Help Needed

[Jabroni]

Hi all,

Its my first post, been reading the posts for a while, love the pics of the great fish you all catch.

I've been fishing fairly regularly for the last year, hadnt touched anything since the last time i went fishing with my dad before that. I go about once a week in better weather. Over the last year i've caught 1 keeper, a nice bream on the hawkesbury. I've caught heaps of fish but all tiny and it really irritates me when i come home empty handed yet again and my dad gives it to me.

I dont own a boat but am considering getting 1 early next year so ive only been doing shore based/jetty fishing, mainly around the shire and st george - Como, Woronora, Lilli Pilli, Lugarno, etc.

Does anyone have any tips for what i could be doing better, or should i be looking at getting a boat if i want to catch anything decent. Ive tried a variety of baits, prawns, different worms, squid, mullet, chicken, but havent really gotten into the SPs as im not too sure how to use em, ie, how big a sinker to use.

I go to the places i used to go to with my dad, where we used to catch good fish all the time, but they all seem to be fished out or only contain little fish.

[yakfishing]

Gday Jabroni

The basics are:

Fish as light as possible - i.e use only enough weight to get your bait to the bottom. If you want to keep your bait in one spot in a current go a bit heavier, but I like a little bit of drift cuz the flattys will jump on it - they love a moving bait.

For a simple setup use 12Ibs line. Just normal stuff for main, and for the trace use 12Ibs Vanish. Bream especially are finicky and easily spooked if they see your line or anything else. The smaller ones will jump on anything but the more experienced ones will turn their nose up at it. For bream and flattys I use a 1 metre to a body length trace so the bait moves more naturally. Make sure your rod is rated to 12Ibs if not youll need lighter. (im just keeping things real simple btw 12Ibs means you bring in decent fish without having to set the drag. Ive skull dragged a 41cm bream on 12Ibs and also if you get snagged you can get your gear back more often than lighter line)

Bait presentation is key for bream - make sure only the hook point and a bit below it is exposed and make sure your hook is sharp - lightly drag it on your fingernail and if it grabs easy, its sharp. Freash bait is always better but if you get frozen prawns get the hawkesbury river prawns in the 400g packets from a proper bait store, dont go the servo jobs.

Also dawn, dusk and tide changes are good - 3 hrs before top or bottom of tide.

Theres a couple of little pointers, theres a hell of a lot more to know but I should probably get back to work Other people may have different advise but this what works for me with bream and flathead.

Type in "landbased" in the search section and you should find some good spots

Edited December 18, 2007 by yakfishing

[Jabroni]

Gday Jabroni

The basics are:

Fish as light as possible - i.e use only enough weight to get your bait to the bottom. If you want to keep your bait in one spot in a current go a bit heavier, but I like a little bit of drift cuz the flattys will jump on it - they love a moving bait.

For a simple setup use 12Ibs line. Just normal stuff for main, and for the trace use 12Ibs Vanish. Bream especially are finicky and easily spooked if they see your line or anything else. The smaller ones will jump on anything but the more experienced ones will turn their nose up at it. For bream and flattys I use a 1 metre to a body length trace so the bait moves more naturally. Make sure your rod is rated to 12Ibs if not youll need lighter. (im just keeping things real simple btw 12Ibs means you bring in decent fish without having to set the drag. Ive skull dragged a 41cm bream on 12Ibs and also if you get snagged you can get your gear back more often than lighter line)

Bait presentation is key for bream - make sure only the hook point and a bit below it is exposed and make sure your hook is sharp - lightly drag it on your fingernail and if it grabs easy, its sharp. Freash bait is always better but if you get frozen prawns get the hawkesbury river prawns in the 400g packets from a proper bait store, dont go the servo jobs.

Also dawn, dusk and tide changes are good - 3 hrs before top or bottom of tide.

Theres a couple of little pointers, theres a hell of a lot more to know but I should probably get back to work Other people may have different advise but this what works for me with bream and flathead.

Type in "landbased" in the search section and you should find some good spots

Thanks for that, might go out this weekend with my dad, he hasnt been fishing for a while, had a crook knee. I think i might need to throw out some of my tackle, the box is getting a bit woofy and the hooks dont look the sharpest.

[yakfishing]

No worries mate. Wherever you decide to go, do a bit of research on this site in the search section and look at previous threads because wherever you go the techniques, the rigs the baits will be different. My advise works well in the harbour (by the way the harbour is fishing great at the moment) and in estuaries, but is not really suitable for rock fishing for example. So theres no simple answer for fishing in general. But persevere get out as often as you can, read the reports and find where the fish are and you will eventually come up trumps. You dont have to be out in 30 metres of water to catch big fish, so a boat is great but not essential. You will catch big flathead in water less than 1m deep. Give the Soft plastics a go, all you need is a light whippy rod do lots of start stops and lots of sharp quick double flicks and the flattys will jump on em. Squidgiy are now making ones with the jighead built in so you dont have to arse around hooking them up. Ive only been using them for a week and have already caught 4 nice size flattys. I like narrabeen lakes for them and its good fishing at the moment.

Edited December 18, 2007 by yakfishing

[luffyjnr]

If you are fishing for flatties, and there is a bit of a current, go with a sinker that will move along with the current, but not toooooo fast. Takes a bit of trial and error, depending on the speed of the currrent. Cast upstream and leave your bail arm open until the line gets level with you, then click it over, this allows your bait to drift along the bottom, once the line starts tugging on your rod slowly retrieve your bait, and lift it up and down every 5 seconds or so... and repeat. You can do the same with SP's.. I've found a good all round SP is the Atomic 3 inch prawn, everything goes for it!!

Good Luck

PS, this is what has worked for me :-)

LUFFY...