nik

Although not in the mountains, we've had luck at Fitzroy Falls Reservoir which is near Robertson, about 1.5hrs from Sydney. Nik

Thanks for all the comments . As i didn't bleed or ice this fish early, I might do as Dave said and use it for flathead bait this time, but I will definitely bleed and ice the next one I catch and try cooking it up. Nik

Hi all, Caught my very first salmon (55cm) today in the Hacking, it put up a great fight. I just wanted to know if they are good eating and if so what's the best way to cook it. Thanks, Nik

yeah, there always police in the park on the weekends, we saw 4 difference police cars around the park yesterday. let us know how you go Nik

Me and the father in law were out on the hacking all day on Wednesday aswell, all we managed was a shovelnose shark.We used pilchard, squid, prawn, beachworm, and live nippers as bait but with very little luck. Nik

excellent catch mate. What bait did you get the bream on? Nik

Hi Guys, Thanks for all the great information. How do you find out if a rod is built on a 8144 blanks? or are all 8144 rods custom made. I think for now I might go with the Shimano bait runner 6500 and use this more as an allrounder and then look at getting an alvey in the near future (you can never have too much fishinig gear). Again, thanks for all the comments Nik

Hi Raiders, I’m looking at getting into some jewfish fishing as I’ve recently seen a few get caught and want to have a go myself. I’m looking at getting a setup and have done some research and spoken to a few tackle shops and wanted your opinions on what would work best. I mainly plan to fish beach, wharfs, rocks and wanted something reliable to get me started. From speaking to a few people I’ve been told that Shimano and Okuma are good selections for reels and the Penn, Uglysticks and Pflueger are the way to go for rods. The Baitrunner 6500 with the Uglystick looks good ($335) but will the Powerspin with the Okuma Avenger ($175) be much different in performance? Is there another combo from the rods/reels below that would work well? Or are there other brands that you would recommend that I haven’t mentioned, keeping in mind that I would like to keep the max cost at $350 (the cheaper the better though). Here are my current options, Reels: Shimano Baitrunner 6500 @ $220 Okuma Avenger ABF80 @ $120 Okuma Eclipz Baitfeeder EC65 (I think) @ $180 Okuma Epix Baitfeeder EB80 @ $200 Rods: Uglystick USP-GB1202: Surf 3.60/12’0”, 8-12kg, medium heavy action, 2 piece @ $115 Penn Powerspin 1202SU: 12’ Medium action 5 -10 kg @ $55 Penn Powerstick PPS1202SF: 12’ Medium action 5 – 10 kg @ $100 Any advice from experienced fishermen (and women) would be greatly appreciated, especially from any Jewfish experts. Nik

Hi guys thanks for all the comments. Jewgaffer, it wasn't the guy you described, its was a young Maltese bloke. Nik

Hi Stephen, Nice whiting, the fishing has been a bit slow since the dredging boats came in, they are due to finish at the end of November, begining of December. Next time try using unweighted nippers. The bigger whiting tend to bit better on nippers with no weight. Nik

Hi all, Firstly I just want to make sure that it is clear, I did not catch this fish, it was caught by a bloke I was fishing with. I forgot to ask if he's on Fishraider so I've waited a week before posting anything about it. Since there has been no report, I thought I might share the details with you guys on his behalf. On the way home from work last Friday night, I decided to stop by at the local bait and tackle shop and grabb some Pilchards and then go for a fish. Once home, I went out to the usual spot (land based) and started fishing. The night wasn't too bad, I caught a 90 cm shovel nose shark and a 80cm blind shark (both went back in). After fishing for about an hour, I was joined by a a few guys. We started chating and I found out that they had forgotten to bring bait ??? So I happily gave them some of my Pilies. We all tried (successfully) to catch some yakka. Both me and one of the other guy (Andrew) rigged up some live yakkas, threw them out, set the drag and set the rods down. Not much happened for a while....... THEN ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Andrew's reel started to screem! (such a sweet sound) He grabbed his rod and this thing took off, it took a huge run off. We thought it may have been a stingray or shark and then we saw his rod thumping!! We knew (hoped) it couldn't be a shark or ray. After about a 10 -15 minutes battle, Andrew landed a monster 125cm Jew!!! We couldn't believe it ! This thing was huge and fat! After a few high fives we all took a few photos with the fish ( the one below is a pic of me holding it.) Sorry about the quality, it was taken on a camera phone. After he caught the Jew, Andrew thanked me a few more time for giving him the Pilies, as he put it; no pillies = no yakka = no jew. A great night was had by all, and I was just happy to be there when a beatiful fish like this got landed. For those interested in the finer detail, ie rig, weather etc here goes. Friday was mostly a wam night, then all of a sudden a cool wind came through, followed by some light rain. We all continued to fish with raincoats and the rain cleared after about 20 minutes. The jewie was caught about 30 minutes after the rain cleared. It was caught in the last couple hours of the run out tide, on a new moon and landed by about 11.45pm. Andrew was using an 8 foot (heavy action) rod with a large shimano baitrunner, spooled with 50 pound braid and some heavy mono leader (not sure how many pounds). The rig was a sigle hook through the back of the live pilie with a running ball sinker. Hope this information will be useful. Again, Congratulation on a great fish Andrew (if you're out there somewhere). Nik

Thanks guys, we were pretty happy with the outcome of the day. Shadda, I tend to let the nippers do their own thing and let them swim arund, if there is no action within 1-2 minutes I'll reel it in a little. Nik

