kkw

vote is in

That's one of the most sensible responses on any of the forums so far. We need someone who has a viable presence and credibility in the community. Where are you Ross??? I realise that Ross has a commercial interest of sorts, however, as a representative of one of the largest sites........ It will sneak up fairly quickly, so procrastination is the last thing we need.

Did you miss any??? I have written my letters to several of the ones you mention. If any of the Mods read this, then I can post a copy of what I wrote so that others can get some idea of what to write, or copy and paste. I have never gotten into politics and detest them, but this will directly affect my area and fishing/boating activities.

I bought some of these recently, but you are looking for the single ones right? These have to be mounted vertically, so the angled holders in the gunwhale are not suitable. Slip into existing vertical holders. I have found them ideal for bait fishing, and it doesn't matter if it is a king that hits. That is why you have a drag setting.

Good to see our advice helped you make a decision benny

Benny. I have been up there twice in the past few months. Get a chart of the marine parks no fish zones from the tackle shop. I fished mainly out of Laguna (now Marina) Quays area in Repulse Bay. There are a couple of good rivers you can venture up for barra and jacks. Also have a look at Faust Dam for barra. You need to get a permit to fish there. Only a few dollars and you get it online if you want. Not sure where to hire a tinny from up there. Good luck. It is a great place. Will be hot so keep plenty of handy.

Thanks for the 'heads up' on the site rules, Grant. Wow!!! There is not much you can say that doesn't contravene those rules in one way or another, is there. Can't say, ' I really love fishing with brand X, as it may be deemed as plugging a product which may not be one of the sponsors, etc etc etc. If any members do have some suggestions, then PM me please (but that is also against site rules if you tell me to try manufacturer X) Oh well.....

Hi boys n girls. I am looking to get a storm cover for my Quintrex Cruiseabout. Press stud fit from the windscreen to the stern. Does anybody have any recommendations on who could make a cover at a reasonable price, in the Sydney area? I have had a rough quote from Mobile Covers but was taken aback I know that a full cover, from Sterns or similar, would be around $110 for my 5m Quinnie, but I don't want a full cover.

Well, back in the late 1950's, we lived at Cronulla, close to the Gunnamatta Bay ferry wharf. My dad bought me a plastic rod, with a plastic hook and string, and some cardboard fish to 'catch'. Well, I trotted off to the neighbours and he gave me some real fishing line to wind on the reel, and also a couple of hooks. I got a slice of bread and off to the wharf I went to catch some fish. I was 6 yrs old. Caught a bucketfull of slimies and yakkas, when a huge game boat tied up to the wharf and an american man came over and offered to buy the bait off me. Of course I refused, as these were the first fish I had ever caught. The gent was Bob Dyer, a well known TV host and fisho. Well from that day on, I never looked back. I was hooked. Many years later, we had a house which backed onto Gwarley Bay, and they were reclaiming the bay to build a new housing development on it (Sylvania Waters). As a teenager, I caught a swag of huge bream off the 'islands' of mud that they were creating. I have since had several boats, worked for 10 yrs in the water police and broadened my experiences to Snapper, pelagics etc. Used to regularly wave to a younger Ross Hunter when we fished out of Port Hacking in my mates 20ft Bluefin runabout. Never caught a marlin (and never fished for them either) but I am still young enough (barely). I love rockhopping and fishing for blackfish, and recently have had a resurged interest in lure fishing for bream, flatties, whiting etc. So, no particular species has got me hooked on fishing, just the entire experience.

Milt - that's the name for fish and mollusc sperm.

Fishing near Cronulla.

I'm old enough and politically incorrect enough to say I went blackie fishing today. (o.k. the spell check has replaced the 'N' word for me) The tide was high, and I would have preferred a couple of hours this side of low, but the wind was forecast to come up, and it surely did. Got onto the rocks at 9.45am and saw that the water was gin clear and very little wash. Undeterred, I rigged up and baited with cabbage off the rocks. Within 5 minutes, I had a few very tentative downs, and wasn't sure if it was just the below surface swirls taking the bait down. Checked to see the bait was gone. Next one, I left the float under for 3 seconds and lifted the rod for a hookup. Landed a fat male blackie, so looked forward to some fun for the next couple of hours. All of the fish I have caught in the past month have been males, with fully loaded milt. Wonder if the female fish are here yet. Anyway, next down was pretty savage and the fish didn't feel at all like a luderick. A big Rock Cale (cocky) was the culprit. The touches were still tentative, so I went up a hook size to #6 and immediately hooked another blackfish. Next one was another cale (grrrr) and then it went quiet for an hour. The wind was really up and spoiling the drift, so I decided to call it quits after being there for two hours. The float went down right at my feet, on the edge of the ledge, and a third blackfish soon joined its mates. Three blackfish from 36cm to 38cm and two cale in two hours. Not bad for pretty ordinary conditions. Wish the water would dirty up a bit. Maybe some rain would help. I was using a Sportex 662, Avon Royal reel with 10lb Raptor braid and an 8lb Vanish trace. Sorry about the poor pics. I released all the fish, as I wanted a half dozen for dinner tonight. Have to cook meatloaf instead

