leatherjacket

Thanks guys and please vote for me COTM July;) Cheers, AC

Hi Raiders, Woke up at 5am, but it was cold so I closed my eyes, fell back to sleep then eventually got up at 9:30am. Launched from Clifton and picked up 4 good bait sized calamari squid at a not so secret spot near by. The harbour was packed with Yachts and spectator boats creating swell and chop for the Sydney to Gold Coast race. I was going to try to fish for Whiting but decided to trowel one of the live squids in hope of a stray winter king. I slowly made my way back to my car at Clifton and was whistled at and waved off as I tried to cut across the Naval Waters, so I did the right thing and went around the markers... I was going to trowel all the way in until my downrigger hit the sand and I hear/felt the bump, but I was still in 30ft of water... Then Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz! I pick up my 8-15kg live fibre rod with 50lb braid that I had locked up so that I could barely pull the line off the reel. Started playing the fish that went straight down to rub me off on the bottom, bouncing the rod to knock it about and turn the head... I got it up to the top half of the water column and backed off the drag. Apparently I was drifting into the navy zone again because the guard was yelling at me to move away... I managed to navigate out of the navy waters and landed a 94cm hoodlum kingie, which is a new PB and and a pleasant surprise to get a trophy fish at this time of the year - a great bonus to a great day on the water! Cheers, AC

Picture added, that's the small one...

Nice effort and well done guys. How big were the squid and did you put them out whole or strip them up? I caught some 50+ cm squid but thought they would be shark bait if I put them out whole. Your thoughts? Cheers, Andrew

Everywhere! must be thousands at Longie...

Sat - no Yakkas at Balmoral. Caught 3 calamari at Clifton gardens from 750grams to 1.25kg.... Nice! Sun - Kept the tubes and tried for a winter Kingie at Longie but no joy... Heaps of Salmon busting up... some guys reef bashing and catching rass and leatherjackets. Still great to be out on the water on a great day with 1 mtr swells and low wind. Cheers, Andy

Good feed and a solid fish to get on light gear! Cheers, Andrew

Fat looking bastard too! Nice... Well done and good to know they are still out their! I'm going to Longie tomorrow looking for his older bro!! Cheers, Andrew

Great report and well done on the spanards! Cheers, Andrew

Nice report mate and congrats on a awsome LB effort! Cheers, AC

Couple of great fish there! Was it Sydney Harbour?

Very nice old bull!

Looks like you know what you're doing! Nice fish mate!

That's what it is all about!

Mate, That is an impressive hoodlum! Great to see they are near Sydney:biggrin2: Well done on the light tackle. Cheers, Andrew

Nice fish mate... I would luv to try and land one of those hoods in a yak Cheers, Andrew

Great catch mate... well done!

Great looking fish... You can see why they are called the wolfs of the sea! Yum Yum! Cheers, Andrew

Yum, I love Mud Crabs! Very disapointing about the estery fishing but those crab will go very nicly in the ambers of the fire... Nice post... Cheers, Andrew

