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  2. Excellent work sharing your experience @Steve0! 👍👍
  3. Well done Chris. Your persistence paid off. The toads were at Browns as well. You could see them swimming up to the baits on the release and retrieve. Both Wazza and I had sinkers bitten off at the boat side 😡😤 while gaffing the blue eye. Let’s hope they don’t hang around too much longer. cheers Zoran
  4. Today
  5. Thanks Chris yes it is some effort but I enjoy the mystery of what comes up from the depths. Mince Interesting. My burley this time was a couple of flattie fillets (found fallen to the back of the freezer), run through a blender with stale bread, tuna oil and pillies then frozen into logs. Usually it’s fish frames, heads etc instead of the fillets and makes them ravenous and has never failed. It brought them around but they were not biting. Thanks @whiskey299 and @Blackfish I stand corrected. I always thought of perch as having flatter deeper bodies like bream/snapper … this fish’s body shape closely resembled a rock cod - rounded and spiky. Regardless it tasted great 👍 cheers Zoran
  6. Thanks waza Will a old 14 foot jarvis walker rod fit the bill?
  7. Good report. Pleasure meeting you this morning, had a feeling it was you. Least you nabbed some fish. Bigger set on you than me, I went out the entrance and turned around it was horrible, and it didn’t abate one bit. Those green puffers were everywhere the other day too, seem that they have set up camp out there. I’ll finish port Kembla tomorrow instead.
  8. Good sized bonnies about, must be hungry to be attacking your yakkas on the bait line. A few flatties, and a kingie, will be good for the weekend meals. Good to see some flatties out there. A long time since the green toads have been about, can be worse than jackets for tackle bite-offs. Last time there was a plague outside, a few turned up near Lilli Pilli and chewed off gear, and they can swim fairly fast for toads.
  9. Great report that reminded me of the capture of my massive Flathead at Port Welshpool in Gippsland, Victoria. My Father in law and I got onto this spot where a huge number of Flathead were actively swarming around this larger fish. With the aid of good visibility we could make out the movement of the fish as they took our bait. We pulled up heaps of Flathead to about 50cms before I hooked the big girl. We got plenty for a feed and she went back to produce more little Flatties. A great day on the water. bn
  10. Great advice in the post from corro. How we use soft plastics is the secret. As corro says, the longer in the water the more likely to hook up. Think about what's happening under the water. If you can get your sp to represent a sick or wounded food source, fish will readily take it (an easy meal). Even stopping the retrieve altogether and letting the sp sit on the bottom works. Explore, experiment, and do things differently. Soft plastics are great so keep at it and you will have success. bn
  11. What a heartwarming tale...brilliant. You really have grown in confidence when you can ask your partner to accompany you on a fishing trip and confidently boast that YOU will catch a fish. Moreover, you have become so capable that you showed your partner how to do it, and it worked. Nice to have friends who will go fishing with you, and even better to have your partner go with you. Your posts are really interesting to me as they reflect the journey that you have travelled learning to fish. It's a long time since I learned to fish as a beginner, still learning today, though not the basics. Keep up the good work and posting your results. I didn't know you would catch Whiting on bread...we live and learn. bn
  12. Yes but don't use braid for the sinker leader or hook leader. We used to use 18+half pound 'Tortue Supercontrol' mono for that style of fishing or 23+half pound if up higher. I personally only use braid for spinning and never rock work. You don't need that heavy a line, but if that's what you have by all means use it- wouldn't want to attempt breaking any snags with it though. If you enjoy this style of fishing, save up for another outfit and put mono on it- you don't need heavier line than about 25lb (11kg) for just about any rock fishing bar live-baiting for big stuff. My old line classes for the rocks were as follows- Bream and Luderick 3kg line on both sidecast and centrepin reels, Spinning lures 6,10 and 11.5kg (the latter only for Kingfish really) on all 3 types of reel (Spin, O/H and Alvey) Tailor/Salmon/Snapper 8 and 10kg, Drummer 6,10,15kg depending on area, Live baiting 10,15,18,25kg again area dependant. Cliff fishing 6kg for Bream, Luderick, 10-12kg for everything else- all mono, usually Tortue, Weiss(no longer available I think) or Schneider (it was cheaper but marginally thicker) all three brands were great for the rocks
  13. I mean will this rig be alright with braided line?
  14. Thanks for the tips and replies everyone! I'll post some replies below: Definitely sub 2m - and preferably sandy areas, if only to save on snags 😄 My go-to weighting tends to be 1/8 to help with a bit of distance, but even that feels a bit heavy at the spots close by. A few points here: I'm using 6 lb braid and 6 lb mono as a leader. Have not gone off any wharves as yet - mostly since I know the shallow, sandy areas I'm at are definitely producing on baits, so there is no point going elsewhere yet when I know there are fish there! I definitely have a lot to work on with retrievals/working the SP. I've only fairly recently worked out how to get a bit of distance into casting! It will come together in time. I've read and seen tonnes about letting the lure rest. I've tried this but honestly probably do get a bit impatient there. I've tried slow rolls and flicking and retrieving the slack - I've found slow rolls do give a little interest every now and then. And @corro - ditto your comments in relation to slowing it down. Thanks Derek - I've followed a lot of your recommendations and I'm using a 7' 2-4kg rod with a 2500 reel coupled with 6lb braid and 6lb mono leader. Very standard bread and butter setup I think. I mentioned above that I'm certain that my technique needs work, and as always your tips are gold.
