DerekD

Hi Mate, It has been a while. Glad to see you are dispensing squidding advice these days. Sounds like you really have it worked out now. Shore based this time but we discussed taking the kayaks in there for a day and doing a really big session and exploring using the fishfinder on mine. Regards, Derek

Over the last several months I have taken a young gentleman called Vlad under my tuition to help him improve his catch rate. It has been a lot of fun opening his eyes to the possibilities of lure fishing and the different species he has been catching. His first fish on a plastic was a 58cm flathead (which I have at times heard referred to as a croc). He picked up his first salmon yesterday and today we were chasing kings till the wind kicked in and ruined the fun. With only a few hours to spare the decision was made to head in to Manly dam which would hopefully provide some shelter. After seeing how easy it was to catch bass with the right lures several weeks ago he has been doing pretty well there. We started flicking around our go to lures which saw some missed strikes and Vlad picking up and releasing a small bass. Then on one of the retrieves near the end of the session Vlad landed this dinosaur.... I was in awe of the young lad and got down on my knees to worship him. PS. Can we get this added to the records and I should have checked what item we needed to include in the photo for catch of the month.

Hi again, Hmmmmm..... Now I'm going to get a chocolate milk and retire to the computer room to do some serious thinking. The actual strengths through methodical testing is something I haven't factored into my calculations. I do factor in the behaviour of the lines from past experiences and do use the numbers on the box even though I expect there to be a fudge/safety factor. I'll get back to you on the other stuff when I have a little bit more spare time. Just a quick clarification now - when you are talking about the line snapping do you mean at the knot, in the main line or in the leader? I do agree with you about the lighter line theory and have had to point out to people that while I might lose more fish than them, if I am hooking more in the first place then I am usually ahead overall at the end of the session. Regards, Derek

Hi @Hateanchors Excellent question. I want you to get yourself a beer or beverage of choice and head to the pool room or wherever you do your best thinking. You and I are probably coming at this from a totally different angle and they would each have their own merits. I will still do my best to convert you to my way of thinking. I'll use bream gear as a starting point. Line has weight and resistance through the air when you cast or fish in deep water. We are using some ultra-light lures too these days. Generally it is of benefit to go as light as possible on your mainline as it gives you extra casting distance. Fish a 1/8 oz lure on 10lb against me with 4lb and I suspect I will consistently cast further and I'd expect noticeably so. The advantage you have over me is chaff resistance against teeth or rocks. The way for me to get the best of both worlds is to have a short length of leader of say 8lb. A smooth and well set (not locked) drag allows me to protect the main line. That short length of heavier leader gives me a bit more control over the fish when it gets close. You will see the same sort of logic with wind on leaders offshore. When that tuna or marlin is close to the boat a couple of wraps on the reel of the long leader has just doubled the pressure you can put on the fish. If you are using leader as the weaker of the two what is your real benefit? What is your actual goal? If it is finer than your mainline then I think your main line is too heavy. If it is lighter than your main line then why not run leader material all the way through (loss of feel is one counter argument). So what main line would you use with the 8lb leader? A friend of mine tried your system one summer when the kings were playing and we saw a couple in the area we were fishing. I told him I'd hook one up for him with his rod and on the second cast I did and passed the rod over to him. He knew his main line well but had to factor his thinking to allow for the lighter leader. When I'd asked him why earlier he pointed out that it was sacrificial and would breakaway first. He was right and promptly lost the fish. If I'd hooked it on my lighter set-up, to this day I am still confident I would have landed that king (they were borderline legal). Most braid will over-test. That 4lb braid I used in my example is more likely to break at 9 or 10lb on the test bed. If we take actual breaking strain into account I am really fishing say 8lb all the way through. It has been shown time and time again that a knot in fishing lines reduces breaking strength. Your uni/blood knot/etc at the terminal end of the tackle has probably halved your breaking point of the leader so you have lost even more strength your system and for what advantage? If you argue that when you snag up it will breakaway then remember it was already likely to breakaway at that point already (unless you have dirt cheap braid). Having said that when fishing kings a few months ago in deep water I didn't want to lose the very heavy sinkers we were using so I ran down to the sinker then a swivel and had a sacrificial section below this which still had enough strength to fight the fish. In the event of a snag it was most likely to break at the loss of a hook and a bit of line. Up the other end of the scale with the tuna or marlin - the section of line which will cop the most abuse is the leader. It may rub up against the fishes body or mouth. It will likely come back chaffed or nicked. Again where is your advantage fishing a lighter leader? I'm looking forward to hearing your additional thoughts on this one. Regards, Derek

