Mr Squidy

Its hardly like Whales are going to get tangled up in them when its just a single line under reasonable tension. Only times I've ever seen whales tangled in news it has been in shark nets or similar. Either way, I wrote to DPI so will be interested to see how they respond. Rich

The FAD provides structure that fish hold around. With the FAD gone there is no reason for them to hold in that spot, especially when the water current is actually moving meaning they normally have to actively swim to stay around the FAD. They'll still likely be off Sydney somewhere but unless you can find some sort of other structure like a fish trap buoy or a floating log or something then its a huge ocean you've got to search. Rich

With perfect offshore conditions of low swell, low wind and good water temperature a mate and I decided to make the mission out to the Hacking FAD on Sunday just gone. Started out a frustrating morning with a dead battery necessitating a trip back home to grab a battery out of a car and jumper leads to get us going. Bait then proved impossible to find at all our normal spots with no yellow tail anywhere either inside the Hacking or out front. Having picked my mate up at 6am we finally made the call at about 10.15am that we couldn't stuff around any longer would head to the FAD with no livies and fish lures and pillies. From this moment onwards though our luck turned and only a couple of km out we hit warmer water (24 degrees) with bait on the sounder and gannets diving everywhere. Within about 5min we had 15 or so slimies on board and were back on our way. Hitting the fad we about 11am we found only two other boats there and could immediately see dollies free jumping. livie's in and within about 20 seconds I was hooked up to a nice dollie going 80cm. A minute latter and Dan's on to a 70cm fish. We had only been able to keep 4 alive due to not having a live bait tank on my boat but thankfully the fresh dead baits were also smashed and within an hour or so we had converted our 15 odd baits into about a dozen fish. After that we changed to pillies and soft plastics and landed a few more but the bites certainly slowed substantially. End result of about 2hrs fishing was 15 keepers with most ranging between 70-80cm and three or four throw backs that might have made 60cm but weren't worth keeping given the esky full of fish. An absolutely fantastic days fishing. We had spectacular conditions all day and I find this consistently occurs at this time of year as the mild days and warm water mean that the sea breeze doesn't come up like it does through summer. Topped of with the fact that the river usually really starts to slow down around this time, its this reason that I usually look to do a trip or two off shore at this time each year. Before heading out I had checked the DPI website just to make sure the FAD was out there where its supposed (long way to go to find its missing haha). Thankfully the FAD was there but I was surprised to see that many of the Sydney FAD's had already been brought in. Checking today and the hacking FAD is now also gone. So, given this is the best time of year for smaller boats to get out to these locations, the water temperature out there is still up around 24 degrees and the fish are still so thick and at such a good size, why are they bringing in the FADS so soon? Cheers, Rich

Trolling speed really depends more on your lure's action than the fish themselves. I have some skirts and stick baits that we happily run at up to 10 knots, the diving Rapala's more often at the 4-6 knots. I've also trawled big vibes at 1-2 knots and caught fish. Main thing is that the lure's action is working correctly, skirts breaching every so often but not just skipping, stickbaits staying under the surface and your divers holding down with good vibration visible in the rod tip. If that's all going right then your speed is good. Also worth noting that one reason I like having a mix of lures is we can trawl the coast line with the higher speed lures to start until we get a hit or see action on the surface or sounder following which we can switch to slower speed lures to work the area if we want. Cheers, Rich

Yeah, remember hearing there was a small one a few years back that came in shore and damaged some boats in Gunnamatta bay.

What a trip, well done guys, thats some insane fishing. I'd love to see a water spout one day but would prefer not to be watching from the boat haha. Rich

Tried the hacking one a few months back with no luck. Was bait holding around it on the sounder but nothing wanted to hit our livies. Guessing they will continue to improve with age though. Rich

I reckon give it 5 to 10 years and a lot of new boats will have them. The transition change over for existing boats will be very slow though and would only really be driven by the price of petrol eventually becoming unsustainably high due to the changes in the car market. Personally I could see it having some real benefits once the technology gets there. Would be a lot quieter, easy to fill up at home without having to go to a service station all the time, no fumes etc. With both cars and boats people are certainly going to have to get used to stepping over extension cords all over the place. Rich

Top stuff, you're doing well with the crabs but even better with a Mrs who tells you to go out fishing. I'd take that pressure any day of the week haha...

