pengo Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 (edited) Hi Fishraiders, this is going to be my first official post. I moved to Sydney about 6 months ago and have been trying various spots I have read about. I haven't had much luck so far since I am still learning the ropes but I have always liked the convenience and accessibility of Clifton Gardens. So I decided to give it a try last Saturday night. I arrived around 9:30 PM thinking the gates will be closed and the crowds gone. The place was PACKED. Way more packed than usual with a few families even camping out on the wharf. I decided to skip the usual spot at the end of wharf and move to the side since it was the only area with a spot open. As a rig, I was using a double paternoster rig with frozen pilchards. Within 30 minutes I was able to catch 3 undersized snappers along with countless snags of other fisho's fishing lines. At the end the effort and the headache was worth it because I landed my first legal size Trevally. That's one hard fighting fish and good tasting as well! Around midnights the bites suddenly stopped and I decided to call it a night. By that time the wharf was still as packed as before in addition to loud Arabic music blaring from a Ghetto blaster I know many people dislike Clifton Gardens because of the crowds but now that I have caught my first legal Bream and Trevally there it has become my favourite spot. I hope I can find more convenient spots like it. Edited January 14, 2014 by pengo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krispy ! Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Well done on your first legal Trevor mate. Whilst Clifton does still produce, it gets too busy for my liking and there are other much quieter spots that produce better fish. Used to be a favourite haunt of mine but unfortunately there are a few tools who go there. Just as a suggestion if you want to avoid small snapper and tangles fish with a very small sinker, you get more hits from trevs/bream/kings and much less small snapper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pengo Posted January 14, 2014 Author Share Posted January 14, 2014 Thanks for the tip. I always thought the bigger the fish the less sensitive it will be to the sinker weight but that doesn't seem to be true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krispy ! Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Exactly the opposite, bigger fish prefer a bait naturally drifting down, they're much more likely to take an unweighted bait than one rocketing down to the bottom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammy the Fisherman Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Well done Pengo. I was there on Sat as well. We decided to take the kids for a picnic and a swim (It also gave me the opportunity to throw a line in). I left about 7.30pm but fished in the exact spot you did. To the right and was casting towards the trees/rocks. I tried platics & hard bodies on a pfleuger trion 2-4kg rod & Shimano symetre 2500 reel with no success. I had some live yabbies that a friend gave me & I caught 6-7 small squire (snapper). The largest would have barely touched the 30cm mark. I haven't fished there for years, like Krispy said & as you saw it gets really busy & full of tools!! I used to fish from the rocks at the head there with good success but it's a lot of effort to get down there. Especially with gear!! Keep fishing and good luck mate.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGPMPN Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Was down at the wharf on saturday morning at 6am. Was amazed at the crowd and the idiots there fishing. Saw 3 undersized kingfish caught and all quickly killed. Even after measuring it against the ruler supplied down there. Dissapointing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisho.sid Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Simple, if you see illegal fishing happening then make a call to the local authorities. Tools spoil it for everyone. I encountered these tools before, they turn the place upside down and leave debris and rubbish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pengo Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 Not too long ago I was at Balmain wharf and watched a guy take a whole bucket of undersized fish (snapper, bream, anything that moved). When I told him these were ALL under the legal size limit he acted like he spoke no English. I called the hotline, got an automated answering system. Left a message with the location and the problem. No one ever showed up or called me back, and I continued watching the guy for another 4 hours filling up his bucket. At this point I think the illegal fishing hotline is useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Unfortunately, there are many that don't stick to the rules, sizes, limits and etiquette that most fishos do. All we can do is report it to the authorities and leave it to them to police the law. Once again, this is an exercise where we can lead by example. Let's try and stick to the report of pengos first legal trevally. Well done! Cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
00ROTA Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 That spot is also good for squid at the end!!! easy livies!!! Good stuff on the Trev! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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