openflame06

I've been staying at Split Solitary caravan park for the last week. On tuesday I thought, why not go have a fish off the rocks. Thinking that since the rivers had a lot of fresh flushed out of them in the floods I thought I would try mullet fillets as bait. Threw out my line, first cast got snagged up. Second cast and I was on - reeled in a 28cm bream that made a nice dinner that night. Kept fishing, caught a small shark, and as I was pulling up another it snapped off. Last night I thought I'd try again although this time it was a lot more windy. I managed to pull in a wrasse, get snagged a heap more and pull up another shark that snapped me off on the lift. I've attached a photo of a shark that I caught at crowdy, because unforutnately i got no photos from coffs. However, the shark in this photo is the same type as the ones I was pulling in or getting snapped off by. It was good fun.

Hahahah. Just wondering as well, how should live bait be hooked on? Is that what you mean by pin him behind the head. I've been thinking of trying some live baits but have no idea how to go about putting the stuff on the hook.

Just wondering if anyone has had been catching sharks more than usual. A lot of news stories have been circulating about increased populations. I'm just wondering whether I should be out with a rod giving it a try lol.

Nice fish mate good to see nice sized bream rather than miniature ones! And yeah mate, slip slop slap. Personally I dont wear sunscreen but I take a LOT of water with me so im rehydrated constantly. Sunscreen + a lot of drinking water should keep you and your young one out of trouble.

I've heard they go up into the river because it rids them of a lice they get in their gills. The lice survives in salt water but fresh water kills them. Not sure how accurate that is, i've only been told but maybe because of the rain a lot of them are coming up the rivers a fair way.

Doesnt matter that your camera phone is crappy, its the great camoflage those flounders have that make a photo hard.

Been a while since I've been out there. Dad used to go out and get blue swimmers there a lot wouldnt mind giving that a shot one day.

Looks like you got yourself an awesome feed there. Well done.

Hey all. I've never really gone squidding before so if anybody is keen on going out in the hunter/central coast area I'd be keen to tag along and learn. Mobile number is 0407 404 112 - just send an SMS or something. Cheers.

My dad uses dily pots for mudcrabs some times. The biggest problem though is that muddies will tear them to shreds if you don't check them regularly. My pop uses steal framed traps, your are only allowed to use one though but at least the crabs dont get tangled up and destroy the netting. The saltwater handbook from the DPI site shows all the different traps you can use / how many and a bunch of other information.

Looks like a toad with no spikes. The ones with spikes are usually pretty docile i've noticed. Can drop stuff near them and they dont care.

Thanks guys. I was holding them around the fins near the gills to remove hooks. They were only tiny things me and a mate caught off the rocks at Crowdy. At least now I know thats dangerous! Are they even useful for bait or a feed? Or should I just keep chucking them back?

Last week a few mates of mine from Newcastle and myself went for a fish. First of all, I want to know if anyone knows any good spots around newcastle because off the break walls has got to be some of the dirtiest water I have ever seen. There was definitely some fish about, we went early morning around 5am. As the sun rose first fish I pulled in was a small tailor - because we were really under prepared though I had a massive hook and it broke off as I lifted the tailor out of the water. Little bit later, pulled in a small bream. One of my mates pulled in a smaller one, and the other snapped his rod before he even got to cast in surprisingly lol... Was fun, but unfortunately no keepers.

Weird that someone would chuck back flatties, especially when they were all ready to go it seems. My mate has caught a fair few tailor on SP gulp worms, found out a good rig is the normal hook then a seond one towards the end of the worm just hanging because a lot of the time the fish strike the back of the SP instead of up the front. Nice work catching your SP catches

Breamhunter - we were just up from it a little bit at the moment theres a bit of a sand flat and a few rocks so a lot of bream and flathead hanging around there. If you get the chance to go down and have a look you will see what I mean. Will have to try out off the cleaning tables myself and see how I go.

Pretty sure that top one is a dog shark (one at the beginning of the post) i've caught one before at crowdy head and someone said thats what it was. Who knows though lol

I've read that the red rock cod and other rock cod are poisonous but i've been handling them with my bare hands. Is that something I shouldnt do? I havent been able to get a definitive answer yet.

My mate and I have caught a few male and female ones at Crowdy Bay, he took one home to eat and said it wasnt worth it. Maybe if you got a large sized one it would be good.

I'd say kelpfish as well or rock cod looks extremely like a rock cod except for the purple blemishes.

I havent used them in a long time but I've been told the rule is on dark days use bright colours and on light days use bright colours. Have to give that a shot one day.

Usually if its heaps windy and cools down a bit they move out. Wait until the days heat up again and its a bit more still then you should be right. Thats in my experiences anyway might be different for others.

Fishing off the rock wall mate into the surf side. Best thing to do is chuck on a pair of polarised sunglasses and just look at the water as you walk and you can see glimpses of silver. The bay side of harrington has been quiet for us lately, can sit there with bait on for an hour or so and nothing will touch it. My old man reckons you just gotta pick the tides right but wont tell me when that is hahaha.

This is a bit of a delayed post, forgot to post the report. Me and my mate Tobey fish the Manning river a fair bit in different spots. This day we were fishing off the wall using prawns and mullet. Pulled in quite a few small bream, a black fish and then we managed to get some flatheads. Two just over 40cm, one over 50cm Photos below:

Great size fish. Exactly what I want to catch but never seem to. The NSI DPI fisheries website has a length to weight conversion chart for those interested. If I remember correclty it'd be around 1.5kg - 2.0kg Great bream.

Pretty quiet in the Manning at the moment. My mate and I went out yesterday, tried mud bishops for a while with soft baits and mullet, barely even a bite. After that we went out to manning point using soft baits and mullet again. All we ended up catching was small mullet, might be a good time to go live bait collecting. Other than that, hasnt been much around we are heading out agai today in the area, see how we go.