Hi SSIB, Leader length - from past experience that is a contentious discussion. My short answer is less than 1m so the knot doesn't go through the guides. Now to explain the two reasons for doing so. When I started over a decade ago I heard the 2 to 3 times rod length guideline. Even with light lines I could feel the knot go through the runners. I was using and still use the double uni on my very light lines (these days with the braid doubled up which makes it stronger than the standard double uni) which is not as slim a profile as the FG knot. I use the FG knot on 10lb braid and heavier. If I can feel the bump it means there is an impact and this is repeated time and time again. A friend of mine was on a mother-ship Queensland fishing charter and was doing a lot of casting that week. He knows my theory on this but let the deckies tie a slim profile knot on a long leader which he used all week with no problem till the last day when one of the inserts in the guide popped out - coincidence? You decide. I met another guy that filed the arm for his bail arm runner because the bulky knot would catch on the way back in. I'm not taking a file to my lovely reels. Second reason. On the light gear, when I seriously snagged up due to the areas I was fishing more often than knot (pun intended) the line broke at the joiner knot. Oops, there goes 2 to 3 lengths of leader line. Which if you fish Fluorcarbon is not the cheapest of lines. I honestly think most fish don't care and I catch them with 10cm of leader when I am too lazy to change out and can get one more lure change out of the leader. @Ozzybassreally thoroughly covered the information you should think about but add to that that the braid is a fair bit thinner than the mono so it is already more difficult to see. BTW - it took me a while to find a method to tie the FG knot that I was actually happy with based on practicality and lack of line wastage. One of the Raiders posted a video where the gentleman gets the line tension required by pinching it between his fingers and then combined this with the Rozito (don't know how to spell it) finish as used by Brigsy of Morningtide fishing on Youtube. Here are the links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQmUN0L4F6c Now the finish of the knot can be found at a little after five minutes on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDip4_e4c0U I struggle a bit on the really fine lines but with 10lb braid or heavier it comes up a treat. Generally my leaders are rated 50% to 100% heavier than my main line. I've PM'd you my number - call me if you want to discuss further. Regards, Derek

Kingfish on stickbait 1m plus king (ideally on stick bait).... My golden trifecta is a 1m plus king, from the kayak and on a fly rod. After reading one of the fish raider posts I am also thinking of whiting on fly rod. Last years goal was to teach myself to shore jig with a flutter jig. Has resulted in 3 of my 11 kings so far this year. If it turns out to be a proper season I think my king count will go up nicely.

Hi Kingfish Beast, If you find these GPS coordinates then please share with the rest of us. Slightly more seriously, I've been chasing squid for about 15 years and I think I am pretty competent at it. I find squid move around so what might fish well one day might not the next day. There are areas which produce squid more consistently and some of us have put in a lot of time to find these. I went to one of mine in Pittwater today and with three of us and limited time we didn't produce - if I desperately needed some then with a few more hours I think we would have been successful but this would have involved covering far more ground. I've had people ask me before where I caught some of my squid but advising them that technique is far more important than X marks the spot hasn't gone down well. There are some good squiding articles on Fishraider. They (and myself) will tell you to look for areas with a combination of seaweed, sand and maybe small baitfish. A good example of this are a lot of the shorelines in Sydney. If casting towards these then mentally count down the squid jig over the drop offs. I prefer to cast parallel to the shore as it helps me cover distance. Good luck in your hunt. Regards, Derek

Hi All, There I was trying to explain why I spent $70 on a stick bait (without hooks) and how it works to my mother when I decided to do a Youtube search. Found this link to someone else's report and the sound of the drag going off on the first run is music to my ears and way too good not to share. For those that have not achieved the metre plus king (me included) this is the sound to look forward to (in the immortal words of Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Turn it up!"): Now I'm seriously contemplating a heavier rod to match up with a Saragossa SW20000.... That looks like way too much fun.

