MrChipsnSalad

Sorted, thank you so much.. Wayne

Round two for the weekend and this time I put the boat in at Little Manly. Only got down at about 10.30am, so the tide was well and trully running out. My son and his two young cousins were my crew today, so I planned for a session of baiting hooks and tying traces. Having the young ones on the boat I opted for a quiet anchorage north of Dobroyd, but under the cliffs. After a few little Bream and not much else I suspected that it was going to be a little quiet, so I motored over to Flagstaff. The westerly was picking up, so my thoughts were for putting the kids in a warmer spot, with not too much motoring to get back to the ramp. So I decided on an empty mooring about 50-60m off Little Manly Point. We fished with prawns and I was tossing in bits of pilchard every 5 min or so. It wasn't long before the action began. We began to get a lot of hits, and after about 15minutes we landed our first Trevally for the afternoon. The action was fairly evenly dispersed around the boat, and the esky was looking good. Throw in a nice Black Bream and some reasonable leatherjackets, and dinner was sorted. We noticed a few Garfish around and my boy actually caught one with a hook that was way to big for the Garfish. I rerigged him with a Sabiki jig, and let him have a go. A few minutes later he pulled up the jig with 2 Garfish, and two Trevally to boot. What a mess trying to unhook that lot. The hooks were caught in the net and chaos reigned supreme. I few more garfish later and it was time to pack up. We basically fished the run out and had a blast. You can't wipe the smile off the little ones face. My son fighting a Trevally. My boys cousins had a ball, as it was the first time they had ever been fishing. They are on Holiday from Dubai, so it was a real thrill for them. 2 more young fishermen recruited - hook, line and sinker. We all had fish for dinner, and the kids were thrilled to be eating fish they had caught themselves. I have a few pics, but i have no idea how to post them.

Went for an afternoon session on the tinny. Dropped the boat in at Roseville and went straight to Grotto to see if I could hook a Flatty. There were heaps of leatherjackets that really made it a non-event. You just could not get a bait past them. Moved to Middle Head and picked up a few Cockney Bream and Wrasse, but nothing worth sticking around for. The breeze looked to be picking up, so we made the decision to try around the Spit Bridge. Once again it was the little Bream and nothing else. We moved around the area and tried here and there, but there was not much on the chew. Decided to have a final go around the moorings at Bantry Bay. We grabbed an empty mooring on the Eastern side of the bay at the last group of boat moorings before you head up to Roseville Bridge. There was not mush there, but we started to throw in bits of chopped pillies from time to time. After about 10 minutes or so we were visited by a small Kingy, probably around 60cm. The Kingy was picking up the bits of pilchard as we tossed them in. My son dangled his light bream gear over the side, and the Kingy grabbed the lot, taking the sinker and all. My dad was also rigged for Bream, but tossed the bait in, to promptly donate his rig to the Kingy too. I dropped in a more suitable 4.0 with a 30lb Flourocarbon leader. I had a squid on it, but the Kingy kept grabbing the pilchards. I retrieved my rig and changed baits to a pilchard. The damn Kingy grabbed every pilchard bit, except the one with my hook in it. After awhile, we had fed it enough scraps and it seemed to go. We decided to pack up and go to, so I emptied the bait board over the side and started to wash it off. Low and behold a bigger Kingy started ripping through the pilchard scraps. It was probably around the 70-80cm mark. I grabbed my heavy gear again and tried to entice it, but the same deal - everything but the hook. Then the leatherjackets arrived and my bait was shredded to bits. I would be interested to get any ideas about how to deal with Kingys when they are so close to the boat. They were way to close to use lures or anything like that. We were literally able to dangle our gear on their heads they were so close. It just did not seem like the way to catch a Kingy. They were also very careful to grab every bait that had no hook. Damn frustrating. Anyway, it seems that berleying up was the go, and they were loving the small bits of pilchard.

