meathead

What a top day! You won't be forgetting that in a hurry. Congratulations.

I've caught quite a few nice fish off those rocks over the years. I remember a day back in the mid 90's that ended up being about 35 degrees, calm as and so clear that you could see the bottom. There were garfish everywhere and the kings were all over them. Absolutely spectacular to see these kings buzzing past and hitting the garfish on the surface. Every bait that I threw out got smashed within a minute. I couldn't catch enough bait to keep up! I kept 2 around 6-7 kilos and released the rest. I think I landed 7 or 8 all around the same size. It went quiet late morning so I started packing up. I'd had a yakka that by that stage was pretty much dead sitting out on my 15 kilo stick that got nailed. When I hooked up it was a monster and pull so hard that I thought I was going in after it. Took all of 10 seconds to destroy me. If only every day of fishing was like that!

How did you go Wucc? Snapper Point was one of my favourite spots when I lived on the coast. Any fish?

I instantly recognised where you were fishing from that photo. It was my favourite spots back in the 90's and we managed to get quite a few nice kings there. If you persist you are bound to get them. What's the water like down there? Up in Port Macquarie it is still incredibly cold inshore but hopefully the warmer stuff is not too far away.

Congrats Bullshark. That's a top effort. Now that you've put in the hard yards and learnt the ropes you'll be on your way to many more fish. Good to see you putting some back in the water to mate. Well done!

For as long as I can remember I've always loved fishing. When I was a kid and throughout school it was mainly the estuary species with a bit of rock fishing thrown in. Then once I left school and had a bit of freedom I started chasing bigger fish - in particular Jews. In the early 90's I read everything I could about catching them and fished whenever I could. Looking back I made heaps of mistakes but hey thats how you learn. Based on the Central Coast I fished North Entrance Beach as often as I could and also spent every period after heavy rain throwing lures at them around Gosford Rail bridge - I saw quite a few caught there but wasn't lucky enough myself. I reckon I'd been fishing for them hard for around 12 months with no success. It was driving me mad. Then in September 93 I checked out the beach one night and they were catching a few salmon and tailor. I decided that I'd head back the next night to try my luck. That day it blew a gale from the west and was freezing cold plus I was late getting away from work which meant I didn't have time to catch bait. I almost didn't go. I decided to walk the beach and toss a lure around as I'd done this previously when the wind was westerly but with no success. I rocked up to the beach at around 8pm which was around high tide, there was a full moon blaring and a good swell running. On my 5th cast I hooked and landed the fish in the photo. Needless to say that I was blown away. I packed up there and then and headed home for a few photos. The fish went 24 kilos and is still my biggest fish to date. Number 1 on my bucket list is a fish over 30 kilos from the beach. I'll keep hitting the beach as often as I can until I catch one. Anyone else with a big jew story/photo I'd love to hear/see it. It keeps me motivated.

Thanks for the replies guys. The Stradic is definitely at the top of my list at the moment as I am a Shimano fan. Ron what do (did I guess now) you use the Saltist for? That's a bad fault on an otherwise quality reel. Was it covered under warranty?

Well after nearly 20 years of faithful service my TSS4 has just about had it. I'm looking for a bit of advice on what to replace it with. Primarily it has been used off the rocks as a high speed spin reel with 8 kilo line on my 10ft spin rod but I also use it on the beach as a 2nd setup when conditions are right. What should I replace it with? My budget would be up to $300. Thanks for your help!

I've spent far too long trying to tie a sliding snell with no success. I've used the pre rigged ones but found that the quality of the leaders leaves something to be desired. Now I just tie a 2 hook fixed rig. Much less fuss and works a treat.

Forget about fishing The Entrance. Tuggerah Lake has been had it for years. There are better fishing options available on the Central Coast. Estuary wise try Brisbane Water especially the deeper water around The Rip bridge. Or you could head up to Swansea - great fishing to be had there. If you want to head outside use Terrigal boatramp - it can be busy but much safer than Norah Head. Terrigal is around 20-30 minutes drive from The Entrance. You'll find bait pretty easily around the Skillion or head around to Avoca. Hope this helps.

Head over to North Haven. On a falling tide there is a great sandflat that you can walk out on, pump bait and then fish off. It's pretty much directly opposite the shops. There's plenty of fish on offer up here at the moment as well.

Yes it was at Lighthouse. Great beach. Mines a simple rig. Ball sinker, lumo bead (to stop damage to the swivel knot by sinker), swivel and then a metre of leader to a 7/0 or 8/0 hook. rig the bait through the nose.

Yes the Grey Nurse took me by surprise and left me scratching my head. I'd never caught one before and hadn't seen one in the flesh. It was around 1.5 m long and weighed around 30-35 kilos I guess. The head was unmistakable but the tail confused me. I jumped on the net when I got home and sure enough it was a Grey Nurse. Just goes to show the variety of fish that will come into the beach at times. It does look like I'm playing a bit of air guitar with it! At that time I was going to release it so was trying to look after it but decided that I could do with a bit more fish in the freezer. Filleted, skinned, cut into meal size pieces and then cooked in foil with some garlic and ginger is my specialty.

Hi All, I'm fairly new to this forum and have been enjoying the reports - especially all the jews and kings which are my favourite fish. Thought I'd show you my latest. This one was caught off my favourite beach in Port Macquarie. We'd had a few days of rain and overcast conditions and there was a high tide around dark so I thought it would be worth fishing the last hour of daylight and then for an hour or so after dark. Turns out I managed to catch my share of mullet pretty quickly so I was on the beach around 6pm some 2 hours before dark. I thought it was a bit early but with nothing else to do I decided to have a throw. The first livie out got smashed and after a good fight with the fish taking full advantage of the heavy shorebreak I landed this fella. He went 13 kilos and looked terrific in the late afternoon sunlight. There is something special about catching a nice jew off the beach during the day when you can see the size of the fish in the shorebreak. Something you can't really see at night. I missed the hookup on my next bait and then it all went quiet. I've had a few other smaller ones since (and plenty of rays and sharks including a Grey Nurse which was a bit of a surprise) but I thought this one was pretty special. Not my biggest fish but there was just something special about catching him at that time of the afternoon. Cheers

All your questions have already been answered well. Avoca is a great place to fish. I used to fish there years ago but can't stomach it anymore over summer. I've seen far too many fish needlessly taken and far too much rubbish left behind. Please only take what you know you will use and take your rubbish with you.