rf4@aapt.net.au

Looking for a spot on a boat in Townsville, will put in for share in all costs.

Hey Guys As I have a holiday house at Lake Conjola, I can tell you that the fishing has really died in the arse over the past few years as the Shoalhaven Council has mismanaged the Lakes entrance and not kept it open, the endangered Little terns that come to nest each year are now not nesting for the second year as the Lake is closed to the ocean again since June and no bait fish for them to feed on, and what was once a great place to catch a feed is now just plain hard work to catch undersized fish , there are still a few big lizards being caught but nothing like it was. If you want accomadation at Conjola you better get in quick as it gets booked out every year, although I know there have been a lot of cancellations at the Councils entrance park due to the Lake being closed but these would be only camp sites, or contact the local agents in Ulludulla for holiday rentals.

Na Stewy, not going soft would love a few more of those horses in Bali but at least the freezer is full now of some quality fish Sounds like you will be back out there soon enough, I might even get out again this Sat from Balgal beach if I can get a start on a freinds boat.

Headed out from Townsville with my brothers for a big day of much anticipated fishing. After 2 1/2 hour of cruising in a very nice 48' Riviera we got to our first of many spots It didn't take long before the first Trout was onboard and our hopes were heightened for a good catch on the day. I was then onto what I was hoping was huge trout as the weight was big, but as it was fighting on the way up soon put an end to that theory as the trout give up once you get them off the bottom and out of the reef, I had to pump and wind this thing all the way up and soon could see some nice red colour in the crystal clear water, thinking that I had managed a big Red Emporor I was stoked but my hopes were soon squashed as it turned out to be a 75cm + Chinaman, great looking fish but on the protected species list so it had to go back, which was ashame as it floated away and don't think it made it My older brother had2 big hookups which had the Shimanos screaming in pain trying to keep some line on the reel, after long fights both times they boke off after taking him for a merry ride around the boat, think they were a couple of big Noahs. A floating Pilie out the back produced 3 big Spanish Mackeral including one huge one going on 20+ kg After a great day I eneded up with a good haul of Coral Trout, Red Thoat Emporor, Spangled Emporor and a few others With a few Queenslanders onboard we put down a state of origin challenge for the day, but they were never in the hunt as NSW had 10 onboard before they scored their first and by the end of the day it was a whitewash to NSW some sweet revenge for all NSWelshmen Even though the weather was perfect one boat still managed to rollover out on the reef, leaving 5 people in the water and needing rescue, it is thought that the drove over their anchor trying to lift it off the reef only for it to pull the bow under and flip the boat, over the radio we listened as all were rescued and nobody injured. Then it was time to sit back on the leather lounges and reflect :beersmile: on a great day. Stewy you should get up here in the next few weeks!!!!!! I will attempt to put up some pics below.

Headed out from Ulludulla harbour at 6am and found the seas flat and glassy, turned the bow north and headed for our usual haunts. Stopped off outside Bannisters where we usually get plenty of slimmies and Bonito but nothing there, kept going to our favourite reef that never dissapoints and today was no exception. It didn't take long before the rods were bending, despite the light winds and vertually no drift we soon had a bucket full of nice Mowies inc one that went 72cm with a nice hump on his head, the wind picked up fairly quickly after the first couple of hours so with some more fish in the tank, inc some big Rock Cod (don't know why people don't like em? best white flakey fillets I reckon) Leatherjackets, barracuda and a few other reefies we headed out to the Flathead grounds. With the wind now up to 25 knots the drift even with the sea anchor out was uncomfortable and a bit quick, so we landed enough to feed the families and headed back to the harbour thankfull to be out of that NE wind, an early return meant we could enjoy a nice cuppa and a hot pie on the way back to clean our days catch and enjoy some fresh fish for dinner, despite the trawlers going through the area regularly there is still some great fishing to be had on the South Coast.

Yeah I did, but don't think it would have felt much, and the hooks will rust out very quick.