Thanks for that. I have not posted for awhile, but thought that I really should get back into it. Wayne

It is a few days late but nevertheless. Put the tinny in at Roseville with a mate. Only hit the water about 10.30am, so it was always going to be a tough day out. Noted the really brown water from the rain and was expecting to find it like that all the way to Balmoral. Surprisingly it cleared up just around the 8kt speed zone heading towards the Spit Bridge. Started off around the Quakers Hat Bay side of Beauty Point. Tried plastics, prawns and pillies for not even a bite. drifted around the moorings close in, but it was no good. Went to the Spit Bridge and drifted around the second pylon from the Southern end of the bridge. Used the same baits as before. We picked up a lot of baby Snapper initially. We decided to put out a few whole pillies and drift them down around the pylons. Lost a couple of 40 pound fluorcarbon leaders to big hits with clean bite offs, but never saw the culprit. Tried the same tactic for longer, but never had the hits again. At a guess, it was tailor. Picked up a black bream (28cm) on one drift, between the bridge and the marina on the eastern side of the bridge. We released it in good nick. That fell to a prawn on a #2 suicide hook, with a lightly weighted running trace. Picked up another one at about 20cm in the same spot, although we released it without measuring, so just a guess on the size. Decided that it was only going to be small stuff there, so we packed up and did some drifts near the beach at Clontarf. There were quite a few small leather jacket that were turning our plastics into something resembling a half eaten apple core, so we upped and left pretty quickly. Stopped at the point between Shell Cove and Balmoral and tried a drift there. Lost one big fish that gave a solid pull for about 15 seconds, but then we were chewed off again. Once again, a whole pillie, so possible tailor. We saw a fairly large fish on the surface, and motored over to find a Kingy wallowing on the surface. Netted it to see what the problem was. It was still pumping water through the gills, but had a fairly swollen belly. We ended up tossing it back because it was undersized (around 50cm) and we did not want to be caught with it on the boat. It had a few bites out of the tail, looked unhealthy. It may have been hit by a boat, or swallowed something bad. It swam off when we dropped it back in. Anyway, we motored over to the northern shore and drifted just east of Clontarf, on the sand to try for a flathead. Not much luck there, but we lost a few rigs to pesky leather jackets. We brought in a one small and very toothy leather jacket, leading to that assumption. There were no hits, just bitten off hooks when we reeled in the gear. That concludes a day that left us empty handed, but we did have a bit of fun. The most promise seemed to be by the bridge. We lost some nice fish there.

This whole MP idea is great, but rec fisherman should not be excluded. The commercial fisherman should be targeted. Breeding areas should be made exclusion zones for high powered water craft. Bag limits on each species should be reduced, as well as size limits increased. There should be more strict control of these limits, and the penalties for failure to comply should be harsh. But stopping the sport entirely, is a ridiculous notion. Fisho's, as I seem them, are as concerned about over-fishing as the next person, and given their unique relationship with the fish and their habitat, we are in many cases more concerned than others. This draconian idea has been talked about by Jim Harnwell in his editorials (Fishing World) for years. I have followed the discussion with interest, but I never thought that our doorstep would be targeted in such a broad and ill conceived manner.