Hi Neil, Was an absolute pleasure having your company for the day and I'd be more than happy to do it again the next time you make it up here. I think we covered enough on the theory that we should spend more time on the practical next time. Awesome result on the squid with you putting six in the bag. Shame the kings were not playing in the shore based locations we tried but as we head towards the end of the year we should see them in far greater numbers. Another month and a bit and I am looking forward to your Murray Cod photos and adventures. Regards, Derek

Hi Andrew, That really is lateral thinking (in more ways than one). Never thought about it from that perspective before. Regards, Derek

Hi NutsAboutFishing, At a brief glance the maths looks pretty good. One thing I have noticed is that a thicker leader can affect the movement of a lure. Someone I've worked with on soft plastics before was struggling with a retrieve I was demonstrating. The rod was the same as mine and when I tried my walk the dog technique it was pretty lifeless. I switched the lure on to my rod and it worked properly. Looking further at his rig I think his leader was twice the rating (say 20lb) to my 10lb leader. In the 6 to 10lb range of the Nitlon fluorocarbon I normally use on the light gear I am of the opinion most of the fish don't care. Bream might be an exception but I don't fish tournament for them. Regards. Derek

Ecogear ZX40. Less likely to get snagged than a lure with trebles and it surprises me how many different species hit it. Casts a fair way too so can cover ground. I wouldn't fish it in really snaggy area as it is a bottom lure. My best bream result was three bream in a row (not three casts in a row).

Hi FWF, First thing is the parking inside the Manly dam area is now paid. You can park outside the gates and it is a few minutes longer to get in. When you get inside the area you will find a grassed area with a small Gazebo. You can fish a surface lure straight out from this point. Bouncing a plastic on the bottom may result in weed. From this point if you look to the right you will see the dam wall. The water level is up due to the recent rains so the spot I like to fish underneath the dam wall is not safely/readily accessible. You can fish the dam wall. You will also notice floating plants on the far side of the dam. You can work the lures along side this but you risk snagging up. BTW about halfway along the dam wall on the water side there is a pump on the bottom. From what I understand this is to ensure an good turnover of the water (haven't had anyone verify this). Just watch you don't snag up on this equipment. We picked up a redfin the other week on a surface lure. There are carp-a-plenty which you can catch on sweet corn and you will also find bass there. It is a pleasant walk around the edges of the dam but there are times you may have to follow the road way or tracks and then drop back down to the water. Good luck. Derek

I get that kayak maintenance is important. I own a Hobie Revolution 13 which gets a wipe down every time it comes home. I service the mirage drive once a year at home including a grease change. After walking past a marina this afternoon I think my maintenance program is a little inadequate compared to whoever owns the kayak in the photo... I would have never thought of booking a slipway for an annual kayak service.

Hi Waza. Nice collection of floats. You have said something about Alan which has me curious. You said he designed floats for every significant spot in Sydney. Just wondering how this works. Colours, stem lengths, materials, buoyancy? Could you provide a practical example(s) thereof. While I know there are many float designs, for blackfish I usually stick to the one rig. Regards, Derek

Hi Green Hornet. Some beautiful craftsmanship there. Thank you for sharing.

Out of curiosity - why?? Is it your favourite lure and you want to stock pile? BTW any writing on it anywhere (bib, belly, back)?

Hi again Frank, I started talking to @wazatherfisherman when Big Neil was coming to Sydney earlier this year and we were planning one of the day's out. Since then I chat to him at least once a week. Due to his limited mobility I think he enjoys hearing about any fishing going on and from my perspective the breadth and depth of knowledge he has is phenominal. Sometimes it is a verification of something I suspected but there are also plenty of gems of information to be learned from him. Surprisingly there is one thing I have been grateful for because of the the proposed Marine Parks. During the research and discussions I have met some fantastic people and it has really hit home how important fishing is within my life and for my well being. Regards, Derek

Hi FrankS, Not sure how to say this without meaning to sound disrespectful so please take me at face value when I say I am genuinely curious about the Polynesian angle. To my knowledge it the Europeans and probably the Chinese had developed the instrumentation to check the barometric pressure but I wonder how the Polynesians would have done it. I expect they would be watching the weather very carefully but it would take a pretty high degree of sensitivity to detect small pressure changes. Regards, Derek