  15. can you catch bonitos and bonita at night
  16. What a massive flatty you got, and what a cool sight you were able to see. Glad you shared it with us. I can only imagine how cool it was to see in real life because reading your account of it is pretty damn cool already.
  17. Wow that is so interesting regarding the marks on the fish like that. Very cool to know
  18. I guess I could've called it an elbow slapper... Today was a special day. I've had really good luck catching decent fish lately on bread and have been wanting my partner to come out with me fishing just so I could show her. Last time she came with me was when I was just a beginner with no idea what I was doing. She came with me really often for like 2 months straight while I caught nothing So I can imagine her hesitation to want to come watch nothing happen. But I'm better now I promised! Today was the day I finally convinced her to come out with me for just a little bit. I guaranteed I was going to catch at least one fish this session (my confidence in catching fish has grown immensely after spending much time learning with @DerekD over the past ~3 months that I've known him - major shout out to him for teaching me much of what I know). First cast, 2 mins with the bread in the water and no action...unusual. I landed my bait right where I knew the fish would be and no action! At this point I knew the bread was sunken at the bottom, so I slow rolled it towards me and let it sit some more. If the fish hadn't bitten by then, then they just weren't there I figured. After another 30 seconds of waiting, I felt a tap tap, then boom! I set the hook then line started peeling and my rod bent with tension. I could immediately tell I was onto a good fish based off the drag being pulled. I've caught enough bream now to have a good idea of when I've got one on and this definitely didn't feel like a bream. The bigger bream fight really dang hard and this one felt heavy but didn't fight that same way. I tightened my drag a bit to bring it up and I saw the silhouette. Huh that looks like a really big yakka if it's a yakka. That might be the biggest yakka I've ever caught! I brought it in even closer then saw the distinctive fish pucker and I realized it was a whiting! A good one at that! I pulled it onto shore and showed my partner my huge grin and my nice fish. I was really happy to have caught my PB whiting and also show my partner that I can catch decent fish now! I'm not no fishless chump anymore! Photos are not the best since they're screengrabs from video I was recording and I didn't want to keep the fish out the water any longer to stop the video and snap proper pictures. It went back into the water to fight another day 🙂 I didn't properly measure it but put it against my rod and measured at home, came out to be approx 35 cm long. As a bonus, I convinced my partner to take the rod and try fishing as well. She has tried fishing a little bit before but we spent many hours with no action in the past, but I guaranteed her she would catch a fish this time. I baited her hook for her and told her what to do and why, and let her do everything herself. She ended up catching one nice small bream and a decent sized yakka, and then requested to want to hook onto a bigger fish. So I baited the hook with an even bigger piece of bread to keep the tiny guys away. She ended up hooking onto a really big bream! It fought as hard as the ones that are in the 30cm+ range that I've fought. The big bream got the best of her though since she was using my setup of an UL rod + really light line + leader...not the easiest to control fish on as a complete beginner...and it ended up getting away. It was still really cool to show her that I've progressed enough to even be able to guarantee any fish at all, much less being able to hook into a big one even if it got away.
  19. My suggestion would be to make a few short sinker leaders at home with a couple of different size leads run between about 40cm of leader on the 2 swivels. Same idea for your hook leaders so you are ready and utilising the low light periods fishing rather than rigging. Although these type rigs don't lend themselves for fish running with the bait, if you can't get it out to where they are, you aren't in the game- just strike straight away, they usually swallow the bait pretty well straight away anyway
  20. @Steve0 wow thank you so much for your insights. This info is better than anything I ever expected, I'll be sure to apply this knowledge and hopefully catch my first salmon soon.
  21. By dropping, you mean opening the bail and letting it fly down right? Not just dipping the rod tip lower? And good mention on the size, I'd almost forgotten sabikis come in a range of hook sizes 🤦‍♂️ might need to go smaller
  22. Goes by a few common names but “Bigeye Ocean Perch” I recon. Sounds like a great day out with plenty of fun banter … and that’s what makes it special. Oh and a few fish.😄
  23. Gday Raiders, Launched from Gunnamatta bay this morning. Met fellow fishraider @Crabstar who was also launching at the ramp. 👍 Plan was to head up around Coogee/maroubra with a mate out of botany, but once I got outside it was rough as guts out there. Decided to wait and see if conditions would get better - which they didn’t. So I hit the bait grounds. Every yakka I’d hook would get smashed by large fish before I could get them up. This went on for an hour and a half. Hooked fish being grabbed, sabiki’s bitten off - non stop. Went through at least 5 sabiki’s. I rigged up a large livie and it took all of two seconds to get smashed. 55-60cm bonitos everywhere. Pulled a couple up and released. Moved to one of my kingy spots. The fish were on the bite for about half an hour. Brought up 3 fish, 2 were size - but only kept one. A few more large bonitos hooked up too. Bonito attacking baitfish A few Kingfish swimming underneath When the bite stopped, decided to try the flatty drift. Plagues of green puffers everywhere. Chewed me off half a dozen times. Worked out if I put a really heavy sinker and dropped it down fast it would avoid being bitten off most of the time. Also had to wind up super fast too, otherwise the puffers would chew my line on the way up. One came on board and was even trying to bite my feet. I’ve never lost so much terminal tackle in one day lol Anyway got the feed I was looking for - 5 flatties ranging from 38-48cm
  24. Oh ok I’ll check if it is is it good for night fishing
  25. Nice catch Zoran! Worth the effort to head out wide. I find the good old beef mince mixed with flour will get the yakkas biting when they’re being difficult.
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