Well, I have missed few reports over the past weeks, but since the fish were scarce, i have not bothered. I had a dinner at the in-laws in Sylvania this evening, so I convinced my wife that we should take the Tinny out for a run and throw a line. As is the case, when you take the whole troop along, the early start finally kicks off at around 10.00am. So it was today. Being a Northern Beach based fisho, I knew nothing about the south. A quick call to my accountant (he fishes this area in his boat a lot), and I had a plan. Stopped in at the bait shop near Smiths Seafood, and picked up some ammo. The guy there was really helpful, and he suggested that I drop the boat in at Hawkesbury Blvd Ramp in Sylvania Waters. This seemed good, as it was a short drive from dinner. The tide was really low too, so a deep ramp was appreciated. Anyway it all started badly when i caught my wedding ring on my handle for the canaopy on the back of the ute, and was left with a perfectly round cut around my whole finger, and shredds of skin hanging off (lucky it wasn't broken). Then I backed the boat down, only to find a massive crevice under water at the base of the ramp. Lucky I didn't smash the motor, the tilt lock held, and the axle for the trailer didn't suffer too badly. The joys of visiting area's without local knowledge. Some other guys were coming in, and even they admitted not knowing about the crevice. Well it's there and I found it!!! The mood lifted as we headed out towards the oil tanker jetty, where there were Trevally, so I was told. Spent about 30mins tossing prawns, squid and squidgies around the area, but not even a sniff. Drifted in close to the pier, and realised that those big yellow signs were telling us that we needed to be 100m from the pier. Fished around something that looked like a fish farm, until we saw signs telling us to get 50m away. Started to feel a bit unwanted, so we went to plan B. Plan B was a drift 100m off the front of the boat ramp near Towra point. The idea was to find Flathead. This also proved to be fruitless. After about 1.5 hours we had not even had a bite. My son was having a ball practicing his casts. The wife was settling in for the long haul, and asking where we would get lunch. I remained indifferent, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Towed a Halco Lazer Pro for a half hour or so, as we decided to motor slowly back and look for spots that may hold fish. Not having a depth sounder is a real pain in unknown waters. As it turned out, we didn't need a sounder. You just needed to look over the side. We were about 300 -400 m off Towra, and I thought we were going to run aground. Man it is shallow there. Next stop Captain Cook Bridge. For zip. And on to Tom Ugly. Spent some time around the Pylons here, as we were actually getting bumps on the line, for the first time to day. Worked around the pylons and got nibbles and soft tugs, but nothing hooked. Does anyone actually notice that the bridges are "No wash Zone". There are big signs everywhere, yet everyone hoons through the place like there is no tomorrow. That goes for the local Waterways launch too. No wonder there was that accident there some months ago. "No Wash" means go slowly!!!!!!! Anyway, we called it a day at about 4.00pm and packed up. Not a single fish was taken, nor did a single fish even cross the rail. On the other hand, the day was pleasant, and warm. The bay was lovely, and the sea nice and calm, which made travel comfortable. Had a fish soup at the inlaws, so I did at least taste fish today.

Am always happy for suggestions mate. That's what it's about. I'll give it a go. I tend to use a jerk and wait retrieve on the boat, which works well in deeper water, but I have not used it much in shallows. I don't really know why I change my method when i'm not on the boat???? Regarding the swivel, you think it is better not to have it. I might give that a go. I recently had to replace my end eye that got blown out when I casted without noticing the swivel was through the guide. I always had this idea that you need a swivel just to avoid line twist, although plastics seem to travel without twisting, unless you have them on the hook wrong.

