[Northern Beaches, finally back on]

After many trips for nothing, I finally got back amongst it this morning.

Dee Why was looking good, with a number of holes and not too much kelp.

I hit it early, with pillies on three #4 hooks. I used a snapper sinker today, as there were decent rips, no wind, and the holes were deep enough to take the bite out of the swell. It's amazing how much moving away from star sinkers helps when fishing for modest-sized fish.

Just after sunrise, a bit of tap tap, then a nice pulll - a smallish salmon came out of the surf. Then 10 minutes later, some very clear distict taps of a tailor. It was not the biggest, but good baking size, so it also came home with me.

I lost a second tailor when the beach-tractor came by and threatened to "clean" up my two fish stored in the sand. I had to leave the bait un-tended as I released the bail-arm and fetched my fish, but while doing it, another tailor took my bait and bit off the hooks..

Several more hits from smallish tailor, but no more landed within my 90 minute fishing window. And a helluva lot of surfers all trying to get out into the waves by riding out on my rip.

The fish went about 40cm (tailor) and about 50cm (aussie salmon).

[Bradleys Head Stone Jetty]

looks like noones admitting it!

I hope the fisho wasn't pulling a sickie, or at least if he was, his boss/spouse didn't recognise them.

[quiet day at narrabeen beach]

Ah, that's great to read! I thought I'd lost my beach mojo. I've been 4 beach trips in a row, and no fish.

I've used pillies, prawns, worms and fresh-caught squid (dead) and hit Dee Why, Curl Curl and Narrabeen in the centre and north end. I blamed the lack of success at Narrabeen on the fact that the council had closed off the lake as they repair the parking lot adjacent to the bottom of the lake. But then the other beaches weren't producing either.

Tired of the lack of success on the beach, this past weekend, I hit Pittwater with a friend. The wind was too strong to hit Barrenjoey in my little tinnie, so we stuck inside near Careel Bay. 2 tailor and a third one lost at the boat, all on pillies while our livies were ignored. Only one livie got a bite, and that was as we reeled in to leave. Of course, that delayed our departure as we had to try one last cast, but 2 tailors was to be our catch for the trip.

[Well, first it wasnt a report worth typing....]

This reminds me of a roman emperor who, when he witnessed some poor sod who'd just suffered some terrible tragedy, he would pray to the gods saying "I know, you were actually aiming at me and only missed".

A few months back, at a lonely boat ramp at 4am and on a fast rising tide, I had my car fail to re-start after launching my boat. That morning, I was very thankful for the unbelievably fast response of a certain road service company. Especially because I still managed to get out for a happy day of fishing.

[bung for live bait well]

if no luck with gardening sections, try hardware and general plumbing in brookvale - there's also an aquarium shop on pittwater road that may have something.

[Sydney Spring Kingie]

Nice work on the handlining with braid, esp with a kingie on the other end.

Are you fishing in estuaries, or outside?

[And again another one missing at Yella!]

I know that rock between Freshie and Curl Curl - it is a dangerous spot. The ok spots to stand are not good for fishing, with kelp in the water below, but the better spots for fishing frequently get clobbered by waves. I've only fished there once, and didn't like the unpredictable way the waves kept coming up the rocks, even on a calm day. It felt like the shape of the headland was causing reflected waves to set up occasional but huge rushes of water at the rocks.

It looks like this fisherman was washed off at low tide, on a day with a really low tide. It makes be wonder if he'd gone down to collect some bait close to the water.

my thoughts go out to the families.

[Where's all the livies gone!]

I was also at west head last weekend, and getting no livies in spite of loads of varied burley... Nothing was showing on the sounder either.

but then I moved in close to the rocks, and hey presto, loads and loads of yakkas.

I think that the issue was that the water was very very clear, so I think the fish were trying to get closer to the wash coming from the swell on the rocks.

The irony was that I'd gone out in my tinnie to avoid the salmon I've been catching off the beach lately. I took the livies and trolled out along Barrenjoey, and caught...

more salmon!

So it was sceviche again, (slice the salmon into thing slices, let sit in lots of lime juice and spanish onion for 2 days, serve (unheated) with beans and corriander)

[Northern Beaches beach fishing?]

The northern beaches vary alot based on the height of the tides when you're fishin, and the recent swell activity. High tides near the full moon and new moon seem to produce bigger fish in close. The gutters are pretty inconsistent week on week because of swell action and long stretches of soft sand and hard rock close to the surface. Try checking out a surfcam website to find the best gutters, or drive up and down during the daylight to find a beach with good gutters.(this is also good to avoid beaches clogged with kelp).