Yeah mate, sure is a story to tell the boys about, and I'm sure after a few ales I will have the whale gaffed and coming over the back of the boat!!! Even more amazing was that the line didn't snap straight away, hooked him at 60m, but was prob a minor inconvenience for it and just came to the surface and rolled to get rid of it. PS: No whales were hurt in this fishing expedition!!! Just incase Greenpeace reads this thread LOL.

After several months of travel and my boat back in Sydney I was well overdue to get out for a fish, which I did today on a charter from Noosa. Headed out over the bar at 6am on a hot clear calm day which was very nice barely a wave breaking at the entrance, 45 min later we were at our first mark, dropped down and hardly hit the bottom when I was on, some nice weight and I was hopeful of a nice fish, lucky first drop boated a nice Red Throat Sweet Lip, followed by a big cod and endless Pearl Perch (unfortunately most undersized),a move to the next mark saw some more variety, the Perch kept coming but now there were Teraglin joined the party and I started boating double hookup keepers on every drop!!! mixed in with some small reef fish and Red Emporers. The next mark proved to be a very interesting one indeed!!! The usual suspects kept coming onboard and a new variety joined the party and the ice box with some very nice Moses Perch adding some more red to the mix. Now here is where it got interesting, I dropped down again and soon had weight on my line again, this time it was BIG, little did I know just how BIG!!! Captain called everyone to raise their lines to get out of the way as I started getting a bit of line back, then the mono starts heading up towards the surface and taking line, maybe a big shark says the skipper, maybe a big Cobia I thought? Captain tells me to move to the back of the boat to fight this one, on the way this thing took off and was taking line like there was no drag, when it was almost fully tightened, with smoke starting to come off the reel (literally) it didn't look good and I was soon to find out why!!! 20m behind the boat a HUGE and I mean HUGE uprising of the water, WTF was this??? then splashing as a fully grown Humpback Whale surfaced, rolled and snapped me off,hmmmmmm was not expecting that, would have liked to see the deckhand gaff that one onto the deck!!! Don't think too many people would have had the opportunity to hook a Whale on the bottom and play it to the surface!!! well maybe not hooked, I think I had a decent fish on that took off and tangled the line with the beastie, but my fishing tale will stay as hooked and played lol. A great days fishing, also caught were Mac Tuna, big Travely, Snapper, Deep Sea Bream, Tricky Snapper and a variety of reef fish, mixed in with the Breaching Whales everwhere and freindly Dolphins. Now for some nice big Mudcrabs just to balance out all the fish.

Hi Guys I am currently on the Sunshine Coast and hanging to get out on the water for a fish, preferebly deep sea. Happy to contribute to fuel etc. If anyone is looking for a fishing buddy send me a message or even better text on 0404 888 775. Cheers Richard

Great stuff Stewie, my arms are still recovering from my first ever GT. I am organising with Edi to go out again next week from Candi Dasa so I will let you know how that goes. We are currently still in the Gili Islands so no fishing here only snorkelling but the weather has been supurb.

What a great day smashing up those big GT's with Mr Swordie, looking forward to seeing the video. Great charter with fast Edie and great company with Mr Swordie who saying he loves his fishing is an understatement!!! Hope to get out a few more times while here in Bali and will keep you posted on any more big GT's or maybe even get lucky and get some of those Bali Snapper I have been hearing about coming out of 200m +.That brand new Popper sure took a hiding with the big boys munching on it. Richard

Hey There Max Good to hear that you are going to get away to FNQ lucky you. If you end up near Port Douglas I would recommend going out on the M.V Norseman 0740996668, I have been out a few times on this boat and always had success, he know heaps of good spots and you will always come back with a feed of quality reef fish, and if your lucky you might even get the best eating fish in the world , well my opinion anyway, Coral Trout. Good luck.