Hi Kabz, I have answered your personal message, and thought it may be useful to someone if I posted my reply here. Coming from someone who calls themselves MrChipsnSalad (a reflection of the need for plenty of the latter for a good fish dinner at my place), I'm not sure how useful it is, but anyway if it is all wrong someone may point it out and give me some better advice too. I was using Squidgies, which I mostly use, although Gulp and Powerbait seem to work just as well. The colors I was using were the black combinations, with the shad tails. But I have also had a lot of luck on the larger green ones and the blue ones. Flathead don't seem to care to much, and I have caught them on all sorts of colors. I often think it is almost a territorial response, and that they attack because it is in their patch, and not always because they are hungry.I don't think that they glow in the dark. As for the spot, we were at the park on the Southern side were there are a few boat ramps. I am not exactly sure if there is a playground there, because I never took notice. I suspect there will be because there is a park there. There is a long sand bar that juts out into the lake on the western side of that area, near a small creek that runs into the lake. We were fishing at the end of that sand bar, into the channel. All fish were actually caught quite close to the edge, within 10m of our feet. We tend to use a very slow retrieve and drag the plastic along the bottom, with lots of stops and starts. I also find that the best results come from using as light a jighead as possible. Don't get sucked into buying the more expensive jig heads that have fish head shapes moulded and painted. I have caught more fish on the simple round lead ball type jigheads, than I have ever caught on the moulded and painted you beaut jigheads. I also don't have much use for the jigheads with the moulded barb in the lead, as they tend to wreck a perfectly good plastic, if you try to remove them to change to another color. I go for jigheads that have a nice sharp and thin hook, with out barbs to hold the plastic. If they are put on properly, the curve of the hook will keep them in place. Just make sure that the when the hook comes out of the plastic, the "mouth" of the plastic is touching the lead ball. That way everything should stay in place. I also strongly recommend that you don't buy the jigheads that have been painted orange and white, as this paint seems to melt off them and block the eye's of the hook and make a mess in the tackle box. Plain lead balls and a nice sharp hook, are all you need. I also use a short leader connected to the main line by a small swivel. That is just a personal preference, and may or may not be useful. I fish 6lb line, with an 8lb leader. Depending on which rod and reel combo I use, I may have braid on or I may have Fireline on. I find braid to be very good for feeling the little bumps and knocks, and it is really good for striking as it has very little stretch. I use 7" and 8" 2-4kg graphite rods, that are very stiff, with 4000 size Stradic and Sahara reels, which seem to be quite balanced. I hope that this helps in some way. Good Luck.

Where about do you fish? I have never really worked the place out. It all seems so shallow. I've often tried the channel on the northern sea side of the bridge on Pittwater Rd, as it looks like some good water, but nothing is ever there. The only place that seems to work for me is down the road from Bunnings and also the Southern end by the park and boat ramps. But I have never caught anything note worthy. I do often see little mullet there, which look good for bait, but never bothered to catch any.

My thoughts exactly.

I went down to the lake at about 7.30pm and my wife, sister-in-law and myself and tossed plastics around for about 1 and a half hours. We tried Powerbait, Gulp and Squidgies, but there were no takers. We tried the area around the end of the street by Bunnings. It turned out to be a sensational evening nevertheless. The lake is open to the ocean at the moment, so it is quite low. I did see plenty of fish jumping, but I guess they were Mullet and possibly some small tailor. There was an official from Warringah Council who wondered over and warned me about a 5' Bronze Whaler that has been spotted in the lake over the last few days. I was wading around at the time, so I guess he felt like he should warn me. Needless to say I retreated to knee deep water for the rest of the evening. Apart from that the evening was uneventful, and we went home empty handed although we did have a pleasant end to the day.

Unfortunately I'm in Tamworth this weekend, but I would like to find out how to get hold of a cap in anycase. Cheers Wayne

Nice to meet you too. It's about time we had a fishraider cap or shirt. I'll stop for a longer chat if I see you guys again. I have seen you guys before, so it won't be long I guess. Cheers Wayne

Nice to meet you, my names Wayne. Yep, you guys were heading a bit further up the beach just as I was packing it in. Cheers