In big southern swells, I find the exposed beaches are just too rough to fish effectively, so hit the southern corners of beaches that are protected by long headlands, e.g. north side of long-reef, or the headland at the south end of dee why. In my experience, just after a big swell and on high seems to offer the best fishing. The only beach I've had limited success on is Curl-Curl. Dee Why is pretty busy with people walking up and down during the daytime.

At midday, I think you'll need to be casting into a bit of foam to catch anything near the shore.

There are loads of sharks at night on the livies. Circle hooks mostly hook up outside the range of their teeth and may save you a few bust-offs.

You can get great bread from a bakery in Dee Why: it's open very early, and the fresh white bread was incredibly good on the hook - a loaf is $2.50. Last weekend I picked up the attached near long reef using the bread: a 36cm bream (caught on a super-small size 12 hook aimed at blackfish by some weed-covered rocks) and a 35 cm blackfish (caught on the bread and a bit of worm with a size 4 hook, aimed at bream/flatties behind the beach break).

[Salmon In The Surf]

Nice work on 8lb. line. Two questions on size: what size hooks were you using, and how big was the surf?

I caught a ~65cm salmon at N Narrabeen Thursday night in 4-5ft surf. There were not really great holes, and I had to move around a fair bit to get between the heaviest of the surf. I use 20lb mono, and a 20lb trace. In th big surf, I do find better hit rate when the bait is as far as possible out from the beach, and away from the sandy water. Three #3 ganged hooks don't seem to hook the salmon, I go with #4's. But I very rarely encounter flathead, which I must admit, would be a much more welcome catch at the beach.

Over 70cm is starting to be a serious salmon in my books. Well done.

[Tuesday Night Calamari]

I've had trouble getting smaller cuttlefish to "bite" the spiked end of my jigs: they seem to come at it only from the side, and even if I give jig a solid jerk, I can't seem to spike them. Any tips?

That said, I have caught and used both squid and big cuttlefish at the wharf at kirribilli - usually just on dusk.

[Catching livies]

and does anyone know a good spot adjacent to the northern beaches, land based? I fish alot off the northern beaches in the morning, pre-dawn, so I'm looking to pick up some livies on the way - I could hit the lakes/lagoons/Pittwater if need be.

[Northern Beaches salmon]

I forgot to say that I went out Friday morning too, and fished at the little beach just on the north side of long reef, by the boat ramp. It was really rainy, windy, and there was a massive swell up, so the sheltered spot was required.

There are alot of rocks there, and a few holes. I caught a black rock cod first up, and he went back in, and then out came a red rock cod. Carefully, I whacked that one with a big gum tree branch until I was 100% sure it was dead. The red rock cod, covered with venomous spines, are super-tough characters, and very hard to kill. Even when I was sure it was dead, I only picked it up by the tail, and cut off the spiky head and the dorsal and anal fins with my scissors. There is one hell of a spike in the anal fin that runs through the fish all the way to the spine, and I'd guess that would be the worst to get stuck with. Once those were gone, I cleaned and scaled the fish without worry.

The red rock cod are lovely on the plate: white flesh, no bones and a good yield even from moderate-sized fish.

[Which fish are edible in and around Sydney?]

Tailor may be suseptable due to their nurseries being far upstream.

I never fish the harbour or parramatta river, but I have caught loads of 15-20cm tailor right up at the end of Smiths Creek in the Cowan system - it seems that young tailor "grow up" well up the estuary (e.g. Homebush), and then migrate seawards(e.g. east of the bridge).

But baked, tailor tastes great. 6 minutes a side at 280 degrees. Serve with teriyaki sauce.

[Northern Beaches salmon]

Raiders,

hit the south end of Palmie this morning, hoping to avoid too many surfers.

The swell was still about 4-5 ft from the south, but there were some decent rips still in the protected south end of the beach,and no surfers until well past sunrise.

Just before dawn, the salmon came on the chew. I landed the smaller of this pair in the dark, then a smaller model (went back) and then missed about 3 or 4 solid hits. It seemed that the three #3 ganged hooks were not finding their mark, so I upsized to three #4's and bang, next cast I was onto a solid fish. Exciting in the big surf, especially at the beach.

When I cleaned the bigger fish shown below (~65cm), its stomach contained none other than one of my earlier pillies, complete with the three tear marks from where it was pulled off the #3 hooks.

