Long Reef Sunday - 8 July 2007

[Fishlick99]

Hi Raiders,

I am new to Fishraider and have been enjoying reading reports for the last few months. It time to start to put in some of my own now. to me. Sorry no pics taken this time.

Had been hearing about plently of decent pan snapper at Long Reef so decided must get out there. 5am at the ramp in the cold and dark. I really don't like Long Reef ramp on a good day since having my boat swamped there last December. With a 1ft surge on the ramp launching my (soon to be retired) Bermuda 390 is hairy business. Dropped it in with my mate on board to start the motor and get out of the shore line ASAP.

No mishaps and we are heading offshore in pretty good conditions. When I fish at Long Reef I will usually start in close out the front in about 13m and drop the anchor and burley like crazy. I couldn't see anything on the sounder out front so went a little way off the Long Reef wall where it drops from 13m to 19m where I had a good reading on the sounder. 1st fish was a nice 2kg tailor on a floated unweighted pilly followed by the first snapper of the morning. Cutting all my old pillys and stuff for the burley at home the day before payed dividends. Off the same spot we caught over 20 good solid trevally (1.5kg ea), 5 snapper to 2kg and the usual rubbish fish. I switched to soft plastics from bait (squid and pilly) as I was getting sick of trying to avoid the sweep on the way down. 5" gulps in nuculear chicken and a pink/white worked well. I caught one nice snapper and a heap of the trevally on the plastics. Fished on the anchor till near tide change on the low at 10am when it started to get really quiet.

Had to cut my anchor off when trying to retrive it. Normally it pulls out as I use an anchor retriever ball but the chain must have wrapped up a bit. I prefer to ditch an anchor than pull my bow under....maybee next time I will use less chain with my reef pick?

Tried a drift fish after the anchor loss for zip except wrasse.......Had some fun getting the boat back out the water at the ramp (again). I have watched most of the local guys down there just belt their boats up the shoreline and cut the motor as they hit the bank. I have allways thought this method would damage the transom. They then dry winch the boat onto the trailer. My attempt yesterday at beaching my boat was a bit crappy and I didn't make it to dry ground. As a result when geting the trailer we took a bit of slop over the stern. We had the bilge on an wrestled the boat behind the trailer and reefed her out then dry winched onto the trailer. I am curious about why I keep going back to that ramp? Maybee its the promise of big reds somewhere out there?

Hope to have many more postings in the future however will have to wait till I finish my new hull fitout over the next few weekends. I am mooving to a Stacer 429 and am scrapping everything off the old hull which I'll sell cheap somewhere.

Tight lines,

Fishlick99

[Mondo Rock]

Great report Fishlick - very informative.

Sounds like you cleaned up on ths fishing front - who cares is you mucked up the boat retrieve a little!!

[mushtaka]

Hi Fishlick99, Sounds like great fun out on the reef!!! it would be great to see some pics of the snapper.

I wish somthing could be done about that ramp. I long to take my boat out there on quick little arvo missions but im always worried that i wont be able to lift my boat off the sand. (5m quintrex seabreez) Its a shame because so many little missions could be had. Anyone got any tips for long reef?

[Ray R]

Welcome to the site, good report, sounds like you had a good day, need to get a little digital camera and get a few shots , then you can let us all see the fish, I'm only relativly new myself and yes it is fun to send in and read the reports, keep on fishin' and reporting. Cheers Ray R...

[mrelxr6]

top report mate..sounds like a nice catch

[Guest DV8]

Fishlick99

thanks for your great report. I agree LR ramp is very trickey especialy in a NE breeze.

Why dont you try no anchor chain - chain rattles away spooking the timid reddies anyway.

davo

[pageboy]

Hi Fishlick99, Sounds like great fun out on the reef!!! it would be great to see some pics of the snapper.

I wish somthing could be done about that ramp. I long to take my boat out there on quick little arvo missions but im always worried that i wont be able to lift my boat off the sand. (5m quintrex seabreez) Its a shame because so many little missions could be had. Anyone got any tips for long reef?

Well done on the session Fishlick ! Mushtaka - That ramp is a nightmare , any boat over 5 meters would be pushing it .I have been going down watching the locals bring their boats in and there is definitely a trick to it -After beaching - Looks like you need a good snatch strap and 4x4 to drag the boat around towards the side of the ramp and then you need to reverse the trailer getting the roller under the bow of the boat lifting it off the sand - then the big winch up - no wire cables! Sounds very dodgy but that is what they are doing -don't try it without watching plenty of others first - go down and watch and ask questions , just don't ask where they get their reds !

[Buster and co]

Hi Fishlick,

Great report mate. Very informative.

I agree, that ramp is very tempting, being so close to the reef, but very hairy. I have gone to watch people launching there a couple of times but so far haven't had the bottle to have a go myself.

Look forward to seeing some pics next time.

Cheers,

Rick

[sparkles]

Congrats on landing a good feed.

I have always wondered why council will not invest in the proper infrastructure around boat ramps. Longreef is a perfect example. There are some well laid out ramps, with excellent facilities around sydney.

But there are a lot that could do with much more thought, and resourcing.

welcome to fishraider.

Arch

[saltrix]

Sounds like you caught some nice fish. It is good to know some trevally are around.

Having seen many boats swamped and banged up over the years my advice is to give that ramp a miss, it is only a 30min. run from Tunks on a good day and thats the only time you can fish off there anyhow.

To new comers to fishing Long Reef close, avoid it like the plague when there is any sort of swell as it can be very dangerous.

I remember fishing there with a bit of a swell a few years back (OK it 15years) when out of a relatively calm sea I was suddenly on a verge of a huge breaking wave. Just missed disaster by meters.

But when there is not much swell it is a great place to burley/fish.

As I also do a bit of diving I can say that a great many anchors slip between the many large boulders in that area and cannot be pulled out as they work their way into crevices. Best to use a couple of housebricks on a lighter line. But remember those anchors are not lost and can be retrieved from me if you contact me. Some are a bit rusty though.

saltrix

[Croydon]

Sounds like you caught some nice fish. It is good to know some trevally are around.

Having seen many boats swamped and banged up over the years my advice is to give that ramp a miss, it is only a 30min. run from Tunks on a good day and thats the only time you can fish off there anyhow.

To new comers to fishing Long Reef close, avoid it like the plague when there is any sort of swell as it can be very dangerous.

I remember fishing there with a bit of a swell a few years back (OK it 15years) when out of a relatively calm sea I was suddenly on a verge of a huge breaking wave. Just missed disaster by meters.

But when there is not much swell it is a great place to burley/fish.

As I also do a bit of diving I can say that a great many anchors slip between the many large boulders in that area and cannot be pulled out as they work their way into crevices. Best to use a couple of housebricks on a lighter line. But remember those anchors are not lost and can be retrieved from me if you contact me. Some are a bit rusty though.

saltrix

Welcome to the site! Great report and nice to see a few fish hit the bin. The only good thing about long reef ramp is the golf club nearby!!!!!

[PPSGT]

Hi Fishlick99,

Did you have the trip set on your reef anchor?

I use strong cable ties or better still a clip made out of a coat hanger

in years of snapper fishing over wrecks and reefs still have the same anchor.

Also make sure your anchor is matched to your boat, the weight of the chain is what holds it

if you dont use a trip you want to be able to straighten the prongs of the anchor with the

power of your boat.

Those really cheap ones from BIAS would work well - If you carry a spare anchor ( of course you do!)

I'd attach the cheap anchor via some fencing wire so you boat can pull it apart if it gets really stuck.

6 metres of chain and 30+ metres of rope is a very expensive day out.

Well done on the snapper

Jason