Planning

[Rami]

Hi raiders,

After a couple of failed trips I decided to put more thought into my fishing. So I came up with a couple of points

1. Book myself into a rock fishing guide so I know what the heck I am doing wrong .

2. Spend more time planning, where to go, when to go and what to use ( bait/ equipment).

So I will be using this forum as a planning space for my next trip; hope I can make it work. Feel free to jump in with any view opinions you have. ( mods, let me know if there is a place more appropriate or if there is any issues with setting this up in general chat).

Location: Cremorne point ( rocks on north side).

Burly: minced pilchard. With whole pilchards unweighted. soft plastics.

When: hopefully early on Saturday morning. Not sure what time to be there.

Not sure what else I have to account for?

Hit me with ideas.

[Hooked-Up]

Firstly you need to decide what species you would like to target and prepare for it.

All fish are different and have different habits of feeding, therefore a different approach is required for different fish.

[Rami]

I would like some snapper. My choice of location and method is targeted on that. I would love some king fish but not the place for it I think.

[Guest no one]

Weather and tide, high tide at 8:45am so get there early, once the tides flowing out after an hour all fishing round there will be hard a lot harder work.

Plus side - overcast and no wind with a 1.2m swell... Good time to fish! Keep an eye on the weather, if it changes it makes any rock fishing trip very dangerous and uncomfortable, never been to where you're going though so can't comment on any danger with weather.

[thefisherman6784]

Regarding burley/bait

If you burley with minced pillies, you would probably be better off using cubes than whole pillies

If you burley with cubes and use cubes for bait, you can get from bream and trevally to snapper, salmon and kings

Good luck and let us know how you go

Cheers thefisherman6784

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Brooker435]

Also I think a Variety of baits is not a bad idea get some squid and cut them into strips also with the burley fill up a bucket with water add some bread and mash it up and throw handfulls every 30 mins. This will attract a variety of fish and hopefully the bigger ones follow. But remember safety first and never takes your eyes off the water.

Good luck.

Regards Nathan

[Sydneyfisher12]

What gear are you using? If your going to chase kings your gear must be good and all knots, rigs, hooks all must be the strongest kings are know for smashing up you gear yes people catch the occasional king on a tiny hook or a handline but if your going to target them you need good gear. Try catch yourself some live bait yakkas and squid are the a best in the harbour slimies and cuttlefish are abit hard to get. I wouldn't target snapper there aren't many around of legal size in the harbour there are a few of the rocks but your better off chasing the easier bread and butter species first like bream, Trevally and salmon once you can them move onto to bigger and better things. For the bread and butter species use the lightest leader you can get away with a good starting point would be 6lb and move down to get more bites and go heavier if you getting busted off. When fishing a burly trail no weight is the best to make it look as natural as possible I hardly ever use weight when fishing a burly trail and if you need weight only use very little.

Cheers sydneyfisher12

[Rami]

Thanks for the above. I will give it a shot as advised.

[Rami]

What gear are you using? If your going to chase kings your gear must be good and all knots, rigs, hooks all must be the strongest kings are know for smashing up you gear yes people catch the occasional king on a tiny hook or a handline but if your going to target them you need good gear. Try catch yourself some live bait yakkas and squid are the a best in the harbour slimies and cuttlefish are abit hard to get. I wouldn't target snapper there aren't many around of legal size in the harbour there are a few of the rocks but your better off chasing the easier bread and butter species first like bream, Trevally and salmon once you can them move onto to bigger and better things. For the bread and butter species use the lightest leader you can get away with a good starting point would be 6lb and move down to get more bites and go heavier if you getting busted off. When fishing a burly trail no weight is the best to make it look as natural as possible I hardly ever use weight when fishing a burly trail and if you need weight only use very little.

Cheers sydneyfisher12

Thanks mate for the above advise. I have a light graphite rod with a very thin line. And a trolling rod off the Aldi sale a few weeks back. I will get the specs and send out tonight.

[Rami]

When fishing unweighted pilchards the bait kept getting cleaned off. I read that you need some slack to let it drift but I get the feel that I need a little tension to feel the bites. So wind it in a little? I am on 6lb line. There was no current off the warf. I was casting about 2 meters from the end of it. On the run out ride.

[Fab1]

When fishing unweighted pilchards the bait kept getting cleaned off. I read that you need some slack to let it drift but I get the feel that I need a little tension to feel the bites. So wind it in a little? I am on 6lb line. There was no current off the warf. I was casting about 2 meters from the end of it. On the run out ride.

If you have too much bow in your line and there are pickers about they will generally clean your hooks clean without the angler feeling the bites, especially if it's windy.

If you have no current try changing tactics to a light running sinker rig with half a pillie retrieved slowly along the bottom fanning your casts to cover as much ground as possible.

When there is current, I fish lightly weighted floaters in the berley trail by casting out and leaving the bail arm open.

I manually feed line out as needed to keep a relatively taught line so that I hopefully can feel the bite.

Once I know Im feeling bites, I close the bail dropping the rod tip and strike.

The key is having the line realatively slack but not so much the fish strip your hooks.

Cheers.

Sent from my GT-I8730T using Tapatalk

[Rami]

Thanks Fab1. Now I am leaning to go to middle head before sunrise. Not sure where to go. 3 more days to go.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Rami

[Brooker435]

Good Luck Rami, I hope to see a post from you soon on the trip.

Regards,

Nathan

[Rami]

Thanks. I may stay overnight at Clifton gardens Friday night. Just need to butter up the misses.

[Guest no one]

Might be a bit windy on Friday overnight...

I can't knock your enthusiasm... Did anyone adopt you in Adopt of Learner?

I have a feeling you're doing something wrong if you're still blanking, I also think you're getting a lot of advice from different people who fish differently which could be a bit confusing to someone whose not used to fishing.

My advise - You need a Mentor, without one I don't think you'll be able to identify where you're going wrong. Learning off one person can sometimes be a lot better than reading a lot of different conflicting information.

Pick your battles - What I mean by this is Weather, Weather, Weather! Included in this is, tide times, swell, wind, sun, rain... all play an absolutely massive part in fishing and each combination can change each fishes feeding pattern. To understand more there are many books and websites which can explain the better combinations to go out in but there are far too many to list here. The main combination people seem to fish with is low light 2 hours before high tide to one hour after high tide. Low light can mean early morning/late evening or even an overcast day. A great example was last Sunday morning, Overcast... 1 hour before high tide I caught 30+ Tailor in an hour. On Tuesday 1 hour before high tide there was a lot of sun light and I only caught 10 in 2 hours using the same tactics and lures.

But weathers not only about the fish, its about your safety! Too windy, high swells can result in life ending weather! Watch the spot first... no fish is worth a life.

[Rami]

Thanks tef1on. Well, I went again to Cowan creek last night and got a few small bream which went back in. And a nice flatty 38 40 cm which didn't . I used the slow retrieval method for the flatty. The reason I wanted the overnight stay is that I read that Clifton wharf get full early and I wanted a spot. Trying to get the sunrise.

Ps I have not been adopted as yet. But practicing as much as possible.

Pss. Safety is always first. Which is why middle head appear to be out of the picture.

[Brooker435]

You sound very Keen Rami, If your allready managing to get Bream & Flatties some of which are legal you are allready on the right track!!!

Keep doing what your doing but you should start to keep records of when you have a good session that way you can get a feel for the better tides / conditions for future reference.

Good Luck Champ.

Regards,

Nathan

[Rami]

1 more night to go. anyone heading that way?