archilles2

Mate, i kept a cuttle fish alive for 2 days in a mayo bucket - we called him Columbus and was only 10cm long. I caught him on the Thursday night, let him squirt his ink and changed water 5 times before i left , i don't let squid sit in inky water at all. I left him in the garage in a half filled bucket of sea water ( with no ink ) i had taken from the spot. I left him out overnight ( garage ) because i didn't want to vacuum seal him alive , the next morning i got up ready to vacuum seal him but guess what ? He was still alive lol. No aerator, same water. That night on the Friday we were going jewwie fishing, so i decided to put a simple aerator in the bucket to see if he lasted till the arvo. I didn't think he would make it but guess what he did. We took him to our spot on friday night, with the same water from thursday night. Then on Saturday morning when we were about to use him we open the lid and guess what, still alive! We felt so sorry for columbus that we released him unharmed, he lived to to fight another day hehe. I think the reason why he stayed alive was because the water had no ink in it. Also another reason is because he was in his bucket alone. If i had put him in a bucket with another cuttle or squid, i'm sure he would of died, less water to swim around , less poo and less disease. If one gets sick , the other will soon get sick and die also. Finally, water temp was kept fairly constant because i had the bucket indoors. My advice, is get 3 mayo buckets , catch 3 squid, let them squirt all their ink out and keep them in seperate buckets with aerators , my mate suggested i even use a cheap heater to keep water temp constant . See how they go, if kept squid alive for 2 days using this method also. Try keep buckets indoors and make sure your bucket is big enough for them swim around in. I don't know about feeding them , i only keep mine alive for 2 days before i go fishing.

Hey raiders, I'm stuck in a bad situation at the moment. My friend is here the UK, he arrived this morning and has never been fishing in Australia. The poor bloke hardly catches anything over there except carp and sometimes he finds it hard catching them too. I promised him he would have the best fishing of his life when he comes here. Problem is the only day he can fish is tomorrow. I had planned to take him jigging at terrigal but that backfired because of the weather. I've been telling him for months how good fishing can be in AUS and now that conditions have turned for the worse , i don't know what to do I can certainly blame the weather or the limited time but that's not good enough for me, i really really want to get this guy stuck into some fish. At this stage , i don't care what , so long as he gets to bag out on something. This may sound silly but i was thinking of maybe trying to take get him into some carp because they are a prize catch for records in some parts of the UK. I'm sure there are some spots in Sydney where they are in plague proportions ? Basically, i want to take him to a spot were i can guarantee he will catch fish. He doesn't eat fish so it doesn't matter. Sure i'd love to get him stuck into some prett saltwater species but the conditions are prevailing. If anyone could help me with some spots for carp or ideas where we can guarantee catches , that would be great, feel free to pm me. I just feel very bad. Thanks again raiders Archilles

maybe if you walk out about 1km because the drop off is about there lol you would have a better chance in the dingy coz you can access the drop offs

Mate i just hired a dingy with the , had brought 4 rods in a pvc pipe from sydney, packed reels and tackle box of assorted hooks , sinkers and swivels ready for anything. The guy at the marina recommended we fish with pillies , we spent afew hours on the drift until we finally started catching these lovely looking fish called Red throat emperors, about 8 in total ( looked like brown bream ) and other fish too. We found them around in an eddy and anchored up Good fun for the family / friends in addition to your charter adventure Take booze and sangas too Archilles

thanks fellas !

Gooday Gooday! I've just created my own sinkable DIY underwater LED squid attracting light. Now all i need are some spots to test out this contraption. Could anyone help me out as to where squid might be holding at the moment ? I'm goign to be landbased and was thinking of watsons, rose bay, double bay but not sure if it's worth my while - could anyone make any suggestions ? Thanks raiders, archilles P.S. I'LL try post photos of the contraption and it's effectiveness

Hi David, Thanks for that great reply ! Let's say i get a 100w light and attach it to a car battery , let's say i get about 10 amps per hour, that means in 5 hours it will be dead. What if i only need it to run for 3 hours straight , when i get home i have to hours left in the battery - do i re charge it for the next time out ? orr do i charged the battery just before i go out again ? Sorry mate, i never studied the sciences and am pretty hopeless when it comes to this stuff. Thnks, Archilles

Ahoy , I'm on role here today , bored because i can't get out so i i figured i might as well try and improve my tackle and gear strategies. Just wanted to ask if anyone has made a high powered portable floodlight ? I've found what i think might be some good squidding spots but lighting is soo poor and there is no power. I'd love to connect a halogen light to a portable power source such as a car battery. Has anyone tried this one with successs ? Also how do you keep something like this charged and prevent the battery from draining itself ? Thanks again for you help raiders.

love the slingshot concept thanks raiders! , do you reckon it could cast a 20 cm mullet and a star sinker 50m ? It would have to be quite powerful i guess! Has anyone had success with any of these ?

haha just found it! awesome stuff thanks Framed trash. I'm going to try it , probably the catapult first as it looks safer and not as noisy but mate, appreciate the links

i tried looking that up but can't seem to find anything grrrr Someone suggested using a kite but that's too hard especially if there's no wind

Hey all, I've decided to whack on my medieval thinking cap and try and invent a system or tool that can throw my baits exactly where i want them. My biggest problem is casting 200gram bait over huge breakers. This probably sounds ridiculous but has anyone else come up or know of something that can help me cast long distance and heavy bait off the shore ? lol

Thanks for that great reply Jewgaffer, so would you recommend i look up baro pressure and sea temps since last Thursday to see if I can pick the better conditions where fish were more likely to bite ? I was under the impression that high barometric pressure is better when fishing ?