Yes it sure is a great place to fish have been up there many times and have always caught heaps of nice reef fish and yes the Trout is hands down the best eating fish in the world I reckon anyway, I have been out on several different charters and they can be a bit difficult to guarantee a spot but MV Norseman has always been preety good and one of the bigger operators leaving from Port Douglas. Richard

Mate, just tease them up under the boat and you can just scoop them up with a net , they won't be scared of the net in fact they will prob try to eat the bloody thing!! these fish are just crazy at the moment, and yes they are tasty to eat and easy to clean, so a bag out is not a bad thing but loosing gear is!!

Hi there raiders. With high hopes of getting into some good Dolphin Fish 2 of my fishing buddies and myself headed out before sunrise, went to our favourite live bait spot and soon had the livies filling the bait tank, mixed in amongst the yellowtial were bloody sweep but they seamed to dissappear as the sun came up and the water was thick with livies, and could watch the rat kingies chasing them up as we hooked them, it was ashame no big Kings there! Cruised on out to Botany Bay wide Fad only to find the stiff westerly blowing and already heaps of boats around, but not many on the Fad, soon found out why, No dolphins around, but we did give it a go for a while when the snorklers showed up, now I thought that they would go to a spot away from where all the boats were fishing but instead they just came up right behind us as we were drifting around the Fad, straight accross our lines pushed in front of us making us take evasive action to miss them, when I waved my arms at them in dispute of what they were doing one of the guys suited up in a military like wetsuit waved his "loaded" speargun in our direction in what can only be described as an agressive gesture/threat to us to back off!! at which point they deployed 2 guys into the water with divers flag attached to bouys and proceeded to swim around the Fad. These guys (6 of them) were in a boat similar to a black/grey police response boat with the rows of seats on an open deck, I tried to get the rego of the boat but NO registration numbers were displayed on the hull so unfortunately I could not report them, so beware when fishing at the Fads for these Cowboys who may just be willing to fire off a spear at you in what they think is their Fad to fish at and no-one elses!!! Maybe the water Police need to visit the Fads more often before someone gets hurt!! What is the Law about just pushing in front of fishing boats and dropping snorklers into the water forcing you to move the required distance away? surely those already there have right of way?? Anyway, had to leave the Fad and headed out further to a fish trap, my mate hooked onto a monster, was easy over a metre long as he came out of the water we thought that the trip out would be worth it, but alas his knot tieing abilities preceeded him and all he landed was a nice big swivel on the end of his line Then went back in to trawl along the cliffs of Natioal Park and picked up half a dozen Bonito which were good fun and good Sushi! went down the coast further to our Flattie spot only to be smashed by Jackets, boy never seen anything like it in my life could not even get to the bottom without loosing everything, straight through my 80lb braid and even the wire trace was no match for these buggers, but what was bizar was that they followed up the sinkers and swarmed under the boat, hundreds of the buggers, in the end they came to the surface attacking anything we put in the water and literally I could scoop them up 3 at a time with the net, it is hard to fathom just how many jackets must be around at the moment.

No sorry no pics this time, didnt take the camera certainly was good to see, and good to see plenty of fish around in a healthy system.