Hi Guys, Took the father-in-law out for a fish to my "Spot X" on Sunday and had some decent results. Firstly, I'm not sure if others have had the same experience but since the dredging started in the Hacking the fishing has been very slow. I fish the Hacking at least once a week and have noticed a dramatic (negative) change, but any way, back to the report. We started off at Maianbar to pick up some nippers and then went off to "Spot X". The F-I-L picked up the first fish. After a good 10 minute battle on a 6 foot rod, with 4kg line, he pulled in a beautiful 36cm Bream. The Bream was caught on a nipper. I was fortunate enough to get the next fish, a 30cm Sand Whiting, again using a nipper (unweighted). I almost always fish unweighted nippers, and have found this works very well on the whiting. Again the F-I-L showed me up, only 5 minutes after my whiting, he pulled in a 34cm whiting. Not to be shown up by him (well sort off) I caught another 30cm whiting. We ended the day with 3 decent whiting and the 1 great Bream. Unfortunatley I did not get a photo of the whiting, as the F-I-L was in a hurry to get home but I wasn't going to let him leave without getting a photo of the bream though (the ruler in the photo is 30cm). Needless to say, he went home very happy. Although I don't have any photos of the whiting, I have included a photo of a few that I caught a couple weeks ago in the same spot. Nik

Hi fish hunter, I've had recent success using them on whiting, what I have found is that the fish will go for the small crabs, around 1cm. I usually use one at a time on a long shank hook Nik

I'd agree with mottyman, i think it's a Blind Shark, I've caught one off Jibbon a while ago (they don't really have teeth but cruching plates) Looks very similar: http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.ph...ic=8595&hl= Nik

Thanks for all the comments guys. Ludrick59, spot X is ..... Port Hacking, can't give exact location (as it's the only spot X I have lol) I gave half to my best mate, and the other half we had for dinner, I have to admit they were really nice. The first thing the wife said when she got home and saw all the fish was: "so where did you buy them from hey?" .....got love em though She actually made me take her to spot X on Sunday, we caught 12 whiting this time (6 each) with 5 of them between 27-30cm, all fish went back this time (can't be greedy). [sorry no pics] Nik

Hi Guys, Had the day off work yesterday so decided to spend a few hours fishing. This was by far my most successful sessions ever and resulted in a number of personal bests. I'll try and keep this report as brief as possible. I spent about an hour pumping nipper and a gathering a few soldier crabs from Maianbar and then off to spot X (land based). I started fishing around 1.30pm, the tide was fairly low and was still on its way out. I used an unweighted soldier crab on my first cast and pulled in a nice 30cm sand whiting. Wooo Hoo PB No.1 biggest whiting. Next I tried a nipper, again, tap .. tap... BANG! whoo PB No.2, 34cm whiting. I stuck with using the unweighted nippers for the rest of the day, and almost every single cast resulted in a fish. I couldn't believe how well I was going. As the tide started to rise, the strikes started to slow down. It went from a hit on every cast, to a hit every 3 casts. I decided to call it a day at 3.30pm. In the end I caught 16 whiting ranging from 27cm to 34cm. I released another 10 or so whiting ranging from about 24-26 cm, released a gar fish around 40cm and missed about 5-6 hookups. I could not believe how sucessful the day had been! Overall the fish weighed in at 2.7Kg (cleaned) I achieved a range of PBs in this session Biggest sand whiting (34cm) The most legal fish I have ever caught in one session (17) The most fish in shortest time (easily 30 fish in 2 hours) There is a 30cm metal ruler in the top left hand corner above the fish as a guide. Nik

Some great info there Mondo, thanks

If I were to use squid as live bait, what's the most effective rig to use and whats the best way of hooking the squid onto the hook? Would a 35cm Pike be too large for live bait in Bundeena? Sorry about all the questions, I'm just on a mission to improve my fishing skills lol I've generally been the kind of fisherman that would go a buy pack of prawns from the servo and go fishing at any time, not considering tides, moon, weather etc. (never really caught much ) Now that I live closer to the water, I'm determined to become a better fisherman and learn as much as I can (especially from all the experienced people here). So you guys may be getting a few more questions from me Thanks, Nik

Thanks guys, I'll give the pike a go as bait next time. Pic attached.

Hi all, I went for a quick session at Bundeena Wharf tonight, I got there at 7.00pm, with the tide being fairly low. First thing I caught was a 35cm Pike, using unweighted chicken breast with a glowlight attached just above the hook. This guy was released as I'm not sure if Pike are any good for eating/bait? I next caugt a small squid using a cheap $2 squid jig with glow stick attached (pic attached). I dropped a second squid only a minute after catching the first guy. I called it a night at 8.30pm. Nik

Thanks for the info, i'll give it a go soon. Nik

Hi guys, Myself and some friends are going to Stockton for some 4WDing and fishing this weekend, and considering I've never been there before I was just after some advice. Are there any parts of the beach that are better to fish then other? i.e. north, south, near the wreck? What should I be targeting? Would nipper be good bait? Any help would really be appreciated. Regards, Nik

Hi all, I just wanted to know if any one has caught any yakka at Bundeena wharf, of if you know if it is possible to catch any there? Thanks Nik

Hi Jacob, there is a resident taxidermist on the austhunt forum, which I sometimes visit (www.aushunt.com.au), she is always happy to answer questions and she should be able to give you some good advice. Nik