Such an over asked question in my opinion. Always find it funny how often the first question to someone who has caught a great fish is not "how did you catch it" but "where did you catch it". If you expect to simply get given an X on a map and then start catching buckets of trophy fish you will be very disappointed... The truth of fishing is that for most budding fishermen, location is not what is stopping them catching fish. It is learning correct techniques that holds them back. The amount of times I have heard fishermen talk about how a particular spot is rubbish because they have never caught nothing there when I know those spots produce or where I have been out and had a successful day while watching others get nothing (and sometimes sadly vice versa) is crazy. That's nothing to do with the spot. Sure you have to fish where the fish live but you really want to learn that by learning the environments they inhabit and their behaviors and then search out such places if targeting specific species, OR, by learning what fish are likely to live in the areas you have access to and then tailoring your fishing techniques to these species. This approach gives you the flexibility to adapt as needed and achieve consistent catches as certain spots or species don't fire on particular days. Not many sites out there that can match this one in finding the information about "how to catch fish", especially if you can ask the right questions. All of that said, one great resource for seeking out new freshwater fishing areas is the following map from DPI that shows where they have carried out fish stocking programs and for which species. Lots of places I've seen on there that I would love to test out one day. https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/resources/stocking Cheers, Rich

Wow, well done Gus, that is a fish of lifetime and certainly well earned. Sure it makes all the hours spent exploring and scrambling over rocks well worth it. Cheers, Rich

Definitely, they are a very easily spooked fish. Once a recently hooked fish rejoins a school it can certainly shut them down. That said it depends a little on the spot. In still water areas its a much more likely to turn them off than say fishing the surf zones where there is enough other disturbance going on. Rich

Nice work as always Yowie. We tried something similar last Sunday night fishing big live mullet (30 - 40cm) off some of the deeper areas off the front of Wanda hopping for a big Jew but expecting sharks. Never had much luck on the Jew out front. Ended up going through all of the livies (6) by midnight with two sharks lost right at the boat and a few bite off's on the 50lb leader so must be a few around. Sharks looked to be whalers with the smaller around the 1m and the bigger about 1.5m. No Jew for us unfortunately but I did manage an ok pannie at 43cm on a smaller bait and a solid tailor at about 45cm so at least a small feed. Aside from that the smaller baits were being plagued by big banjo's, total nuisance. Out of curiosity, any reason you dont keep the smaller sharks? Good eating and we were certainly planning on keeping one of ours if they'd made it on board. Cheers, Rich

Yeah, rules are rules, but this one is certainly one of the dumbest. Like having my TLD 50 on a 24KG rod is somehow related to my 1-2kg spin stick with a squid jig on it?? Really should be 4 lines in the water at any one time which would seem to be what they are trying to limit but the rule is 100% 4 in possession. Anyways, what can you do.... As for useful gear, my boat doesn't have a fixed burely bucket so we gabbed one for 89c at bunnings, drilled a heap of holes in it and tie in on at the back just on the waterline with some old rope. Use it just about every trip with tinned catfood so at value for money that's certainly my best piece of fishing kit we've got. Aside from my standard tackle bag and rods the other must haves I keep on board are a good bait board that drains outside the edge of the boat, spare knives (sucks when you realise you forgot to bring one), a good BIG landing net, a gaff (sucks the day you need it and its not there...), yabbie pump, lost of sabiki jigs, plenty of spare snapper leads (always run out when you need them), scotty style rod holders, lots of tins of cat food and a BIG esky (from experience its very sad when you have to cut a prize fish in half to fit it in your undersized esky). Rich

Some good looking bass there mate, well done. Last time i was at Tallawa was nothing but carp so good to see. Rich

Well done mate, spectacular fish that.

Nice work, stick at it, they are a very rewarding fish once you figure them out. One note, if you are catching whiting on your baits you probably need to up you hook and bait size for the jewies. Even hunting the smaller models you want a minimum 5/0 circle with a 8-10cm long 2cm wide squid strip on it IMO. Most guys go up to 8/0. Cheers Rich

Good reference for this sort of question is Redmap (Range Extension Database & Mapping project). Pretty sure it was started by University of Tasmania but now covers all OZ. Logs reported sightings of fish outside their normal habitat ranges. In NSW they ask for GT's to be logged if spotted anywhere south of Solitary Island marine park (no sightings currently noted). Link to the site: http://www.redmap.org.au/ Cheers Rich

We get red bigeye's in the Hacking every now then so they certainly do come into the estuaries and harbours. I know Yowie has caught a few as well. Rich

Always terrified of having my dog around my fishing gear, the day she ends up with a hook in her would be horrible. Great stuff on the kingies. Cheers, Rich

Had this on a Abu Veritas recently. I got some ultra fine sandpaper and very carefully sanded down the male section until it was a snug fit and now its perfect. Obviously be very careful you dont take to much off or you're stuffed. leaving it as is I would be worried about having enough lap length to transfer the load between the two sections without risking failure at the joint. Cheers, Rich

+1 on this advice. 90% of the times I've had it have been because the spool is over-filled. I've used the approach in the past of just cutting away the knots each time they occur and usually once you've chopped enough off they will completely stop. Bloody annoying in the mean time though. Cheers, Rich

Great work landing him on a blackie hook, top fish. Rich

Yep, spot on. A little bit of bait on the hooks of the sabiki in the river too. Rich

Nothing wrong with the bait mate, Wanda is just a tough beach to fish for Jewies. They are there but very long hours between fish. Cheers Rich