint and steel. i tried the later on sunday, for a donut.

Hey Steve - yes that is a match! you had a nice looking one in the bag there, but I couldn't raise a flattie in spite of my best efforts, and there was no action down in the shallow water by the boats. And Bassboy888, ok, maybe it was 15minutes not 10, but it really was on the last cast. Three kids and long-suffering-and-patiently-but-fruitlessly-awaiting-the-cessation-of-husband's-fishing-mania wife at home are a pretty good reason to put the rod back in the car. So after landing a fish, I had to pack it in, at least for the day! Maybe the long-suffering-and-patiently-but-fruitlessly-awaiting-the-cessation-of-spouse's-fishing-mania spouse should be the "Catch of the Month" theme next month. I can just picture my entry: a picture of my wife, head cocked to one side and eyes rolling, holding up a freshly caught, gorgeous, huge, beach-caught, jewie.

Caught on the way home on the last cast of a ten minute "decompression" session off a beach near spit bridge. Another fisho was there with a nice flattie in the bag. This fish was lurking in deep water between a long dock and a big sand flat. It was a surprise catch, and I couldn't figure out what I'd hooked: it was fast and hard fighting like a tailor, but it just kept fighting and fighting for three or four minutes, and on six pound line, this was great fun. At the time I took it for a rat kingie, but my "fishes of eastern Australia" book confirms it as a highfin amberjack due to the very distinct diagonal band over the eye (not so visible in the pic due to the sand). It was maybe forty centimeters. Caught on a soft plastic, about 6 cm, black on top and reflective gold flecks on the bottom and a big paddle tail, and attached with a 20lb trace. Tide was rising and just about full, sun was setting and the water was murky. Of course he fish released to surprise another fisho.

Longnose point? where is it? On my map I have a "Pugnose" point on the west side, straight across from Careel bay with a big hole in front of it. Is longnose north or south of this? BTW, I picked up some nice squid from down deep, halfway across between the north side of careel bay and the basin. There is a big upwelling of water there, plainly visible on the run-out tide. I stuck some live yakkas down deep to see if there was anything down there, and then pulled them up slowly when I felt the gentle tugs of squid on the other end. I then had to stick on a squid spike, but there seemed to be a few down deep (it was the middle of the day and a run-out tide).

If you're after sharks, a circle hook is a good place to start - # 8 or bigger I'd say. Just don't strike too soon. The shark will probably bite at the bait, take it's time and eventually come back and swallow it whole and then try to swim off. if the bait is in its stomach as it swims off your line will come back up, and the hook will run along the edge of its mouth outside the teeth. When the circle hook passes the teeth, it will finally catch on the edge of the mouth, and hey presto, you're hooked up securely and no matter the chomping, the shark can't bite you off. With a regular hook, well, chances are pretty good that the shark will bite through even the heaviest trace. I've used both two and one. I think two is better at the beach, just because one tends to rip out of the bait. use a sliding snell to get the hooks placed perfectly on the bait, and try not to get too much of the bait on the hook so the hook has lots of room to "bite" into the edge of the mouth. in a boat, one is generally better, since there is much less casting, and I seem to catch more when the bait is not filled with big metal hooks. An exception, though, is using yellow-tail that are a bit too big when tailor are about: I find two hooks is best, since so many tailor end up biting off the back end off the bait fish and missing the front hook if you're fishing with only one. In fact, then I abandon the circle hooks, and use the sharpest regular hooks I have for tailor.

Definitely get an inflatable: you will wear it. A good friend of my dad's drowned, his (regular) pfd was later found in his kayak. There was not a more experienced kayaker on the planet, but he made the mistake of having a pfd that interfered too much with his activity for constant use. I bought a "Marlin" at Whitworths for about $70, and wear it all the time when fishing (boat and land based). It is very comfortable, and more than once I've driven home and come in the house before realising it was still on. You're supposed to get them checked annually by a professional (e.g. at Whitworths), which I guess is not a bad idea for fishermen whose hooks might have punctured the lining from time to time.

Try this one, it gets tangled much less often than a paternoster at the beach. line swivel ~14inches of heavy trace a swivel slipped onto the trace so that it can slide up and down the trace on the other end of the trace, tie a snap swivel with a big "snap" a star sinker or snapper sinker in the "snap" so then, on the running swivel mentioned above, tie another ~14 inch trace with some big hooks on the other end (if you can tie a sliding snell on the first hook, all the better: you'll be able to match the hook placements directly to each bait that you use). I prefer star sinkers if there is heavy swell or big cross-current along the beach, otherwise I use a snapper sinker for better feeling of bites. Usually I have to use a knife to expand the hole in the snapper sinker to get the snap-swivel through the snapper sinkers. Make sure your knots are really tight (there are five knots here, and if any fail, you'll lose your fish and part of your rig), but trim the tags short to lessen the tangling. Good luck!