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/saltwater/fads FAD Location Latitude (S) Longitude (E) Distance from nearest access point (km) Depth (m) (1)Tweed Heads 28° 09.730' 153° 41.000' Tweed Heads – 13.0 64 (2) Byron Bay 28° 35.052' 153° 38.283' Brunswick River – 9.5 42 (3) Ballina 28° 54.430' 153° 41.189' Richmond River – 14 70 (4) Evans Head 29° 06.400' 153° 36.200' Evans River – 17 50 (5) Wooli Reported Missing (6) Coffs Harbour 30° 14.858' 153° 21.605' Coffs Harbour – 21 85 (7) South West Rocks 30° 50.534' 153° 11.803' Macleay River – 16.5 104 (8) Port Macquarie Reported Missing (9) Laurieton 31° 39.601' 152° 56.235' Camden Haven – 10 65 (10) Crowdy Head 31° 47.000' 152° 55.200' Crowdy Head – 17.0 79 (11) Forster 32° 13.211' 152° 40.680' Cape Hawke Harbour – 16.5 80 (12) Port Stephens 32° 46.967' 152° 24.703' Tomaree – 22.5 120 (13) Newcastle 32° 55.333' 151° 59.935' Hunter River–19.1 95 (14) Swansea 33° 10.005' 151° 48.976' Swansea Channel – 17 110 (15) Terrigal 33° 30.032' 151° 38.592' Terrigal Skillion – 19 115 (16) Sydney North 33° 35.554' 151° 34.607' Broken Bay – 22 115 (17) Sydney Harbour 33° 47.021' 151° 22.700' Port Jackson – 8.5 50 (18) Sydney East 33° 59.316' 151° 20.951' Botany Bay – 9.5 98 (19) Botany Bay Wide 33° 59.672' 151° 26.743' Botany Bay – 16 140 (20) Sydney South 34° 07.658' 151° 23.254' Port Hacking – 21 140 (21) Wollongong 34° 27.321' 151° 04.308' Flagstaff Point – 16 110 (22) Kiama 34° 41.000' 150° 59.500' Kiama – 12 115 (23) Jervis Bay 34° 57.750' 150° 58.500' Currarong – 13 110 (24) Batemans Bay 35° 50.000' 150° 22.630' Batemans Bay – 22 120 (25) Far South Coast 36° 58.800' 150° 15.750' Eden – 29 125

Great fish and I take my hat off to you beach based fishermen as you have to put in a lot of hours to get fish like that! Congratulations!

Hi Fishraiders, I caught up with a mate, who was a Chef, to go fishing on his day off and I did the right thing and took some holiday leave so we could get out on the Thursday in his 4.6mtr (15ft) Haines Hunter… We left Little Manly at 5am and picked up some yakkas from Balmoral. We also had some fresh squid from the night before so we were ready to go! Firstly, we tried around the harbour buoys and caught a few rats. But it was too easy on the 50lb heavy gear that we were using and the water was dirty. The real plan for the day was to find the Sydney FAD and see if any Mahi Mahi were there? It was only a 1-2 metre swell but very sloppy! It was hard going against the swell, with a side wind, in such a small boat. When we finally made it to the FAD we threw out some unweighed yakkas and drove up and drifted past the buoy a few times but the fish weren’t there. So…we decided to go back to Sydney, Wesley wanted to fang it, but I suggested we trowel a bit first to see what is out there and it ended up making all the difference! Besides we were going with the swell this time and it was more comfortable. Wes put out a weighted fresh squid and even though we had live bait I went for a Rapala X-Rap 30ft deep dive lure that resembled a Slimy Mac since it was 50mtrs (160ft) deep. Wes hooked up on the squid and unfortunately ended up pulling the hook close to the boat. But it was enough to encourage us to keep trying so we put the lines back in and about 15 minutes later my new live fibre rod buckled and I could hear the reel screaming like a banshee! I kept the pressure on through out the fight and didn’t give the fish any breathing room at all! After a few minutes I got it to the boat. My first reaction was: WOW that’s a big fish!!! Then, WOW that is a beautiful fish!!! It was black with purple and blue vertical stripes. At this stage I knew it was a Wahoo or Spanish Mac. I could not believe that I had kept it on without a wire trace as I was using 60lb mono leader! Wes was ready with the net but I was struggling to keep it to one side of the boat. Even when I guided it into the net, the net was too small and he ended up having to grab it by the tail and hoisted it over the side! Yelling and high fives all round! I was so pumped when it hit the deck! This is my biggest fish and first Wahoo! It measured 112cm and Wes used a hacksaw and knife to cut 20 beautiful 200gram cutlets;) We split the fish to feed both families and even the in-laws got some… What a great start to 2011, but now I’ve got the off shore bug! I just need to get the boat next. Also, good to see checch’s 160cm Wahoo post on Tuesday – they must have been bought down in the warm currents… All I can say is get out there! Cheers, Andrew

Another great fish Andrew! You must be eating fish 7 days a week

Hi Checch, Top fish their mate! You'll get a few fillets out of her for sure! It looks like a serious boat that you were on! Was it a charter boat? You were very lucky to land her without a wire trace! I also caught a smaller Wahoo on Thursday and will post once I get the pics from my mate… Well done on an awesome first Wahoo! Cheers, Andrew

thanks guys! some great info there!