Low tide was at 8:30, and the fish went off the bite about an hour before, so I headed home at 9, with two salmon for the makings of salmon miso soup and salmon yellow curry.

[sambos on the Northern beaches]

I fished N Narra this morning for next to nothing - just a few nibbles.

Some late night fisho's had left a terrible mess at the beach: beer, bait, boxes strewn across the beach, even scissors and size 3 or 4 hooks left lying around in the sand. A passerby and I cleaned a some of it up, and the rest was completely cleared by beachgoers through the morning. It was the kind of thing that will get us banned from beaches.

The swell was really too small for the beach, so I tried off the rocks at the north end of the beach. Some other fisho's were kind enough to introduce me to pig fishing techniques at to give me some hooks: but no pigs for me today.

[Live bait hiding and last weeks rain.]

I had no worries catching yakkas (and sweep) at west head. The water was very clear (surprising after the rain, but we were there at high tide) and we could easily see the yakkas coming up into the berley trail of crushed up wheet bix.

We didn't have a squid jig down, but also did not see any squid out. The squid and cuttle fish seem to have disappeared from my regular spots - any ideas where they are at this time of year?

BTW, I was fishing with my 6yo boy and one of his friends, so we took a few of the larger yakka's home for dinner. The were very nice to eat! We had them as sashimi and baked.

[Hairtail]

Ray,

Thanks for sharing the info about what you were catching! If you hadn't held up the fish, it might have taken me a hell of a lot longer that only two attempts to get my first hairtail.

I'd agree that only the big hairtail are worth eating: the fish I caught were really full of bones and their bodies were very narrow. While the longest (95cm) was almost worthwhile, the smaller ones were an excercise in picking out bones and bones and bones to get a sliver of fish. Even if hairtails are relatively long fish, they are so narrow that it seems only the longest fish are thick enough to eat.

For a feed for two people, I'd guess that one fish of a meter are more would be about right. They were very easy to clean - they have an amazingly small amount of innards, and the "skin" just comes off if you rub it with a sharp flat-bladed knife.

I cooked them in oil and foil, and put a soya-garlic sauce on them. I'd read that the flesh is a bit oily, but I found it very light, and not unlike whiting.

[Hairtail]

I heard the hairtail were on at a bay in Cowan Creek, so I donned the warmest clothes I own, the beanie and raincoat, and headed out in the tinnie.

Arriving at 5am in the dark, I pulled into the bay and dropped anchor. For the next 2 hours, just one undersized snapper and alot of bait stealing. The tide had slid out, and it was bucketing down rain.

Since I was now having no bites at all, I upped anchor and tried drifting the southern side. One smallish tailor. But as I drifted, I realised that I'd earlier been sitting in the wrong bay! There were gulls diving in the right bay, and when I pulled up to investigate, a friendly Raider was there holding up the hairtails he'd caught. He and his mates had been pulling them out in big numbers, apparently, and on all kinds of bait.

I returned home with just my little tailor to show for getting absolutely soaked to the skin.

But thankfully, it's a long weekend!

So this morning, I donned the second-warmest clothes I own, the beanie, waders and raincoat, and headed out in the tinnie. To the right bay.

I arrived at 4:25, burley went in, and I dropped down a pillie on three ganged #3 hooks. I had barely got the second handline down when the first went off. But I grabbed it too soon and too hard, the fish came off. Quickly I put on a fresh one, and set it down again.

A minute later, off it went, and this time I paused a bit before striking. Up came my first hairtail! What a thing. It would pull pretty hard, straight down, and then stop pulling, only to start again 10 feet sideways from where it had just been. As it got up near the surface, the light from my boat was reflecting off its silver sides, making the fish look almost luminescent. When it came in the boat, it thrashed about all over the place trying to take a bite out of anything and everything.

Over the next 60 minutes, I landed 3 more. Dinner is going to be great tonight!

All fish were caught on whole pillies, on ganged #3 or #4 hooks, and a wire trace and a small bit of lead above the trace. It seemed the ganged hooks and wire trace were probably overkill, but the fish didn't seem put off by it at all. I did try using a red lumo-stick, but the hairtail evidently liked it too much, and bit it (and bit through my line too), so all 4 fish were caught without lumo-sticks. I just let the pillies down to the bottom, wound up a meter or two. I fished one handline and two rods - all fish took the bait on whatever I wasn't touching at the time! The fish were 78cm to 95cm.