The forecast looked so good I just had to get out there and have a crack, put in at 6am and headed straight out to get some livies, this was easy and soon had enough for our needs in the live bait tank, there were that many around we ended up not even needing any burley to get them to jump on the bait jigs!! Had a quick look around Shark Island for any signs of Kingies but nothing on the sounder so headed out to get some flatties off Jibbon Bommie, there were that many small fish around that the baits got hit every time we hit the bottom stayed for 3/4 hr and only managed 1 decent Flttie 47cm. Decided to throw a few Christmas Trees out the back and cruise down the coast off National Park, never having tried this much didn't hold out much hope, but the seas were as flat as I have ever had out there and was very relaxing. No sooner had we got within 50m of the cliffs that great sound every fisherman loves to hear zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz as one of the overheads went screaming off, had heard that the Bonito were around so suspected it was one, and as it got to the boat and started to do doughnuts confirmed this, beauty we thought our first Bonito and some sushi for dinner and this would also keep the happy. After thinking that we did OK with this one we continued heading South only to be smashed time after time, we could even watch the buggers jumping out of the water attacking the xmas trees like they were mini Marlin!!! was pretty cool to watch Eneded up keeping 8 Bonnies all around the same size 40cm mark. Finally got to our X marks the spot for big Flathead and settled in for a relaxing fish in the sun, the weather was that good we could have happily had a few out there!! Seemed like the small fish had followed us as we pulled up at least 40-50 small flatties which all went straight back to grow up for us in a few years, after a few moves we managed to catch some decent Flatties with the biggest going 62cm, and in the mix we also got Letherjacket & Deep Sea Whiting (first for me off Sydney) On the way back to the Hacking we came across fish jumping out of the water, which I think must have been more Bonito, so we stopped to have a look and they were chasing schools of yellowtail on the surface all around the 30cm mark, thousands of them, this was another first for me as I have never seen schools like this on the surface before, and they stayed there, they were that thick I swear you could have walked on water and they would have carried you along even when I put the boat in the middle of them they just swarmed around the boat, could have just grabbed them stright off the surface. Anyway, it was a day of firsts and beatiful weather with a bag of fish who would ever wanna go to work

Hi Raiders Has anyone heard of any activity out at the Fads in the last few days? Thinking of heading out on Wed but experience has taught me that it's a long way to go out when nothing is there!! Any feed back would be appreciated. Richard

Mate Got a great tip on my recent holiday and it worked better than any bought trap I have ever used! Just get a clear 2/3 litre juice bottle and on the flat section of the bottle on one side cut diagonally from corner to corner and fold the flaps down into the bottle, place a bit of sand or mud in the bottom as a weight and then put in some bread crumbs and a few bigger pieces if needed to bring them around. I had my doubts about this but the hundreds of poddies that that juice bottle caught was all the proof I needed. Good luck. Richard

Hey Raiders Just got back from my annual trip down the coast and managed a couple of good trips out, the best being last Friday, picked up my mate and launched at 6am and was lucky enough to jag the last parking spot at the ramp. heading out it was easy to see why so many boats ventured out, the water was glassy with only a slight swell running, it was one of those mornings that only comes along once in a blue moon Cranked the Verado up and sat on 50km/h for the short trip south, started at one of my reef spots with limited success, bagging some nice Nanigui, a Mowie and plenty of BIG Seargent Bakers, moved a bit north and spotted the local fishing charter boat and as local knowledge is a great thing headed over to see what they were upto, and soon found more Mowies around Spent the next 2 hours in this spot drifting N/S over some good gravel patches and picked up 7 more good Mowies all around the 45-50cm mark, had a great hit at one stage and had to pump and wind to get the hooks up to the surface, with the standard big hit then run then swim up with a few head shakes I thought I was onto a monster Mowie as the silver colour started to flash under the boat we were thinking this is gunna be a beauty until it got a bit closer and the nice size Mowie on my bottom hook was being weighed down by a monster bloody Seargent Baker on the top hook ah well it was a good tussle to get both of em up into the boat. Finished up with a mixed bag of fish and a great day out on the water why do holidays always go 10 times quicker than being at work ah well might get back down this weekend for another go, there was heaps of bait fish hanging around too and the water was around the 21-22 deg mark so plenty of fish to be had. Ended up with 9 Mowies, 6 nannies, 4 Pinkies, 2 Flatties, 2 pike (crab bait), 4 big slimmies (for the crabs again), 4 Rass and many Seargent Bakers sent back to the depths

Mate try; S 35 22 08.4 E 150 32 17.4 @ 32 Fathoms Good luck,let meknow how you went.

Hey Raiders Has anyone been out to the Fads off Sydney lately? thinking of heading out there tomorrow to see if any kingies hanging around them, but long way to go if nothing around. Cheers Richard