Gooday gooday Raiders, Pity i missed the social i had two christenings on over the weekend! looked like a great day out Anyhoo, i know we've covered this topic before, however i want to know if anyone has personally experienced a difference in catch rates due to barometric pressure - and if so why you think it has made a difference ?

Thanks for the advice Ben! i'll certainly take that on board , i'm going to try catch poddies tonight , see how i go. Also if i do get something i'll definetely post it, that would be a dream come true. I'm hoping for at least one bite or even a run hehe bit optimistic but hey like you said - you got to be in it to win it.

Gooday raiders, Tomorrow night my mate and I are going down to a beach south of sydney for a jew session, we've never tried it before but have done the research and have the right tackle, gear etc. Tomorrow day my mate is going to look for likely gutters and mark them. Our problem now is trying to muster up some dynamite bait. So far we have fresh mullet on the menu from the markets but that's about it! I think i can have a crack at catching poddies but i'm not sure if they will last overnight as i plan to catch some tonight. Also they'r only about 8 - 10 cm so i'm not sure how i should hook them. Finally we're going to get some live beachworms too. I was going to buy squid from the markets but it's already pink , so i'm not sure if that would be any good, good size though.. Does anyone have any pointers they could give us ? I'm giving our chances of catching one at 30% purely because of experience and the fact that they're not easy to come across. Thanks guys!

i might just try that you know! i like the lantern idea jewgaffer your a powerhouse of information - thanks again

Hey all, Just wanted to see how everyone is going squidding wise ? I want to try the hacking but i have this eeerie feeling it's still alittle dead. I need to vacuum seal some kingy candy in preparation for the beginningn of kingy season Can anyone give me any info on their breeding patterns, when they're likely to come on in numbers and size ? Thanks for your help , i need to post some pics soon, i'm feeling very rusty! To the moderators, if you could please move this to fishing chat , that would be great - i just realised i accidentally posted in fishing reports by mistake and don't know how to delete my post ? If it's too hard i'm happy to leave it here.

well done Deano! Well done - i think my post brought you luck lol I didn't get to go out over the weekend

Thanks 5star, good to see i'm not the only one, i'm going to try it. What have i got to lose ? Question is how to keep the burley underneath and around your boat, i might make my own burley bomb

Morning Raiders, It was about this time 2 weeks ago when i visited the Botany bay and came back with zilcho.. Most people would just give up and not go out again until the water heats up - But not me Eventually something will happen.. Although the odds are stacked heavily against us i think it's a good time to brush up on some skills. Usually we drift the bay and hardly ever anchor! In the past ( wamer months ), we've done quite well on the drift but not lately. The good thing about fishing the same technique is that you begin to notice what changes affect the fish, be it wind, current, water temp, drift direction etc etc.. However I think it's time to change strategy and mix it up alittle. I'm thinking of anchoring at afew spots and varying my baits to see what i can get. Any suggestions / exact spots where i'm sure to catch 50 fish or so ? orrrr should i just go to the fishmarkets

Ela Keflapod! Top post there and thanks Billfisher, i work for the papers and went back into our archives to check out water temps around this time last year and this is what i found May 30th 2008 - water temp - 21 degrees June 30th 2008 - water temp - 20 degrees July 30th- 2008 - water temp - 17 degrees August 30th - 2008 - water temp - 16 degrees Septermber 30th - 2008 - water temp - 18 degrees Big drop July and August with temps rising from September onwards, usually when we get good reports come in anddd when i've caught my best - September onwards. I'm sure the fish are there, just much harder to catch - any other opinions ?

Just wanted to ask if anyone else has been experiencing very low catch rates in Botany Bay lately ? I'm trying to figure out why things were soo quiet for us yesterday , it seems like i threw them everything for zilcho.. Calling on all experts to help me out

I wonder if we were doing somethign wrong ? Can't help but feel as though we were ..

Hey all after leaving the boat to rest for 2 months we decided to head out to Botany Bay today, mainly drifting and occasionally anchoring up ( burley and all ) throughout the bay. We used prawns, pillies , squid even threw out live yakkas - zilcho! We caught 2 flounder and that was it! Water temp was around 14 degrees , and after 7 hours of fishing we packed up. I've never fished the month of August in the bay so i can only put it down to winter and the cold water temp, in summer we were catching heaps more! Would i be right in blaming winter ? Any advice would be appreciated Thanks raiders, Archilles2