I tried at balmoral wharf wednesday, but there was nothing there excepting for loads of mados, sweep, and tiny super-aggresive leather jackets... no squid, no yakkas. Perhaps this is due to fishing at low tide, and due to all the rain recent. I fished near spit bridge yesterday, and the water was very very muddy - I seriously doubt the squid will be there before the water clears.

is Narrabeen lake open to the sea again (it was dammed up for repairs to a parking lot (go figure?)) In calm waters, if you're getting just little ones, you may be in too shallow water. The juveniles hang out over nipper beds, and the bigger ones tend to hang out adjacent to weed patches in deeper water. I guess the bigger ones realise that their shadows are a good indicator for sea eagles to target them, so they stay out of really shallow water.

Sent today to: burrinjuck@parliament.nsw.gov.au Katrina, It has recently come to my attention that there is a proposal before government has recently extended the professional fishermen’s rights in Pittwater and Broken Bay to include netting of native salmon. May I register my strong objection to the previously existing rights of professional fishermen and any extension thereof. As an avid recreational fisherman, I frequently observe the methods and the catches of the “pros” – they haul numbers of large and small fish alike in an unsustainable manner with over-frequent deployment of nets and traps. The frequency of the netting and the number of “pro’s” deplete existing stocks and compound the damage by harming the underwater environment upon which future stocks will rely. The rate of fish catches in the area is markedly below the levels of comparable waterways, and the recreational fishing industry (likely worth far more than the professional industry) is essentially destroyed in the area. The great concern is not limited to Pittwater and Broken Bay: the damage to the entire Cowan Creek and Hawkesbury system. These areas are a unique drawcard of Sydney: no other city in the world boasts such pristine and potentially plentiful wilderness. Sea eagles, penguins, sea turtles, seals, and tens if not hundreds of species of fish ought to be thriving in an environment that is under siege on your watch. It is your responsibility to protect this unique environment from the interests of but a few constituents who are putting their individual interests ahead of the rest of society. Please ensure that there is an immediate removal of the salmon rights, and that the proposed re-purchases of professional fishermen’s licenses proceeds as quickly as the funding from recreational fishing licenses allows. Regards, Bill Butler .cc Fishraider recreational fishing forum

Yesterday morning I tried off the rocks at the south end of monavale, for one small (~31cm) bream caught on a piece of a squid's "wing". But it was the only bite I felt. There was a heap of kelp washing about, and that always makes the fish harder to feel. In the arvo I had a work meeting close to narrabeen, and stopped for a quick sesh jush after low tide. The gutters were empty, but they did look inviting. I had just a few casts into the rips with a soft plastic (reminder to self: pack shorts! in the car). No bites, but it was not a huge surprise since the tide was still very very low.

A couple of weeks back, I picked up a small black drummer inches from the shore - so I've been trying out the waters in close with some success. This Thursday I had a few casts from a local (Neutral bay) floating wharf at low tide. The water was very muddy after all the rain, and I put on a bright yellow soft plastic wriggler. I thought there might be a flattie sitting on the bottom, but nothing was taking the lure down deep. I retrieved carefully right upto the pontoon each time, in case anything was following it up out of the murky depth. After five or six casts, the upto-the-pontoon retrieve was rewarded when a dark shadow shot out from under the pontoon and engulfed the bait. At first, I thought it was a very dirty bream, and when I got it out, I mistook it for a bass. But its huge eyes and barrumundi-shaped head were the hallmarks of an estuary perch. (pics attached) This guy went back in, since I figured his usual habitat would be up in the sadly polluted waters by homebush or beyond. Friday, I landed a flattie at deewhy in the morning high tide, literally hooked at my feet in the shore dump. A 38cm model taken on a whole pilchard with 3 ganged #4 hooks. Again, it was a case of fishing right to my feet. The cast had been out wide for salmon/tailor, but I figured there might be flatties sitting closer in the rip. I thought I'd better give them a chance on the retrieve... (pic attached) Then this morning (Sunday) at flint and steel point, after missing a ?kingie?tailor? that bit my oversize yakka in half (and missed my single hook), I thought I'd try a cast right in close at the red channel marker (onshore) with a fillet of the now-half-yakka. Bang! literally right next to the rocks. 42cm flattie saved me from coming home empty handed. Three trips where the donut was prevented by fish in close.

