Rode Cary Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 hi raiders, i think this will be my first fishing report! I dropped my parents at the airport this morning after 6 wks holidays. I was sad, so I needed to cheer up. I went to one of my fav rock ledge in the Royal National Park where I normally land salmon, trevally, tailor, breams and the occasional sting ray. Lately, with the colder climate, leather jackets have called home my fav spot. As am no expert in leather jacket fishing, I kept losing rigs after rigs everytime the leatheries are around Got the the ledge around 10 am and nothing happened for hours. I kept losing my pillies with no bites. I said to myself, that must be the work of the leather jackets. After reading and getting advice from fishos, I used a small long shank hook with wire trace rigged with a size 3 star sinker (due to strong sea). I finally got my first leather jackets. Hurrah!! Got 9 in total. They are not the best fighters, but am so happy that i finally learned how to catch them. Better, no more lost of rigs. Will post pics tomorrow My question is, is leather jackets a winter species? In autumn, there were none of them at the same spot and i had fun catching salmon, tailor, trevs etc. Now that they have invaded that spot, there's no sign of other fish, why is that? Shouldn't complain too much though, i love eating leather jackets cheers bertrand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondo Rock Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 They're great on the plate aren't they Bertrand! It must be the one saving grace for leatheries - if they didn't taste good they'd be the blowflies of the sea. I gotta say that it's really great to read a report from a Raider who has encountered a fishing problem, picked up some tips from Fishraider, and then gone back and overcome the problem using the tips. This 'aint a bad site really . . . So congrats on figuring out a new fishing technique and a new location for yummy leatherjacket fillets! Keep that one stored away for future reference. As for your question about leatheries and winter - it is my underatnding that they're an all year round proposition. Dunno for sure, but anecdotally I seem to see consisten t reports of leathery catches right througout the year. Mondo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yakfishing Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Mmmmm leatheries. Yep I just tried them for the first time on monday, and so far they are the next best fish to flathead for me. Ive still got a lot of other fish to try, but theyre my top 2 at this point. Yeah not much of a fight, the first one I ever caught was just dead weight. I caught 3 bottom bashing on a offshore charter on the weekend, the first two I didnt know were on and the 3rd I only just felt it. Thats good to know they are consistent throughout the winter, I should go out and target them when everything else drops off. In the past Ive always been sorely disappointed in the winter and spring months, but Ill be more than happy with a few leatheries Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Thats about the only good thing about em,they taste great mmmmmmm penguin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rode Cary Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 i just read from a fishing mag that leather jackets suck in your bait, grind it and them spew out your hook. That's gold info for me. It is important then to use light tackle to feel the bite. As soon as you feel that grinding bite, strike hard to hook the leather jacket before it spew out the hook. If you wait too long after feeling the bite, then bye bye bait and fish. Good learning thanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkles Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 "Blowfly of the sea"! That is gold, except I can think of a few other candidates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KINGvirgin Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Bertrand, I fished the RNP last year and we couldnt really find a good ledge that wasnt snag prone. Maybe we could organise a trip sometime, i love bashing off the rocks and targetting those species on light gear, you seem like u know what ur doing and i could always use the education. Cheers mate Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Duffell Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 "Blowfly of the sea"! That is gold, except I can think of a few other candidates. mate i can only think of one that would top the "blowfly" list.. ....those damned toadfish Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rode Cary Posted June 8, 2007 Author Share Posted June 8, 2007 Bertrand, I fished the RNP last year and we couldnt really find a good ledge that wasnt snag prone. Maybe we could organise a trip sometime, i love bashing off the rocks and targetting those species on light gear, you seem like u know what ur doing and i could always use the education. Cheers mate Ian no worries Ian the spot i fish from is snag free, just sandy bottom long walk though and gets hard when u have a few pounds of fish in the backpack awesome place for light gear fishing, targetting trevs, salmon and tailor but not sure if it will be good fishing there during winter time, best time is autumn cheers bertrand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick_clone Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 Hi All, I'm new here although I've been reading this forum for a while. I'd love to catch myself some leatherjacket down in the Nasho. I went there last Tuesday, just as that S change came, Garie Beach was blown out and Wattamolla didn't look good, so I went to Bundeena. Can anyone recommend a ledge in the NP that is relatively high up from the water? I actually like long walks in to spots so I don't mind that! I've heard of a place called the Balconies which is in the Jibbon area but never knew where it was. Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewgaffer Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 (edited) Hi All, I'm new here although I've been reading this forum for a while. I'd love to catch myself some leatherjacket down in the Nasho. I went there last Tuesday, just as that S change came, Garie Beach was blown out and Wattamolla didn't look good, so I went to Bundeena. Can anyone recommend a ledge in the NP that is relatively high up from the water? I actually like long walks in to spots so I don't mind that! I've heard of a place called the Balconies which is in the Jibbon area but never knew where it was. Nick. Nick and with I assume, a Z for the start of a sir name, you might be a Greek fisherman, ay Nick ? As to the leather jacket question earler in this post which had good imput from others and from a helpful raider called Mondo who has been beneficial to me a few times before. I'll answer Rode Cary's leather jacket plague question when he encountered a plague of leather jackets and found there were no signs other fish whatsoever. You'll find those critters are one of the hardiest fish in the sea handle "wrong conditions for other fish" very well". Good leather jacket activity is an excellent and very reliable sign that most other table species can't handle the conditions, have aready shut down, having fed well enough when they were able to digest food, to allow for those coming (which can be only underwater to them) conditions. Whenever I run into a plague of leather jackets at a certain time, I stay right there and put the wire on. I often find larger ones are compatiable in the vicinity of smaller size schools which seem to get to everything first until they go quiet. I have has a day over many, many years of fishing when I've only taken a nice feed of leather jacket home and everything else was an unedible species on that same day and during the night as well. Hope this helps and a warm welcome in your first post Nick and my wife Shirl cooks up my leather jackets and they are so tasty my grandkids beat their own parents to them. cheers jewgaffer Edited September 7, 2007 by jewgaffer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luderick -angler Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 g'day nickz if you want a coupleeof high ledges in the nato try the balconnies and the waterrun winds depending if you want to be a little closer to the water try inside jibbon point or just in from the floating rock near boy martin point there are some excellent sheltered bays asyou headsouth towards garie and burning palms a good pointer is generally check out the formation of the bay is it reefy etc is it long and narrow or wide and open is it a swell magnet, as when the swells up no matterr if your facing away from the swell it can still get hairy, a bit further north in botany bay nato there are spots such as the holes and the posse (at the end near the whale watching station you will need some rope for here to help you down) if not the high ledges off tabbigai are excellent spots and relatively safe given some common sense. hope this helps Royce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick_clone Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 Hi there, thanks for the replies guys! I've only heard of Waterrun and Balconies, but wasn't exactly sure of where they were exactly and which track to take to get to them. I think I need to invest in a map of the RNP. Speaking of the Nasho, I saw a seal up on the beach at Wattamolla last Tuesday, it didn't look to healthy and the rangers thought ti swallowed a plastic bag and called the zoo to come and help. Sad to see the seal on the beach and not swimming . And the Z is not Greek although my parents are from Europe. Pity they didn't teach me any other language other than English, what a waste! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue marlin Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 Going down to burning palms this afternoon till monday arvo.looks like i will have to take some extra long shank hooks. And for fishing ledges in the rnp try getting onto google earth and have a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick_clone Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 Yeah I had a look at Google Earth, but with the camera looking striaght down it's hard to tell the contours of the cliffline and so finding ledges is hard. On top of that, the area north of Wattamolla is blurred as I guess they haven't got images of that area yet. I'm stuck at work until Wednesday, and I'll definitely be keen for a fish by then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drkcld Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 nice work rode i only started learning how to catch LJ recently also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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