Hi Belligero, Thanks for your input. It is a topic that has been on my mind for years. Just for clarification - how would you define crazy? One of my friends said he had one of his best sessions off the kayak when he was out and the weather turned. In his case it may have been all the pattering of rain on the water which set off the predatory fish (we had a lot of baitfish around at that time). I came across a nice article about this from a freshwater fisherman and he used the example of the barometer raising from 1016 mbar to 1018.2 mbar over a five hour period. When I did the numbers this worked out as a change of 6cm of water column. A fish at a stationary level in a stream might feel the difference but in a saltwater environment I wonder. Discussing this topic further with @wazatherfisherman I realised I hadn't factored waves/swell into my discussion. I am impressed that the fishfinder on my kayak can pick the up and down movements of the waves compared to the bottom of the harbour to a 10cm accuracy. Most waves will be bigger than this inside the harbour and then we start talking feet or metres outside the harbour. How would this feel to the fish. Waza pointed out that when the Southerly came through on one of their regular fishing spots that the bite came on. What I also understood from him was there was sometimes related colour change in the water when this wind came through but not always a barometric change. I'm just wondering if there are other factors which come into play to set off the fish during a storm. For example, the change in ambient light or maybe the thermocline turns over. It might be that smaller baitfish start to react and this then gets telegraphed to the other species in the area. @wazatherfisherman also related the topic back to mulloway in a way that made sense to me. My experience has been that I usually hook them fishing big baits on the bottom suggesting that they have a tendency staying at one level in the water column. If they are not moving up and down then changes in the water pressure are more likely to be noticed. Regards, Derek

My favourite placard so far: Gladys, eat your greens. Don't cuddle them.

Hi all, The following is an academic discussion as I am not sure how to scientifically follow up on it. Over the years, seeing advice on fishing from multiple sources, I have developed a peeve on a few particular topics. The first is all this advice on fishing the top or bottom of the tide. The way many people seem to interpret the advice is that the whole harbour will magically switch on as soon as high or low tide comes around. I wish it were that simple. It is not that tides don’t make a difference but I get the feeling they often don’t look at the why in a particular area. High tide might give better access, low tide might flush out food, back eddies may trap bait fish, dead flow minimises swimming effort when searching for food, etc. There are competition bream fishos that are phenomenal at judging the cause and effect of the tides when chasing this wily species. My other peeve (and the reason for this post) is barometric pressure – rising or falling. I hear people talking about pressure changes suddenly turning on the fish. Now I get this might actually be applicable to fresh water fish (more on that later) but I struggle to see how it applies to saltwater fishing. Let us look at the two biggest recorded extremes in air pressure at sea level as per current font of all knowledge Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_pressure The highest mean level sea level pressure recorded was 1085 mbar in Siberia. The lowest measurable sea-level pressure is found at the centres of tropical cyclones or tornadoes with a record low of 870 mbar. Now let us convert these into metres of water column to get a relatable measurement. 1085 mbar = 11.063 m of water. 870 mbar = 8.871m. The difference between the two being 2.192m of water column. I forget where I found it but the pressure range at sea level normally fluctuates between 1050 mbar (10.707 mH2O) and 950 mbar (9.687 mH2O). In this case under normal atmospheric conditions we can see a pressure difference of 1.02m of water column between the two extremes. I am ignoring the fact that sea water is denser than fresh water because we are talking relative pressure changes and it should cancel out. So in our harbour the maximum barometric pressure change a fish should be subjected to is 1m of water column. Compare this to the tides which will generally fluctuate every 6 hours say a minimum 0.6m and more often more than 1m. On the 20th of February 2019 there is a forecast high tide of 2.04m and the low after is 0.10m. This is a difference of 1.94m which is close to the absolute extremes of barometric pressure which can be experienced at sea level. I like chasing kings and have often (never often enough) seen them racing up from the depths to have a look at a lure or bait. In other words they will change through more than 1m of water column at the snap of a finger. Bream and a lot of other species will move through the water column as they feed. They are both subjected to tidal variations of greater than the equivalent barometric pressure changes. I am not saying that the animals on this planet are not aware of subtle nuances in atmospheric conditions. Bats can pick out small insects using acoustics. Pigeons can pick the magnetic fields of the earth. What I do question is how salt water fish out on the ocean or in the harbours can make the distinction between these relatively slow barometric changes from the more extreme tidal changes and their natural movement through the water column while they feed. I do believe it could be feasible for freshwater fish as the level of water in a stream is far less likely to fluctuate. This means they have a chance to pick the changes in atmospheric pressure but the question is now how quickly and how extremely would these changes have to occur for them to be able to sense it? I’ve suffered from a bleeding nose before due to pressure changes while flying or even driving down a mountain but these events were relatively quick. If they had taken 3 or more hours I don’t think I would have noticed it or at least not suffered. Just my thoughts. Regards, Derek

I was seeing a bit of this fine weed last weekend in parts of Mosman bay on the plastics. Haven't seen it like that before in this area.

