jamesds

Monster flattie mate, well done

To sum up today: so close yet so far! Experimented with a bunch of different Gulp plastics today (all Chrismas pressies) at the Spit Bridge. Started off on the south side around the pylons. Nearly every cast was tap-tap-tap and a ruined soft plastic on everything except the bloodworms. But it was all just bait-shredding leatherjackets. So, I tossed a metal slug in for no hits, and after a while moved over to the other side of the bridge and tried triple-gang hook with a pilchard. The leatherjackets defeated me again! Loads of the little buggers stripped my pilchards bare in under a minute! (I actually timed it - they are like pirahnas). So, after spotting large fantail leatherjacket, I tried targeting him with a prawn to get my own back. Tiny hook, the tiniest piece of prawn and he somehow manages to get all of the prawn off the hook without hooking himself. Eventually he does take the hook and I almost bag him but he manages to spit it out at the last second. After that he was too timid to take anymore prawn. (Either that or he was full up!) Went home empty handed, but enjoyed the day anyway

Spent the arvo at Thames Street Wharf again today. Caught myself a nice sized flathead around 55cm. Landed him, got him on the wharf a good meter from the water, and the slippery bugger managed to launch himself back in the water! No problem I thought - he's still hooked. Except he wasn't... There were kingies about too. Got hooked up on a 3" Gulp Minnow on 6 pound line (while trying for flatties...) and got him close enough to see it was a rat kingie. No prizes for guessing that I got busted off! I immediately switched to my heavier tackle and metal lures but by the time I was rigged up they were gone. You need to be quick around there.

Thanks Also, I'm looking for a spot on a boat, if anyone has a spot free. Will pay my own way for fuel & bait and will bring own gear. And a couple of cartons for later It might be worth mentioning that I should have my NSW general boat license by then and if so will be able to share in driving. Not definite though, I mean I could fail the test I suppose... hope not!

My usual fishing mates have decided to go to Tassie for a holiday. Selfish buggers! Would any land-based fishos like some company while wetting the line this Saturday? Come to think of it, I wouldn't say no to an offer of a boat session either, if I was that lucky! I'm based in Sydney. Have all own gear, and will bring bait etc. I'd fish by myself, but it's always better in company and meeting new people is always good fun!

Hah, the little blighter! Yeah, I reckon making it as easy as possible to enter the info would be a good start. If it's painful nobody will use it. Start off with entering time and location. Moon phase, tides, weather etc can be worked out from there. It'll start getting useful after a few hundred log entries and we can extract meaningful trends and offer drilldown views, overlays on Google maps 'hotspot of the month' etc.

Late reply, but just to say it was an awesome day and learned a lot from GregL and the other guys. Must do it again sometime. Beach/rock fishing social anyone? (I'm the one with the black 'Joker' t-shirt on in the pics)

Imagine what we could achieve if everybody donated copies of their log books, get all the data aggregated and put it online for everyone to see and analyse. It would be a treasure trove - imagine the possibilities! As a software developer and (budding) fisherman that sort of project would excite me.... I can but dream !

Land-based 5am Clifton Gardens Wharf for a few hours Sat morning.

I kept my salmon last weekend. It was the first time I caught one, so took it home and had it for dinner. I cooked it in the oven with butter and herbs but wasn't overly impressed with the flavour. Maybe it's just me, but the bream and trevally I've caught have been clearly superior in flavour. Maybe it's better as sashimi with some soy and wasabi, but a whole salmon is a LOT of sashimi.

Just found the critical piece of info on the Bag and Size Limits leaflet: "A maximum daily bag limit of 20 applies to any fish or invertebrates not listed". I guess that means that there is no minimum length to non-listed species either?