Well Raiders, here's my last few weeks in a bundle. We spent 8 days at Fingal Bay over the new year. The conditions tended to be really nice in the morning, but by 10.30am the NE was howling in. We launched at Shoal Bay, which is a fairly shallow ramp, especially at low tide. Beware the Eastern side of the ramp, as we saw many a sedan get unstuck trying to pull out quite small rigs. The ramp is about 2m too short, so to get your boat out at low tide, you sometimes need to get your rear wheels on the beach. We took our 4.0m tinny outside a few times, but we mostly fished around Tomaree Head. We also fished out off Shark Bay and Shark Island. We tried the sand banks in the centre of the bay, as well as the Southern side of Yacaaba Head. We had the boat out every day, but alas we never got one keeper. Furthermore, we found that we were hardly even catching the same species twice. We got small Snapper, a myriad of wrasse type fish, as well as the smallest flathead I have ever seen. We trawled Lazer Pros all over the place, and did not even get a hit in 8 days. We tried squid, prawns and pilchards, for the same result. Speaking to others at the ramp, the luck seemed to be much the same all around. In the entire time, we never saw a single fish get cleaned. We even tried for whiting off the beach at Shoal Bay, and I managed a small fella that I tipped back in. We did see one bloke pull in a Gummy at Fingal Bay, spinning off the beach one evening, with a small metal slice. We also tried the plastics off the beach, and were just as unrewared. This was during the New Year period, over the full moon. I did catch up with one bloke at the camp round who picked up a bucket of Whiting pretty late on a very windy and ordinary evening, in front of the life saving club at Fingal Bay. A word of warning to those venturing out around Shark Island and Shark Bay. The currents there are really crazy. We measured a 5 knot current on the GPS and once the wind got up over around 10knots from the NE, the seas was all over the place. The waves there seem to just spring up from under the surface, and lump up randomly. Although we were running a 40hp, we could hardly run at more than a crawl, because of the terrible sea there. We also shipped a lot of water trying to nose back in when the NE kicked in. The Maritime guys also came past and checked all our safety gear, so be prepared. I think it is a combination of the shallow rocky seabed, as well as the current and the wind, that really turn it into a bit of a washing machine. It reminded me of the sea off Point Perpendicular at Jervis Bay, close in. I would not advise going out there in anything less than 5.0m if there is any wind on the menu. Last Friday I went out at Pittwater, and fished around Longnose Point and Morning Bay. We picked up heaps of baby Snapper and small arbitary species, but nothing to write home about. My 8 year old had a ball catching trumpeter with one of those Herring/Yakka jigs, so that was good. I was hoping he would get us a livey to throw out, but there was only Trumpeter and i have never given them a whorl as live bait, and did not bother. We also tried the moorings on the eastern side once the NE kicked in, but it was pretty quiet there. Last night my wife and myself took a drive down to Narrabeen lakes and decided to toss a few plastics near the boat ramps on the Southern side. We spent about an hour there, and picked up a couple of flathead around the 34cm mark. We were using 2" black shad style plastics (Squidgies). All fish were released as we had already had dinner, and were just there for the fun of it. There was a lot of weed there, that was really bothersome. This morning I went down to the beach at Dee Why, and threw in a few plastics. There was a bit of an annoying shore break, but i found some decent water a bit north of the life saving club. Tried for about an hour and a half, but didn't get any hits. I spoke to some guys who were chasing whiting but they also had nothing to report. The weed started to drift in a bit around 6.30am, so i packed it in. Well that's that I guess. When a read of all the Kingys being caught lately I have really been wondering what we have been doing wrong. We will keep on trying. Cheers for the time being.

Well Raiders, the good news is - The total cost including service, skeg straightening and adjusting the position of the axle on our trailer is - $306 I'll drink to that. I expected much worse.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. I took the boat in for the service today. The mechanic has told me that he will be able to straighten it without much difficulty. He also identified that the locking system that holds the motor up, was a little loose. He never mentioned any price to straighten it, but that makes me think that it is not going to be too dear. I now drive with straps to keep the motor in place, and avoid that happening again. As for the fish, well they'll come i guess. We have 10 days at Fingal Bay over the New Year, so the new boat god is going to have to work overtime to keep me off the water. It can't be bad weather for all 10 days -surely not in a drought?