Great sessions. Congrats on the catch. Yes they are starting to spawn down in Sydney as well. Some healthy, big, strong fish at present. I had a run in with some 'local old blackfishermen' up at Nelson Bay Marina breakwall recently. I had taken a 7ft barra rod up to do some SP and hard body spinning for bream. Went for a walk along the breakwall with my wife and daughters and saw a couple of blokes fishing on the outside of the breakwall. Stopped to see how they were going, and only got a mumbled response, "no good, no fish today". Undeterred, I asked where I could get some local weed and have a go. They both just sneered and told me I couldn't catch blackfish with the gear I had, and to get some proper gear if I wanted to catch a fish. Anyway, I went on the marina side of the breakwall, as I could see hundreds of blackies rolling on the surface, spawning. Found a rock with some cabbage on it and put on a small plastic bubble float. Was only in the water for a minute before I was on. I asked my daughter to go across and ask the blokes if I could borrow a net to land my fish. They told her in no uncertain terms - "NO'. Anyway stayed for a half hour and landed four nice fish. As I was leaving, I had them in a plastic bucket with the tails sticking up. Stopped and said goodbye to the blokes and thanks for their advice. I had my dinner and hoped that they would also be able to catch a fish. Not happy campers. Doesn't take much to be friendly and helpful. I had been fishing another spot for a couple of hours one time, and a local came up and told me to 'p' off as I was fishing on 'his' rock. I just laughed and told him to wake up. Some people.......

Yes it works very well. Just mould it into a teardrop shape around the hook. It stays on and casts well too, due to the weight. I fish it with no lead, for bream mainly, and have caught my biggest bream to date on a lump of cheddar cheese. The slices are not as good as the block. They seem to be more 'plastic' in consistency and do not mould as well. Give it a go.

Yes they are. They are still available. I have a half dozen in my tackle box. Don't know how they would stand up to a mack attack though.

Yes I did do a couple of LB sessions of an hour or so. First spot was across the road from my sisters place, off the 'beach'. Used poppers for whiting. No luck, but the ones caught on prawns were a bit on the small side so I wasn't concerned. Get much bigger whiting down here on poppers. Second session was at high tide, off the Laguna breakwall. Got smashed by Mangrove Jack, on 12lb line. No chance at all, and it was frustrating to see them cruise by within a metre and smash into balls of small herring. There are some big fish swimming around the structure there. Can't fish inside the marina, but on the ocean side of the breakwall is o.k. Quite shallow, even at high tide. The Jacks must live amongst the breakwall boulders.

This report is a little after the fact, but I guess not too many southerners manage to get into this species. A few weeks ago, I took advantage of the very low budget airfares to the Whitsunday Coast/Proserpine. My sister lives right near Laguna (now Mariner) Quays resort, so accommodation, transport and boat were not going to be a problem. My brother in law, Colin, took a week off work and we managed to go out fishing 5 days of the seven I was up there. Glorious weather, but not much in the way of fish. It was the same reports from up and down the coast. Strange. One morning, we anchored up on the Mackeral patch in Repulse Bay, and the sounder was showing schools of fish and bigger fish and a BIG fish continuously. Nothing was touching the pillies, apart from trevally and the odd sweetlip, so I tied on a lure, which flashed brilliantly with every twitch. Within 30 seconds, I was on. Landed a smallish, average sized Wolf Herring or Ribbon Fish as they are more commonly known, and got hit every cast after that. Colin persisted with his pilly bait for a few more minutes, then asked if I had any other lures. Naturally enough, all the other boats came racing over and started trolling so close, that I was finding it hard to cast without running the risk of getting my line run over by these $%%@@#'s. As expected, the school went away, and so did the boats. Pulled the anchor up and went to another little peak Col had marked on his sounder and dropped anchor again. Wasn't long before we had the wolfies hitting the lures again, as well as a couple of school mackeral. I had one larger than average herring on and it had pretty well thrown the towell in and was coming quietly to the boat, when it found a new burst of energy and went nuts. I thought it didn't like the sight of the boat, when suddenly a big streak of silver and olive green shot past the boat, hit the herring and left me with a head and belly flap. I didn't even feel the jolt as it bit cleanly through the fish and swallowed the snack. A big Spaniard was the culprit and he hung around for a little while longer but couldn't be tempted. As per usual, the other boats came racing over, but a few well chosen words kept them out of casting range. A few came over and dropped anchor within a couple of boat lengths, but the action died down again. Colin hooked a big Qld Groper which could be seen in the clear water, but he was just swimming around slowly, seemingly unaware of the 15lb line. Col snapped him off, and he swam lazily over to the couple fishing in their little 12 footer and took the ladies bait. She did the lady thing and squealed, as she hung on to the buckled over rod. Don't know what breaking strain she was using, but the boat started to move away and kept going. I guess they cut the line in due course. Col said that this groper was a regular on the patch, and the hooks and line must be small annoyances to it, as it gets 'caught' by someone on almost every outing. The Wolf Herring has an array of projecting fang like teeth that arm the jaws; it is a brilliantly silvery, ribbon bodied fish, with spectacular leaping ability. They grow to 1.4 m (4.5 feet) in length, The Wolf Herring has little value as a food fish, but is prized as bait for reef fishes, Mackerel, and Barramundi. This lot were destined for Col's bait freezer. Can't wait to get up there again. Good fun. Amongst the Wolf Herring are a couple of big pike and a legal sweetlip. A couple of the trolling lures which were used a jig lures for the Herring. Colin leaning back into the groper and making no headway.

