bluewater188

A couple of nice fish there Holls, good work

50cm tailor would have been a good fight mate! Nice work

No fishing last weekend, battery issues with the boat

Hi All, tried an upload of the latest efforts at Ulladulla a week ago but it doesn't seem to have come through. Anyway, I will provide a shortened version of both weekend’s efforts. The sandbars at the entrance of Burrill produced no fish at all, not even bites. We had pieces of pillie out on some rods and soft plastics on jig heads working the edge of the drop offs and holes on an outgoing tide. Water temp was cold. Might try the incoming tide next time. Picking were slim in the boat too as the water temp was anywhere between 17 and 19.6 depending where we were and a late start each day didn't help - teenagers are hard to get up for an early start! We picked up a few flatties each day with a couple of nice ones (best was 50cm). Trolled around Banisters to keep the kids amused, only one salmon turned up. Caught 3 pike as we trolled around the northern side though. Not much use but provided some entertainment for the kids. Back out again this weekend. Cheers Coogee

Thanks Scratchie, probably should have started there Cheers Coogee

Thanks Dogbox, I might head north on the weekend if Mollymook doesn't produce and see how I go.

Thanks mate. I'll hopefully be doing the same. Good luck!

Good to see some interest guys I'll do the same Stanton, I have a few spots just off the lighthouse that are working ok, I'll post those. I am also going to have a look down at the sandbars at the entrance to Burrill on Saturday night to see if any prawns are about. Probably a lost cause for an actual feed of prawns given the moon will be almost full but if there are some about I might bait a few up and see what's about over the weekend. I will post any results (or lack of) Cheers Coogee

Hi All, just trying to start a thread on the local fishing around Ulladulla, it'd be great if people can add their news to this so we can all get an idea of what is happening in the district. I will be out on the weekend, probably just bottom bouncing off Mollymook or maybe in Burrill, I'll keep you posted on how that works out. Cheers Coogee

Sorry Holls, transferred jobs and lost my account details so a hugely delayed response. We only saw really small prawns on that trip but we were a bit early, the nephews are primary school age and the good tide time was around midnight, a bit late to stay up. As with any time I have been prawning the little ones seem to come out first and there were quite a few. I will be going back over the next few weeks so will let you know how I go.

Nice lizard mate! Given the crap weather of late I will be trying out the lake a bit more as an option when the seas are rough. Good to see there are good fish about. I went prawning with my nephews near the entrance to the lake and it looked great for flatties and bream so I will be getting along there on the weekend. The water had iridescent algae in it when we were there, something to look out for if you end up there at night. It was bright green when you trod on the sand near the water or kicked up a bit of spray - great for amusing the kids.

Same as the lads above mate I have never had any luck myself in the river. Plenty of flatties in the bay though. I ran into an old bloke when I was coming in from the tollgates one day and he had been up river. He was all too happy to show me his bucket of fish (bakers flour bucket 20lt!) which consisted of good sized bream that you would have trouble fitting in a frypan and a big lizard that was around the 60cm mark. He was anchoring his tinny up right next to oyster leases and dropping a little bit of berley over the side. he said you had to get within a few metres of the lease and drop your bait down next to the woodwork so the bream could dart out and have a crack at it. Too much water between you and the shelter of the leases and they apparently get too shy. Makes sense I suppose. He said the trick was to pull up where the tide was pushing water under the leases where the bream are, so basically on a bend and work the top (preferably) or bottom of the tides until slack tide. This makes the berley move where it can get fish interested and moving into the area your bait is. Of course being an old bloke with a ton of experience he had a special recipe in the bait department that he showed me - chicken breast that was soaked in tuna oil and the rolled in bread crumbs. Seemed like a nightmare from a cooking show to me but he swore by it and his bucket was pretty full of fish that appeared to like the mix. The bread crumbs had me fascinated as I wouldn't expect them to stay on but it dawned on me that they would be like a little bit of tuna soaked berley in a cloud around your bait - irresistible to a bream I reckon. I had a crack once out of my kayak but was didn't have berley so no luck. Also fished plastics because I thought I knew better. Anyway might be some stuff in here that people can try. Cheers Nige

Nice work mate

Ha ha, agree luvbigfish, they will bite anything! No joy over the last two weekends either. Crappy weather and seasick crew made for a challenge (thanks to the wife for her contribution to the burley trail though ) - the fish were off the bite on the flatty grounds too, trolling the lighthouse and bannisters and out wide got no results either and bottom bouncing the reefs were also a waste of effort. The only guys catching were the 4am starters and I am not that keen when the weatherman says it is going to be a tough day on the water. General consensus at the boat ramp was that no one was getting anything, not sure what the cause is. Ah well, that's fishing : )

The leatherjackets were off the lighthouse on the flatty grounds in numbers last weekend. Picked up a couple of flatties but it was hard work compared to the usual successes there. The jackets were biting through the braid above the swivel on a paternoster rig which was pretty annoying. I think I have worked out why - I reckon because I was using plastics the fluid from them was getting into the braid and making it attractive to the leatherjackets. Can't think of any other reason they would find braid attractive.

Good read mate and some great fish there.

Sorry mate, didn't get out. I am probably a few weekends away from wetting a line now due to weekend commitments. Boat is called Tewa. I usually launch at the co-op side of the harbour.

Thanks Dogbox and Paikea, I will be out on Saturday so I might have a look at those spots.

Allen, GPS is in the boat and I am away. Rule of thumb for flatties near the harbour is around 40 - 50m mark, line up the lighthouse and pigeon house mountain and you have the northern end. I have drifted south for some km and still caught all the way through. Just North of the spot i describe is not so good but I have seen boats doing the flatty drift a km or so north, an option to check out another day. FYI, unlike the BBay flatty grounds there are masses of baitfish smashing your bait/plastics. The latter gets expensive. The trade off is the size of the fish which has so far been way better than the Bay.

Thanks guys, new spots are always good to try. I can get down to tabourie but haven't had much success there as yet. Have had a few good sessions out on the kingy grounds but not so often.

Hmm, no photo. Sorry all - user error : (

Great session last week with my nephews chasing flathead off Ulladulla. The big fella in the photo managed to get tangled up with his brother half way up on a hook up. While we sort that out his flatty had a visit from a shark. 46cm flatty, I told him it didn't count because he didn't bring it all in ; ) Got carted the next day by a monster king (I think). Stocking up on live bait off a headland when a big kingy came nosing around the burley trail / bait school at the back of the boat, he was over 1m long (no really, I haven't started to exaggerate this story yet). Dropped a livey over then 5 minutes later it got smashed. 5 minute argument then he got off. Bad prep was the issue, braid with very short leader and therefore no shock absorption and an undersized circle hook that ended up bent to 45 deg out. Lessons learned, made up new Kingy leaders and upsized the hooks!

Nice bag mate. Love a calamari fry up with a few refreshments of course

A mate of mine took his 5.5m Signature down to the ramp at Batemans Bay with a few mates intending to go out for a fish. One of his mates was quite good with boats.....ski boats that is, so he helped out getting the boat ready to put in the water. They backed it down to the ramp, and when the slightest bit of braking occurred the boat slid off the trailer and hit the concrete . Apparently when you launch a ski boat they unhook everything from the boat as it sits on a flat trailer and float it off. Doesn't work too well on a trailer with rollers! End result was a cracked hull on the point of contact and no fishing for a while.