That makes sense. Maybe I have a 'short' version of the booklet that lists the bag limits etc, because I can't find pike mentioned at all (bait or otherwise)! Thanks for your help

I'm still fairly new to fishing and some clarification of the rules regarding what fish are legal for bait use would be good. What species can be used for bait that are _not_ listed in the 'Saltwater Recreational Fishing in NSW - Rules and Regulations Summary' booklet? I always assumed, if it's not listed, it's not allowed. Pike isn't on the list. Maybe it's OK in other states.... I've only been fishing regularly for a matter of months, so I need the possibly obvious spelled out to me

I second that. I was there on Saturday for a few hours, and a mixture of salmon and kingies were being landed from the wharf. The wharf gets crowded though, but I reckon the rocks to the front-right of the wharf would be a great spot to fish from and nobody was there. Guess it takes a bit of effort to scramble over them to the good spots and nobody bothers because the wharf is too easy. My local tackle shop guy reckons that the deep water is accessible from the rocks too. I'm intend to fish for kingies from Clifton Gardens Wharf on Thurday evening after work - should be there around 5:30-ish. High tide is around 7pm. I intend to catch a nice legal kingy for dinner! If anyone is there say hi. I'll be the guy with the red rod bag and the Slapstix stick bait, vigorously casting and retrieving

I can't seem to find a post that details the exact spot where we are supposed to be meeting up. I know it's Hen and Chicken Bay - more specifics anyone ?

I'd love to join in the shenanigans, if I can get a spot on someone's boat. Have own gear (or I can get it for the occasion) and will contribute towards fuel/bait etc. I will also have my boat license by then, so will be happy to take turns at the controls if that's required. PM me if you have a spot. Looking forward to landing a few decent kings!

I can't take the credit, but I'll pass on your complements to Noel next time I see him

Yeah, I'm very pleased with myself right now. Walking around with a big grin on my face Might head back there tomorrow arvo after the soft plastics workshop.

Re-posted here from a thread in "Fishing Trips"

So, went to Clifton Gardens about 11am. I was the only one there... for about 10 minutes, by the time I left at 3, there must have been about a dozen fishos. However, an awesome arvo was had by all! My new bait trap was tested out, and caught 5 poddy mullet, so I was chuffed about that. Plus I caught a couple of slimies on my line. I had no luck with the livies though - I was using two lines, one 12 footer for a good cast with my lure and a short 8kg rated 7 footer with bait for whatever passers-by would take it. BUT on about my 30th cast of the lure, I got a nice 55cm salmon. Thought it may have been a king fish when I was reeling it in because it fought bloody hard. Pretty much packed up and left after that because I nothing in which to keep the fish fresh, and gave all my live bait away. While I was there (about 11 until 3) about a half a dozen salmon and half a dozen of barely-legal and just legal kings were caught by other fishos. All the salmon and kings were caught on lures and plastics as far as I know. Plus the usual bread and butter flathead and trevally on bait. (Also my drought of not catching anything worth keeping for about 6 weeks is OVER!) It was great to be somewhere where there are other fishos to learn from. I've only been fishing regularly for about 3 months and I'm still finding my feet - seeing a bunch of people catching decent size fish spurs me on and I only ended up using my lure because the other guys were successful on those. It worked a treat! It was a busy spot down there, but not unworkable. I was very careful not to prong someone with my lure when casting, but I did manage to hook my heel with the barb on my lure while I was trying to control my flapping salmon on the deck.. ouch! It was busy, but everybody was careful and considerate and there were no prangs other than self-inflicted ones (got the barb of my lure stuck in my heel while trying to control my catch after I landed it... managed to get it out without medical attention .... )

Ha - if he looks confused about his new-found fame when you say hi, it's cos I didn't tell him I posted his picture. Tell him that Justin's friend James posted his Jewfish pic on Fishraider

My usual crew are busy with other non-fishing stuff (I know! what are they thinking?!) tomorrow and I was wondering if any land-based guys would be happy to have me tag along? Also it would be good to meet new people, and learn a few things. I have all my own gear/bait etc. Pretty much anywhere within an hour's public transport from White Bay I can get to. Otherwise I'm going to give Clifton Gardens a shot; I hear it's a fairly reliable spot and I may even give my new lure a go Oh and by tomorrow, I mean Saturday (6th Dec).

Not by me but, by Noel the guy in the picture at around 6am before he went to work! He usually catches trevally down there but this time he was unbelievably lucky. From what I gather he was only using light gear too, and was sitting on the railing of that fenced-off swimming area when it hooked up! I was fishing down there the other day, and if anything larger than a bream was biting I'd be concerned about it pulling me in the drink...

I had a read of that PDF - I didn't observe any of the lesions on the skin or red marks on the lips - in fact the fish looked quite healthy. Hopefully that means we can rule that out!

I'm in for Sunday the 7th. See you all there