It has been moved a lot, I suspect. One of the published GPS marks puts it about 80klm SE of Pt Hacking. I hope it is now back where it belongs

Hey Ben, the MSB and Police are right onto jet ski drivers, due to the fact a few do the wrong thing consistently. You need a PWC licence as well as a general licence to operate one. Having been a W.P. for 8 yrs, I can strongly recommend that you don't get caught riding without one

I was up there for a week, a few weeks back. Stayed at Midge Point/Laguna Quays area. Fished mostly in Repulse Bay for grassy sweetlip, mackeral, trevally, queenfish and wolf herring. The macks love the wolf herring and I had a few get chopped in half by speeding spaniards. I think the Mack season was 6 to 8 weeks ago, Saltrix, although they are still being caught at present - just not in the numbers back then. I also fished the O'Connel River. Good Mangrove Jack and barra in there. Had a morning up on the Faust Dam for barra, with no luck. You need a permit to fish there - available online. Caught barra in my brother in law's bosses dam. He has a stack of 3 yr old barra in there, which just love black and gold squidgy shads. When I say 'dam' it would be a lake down here in Sydney. I think to really do well, you would need to go out on the reef proper, but it is being pillaged by pros who catch loads and loads of coral trout and like fish, keep them in big holding tanks and ship them live to asia. It isn't like it was when I spent time there in '75 but still a magic place to fish and holiday in. Wish it wasn't so darn hot and humid, and it is also alive with sandflies and mossies up the rivers. Take your tropical strength aeroguard.

Had an outing lined up for Port Hacking a week back, hoping to get into some bream. I should have learnt my lesson with my 'mate' by now. Nine times out of ten, he cancels at the last minute. Anyway, I just felt like wetting a line, so headed off to float some cabbage weed around the washes. Only had two hours, so it was just for some time out of the house really. Low tide, but on the way in. A NE breeze was also blowing, which isn't the ideal direction for this spot. Some b*&%**%s, left all their crap on the rocks and in the pools. Plastic bags of prawns and beer bottles. Why are people so arrogant and ignorant? Anyway, fished for about 20 mins before the first down, and boy, was it a down. The float was there one second and gone the next. The line was tearing through the water, and the Avon was spinning in the palm of my hand. I thought that I must have hooked a trevally, which I have done many times on weed, but it was a nice size luderick, which took about 5 mins to land. Beaudy, I thought. Things were slow however, and it was another 15 mins before I had another down. This was a duplicate of the first one, and I can't remember blackfish ever having hit so hard and stripping line with such determination. Another good one landed. Next down was tentative, and I lifted the rod, but found the cabbage cropped down to the bend of the hook. Next one was again, a tentative take but I hooked this one, only to lose it at my feet. Another one like that a few minutes later, and then it slowed down. The tide was quite high now, and I could see fish 'surfing' up in the swell and grabbing a mouthful of cabbage weed on the way through. I had given myself 2 hours, and with a minute to go, I got a third one. Good, solid fish. Can't wait for them to come on a bit stronger. Great fun for a couple of hours in the outdoors. Total three landed, two lost at the ledge and a couple which only stayed on for a second or so before the hook pulled. Took a couple of pics on the mobile, so the quality isn't too good. Fish measured 42cm, 41cm and 38cm. Not bad. Maybe this should have gone into the reports section, but it is a blackie thread What we need is a few recipes as well. I do the usual bread crumb fillets, bbq fillets and battered pieces. Anything else? p.s. forgot the tip. I use thin, flat lead sheet on the leader. The line hangs better and is more 'balanced' in my experience. Split shots and ball sinkers can flip all over the place when being cast, whilst the sheet lead weights tend to keep the line straight during the cast. I use about 5 pieces spaced out under the float. The bottom one is around 30cm from the hook.

Yeah they can really motor. I fish for blackfish with an Avon centrepin reel and got knuckle dusted the other day with a big hit and run. I suspect it was a surgeonfish or trevally. They both take weed or cabbage on a regular basis. Good fun, but a brutal fighter.