The difference between the bays: the first bay, with no fish, had very steep cliffs on all three sides, and a fairly small sand-flat that sloped gently down in the deep bay. The second, successful bay, had steep cliffs on two sides, with a long sandflat where a stream came down to the sea. The sandflat dropped off very suddenly into very deep water, 14-22m deep. Also, the water was this deep almost right up to the rock wall, and it was against this wall that the hairtail were biting. There has been a huge amount of rain in the last 3 days, but Cowan Creek's water is still reasonably clear, and the fresh didn't seem to affect the hairtail down as deep as they were.

Many thanks to the friendly raiders.

[morning narrabeen beach sesh]

Thanks for the tips, Bennoz! I hit N Narrabeen early this morning. I was there are 4am, and still, someone was already in the best spot! The current was flowing southwards, and the north end was pretty free of kelp. The lake was very very muddy, and the run-off was making much of the beach pretty murky too - and that's where I fished.

In a few hours there, I managed an undersizes flattie, a behomoth stingray (v nasty tail whips when it arrived at the beach), and three great-fighting salmon. I kept one for dinner and the other two went back in. (Obviously, the flattie and stingray also went back in)

A runner on the beach watched me catch the second salmon - funny, I think the runner was more excited by the catch than I was.

Although salmon don't have a great reputation for the table, I find them great to eat. The key is to agressively get rid of all the red meat, and only put the white meat into whatever you're making, and to not overcook it. The meat is very soft and will easily go dry with even a little too much time over heat. I let them go for 3 minutes in a barely-boiling sauce, and no more. I also soak in lemon or lime juice from the time I get home until dinner.

[morning narrabeen beach sesh]

Bennoz,

how was the weed? I lost a fair bit of line the other morning after landing my pillie on what must have been the record piece of kelp.

The friday before I managed a 63cm tailor off North Narra, just south of where the lake was letting out (current was flowing southward along the beach).

I'm hoping to hit somewhere on the Northern Beaches at dawn over the weekend, so any guidance on the weed will be helpful since I have to start fishing in the dark.

[neutral bay, mosman]

you can also try the long concrete pier at bradley's head. the odd squid there too.

[Narrabeen Beach]

Great to see Narra is working. I tried Curl Curl for nothing on Friday morning.

With salmon, I like to carefully fillet it and remove the blood line, cube it (about an inch-cubes) soak it in lime until it turns white, and then add it to miso soup and cook it in the soup for just a few minutes. It is really nice like that.

[Balmoral Alive]

I often have trouble sourcing stale bread at the moments when I can go fishing, so I carry a box of no-name weetbix in the car. It is great burley in a pinch, and won't stink up the car or go mouldy. It does sink a bit too quickly, so you need to crush it up dry in your hand, and just toss little handfuls in every minute or so. I have not tried it for garfish, but I think it would sink too quickly for them - probably better to stick to the bread. I've not had to supplement this with fish oil or pillies - but I do use a pillie for bait. (nice hint on the chicken though)

I'm also for the kid's rod to get livies. I use 4lb mono, a pea-sized sinker above a swivel, and a foot-long trace of the same mono, to a #12 long shank hook.

I have a cooler with a battery powered air pump, which helps keep the livies lively for an hour or two more than without air. Keep the cooler right at my feet, so as soon as the yakka is out of the water I can get it into the cooler - with thier soft mouths and heavy thrashing, they come off the hook pretty easily, and they die much faster if they land on the wharf. I got the pump at an aquarium in Brookvale for $15.

Does anyone have a good spot in the Northern Beaches or land-based in Pittwater for mid-sized livies? I've been hitting Palm Beach wharf which is too far, and the yakkas there are pretty big models and hard to cast.

A fellow early-morning fisho recommended Narrabeen lake for mullet - but I always find it hard to find the mullet and then to get them on the chew. - any hints?

Many are the time, though, that I've eyed my wife's blender and wondered how a bunch of old pilchards would go. I swear the tackle shops should sell heavy duty blenders (or nice fancy ones to buy as replacements of the wive's blenders).

[Advice on which Waders to buy]

I've got a pair that has "socks" instead of "boots" - I find this is helpful, as it allows me to chose what footwear I use with the waders, as I often prefer light shoes for wading on sand in cold water.

But be warned: if you are anywhere near oysters, you'll need proper, heavy duty waders. the "socks" version don't really combine well with boots, since the boots just fill with water, and the slightest touch of an oyster to the soft part of the wader will go straight through and let the water in .

Also, off the beach and the rocks, I stay away from waders altogether since they are impossible to swim in and would lead to serious problems if I get washed in. I have an old wet suit for beach and rock fishing and it keeps me nice and warm, although not dry.