Hi Jon, Thanks for your input. I have enjoyed the posts and photos submitted by you and your eldest daughter (Georgia?) for a long time. I also enjoy and respect your well thought out responses on a variety of topics. Unfortunately due to nasal problems I have had since I was a kid I suffer pressure equalisation issues and have stayed away from Scuba diving (but will snorkel). As a result I have to take input from others on some aspects of marine life that I would prefer to see for myself. BTW - swam with this little fish in the Philippines and at about 6m it was a small one. I'd love to see a full grown 18m one weighing an estimated 34 tonnes. Based on your experiences and observations would you say the areas you see more fish in are from a seascape perspective very similar to those which are not protected as part of a marine sanctuary? My feeling is that the areas that have been tabled for marine sanctuaries have been cherry picked as they already are known to hold good fish stocks. The reason they hold fish could be a combination of structure, food sources, currents and temperatures. It has been seen time and time again that when either a wreck ends up on the bottom or a reef is built there is a good build-up of fish species. I went snorkelling in Rhodes (Greece) decades ago and the clarity of the water was amazing but the lack of sea life was a disappointment and I put it down to a lack of structure. What would be interesting is creating a marine sanctuary in an area which is technically devoid of marine and structure and seeing if that changes things. I look forward to further discussion on this and thanks for sharing all those amazing photos. Regards, Derek

Hi FlatheadLuke, I went to one of the first information sessions which was held in Bronte. There was a good group of people from the fishing fraternity there and some passionate speakers. After they had had their say I went to talk to some of the DPI people to draw my own conclusions. The following impressions are what I came back with (correct or incorrect). Firstly, the DPI people I talked to were proud of the work they had done. While I am strongly against the proposed fishing lockouts, if you look at the research and factors they tried to take into account I think they have a right to be proud. If you haven't already please take the time to look at the TARA (Threat And Risk Assesment) and the Marine Estate Management Strategy 2018 - 2028. This wasn't something you can cobble together in a few months. https://www.marine.nsw.gov.au/key-initiatives/hawkesbury-shelf-marine-assessment The following is conjecture but I don't think (hope) I am far off the mark. I don't think this was political. The majority of the people in the DPI wouldn't get changed out each election. They are there to do a job no matter which party is in power. Their concern (as well as most recreational anglers) is that we have a healthy marine environment. I think it has gone pear shaped for a number of reasons. Firstly, I think with a survey showing 90% approval (I want to know the exact question which was asked of the 2,600 people) and an election coming up it probably looked like a good way of getting votes so why not promote it. I also think if they had sat down with a few key people from the fishing fraternity the path forward would have been far more moderate and probably productive. While the proposal identifies pollution or development as the biggest threats to the marine environment to me it doesn't show a clear path to resolving some of these issues. To be fair, if I was in their position I wouldn't know how to target the pollution issues. Targeting recreational fishing is probably an easy (well not really as they have found out) starting point. Some of the people I talked to sounded like they knew and more importantly loved their fishing but still had to promote the proposal. I asked one gentleman for specifics and nominated the North Head zone as a discussion point. In this case he used groper and drummer as a concern. This sort of information is something which both sides can work with to a long term benefit. Studies could be carried out, local bag limits could be adjusted. As an example, I have heard almost no complaints from the fishing fraternity about the recent change in bag limits for mulloway from 2 to 1. Another gentleman there admitted he knew very little about the situation but he was there as an observer from overseas and appeared genuine in wanting to learn more. I have since corresponded with one of the managers there about some of my concerns. Please go to one of the remaining information sessions and have an open minded discussion with the people from the DPI. Have a look at the following link for the next one. https://www.marine.nsw.gov.au/key-initiatives/hawkesbury-shelf-marine-assessment/phase-3-information-sessions I can't answer the question on the science or the scientists and I'd be very sceptical about most data. I fish most weeks of the year and generally more than once a week. I see the seasonal changes in the fishing but also the ups and downs over the years. There are good years and bad ones and because of that I'd want to see 10 plus years of data for multiple regions before I had faith in it. I'd like to see input from people that are out there most days of the year and from different sources (fishing, divers, spearfisherman, guides, scientists, etc). I read somewhere about the fishing reports from the early settlers and how there were good and bad years even before we had mechanised commercial fishing as such in the harbour. Regards, Derek