Well I had two hours left to complete running in the motor. I thought a quick troll around Middle Harbour would do the trick. As usual, the weather was terrible on the day I chose to go out. I've taken the boat out with the new motor 3 times, and each time, there has been a ripping Southerly, bordering on rain. Not only is the weather lousy, but I prepared the boat to launch. Dumb old me trusted the lock on the motor to keep it tilted up. A fairly insignificant bump on the road going around to the ramp at Roseville, and bang. The motor drops down, and the fin at the bottom hits the ground and it has now got a horrible bend in it. Being Alloy, i expect that when i take the motor in for the 10 hour service tomorrow, they are going to tell me it can't be straightened. Cursing i got the boat in the water, finally. Got out of the 8 knot zone, and let it rip a bit. As expected, the motor now fights like mad to make a left turn, when you get a bit of speed up. The damaged fin is causing the motor to want to turn under power. Trolled for 2 hours around the Spit Bridge and Sugarloaf/Sailors Bay. Did not even see a hint of marine life bar for the seagulls that have made homes on unused boats, and did their best to stop me trolling through their patch. Not a sniff of a fish. I think my mood was being projected into the briny blue. Now I look forward to the good news tomorrow, that there is going to be a huge cost to replace the bottom end of the motor. I hope that they can replace just the casing, and reuse the brand new innards. Just when I thought I was into the clear. A great new 40hp Tohatsu, instead of my old unreliable 25hp that hardly worked. Yet shit still happens..

Tell me about it. We arranged it yesterday. Because it is only the 10 hour service it is not that big, so the supplier agreed to do it next week.

Well we needed to run in our new 40hp before next week, so that we could get it serviced before we go to Fingal Bay for 2 weeks later this month. What better way to knock off 7 hours, than to go for a day of trolling? We trolled our way from Roseville Boat Ramp - through Middle Harbour - accross past Sow and Pigs - around South Head - across to North Head - around past Quarantine - past Little Manly Cove - around to Fairlight - through North Harbour - around Dobroyd (narrowly missing the breaking swell) - past the fishing huts and around the head back into Middle Harbour - Past the Spit - around past Cremorne - down to the boat ramp at North Bridge (which I never even knew existed) - and back around the damn thing again - 4 times as well as a few arbitary circles and stops here and there. We got rained on, sprayed on, bounced around like a cork in the swell in the front part of the harbour, hungry, wet and cold. We saw a school of bait fish near to Old Mans Hat at North Head, which was as close as we got to any fish. We trolled around them, but the bouncy swell beat us and we scarpered for the shelter of Quarantine. We tried surface poppers, metal slices, Small bibbed divers and larger ones too. We caught zip. We did almost manage to catch a tender at one of the Marina's. We landed a few lengths of seaweed. We even managed to catch each others lures once. But no fish. At the end of the day, we were about 35L of fuel lighter than when we left. Our new motor has 7 more hours on the clock. We did give it a blast every now and then, just to vary the speed. We also gave it a bit of a hoon before we headed back to the ramp. 2 more hours and we can get it serviced. I can't wait. We have 10 days at Fingal Bay from the 29/12. Now we will be able to get the motor serviced before we go, and then we can really go fishing. I just don't enjoy trolling. I need to learn the art from an experienced hand, because we have no idea. Are we too slow or too fast. Is there too much or too little line out. Should we use the white one or the blue one? Deep diving or surface...... Give me my 3.0 and a whole squid, a small sinker and I'm away.

Great info mate. Thanks for making the effort. I'm sure that many of us will find it quite interesting. The more specific the better. Cheers