If you're going off a beach, then spot selection is vital. Fish want shelter, food, and not too many hardships (e.g. huge waves crashing onto shallow sand). They will not hang out if they are missing one of these three. I fish all the northern beaches, and so long as there is a good gutter or rip, they'll all produce the goods most days. At the beach, I start with live worms at the corners, as close to the rocks as I can cast without snagging. Also with worms, any gutters (darker water) that run along the beach and then go out to sea are worth a go. Whiting tend to school right up at the leading edge of these gutters where the water comes off a shallow part and is "eroding" the beach as the deeper gutter moves up the beach. The eroding exposes worms (like yours) so the leading edges are good bets. I like to cast just onto the shallow section, let the water take the worm down over the edge into the gutter, and then even let it drift along in the gutter to the point where the water is flowing out to sea in a rip (especially if this is at a corner of the beach or over some rocks/structure in the beach). I find a spherical running sinker, as light as possible, a long shank #4(small) hook and light trace are best. You'll need a swivel between your main line and the trace/sinker/hook to avoid twisted line. Mono is probably better at the beach, and 6lb is enough for whiting. Braid gives more sensitivity, but has serious drawbacks at the beach. (It breaks if it touches an oyster or rock, it tangles worse and much more easily than mono does, and worst, it costs a bomb.) I prefer very light rods for whiting, about 7ft. You may also pick up flathead, and can target these in the same gutters with an 8lb trace and soft plastics (I find pink works best). If you're after bigger fare than whitings, try pilchards on three ganged #4 (big) hooks. I use the following rig: mainline (20lb), swivel, trace (20-30lb), a swivel threaded onto the trace and running free along the trace (more on this later), a snap swivel, a snapper sinker if calm or a star sinker if rough (3 oz). From the swivel running on the first trace, I tie a second trace, and put the hooks on the end of that. I use "ghost cotton" to wrap around the pilchard after I've set it on the ganged hooks: without this, the pillie will just fall off an you'll think there are fish taking your bait. 20lb may seem heavy, and it definitly leads to fewer hookups, but I like to know that when I have a fish on, it's going to come up through the surf without my trace snapping. I like this rig since it lets the bait wash around in the current, even while I hold the main line tight and steady in the waves. This rig works best to cast into the rips at dawn and dusk and with a high tide. Cast to where you can see a good current in the rip. I have better fishing casting into rips regardless of depth, than casting into current-less deep holes at the beach. Many times, the fish prefer a bit of "wash" over them when they are hunting at the beach. You're most likely to catch aussie salmon or tailor, but you can also get bream, flathead or other species from time to time. I have a 7144 rod,(about 10 or 12 feet) which is a great size for getting decent sized baits out past the breakers. Also, an important practice: if you can't id your fish as edible, don't eat it! In fact, avoid even touching fish you don't know. Common fishing by-catches such as red rock cod, catfish, stingrays and numbfish all have their own delightful ways of giving very nasty surprises.

Any good spots for squid? I've heard that in tight against the rocks at west head is good, but I've never managed any there. I did get some squid way down deep (something like 25m) at the drop-off that runs from Mackeral Beach across to Careel Bay. They had grabbed some livies that I had down there to see if any jewies were down there, and I managed to get two out of five of them into my boat without a squid-jig - so they came home to the table. It was in the middle of the day when I caught them so deep. Any other productive spots? also, do you use a down rigger, and if so, how deep?

It wasn't just Pittwater that wasn't producing today. I left the tinnie at home today, it was looking too breezy for me (but in the end, it wasn't so bad). So instead I hit the rocks at Barrenjoey. In the big low tide, I figured I'd walk right out to the end. V rough and it took about 30 minutes rock hopping to get out there. I passed some guys who had bream and a snapper in their bucket, the product of chicken gut and sardines. The northern corner of the rock shelf out at the end had lots of fish biting, but the fishing was hard due to wind and waves washing line into the rocks, and I didn't like the look of the waves' break at the rockface, so I went over the south side where the waves were breaking along the rockface, not straight into it.. There was a guy there spinning with metal slices, he landed one or two good tailor or small kingies. I fished with squid under a float, and had just one solid hook up (lost when my reel popped a gear!)(note to self: set drag before casting!!). As the tide started to come in, I thought I'd better get off the rocks, and had a few casts here and there as I came in. Managed a small black drummer which took a #4 hook right next to the rock in about 1 meter of water. I chatted with several guys on beach, none had caught much. Some fisho's there had left a shovel nose shark up on the beach, and also left a real mess of line (with undersized flathead still attached) in the beach. This is the kind of thing that will get us kicked off beaches, so I threw the fish back in and took the line off the beach and felt happy about leaving it neater than I found it even if I was fishless. Loads and loads of dolphins in the surf, very close in, and at times riding the waves with the surfers. Very cool, but it might explain why no fish were biting. On my way home, I stopped at Careel Bay for a quick flick for flatties on plastics. The tide was high and the water very cloudy, so I figured the flatties might be in. And on the last cast before I had to go: presto: a 43cm flatty for the table.

Kaktis, I find the snapper sinkers cast slightly further, but the main improvement is on feeling the bite. I find with a star sinker, it seems to dig too deeply into the sand, and the fish feel too much resistance (from the sinker) when they go to swim off with the bait. Also, I don't feel the fish's bites as well. The snapper sinkers slide across the sand more easily and I find I get more hook-ups as a result. Also, less snags and fouling on kelp on the retrieve. But if there is too much current along the beach, then the snapper sinker doesn't work at all. I use snap swivels to hold my lead - and sometimes the holes in snapper sinkers need significant expansion with the tip of my knife before they will fit onto the snap swivels. One last thing: both the tailor and the salmon had extra huge reproductive organs on the inside (I'm not sure if they were male or female, but the organs were really swollen). Does anyone know when their spawning season is? Ginko