After about 6 months off the water, the new 40hp 3 cylinder Tohatsu arrived. We installed it on Saturday, and were out at first light on Sunday. We launched at Bayview, and headed out to the Western side of Scotland Island fo a drift in the moorings. A quick word on the motor - it flies. We have had an early ninties Evinrude 25 for the last 6 years or so, and it always felt underpowered in our 4.1m tinny. So the 40 has been a revalation. With four of us on board, we were up and planing with barely a flick of the wrist. What a difference. I could not resist a bit of a hoon across the bay to Scotland Island. Back to the fishing. Scotland Island proved a dead loss. One 25cm small Snapper was released. We then moved up to a point that was North West of our position. We dropped lines and drifted. The Southerly pushed us around into the nearby bay very quickly, but not before we all had some reasonable bites. We motored back and ran the drift again, with the same results. But the bites were all near to the point. We decided to drop an anchor to hold the position where the bites were. We soon had a Flounder on board. I had a a whole baby squid on, and took a big hit. The fish hooked up and began some circling runs beneath the boat, but too deep to see. Then it decided to move away, and it unwound my spool in a few long bursts. I tightened the drag, but not too much as I was only fishing 8lb mono with a 12lb leader. I basically kept up the tension and just slowed it down when I could. The fish ended up about 30 - 40m from the boat. After about 5 minutes suddenly the tension was gone and I was left thinking that I had either been snapped off or bitten off. I wound in the line, and found my whole trace there. The hook had just let go. I only had a small 1.0 suicide on and it just proved too small I think. I never fish such small gear, it was just that i never expected the big hit. I'm not sure what was there, as it never once surfaced. I don't think that it was a toothy beast, as it would have bit me off. Maybe a Kingy or a Jew, as I have landed a few without a wire trace in the past. Any other suggestions??? Finally, my mate landed a nice kilo plus Flathead. At that point it was time to go, as the cut off was 9.00am for some family commitments. We'll be back out there on Sunday imagine, for another early. It's great to be back on the water!!!

Another afternoon down at the beach - or at least an hour. Got my bait in the water at about 4.15pm. There was some weed about, so I moved a little north of my favorite spot. I was just about in the middle of the surf club. The water did look very nice and clean, and there semed to be just enough white water. I started with some pillies, but once again found them to be pretty ordinary. These pillies have really surprised me. I bought a kilo of them last Monday, and carefully salted them and wrapped them in newspaper in packs of about 6. I can honestly say that in the 3 sessions I've had with them, I have had only about 5 or 6 takes. Anyway, I chopped the remainder up this afternoon, and tossed them out as berley before I left. If it was seagulls that I was fishing for, I could have caught plenty. I switched to the squid, but i forgot to bring my trusty bit of polystyrene to use as an internal float. I did get a few hits, but nothing substantial, and nothing hooked. I was using fairly heavy gear, 12lb leader, with a 3.0 long shank - hoping for tailor, or flathead (which is what seems to be my usual) There was a guy just up the beach from me. I don't know if I'm stealing his thunder, he may be writing his report as I post this. Anyway, he was fishing fairly light, tossing unweighted baits just over the shorebreak. I was not close enough to see what bait he was using, but I did see his results. While I was there he caught and threw back at least 2 -3 small whiting and a few small dart. His method was different from mine, and he was definitely targeting whiting, considering his rig and where he was casting. I hope that someone caught today, and I will be sure to report on my next outing. I should be replacing my 30hp next month, which will hopefully see me back on the water, but I must admit that I am getting into my beach fishing again. It is really a case of back to the basics.

Well, here I am again. I decided to toss the idea of the lakes in favor of my favorite piece of beach. It was back to Dee Why for a beach session. Once again I dragged out the beach gear in hope. The side wash was was still pretty strong. I decided to load up on the lead. This got me out and in place, without being effected by the drift. I must admit that I had some problems with the drift in terms of line twist. As bait went, I was using some wonderful pillies, but the result was zip. Everytime I put on the the squid, the bites came. Now is the time to give away a secret. Get your squid, and then wait for the next part. Here it comes: Take some polystyrene and cut it into small slivers. Everytime you send out a full squid, cut a wedge of polystyrene and slide it into the hood. Use some cotten to secure it all and the squid will float up like it lives. This is a sensational way to put life into a dead piece of seafood. I got heaps of bites with this method, but I must admit that I went home cold and hungry. I hope that my squid tip works for some raiders. usually if there are fish that like squid, the floating method with the styrene does wonders. Make sure that the styrene is hidden under the hood. Tight lines I should probably add that I caught zip, but I had a few bites. This is not a bad rap on the method I explained above, but rather a lack of time. The method above works very well, and I have caught many fish in the past this way........